beardie mom
Bearded Dragon Egg
- Messages
- 29
Hello. I have a very sick baby who is about 4.5 months old. Up until Tuesday morning, he was normal, active, eating well, pooping normally, climbing on his tree thing, basking about half the day, etc. He eats either crickets or superworms in the evening and a bowl of salad in the morning. Basking temps are 100ish and the cool side is about 85 degrees.
Monday night, he was especially hungry and ate 5 superworms, which is a lot for him. Normally he would eat 3 or 4.
Tuesday morning, he ate his salad and then at some point in the morning threw it up. It was a big glob of wet salad. He was also quieter than normal. By late afternoon, he was just laying limp and I brought him to the emergency vet (regular vets were not able to get him in). They gave him a calcium injection, fluids under the skin and put him on an antibiotic and an antiparasitic. He had pooped twice that day, one of hte times runny, so they felt his stomach and said he wasn't impacted.
Wednesday, he just laid around all day, refused to eat. He still pooped a couple times though. He basked all day. I moved him off of his basking log once and he climbed back up there.
Yesterday (Thursday) we went to a reptile vet. That vet gave him more fluids and said to keep on giving the oral medications. He also suggested giving him banana baby food, .3cc four times per day. So I started doing that. At one point yesterday, he got up and walked around the cage but for the rest of the day, he literally just laid there limply. I moved him off of his basking spot a couple times to give him a break and both times, he cooled off a bit and then climbed back up on his own. He also had a tiny bit of runny poo.
Today (Friday), he's still mostly limp and needing to be force-fed the bananas. He has had two poos, both runny. The last one was off-white, sort of like urate but a lot (like a nickel-sized pile of goo with a pretty big puddle of liquid).
A local reptile breeder suggested soaking him in a half gatorade, half water bath for a while a few times per week. I was going to do that today but I'm concerned that he might be over-hydrated.
I don't know if we are just prolonging the inevitable or if this is a typical thing when they're sick. The vet had no idea what was wrong with him. He's in a large 40-gallon tank, has the right temps, and I can't imagine how he could have gotten a parasite (but he's being treated for that regardless, which is fine). All of his insects are feeder insects from the pet store. The salad he eats is organic bok choy, romaine, and/or swiss chard, so there are no pesticides or anything that could be an issue. Nobody in the house smokes or anything like that. No other pets go into the room he is in and we have no other lizards. He has a UVB light. And his tank is up on a bureau off of the floor.
Can anyone think of anything we can do to help him? I'm afraid to let him continue suffering if he's not going to get well but I also don't want to say he's doomed. The vet said that he's not super-optimistic mainly because he went downhill incredibly fast and for no clear reason. He agreed with the first vet that if he's pooping, he's not impacted.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Monday night, he was especially hungry and ate 5 superworms, which is a lot for him. Normally he would eat 3 or 4.
Tuesday morning, he ate his salad and then at some point in the morning threw it up. It was a big glob of wet salad. He was also quieter than normal. By late afternoon, he was just laying limp and I brought him to the emergency vet (regular vets were not able to get him in). They gave him a calcium injection, fluids under the skin and put him on an antibiotic and an antiparasitic. He had pooped twice that day, one of hte times runny, so they felt his stomach and said he wasn't impacted.
Wednesday, he just laid around all day, refused to eat. He still pooped a couple times though. He basked all day. I moved him off of his basking log once and he climbed back up there.
Yesterday (Thursday) we went to a reptile vet. That vet gave him more fluids and said to keep on giving the oral medications. He also suggested giving him banana baby food, .3cc four times per day. So I started doing that. At one point yesterday, he got up and walked around the cage but for the rest of the day, he literally just laid there limply. I moved him off of his basking spot a couple times to give him a break and both times, he cooled off a bit and then climbed back up on his own. He also had a tiny bit of runny poo.
Today (Friday), he's still mostly limp and needing to be force-fed the bananas. He has had two poos, both runny. The last one was off-white, sort of like urate but a lot (like a nickel-sized pile of goo with a pretty big puddle of liquid).
A local reptile breeder suggested soaking him in a half gatorade, half water bath for a while a few times per week. I was going to do that today but I'm concerned that he might be over-hydrated.
I don't know if we are just prolonging the inevitable or if this is a typical thing when they're sick. The vet had no idea what was wrong with him. He's in a large 40-gallon tank, has the right temps, and I can't imagine how he could have gotten a parasite (but he's being treated for that regardless, which is fine). All of his insects are feeder insects from the pet store. The salad he eats is organic bok choy, romaine, and/or swiss chard, so there are no pesticides or anything that could be an issue. Nobody in the house smokes or anything like that. No other pets go into the room he is in and we have no other lizards. He has a UVB light. And his tank is up on a bureau off of the floor.
Can anyone think of anything we can do to help him? I'm afraid to let him continue suffering if he's not going to get well but I also don't want to say he's doomed. The vet said that he's not super-optimistic mainly because he went downhill incredibly fast and for no clear reason. He agreed with the first vet that if he's pooping, he's not impacted.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
He normally has a log to bask on but he pooped/peed on it so it needed to be washed and it's wet, so at the moment, he has newspaper wrapped around a few washcloths to bask on.
