sick beardie

[mrhowiewowie]

Hello, I am a new member on this site. I just wanted an opinion on what to do with my 3 month old bearded dragon. A few days ago, I went to his tank and it smelled like alcohol. He was also laying down acting lethargic and had his tongue hanging out. So I took him outside to get fresh air while I cleaned his tank and realized that the smell may have been coming from his log which may have been fermenting do due my washing it. I removed the log and have been monitoring him for a few days in which all he did was lay there and lick the roof of his mouth. I finally got him to eat two crickets today and I've been trying to keep him hydrated as well. My guess is that he may have gotten sick from the chemicals in that log or that it could be something completely unrelated such as worms because I know that's common in pet store animals. My cage is a 20 gal long aquarium. His basking bulb is a 75w and I have a ubv light over the whole cage. I have no idea what the temps are in his cage. My substrate is this green carpeting stuff and his diet is pretty much insects I find and pet store crickets. I'm afraid to take him to the vet(if I could even find an exotic one), because I'm a broke college student; but, I guess I will if absolutely necessary. Any feedback would be great and I'd truly appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

 

[Bill]

Welcome to the forum ...now let's help you first let's get the carpet out and use paper it might be holding some bad stuff in it and it's green he will try to eat it.Next you need to know his temps a 75 watt in a 20 can be cooking him,he needs to have a cool spot thats at least 80 or below and a basking at 90 to 100 thats what I keep mine at and you need to be feeding him greens every day not lettuce try this link it tells you the best things to feed http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html give him a good soak and you need to get the temps very very important what kind of UVB do you have

 

[Bill]

You should think about getting him to a vet

 

[richard]

also, insect that you find are a NO NO. im with Bill, a trip to an exotic vet would be best. reptiles can be quick to get sick and slow to heal. what kind of log were you using?

 

[mrhowiewowie]

Thanks for the quick reply guys. I guess the vet is inevitable, huh? I'll make an appointment this week. I have no idea what type of wood the log was, and I bought it from petco. It was right in the terrarium section and was actually in the cage the dragons were in. I was washing it with hot water every 2-3 weeks when I cleaned the cage because he'd defecate on it frequently. I already put in paper towels for a substitute substrate. My question is what substrate do you guys use?

 

[Bill]

Paper, if you want to display use tile