Hi there, my name is Kev and in May of this year (2021) we added to our family by adopting our Bearded Dragon Albert, he was 2/3months old (closer to 2months is the guess) when we got him from Pets at Home in Hereford and he was in fantastic health when we collected.
We spent a lot of time researching his set-up, and my partner was adamant we get a very large Vivarium (which I was more than happy with, we hunted rocks from the locality, cleaned them thoroughly with pet disinfectant. We hunted drift-wood from the river which we cleaned and dried in the summer sun before putting into his viv -we did this 3/4weeks before housing-) Pets at Home took 3 days temperature readings of our set-up, and we needed pictures of everything and they ok'ed the overall set-up.
We have (back bulb) UVB tube (Exo Terra UVB200 30w T8) new, and changed two weeks back.
(front bulb) DayLight tube (Exo Terra Natural Light Bub 30w).
Headspot: 150w (Exo Terra Intense Basking Lamp).
The viv is in our living room which is also fairly warm and our social area of the house, and overlooks our back garden which gets later afternoon/early evening sun. The cold side of the viv sits around 28degrees daytime, hot side 33degrees and heatspot 37-39degrees (ish) and drops to 22-24 in the evening, monitored with our thermostat to go no lower. He usually starts his day at the heatspot, moves to the log halfway along directly under the UVB (6-8inchs below) and finally about 4ish is in the cool side, where he'll either sleep at around 7.30/9ish, or work his way to the bottom of the viv and sleep there sporadically. The bottom of the viv is a carpet of sand one side, and dirt substrate the other (all certified Bearded friendly) and a selection of false plants and a few cactus. But in truth he's very rarely on the lowest level, 99% he's on the upper level.
Albert seemed really happy, was eating lots (heck of a lot) with his diet being size 3 hoppers or dubia roaches dusted with calci dust daily, and every 3rd day with balancer. The very occasional veg but we're finding this really hard to introduce to his diet, my partner is fantastic in offering fresh veg and water daily (kale, broccoli, carrot, spinach, coriander) all offered and rarely, if ever, eaten.
He grew quickly, shedding about every other week and is roughly 4 times the size of when we got him. He was active, mobile, super friendly then over the cause of a week suddenly started acting odd.
Firstly it seemed like it was just his back left leg, acting as if it was "stiff" it then spread to his other back leg within a day or two and he was dragging them behind him as he moved. We booked him to an exotic vet ASAP, where we took him for an appointment. The ONLY thing different to the first 3 months was we introduced a sporadic Mealworm to his diet as a treat. We stopped this right away and haven't given him any since.
The vet unfortunately, after a physical observation, said it seemed like Albert had MBD which devastated us as we tried so very hard to give him the proper environment/diet. This was 3 weeks back and he now barely moves
he eats and passes food well, hangs with me and seems "happy" but is active only to move (which he seems to really struggle with - except when in the bath where he moves and swims really well) What the VET recommended and we've been doing daily over the last 3 weeks;
1) Daily baths of around 30mins in warm water mixed with Balancer. Albert is very active, swims up and down the bath for 5-10mins but then is happy to fill his lungs and float for the final until we dry him completely and put back to his Viv.
2) A supplement which is seemingly sold-out everywhere (Zolcal - D) (he hasn't responded to our request for alternatives, so I've kept dusting as before with balancer every 3rd day)
3) CalciWorms we find it VERY hard to feed him these, i try and he'll maybe eat 1 a day if we're lucky.
The vet was happy with our set-up, and our feeding routine and supplements aside from the above. He suggested his basking spot might be slightly too low (thus cold), as this is a big Viv, so we safely created an area that is slightly higher and closer to the bulb (and does now get warmer imo). He now regularly basks there to the point his mouth opens, then moves away to the log mentioned earlier which is where he spends most of the day.
Generally, he seems ok, some days, alert and "up on his front legs" and happy, others almost like "a sulking child" he eats well, although some days less than others. And he passes daily, usually in the bath!
Any advice, opinions and help here would be great, we've had no response to our follow-up emails to this said exotic vet, and i'm now wondering do i need a second opinion? We hate to think Albie isn't enjoying his life. Thank you and have a great day.
Some pictures of him in his set-up, bath and just after his bath to show his legs/toes/tail etc.
Very kind regards - Kev & Amy
We spent a lot of time researching his set-up, and my partner was adamant we get a very large Vivarium (which I was more than happy with, we hunted rocks from the locality, cleaned them thoroughly with pet disinfectant. We hunted drift-wood from the river which we cleaned and dried in the summer sun before putting into his viv -we did this 3/4weeks before housing-) Pets at Home took 3 days temperature readings of our set-up, and we needed pictures of everything and they ok'ed the overall set-up.
We have (back bulb) UVB tube (Exo Terra UVB200 30w T8) new, and changed two weeks back.
(front bulb) DayLight tube (Exo Terra Natural Light Bub 30w).
Headspot: 150w (Exo Terra Intense Basking Lamp).
The viv is in our living room which is also fairly warm and our social area of the house, and overlooks our back garden which gets later afternoon/early evening sun. The cold side of the viv sits around 28degrees daytime, hot side 33degrees and heatspot 37-39degrees (ish) and drops to 22-24 in the evening, monitored with our thermostat to go no lower. He usually starts his day at the heatspot, moves to the log halfway along directly under the UVB (6-8inchs below) and finally about 4ish is in the cool side, where he'll either sleep at around 7.30/9ish, or work his way to the bottom of the viv and sleep there sporadically. The bottom of the viv is a carpet of sand one side, and dirt substrate the other (all certified Bearded friendly) and a selection of false plants and a few cactus. But in truth he's very rarely on the lowest level, 99% he's on the upper level.
Albert seemed really happy, was eating lots (heck of a lot) with his diet being size 3 hoppers or dubia roaches dusted with calci dust daily, and every 3rd day with balancer. The very occasional veg but we're finding this really hard to introduce to his diet, my partner is fantastic in offering fresh veg and water daily (kale, broccoli, carrot, spinach, coriander) all offered and rarely, if ever, eaten.
He grew quickly, shedding about every other week and is roughly 4 times the size of when we got him. He was active, mobile, super friendly then over the cause of a week suddenly started acting odd.
Firstly it seemed like it was just his back left leg, acting as if it was "stiff" it then spread to his other back leg within a day or two and he was dragging them behind him as he moved. We booked him to an exotic vet ASAP, where we took him for an appointment. The ONLY thing different to the first 3 months was we introduced a sporadic Mealworm to his diet as a treat. We stopped this right away and haven't given him any since.
The vet unfortunately, after a physical observation, said it seemed like Albert had MBD which devastated us as we tried so very hard to give him the proper environment/diet. This was 3 weeks back and he now barely moves
he eats and passes food well, hangs with me and seems "happy" but is active only to move (which he seems to really struggle with - except when in the bath where he moves and swims really well) What the VET recommended and we've been doing daily over the last 3 weeks;1) Daily baths of around 30mins in warm water mixed with Balancer. Albert is very active, swims up and down the bath for 5-10mins but then is happy to fill his lungs and float for the final until we dry him completely and put back to his Viv.
2) A supplement which is seemingly sold-out everywhere (Zolcal - D) (he hasn't responded to our request for alternatives, so I've kept dusting as before with balancer every 3rd day)
3) CalciWorms we find it VERY hard to feed him these, i try and he'll maybe eat 1 a day if we're lucky.
The vet was happy with our set-up, and our feeding routine and supplements aside from the above. He suggested his basking spot might be slightly too low (thus cold), as this is a big Viv, so we safely created an area that is slightly higher and closer to the bulb (and does now get warmer imo). He now regularly basks there to the point his mouth opens, then moves away to the log mentioned earlier which is where he spends most of the day.
Generally, he seems ok, some days, alert and "up on his front legs" and happy, others almost like "a sulking child" he eats well, although some days less than others. And he passes daily, usually in the bath!
Any advice, opinions and help here would be great, we've had no response to our follow-up emails to this said exotic vet, and i'm now wondering do i need a second opinion? We hate to think Albie isn't enjoying his life. Thank you and have a great day.
Some pictures of him in his set-up, bath and just after his bath to show his legs/toes/tail etc.
Very kind regards - Kev & Amy
