Unintentional Beardie Rescue

This is my first post on this website. Found it after researching what could be wrong with my newly acquired female adult beardie.

I was considering buying an adult female bearding in one of my first steps to a long process of breeding my 1 1/2 yoa male beardie. (Planning on many months of saving money and research research research).

I drove the hour to Apopka and got her from her owners. At the time it was dark and she was already sleeping, so I didn't anything of it. The next morning, I noticed that she was just laying without her head up even after her light had been turned on.

I picked her up and instantly knew something was wrong, she didn't feel right. She just felt too limp and then after I placed her down to watch her walk....or should I say ATTEMPT to walk, I all of a sudden felt sick to my stomach. Her two back legs have hardly any muscle to them; they're mostly fat, which means she hardly has any control of them. Along with that, she was very lethargic and I could barely feel any bones in her back legs. She also doesn't have all the fat that she should have in her hips. Skin is also very wrinkled.

So I quickly did some research to make sure I was correct in thinking, gave her greens with calcium. She didn't touch them, after a while I was able to get her to eat about 4 mealworms with calcium on them.

I also checked the items the owners gave me with her...the bulb in the heatlamp was a regular household bulb and she DID NOT have a UVB bulb/barlight. So after making an emergency trip to Petco to pickup those items, getting those setup, a few warmbaths (I got a bowel movement on the 2nd bath!), and taking her outside into the plain sunlight.

As of yesterday, about 2 days after I got her, she's slowly looking better. She's beginning to get color back in her. I got her on turkey/chicken and squash baby food to work on getting protein back into her. She holding herself up on her front two legs, so she's making progress. Trying to get her to use her legs more to build those muscles!

The thing is that really aggrevates me, is that she is LARGE, she's larger than my male beardie. I'm saying around 19-20". Which means, she was raised well. After texting the people I bought her from, she has always been like this (no wonder they said she was such a "sweety". -.-

I'm in the process of tracking down her previous owners just to see how old she is. Obviously she is in NO shape to breed, if ever depending on how she is a few months from now. Plus, I want to know which owner didn't take care of her correctly, so i know what I'm working against at this time.

Yes, this is a little bit of a rant, but atleast I'm glad yall would understand what I'm dealing with and it wouldn't be french to you like it would be to some family members and friends.

Also any tips would be greatly appreciated. I do have access to a vet if it comes down to it. Has anyone been successful in building back up those muscles? Again, idk how long she's been like this.

Edit: Corrected info

The female I rescued had similar issues when I first brought her home. She was very lethargic, walked only a few steps before collapsing, hardly ate...

Anyway, the wrinkled skin is a sign of deydration. Part of Sienna's initial treatment was getting her rehydrated with some baths. Because she was so weak and could barely hold herself up, I filled the tub with a very small amount of water; just enough to touch her vent but if she put her head down, the water never reached her nostrils. When she realized she had fluid around her, she started drinking immediately. I also soaked her in unflavored Pedialyte for the first week for about ten minutes. You might want to do the same for your girl.

I would definitely take her in to the vet and get an exam done. My dragon had old eggs sitting in her body that made her look fatter and fuller than she really was. The former owner thought she was a boy and thus never of understood why she was so lethargic. They just thought she was a "good dragon" for being so still when they held her. When Sienna started feeling better, she began digging a lot and even passed a very unformed egg.

Everything else you are doing is good. I definitely recommend you get her to a vet. They might want to put her on liquid calcium for a month or so. Keep us posted!

I'm actually planning on taking her to a reptile vet tomorrow that's about 30-45min away, this specific vet was recommended to me. When she's in the bathtub she does sit up for a bit, but then lays back down. From what I've seen she sometimes drinks up the water.

I actually thought about the possibility of the unpassed egg. I'll look into soaking her in pedialyte in my sink. I know I need to get a bin setup just in case she does lay infertile eggs.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Well I took her to the vet on Thursday. He was impressed with my knowledge on the dragons compared to the usual people he deals with with bearded dragons.

She weighed in around 315 grams, so she's ok in weight, but I'd rather her weigh more. She has no unpassed or unformed eggs, but her stomach area is fairly empty per the vet. He gave her a shot of calcium and gave her a free x-ray to confirm no broken bones (I read the x-ray myself before he even got in and saw there were none). He said her bone density on all 4's are fine, but there is something odd about her spine which could explain a little of the way she walks.

He said I've already gotten the diet down along with the lighting, heat, and UVB, but he also suggested to bring her outside into the direct sun when possible. He said giving her liquid calcium isn't necessary and pedialyte wouldn't do anything. I also brought him a stool sample which i was lucky enough to get with one she laid the previous day when I was at work. He said no eggs in his stool sample, so that's good.

A couple of her toes are sensitive to simple pinching and those could be a result of previous injuries. I don't know if it's still her lack of energy, but it seems as if she's possibly partially blind. I come to this conclusion because her depth perception is off. Since for the most part, she's refusing to eat greens (that i've seen so far), I bought some crickets and each time she goes to snatch one she literally gets within a millimeter or so of them and then acts as if she ate it. She does this about 3x to the same cricket and then finally gives up. There are times that she actually gets it and times when she gets it but still struggles to keep it in her mouth. With my male beardie even when I wave at him, he turns his head or looks at me in response, but not her. I know that having no energy has no effect on depth perception, so idk what to think.

On the bright side, she's had a couple additional bowel movements, so atleast she's not impacted. At this point, I don't really care about breeding her, I just want her to be healthy. I can tell she's still not feeling alert because of her eyes. Poor thing.

Comments and additional tips?

Hmm...I just read a post about not giving a BD protein if she was starving or emaciated. While she did come with worms that she'll eat and here and there, but not a lot. She will eat a few crickets, is it still a good idea to continue with the baby food for protein?