Unhealthy bearded dragon

[Billie]

someone in my family owns a bearded dragon. It is not being taken care of, I’m told it’s only fed once every 3 weeks, has been out a maximum of 30 minutes his whole life and poops every 1-2 months. They want to get rid of it. This bearded dragon is 3-4 years old. I feel really bad knowing this lizard is being mistreated. I wanted them to get it checked for parasites before I agreed to take him. They won’t bring it to the vet so I would have to do it. What I’m concerned about is if it has parasites. And since it’s never been handled, how hard is it going to be to get this bearded dragon to trust me enough to stick a syringe in his mouth to give him his medicine. I work a full time job so I can’t be with him 24/7.

this lizard is clearly being abused and clearly suffering, I don’t want to just let it keep on happening, is it bad to bring it to the vet and have it put down? I don’t want to do that but it’s better then leaving it with them to suffer.


and to be clear, my bearded dragon is perfectly healthy, I handled it for hours a day as a baby so she is very chill and trusts me a lot so I never had any trouble giving mine medicine that’s why I’m asking.

 

[StinkyLizrd]

That’s terrible news! What’s the point of getting a pet and not taking care of him/her! Anyways, I WOULD definitely take him to a vet and get him checked. Hopefully he has some stool in him as they can’t test him for parasites if he has none, especially if he only defecates every month or so. I’d say take him, feed him as much as you can, and when he poops, put the stool sample in a zip log bag and call the vet ASAP! Or feed him and make an appointment so by the time you go in, it’ll be digested.
If you get the results back and it’s a bit too pricey for you (meds etc), it WILL be okay to put him down. It’s better to stop him from suffering even more.
I don’t think it’ll be too hard to handle him. He even might be too weak to do move or “fight” back. It’ll be worth a try as your saving his life.
You have a Beardie so I’m sure you’ll be able to care for this one. Hope all goes well for him and keep us updated !

 

[Billie]

That’s terrible news! What’s the point of getting a pet and not taking care of him/her! Anyways, I WOULD definitely take him to a vet and get him checked. Hopefully he has some stool in him as they can’t test him for parasites if he has none, especially if he only defecates every month or so. I’d say take him, feed him as much as you can, and when he poops, put the stool sample in a zip log bag and call the vet ASAP! Or feed him and make an appointment so by the time you go in, it’ll be digested.
If you get the results back and it’s a bit too pricey for you (meds etc), it WILL be okay to put him down. It’s better to stop him from suffering even more.
I don’t think it’ll be too hard to handle him. He even might be too weak to do move or “fight” back. It’ll be worth a try as your saving his life.
You have a Beardie so I’m sure you’ll be able to care for this one. Hope all goes well for him and keep us updated !

Thanks for the reply. And your 100 percent right about. What is the point. I know you don’t know my family so all I can say was it was an impulse buy, they do it all the time. I talked to the owners and they don’t care about the poor lizard at all, they just kept saying “it’s alive so....”. It breaks my heart. This lizard is being tortured to almost death, then being fed right when he’s about to pass, then repeats over and over. I really appreciate you telling me your opinion I’ve really been stressing over this

 

[StinkyLizrd]

Thanks for the reply. And your 100 percent right about. What is the point. I know you don’t know my family so all I can say was it was an impulse buy, they do it all the time. I talked to the owners and they don’t care about the poor lizard at all, they just kept saying “it’s alive so....”. It breaks my heart. This lizard is being tortured to almost death, then being fed right when he’s about to pass, then repeats over and over. I really appreciate you telling me your opinion I’ve really been stressing over this

No problem man and I totally understand that. It happens. It’s sad hearing this for me. Youre stressing cause you care and that’s okay! Do what you believe is right

 

[averyhanna_]

i agrée with above. it’s ultimately your decision and you definitely care so whatever decision you make i’m sure it’ll be what’s best for you and the dragon. if you do need help paying for meds or vet visits you could always start a go fund me and post it on here. i know a bunch of people would love to help that poor guy!