Hi everyone,
My name is Mal and my reptile friend is David. I've been talking to the people over on /r/BeardedDragons, but figured I'd make a post here since there seems to be more discussion of rescue and rehab.
I got Dave from CL about 10 days ago, the previous owners had him in a fairly small viv with another beardie and a couple tegus and fed him chicken and kale which I thought was normal. They recommended walnut substrate and gave me a 29 gal tank.
SO I got him home and right away realized he was very sick and emaciated and started doing a lot of research. I started upgrading his viv and trying to get his rehabilitation in order.
A vet confirmed that he has some MBD and pinworms, so we are treating the pinworms with panacure and hoping the MBD is mild enough that if he gets healthy it won't effect him much. His main problem, imo, is being dangerously thin and dehydrated.
He is now in a 50 gallon with tiles. We're working on getting the basking temperatures perfect, they've been around 92 lately but I'm rearranging things until they get up to 95-100. I leave pureed butternut squash and collard greens and whatever else I have around in his viv every day... He doesn't really eat it, but I keep trying. Some days he'll eat 5-8 crickets and a couple superworms. Some days I can't really get him to eat or drink. Today he had a couple sips of water from a syringe and let me force his panacure pretty calmly. He is alert but he did not take the crickets I offered him in a cardboard box, or a superworm.
This process has been really hard and stressful for both of us, but I'm doing my best. I really hope he has a good day tomorrow-- eats a bunch of crickets, sips some water, maybe even goes over to his bowl of greens and stays alert. Still working on getting the perfect temperature in his viv so I'm hoping to get that sorted within the next couple days. He has a UVB aquarium hood right now, but within the next couple days I'm going to install a fixture inside his viv for extra access.
I've included pictures of him from over the last week. Would love any advice, success stories, contacts, or just well wishes for a sick lil guy and an overwhelmed first-time reptile owner. I'm trying to make the decision of whether I should force feed, I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.
sad little hip bones
a look at how damn skinny the guy is
viv in progress
My name is Mal and my reptile friend is David. I've been talking to the people over on /r/BeardedDragons, but figured I'd make a post here since there seems to be more discussion of rescue and rehab.
I got Dave from CL about 10 days ago, the previous owners had him in a fairly small viv with another beardie and a couple tegus and fed him chicken and kale which I thought was normal. They recommended walnut substrate and gave me a 29 gal tank.
SO I got him home and right away realized he was very sick and emaciated and started doing a lot of research. I started upgrading his viv and trying to get his rehabilitation in order.
A vet confirmed that he has some MBD and pinworms, so we are treating the pinworms with panacure and hoping the MBD is mild enough that if he gets healthy it won't effect him much. His main problem, imo, is being dangerously thin and dehydrated.
He is now in a 50 gallon with tiles. We're working on getting the basking temperatures perfect, they've been around 92 lately but I'm rearranging things until they get up to 95-100. I leave pureed butternut squash and collard greens and whatever else I have around in his viv every day... He doesn't really eat it, but I keep trying. Some days he'll eat 5-8 crickets and a couple superworms. Some days I can't really get him to eat or drink. Today he had a couple sips of water from a syringe and let me force his panacure pretty calmly. He is alert but he did not take the crickets I offered him in a cardboard box, or a superworm.
This process has been really hard and stressful for both of us, but I'm doing my best. I really hope he has a good day tomorrow-- eats a bunch of crickets, sips some water, maybe even goes over to his bowl of greens and stays alert. Still working on getting the perfect temperature in his viv so I'm hoping to get that sorted within the next couple days. He has a UVB aquarium hood right now, but within the next couple days I'm going to install a fixture inside his viv for extra access.
I've included pictures of him from over the last week. Would love any advice, success stories, contacts, or just well wishes for a sick lil guy and an overwhelmed first-time reptile owner. I'm trying to make the decision of whether I should force feed, I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.
sad little hip bones
a look at how damn skinny the guy is
viv in progress