My beard is really isn’t eating much

[Sadie]

Thank you. Here’s a closer pic of his eye from the other day and from Jan

Ok I will need Tracie to look at the eye see if she notices anything off

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Your dragon has passed away, at the vet? What on earth happened?
It seems that they overmedicated him & he aspirated? I don't think the eye color indicates anything,
but it's possible he had kidney or liver issues. Did they do a blood test?
I am so sorry for your loss, that i heart breaking & confusing.

Tracie

 

[Rebecca E]

Hello,

Your dragon has passed away, at the vet? What on earth happened?
It seems that they overmedicated him & he aspirated? I don't think the eye color indicates anything,
but it's possible he had kidney or liver issues. Did they do a blood test?
I am so sorry for your loss, that i heart breaking & confusing.

Tracie

Hi Tracie,

So last summer when Teddy was over 1 year old he stopped eating and had diarrhea. I needed a vet anyhow and called around. Most in the area were open in saying that they did not have that experience. This vet was close, respected and has experience, albeit does not claim to be a specialist or expert but has care for and treated multiple species of reptile. I was scared because he had been so voracious in his eating and then just stopped. SO the vet had me drop him off and called me later that day, stating parasites. He was treated and then also sent me home with oral meds that I had to administer multiple times. Teddy got back to normal after a few days.

Fast forward to October and Teddy went into Brumation for the first time. It freaked me out but I kept meticulous notes because his was where he would sleep 3-5 days and then wake up and want food and this cycle continued through early December.

Around Christmas we adopted two kittens and that definitely stressed him out for a couple of weeks. We made sure to keep them away from Teddy but it was clear he wasn't really interested in food. He would eat a little every few days. I did feed him for about a week during this stressful time with a herbivore/carnivore mix, fed via tube just to make sure he had something.

Looking back, it really seems he hadn't had the same appetite since then. I did clean his humidifier and one time I likely waited too long because it was a bit moldy in spots, and I wonder if I gave him a respiratory problem. I've always had a hard time getting time to eat vegetables and I tried putting every option in front of him. He would eat some dandelion greens and cilantro on occasion. I worried that he wasn't getting the right nutrition. All of this to say he didn't seem sick. He wasn't running all over his enclosure but he would wake up and climb up on his tree in his basking spot and I would get him out and hold him, etc. I started to wonder if this was his "adult" appetite, but then he started consistently losing weight with the rarely eating and I came here for help. Maybe too late...

I ordered a more efficient T5 (it hasn't shown up yet) and his basking light I had just changed so his hot side was above 90. So last summer at the vet he weighed 434 grams. In his parasites illness he dropped to 426 by end of June but by fall going into brumation he was a fat and happy 472 grams. His weight decline is as follows:

Jan - 469
March 442
April 2 - 423
April 16 - 418

Still a healthy weight but losing and lack of eating I was concerned. I took him to the vet yesterday. I dropped him off and made sure to tell them no enemas! The vet called me early afternoon to let me know that he did not have the right size tubes to do bloodwork and that we could bring him back as soon as those show up. He did poop but the vet tech did something with it and it could not be used to check for parasites (WTH?!??) and then he also said he was concerned since he was only 384 grams to which I said "WHAT???!!! No, he is not that small, I weigh him here and he was 418!" and the vet then said they had a new scale, and his vet tech may have mis-read it and they would double check.

He said he doesn't think its parasites (how do you know if you didn't check) but that it wouldn't hurt to treat for them just in case and that he would also provide antibiotic to ee if we can get Teddy back to normal. In the meantime we will await the proper tubes to do bloodwork and can bring him back for that then.

Within the hour he called me back saying my Teddy was dead. He said he gave him 0.06ml ponazuril orally and 0.21ml fenbendazole orally and for whatever reason subcutaneous fluids 5cc 0.9% nacl. He said about 20 minutes after giving the fluids, he started holding his mouth open and gagging (?) oral exam still had some of the medication in his mouth. they tried to swab it out but he bit down on anything they inserted while trying to resuscitate.

I've run everything through my head and he really didn't seem sick just not much appetite and losing weight but then again I don't know. He didn't have the strength maybe he did before. I think about the last few times I got him out and put him on my chest he wouldn't grab on and hold himself up at all so he would slide down if I didn't keep one hand on him. I don't know if the vet did something wrong (clearly the vet tech is not qualified) or If I should have taken him in much sooner ....regardless I've failed my boy and now he's gone and I am utterly heartbroken!

*Rebecca

 

[Yvonne G]

They charged you for medication that "was not dispensed" ????? WHAT????!!!!!!

 

[Rebecca E]

They charged you for medication that "was not dispensed" ????? WHAT????!!!!!!

No mam. They had planned on providing the antibiotic upon my arrival to show me how to also administer because it would have been multiple doses and the metronidazole was also going to be a take home med so it was not dispensed. They actually charged me nothing since my bearded was killed. I use those terms becasue the inadequacies of the vet tech or who ever there leads me to believe they did something but I can’t really be sure. I certainly could have e failed him too.

 

[Sadie]

Ok so it sounds like a horrible experience and I am so sorry you and the dragon had to go thru this but I have heard so many horror stories about things like this- you put your trust in these people and they break your heart- ok question about the humidifier - was it in the tank or on the outside and how low was the humidity getting to? I have a humidifier I run in the winter ONLY if the humidity was down below 20% - it gets very dry here in the winter time and I use a digital probe hygrometer - so thats hindsight now - did you ever hear any wheezing or coughing lots of mucous crackling coming from Teddy? That would of indicated a RI - as far as the antibiotics given they should not have given those in my opinion until another fecal test was done- but I think Tracie was right about the dragon aspirating - I am sorry but I would write up a review on their website and let people know what happened so it does not happen again- I am so sorry about Teddy

 

[Rebecca E]

Ok so it sounds like a horrible experience and I am so sorry you and the dragon had to go thru this but I have heard so many horror stories about things like this- you put your trust in these people and they break your heart- ok question about the humidifier - was it in the tank or on the outside and how low was the humidity getting to? I have a humidifier I run in the winter ONLY if the humidity was down below 20% - it gets very dry here in the winter time and I use a digital probe hygrometer - so thats hindsight now - did you ever hear any wheezing or coughing lots of mucous crackling coming from Teddy? That would of indicated a RI - as far as the antibiotics given they should not have given those in my opinion until another fecal test was done- but I think Tracie was right about the dragon aspirating - I am sorry but I would write up a review on their website and let people know what happened so it does not happen again- I am so sorry about Teddy

The humidifier was outside of the tank with the tube pushing humidity in through the screen on top of his enclosure. It ran daily to keep humidity at 30% on his hot side. He had no coughing, wheezing, mucus. Truly his only symptoms were appetite, losing weight and perhaps some lethargy. When I spoke to the vet, the first thing I said was he was sitting with his mouth open and gagging like he was aspirating? And the vet’s response was that he didn’t give him enough of any medication for him to aspirate, but that was my first thought. I had read how common that is and how possible it is before I ever tube fed him for the first time so I was always really careful to do it slowly but I’m guessing that’s exactly what truly happened. He aspirated the only thing that really makes sense to me. I have two cats and a dog that goes to the same bat and I’m really considering changing to another one just because of this and I don’t think it was intentional, but I think it’s a vet who stays busy and he has young vet techs that are inexperienced and he gives them way too much leeway in what they’re allowed to do an administer and I have a feeling it was the same vet tech that didn’t know how to weigh him properly that must have forced meds too quickly down his throat. If there had been some other signs of respiratory, I might lean towards me not cleaning his humidifier out often enough. I still feel like I failed him, though by taking him there. I just watched a video of him running around in the house in January, full of energy. Ughhhh