Cocidia and giardia in baby beardie an not getting better

Hello my names Tiffany and I'm brand new to the bearded dragon org. I sought you out bc our baby beardie Shadow is really sick, he's about 3-4 months old weighs 14g An is about 5in long. So he was bought from a petsmart on dec 31st and seemed to be in perfect health he was eating very well 10-15 crickets a day approved fruits An veggies. By January 20th he began to show signs of not feeling well within one week he quit eating an at that point we took him to see a local vet who treats exotics. Where they diagnosed him with cocidia and giardia, an was prescribed Albon as his antibiotics and panacur for the worms. Dosing was albon 0.02cc for 5 days an then every other day for 5 days. And the panacur was 0.01cc for 5 days An again for 5 days in 3 weeks. So his first 5 doses of albon were really hard to give being that it was such a small amount An couldn't even by pushed through the syringe so I'm not sure If he got too much of it or not. After days 5 on albon An seeing results, he was up An moving around. But In that time period I discovered albons really harsh on there little tummies so I saw some folks on here had luck with bug de lites acidophiliz probiotic formula and they had toltrazuril so I stopped the albon until the probiotics came in bc his doing good phase last maybe 3-4 days. His probiotics came an he was doing worse at this point so I stated his albon again for 4 days in accompany with his probiotics. At first I didn't know to give the meds in the am An the probiotics 3 hours before bedtime. So maybe that's why he's not doing better. I then got in his new antibiotics An took him back to the vets with his new antibiotics An the supplements I received from bug de lites- spurlina, electrovites, bee pollen and powder form of probiotics. Showed the vet everything I've done, everything I have An asked what to use to help him. She said to go ahead An give him the toltrazuril so I have an he's has had 1 dose a week for 2 weeks. So here we are he's not eating crickets fruits or veggies An hasn't been since February 9th, he stays on the hot side all day without much movement, cool side is 78-79 an hot side is usually 94-98 an he only drinks when I take him out an drip water on his nose and is only eating 1-3ml daily of baby food outside of the baby carrots he won't eat really anything else and has had diarrhea for weeks now, but since he's only drinking water An baby food water down to syringe feed I'm not sure his Poo would be solid. Please please help me bring our precious baby back to life. I'm a new mommy and have done so much research and spent a small fortune on meds an supplements and 2 vet visits where I don't even believe this vet knows what she's doing honestly, I knew more than she did. She recommends us to contact an exotic vet up in Cleveland Ohio area. So I'm hoping someone here can give me some insight on what to do before we loose him. He just finished up his panacur yesterday Sunday February 26th and does have one more dose left of the toltrazuril but wasn't sure if he needs it. I stopped the probiotics about a week ago thinking maybe that's what was bothering him. They did say 1/2 ml to full ml but my vet said that's too much so maybe that's why he's not getting better so I reduced it to her 0.2 ml. For a few days An decided to try to not give it to him. I'm just grasping at straws here to try anything that will give me Signs of improvement. I'm sorry this forum is so long I just wanted to be very descriptive in hopes someone could help me figure out how to help my baby shadow. He means the world to me an was bought for my 12 yr old son but through all this I've grown super attached An just want to see him better already. Thanks for any help given.

Poor little one. He is so tiny =(. I'll bet the meds have been quite hard on his system as you said. I would focus on keeping him hydrated at this point. It's good that you're using the probiotic from Tracie's site. You can mix that with water and offer it that way so it's a 2-in-1 rather than separate syringe feedings. Maybe 1-2ml total for such a little one. Tracie may have some more ideas for you but I'd stop the meds and focus on hydration and see if he can bounce back.

Hello,

So sorry your little one is still having issues!
I hope some of the products have helped. One thing with reptiles is that it takes awhile for them to bounce back. Albon is very hard on their systems so it could take several weeks to get him back on track, or sometimes longer.
How much of the reptophilus did you give him? As suggested, try mixing it with water so he gets more hydration. Have you tried chicken or turkey baby food mixed with sweet potato baby food? The carrots have a lot of sugar so they could be causing some of the diarrhea.
Feel free to email me if you need more help, too. I will PM you my email address.
I would also bump up his temps a little bit on the cooler end to around 82 or so & try to keep his tank around 80 overnight.

Tracie

Hello,

Hi to everyone An thank you for all the help, I'm willing to do anything for this little baby. So Tracie I think I have your email on my receipt for shadows meds. I did send an email on dosing information with everything I got. So I at first was giving him 1/2ML TO 1ML of the REPTOPHILUS in the day time not remembering that you want to give it 3 hours before bed with the heat in tank raised so the live Bacteria can grow for at least 6 hours. An he usually stays on hot side but I have found him in mornings on cooler side sometimes in his water dish which is new. So how much REPTOPHILUS should I give him exactly/how much water. He likes the REPTOPHILUS and usually alsways takes it for me. But I recently stopped all his meds on Sunday 26th. An he does love sweet potatoes. Chicken and turkey he hasn't braved yet. An fruits? What's a good rule of thumb for getting him some type of nutrients through baby food without harming him? I have the bee pollen, spirulina, and bee pollen all of which I'm not absolutely positive how to dose those when mixed with baby foods? Will the electrovites mixed An dropped on his nose help him?
Tank temp I bought an indoor outdoor prob thermometer and I'm not exactly sure where the best place to auction up the probe or not auction cut it. And trying to keep tank at precise temperature for his probiotics????
I haven't done any furniture moving in his tank at all when he's out with my son I will take everything out bleach it and rinsed/dryied An put back in the exact same places, every time he Poo's I wipe it up immediately or take out that item and wash it. But with doing all that I still hear that it's hard to get rid of the cocidia or giardia not sure, but would steaming it be an option? An at what point should that be done. He has just finished up all his meds. So now I need to get this little baby doing better.
I SUPER APPRECIATE EVERYONE HELPING ME WITH SHADOW!!!!!! ???

Hello Tiffany,

How is your girl doing today?
Ok, great. I must not have gotten the email if you sent it recently! Please resend if you can, & in the title put Medications, so I can flag it.
As far as oral fluids daily, you don't really need to overhydrate though. If you give .5 to 1ml of reptophilus along with another 1ml of oral fluids daily I think for his size that is enough.
That's correct, be sure he is nice & warm so he can digest later in the day when you give that.
That's great he loves the sweet potatoes. You could add a little bit of turkey or chicken baby food with that, for some protein. He doesn't need many fruits due to the sugar. A couple of times per week you could give a strawberry or blueberry, or even mango piece to him, he would probably like that.
For the bee pollen & spirulina, just give a small pinch, or a tiny bit from the scooper you have. The electrovites can easily be mixed in with food & dropped onto his nose. They are essentially tasteless so he shouldn't mind the flavor.
Where does he spend the majority of his time in the evenings? If you can just keep him around 80 or so, overnight, he will be perfectly fine. I'm glad you got a new probe thermometer.
Be careful with bleach & be sure it's diluted well & rinsed off well, too. You could use a vinegar solution instead for safety also. Steaming is a great option too, it will kill a lot of spores & cysts.
If he is done with his meds, a thorough cleaning would be a good idea.
Poor little one, I hope he is feeling better!
Keep us posted on how he is doing.

Tracie

Hi Tiffany, sorry to hear about Shadow's problems. Can you post a few pics of her as well as her set up ? And what exact brand + watts are the lights ? Here's how to post pics :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to attach pics

It's best to not have a water dish in the tank, disoriented, sick reptiles may lay in them at night + get very chllled and more sick.

Aw, what a sweet little baby. The tank is well decorated, although I don't like hammocks since they don't hold heat and a beardie can easily snag a claw + hurt their leg in the mesh.

Something very important, do you have a uvb bulb ? And do you have a bright white bulb for basking along with the red ? A red only basking bulb will not be good, beardies need a bright basking bulb. Your choice of bulbs is critical for the baby's well being. Pet stores make money from useless + sometimes harmful colored bulbs.

Hello everyone,
Sorry it's been a week since I've been on, we've been pretty busy with our little baby!!! So update on shadow- he's still not up to par. But on the bright side I think I've finally found a way to juice him back. So since I've been syringe feeding him I found a post on another topic that would be great for us. They said to stay away from baby chic food bc there little tummies can not process it. So I'm going out to buy a crappy blender an we're going to blend purée some greens for him. I also purchased jump start An have seen a little improvement but I was mixing it with avocado and after I did it, I found out they can not have avocado sad bc he loved it. So the new concoction is blended crickets or blood worms with jump start a little pedalyte and a tad bit of sweet potatoes and then we're going to start juicing his greens an dripping them. I also found out that our lights An heat are all wrong. So we currently only have a zoo med red heat build at 75 watts bc my 100 watts blew. And a white light at a 100 watts. So I never knew that they had to have a uvb bulb. As you can see in my pics we have the double dome for the lights. So I'm not sure what to do now. I have ordered 100 watts red an white bulbs and also in 150 watts in both those bulbs. We will be getting him the uvb ASAP. JUST NOT SURE WHAT TO GET. so I'm really hoping with these changes he will begin to bounce back for us. He's so precious and this is killing me. Seeing him so lifeless. We're willing to do anything. Also what's everyone's take on reptiaid seeing that's the only thing we have not bought or tried yet. Thanks so much to everyone's help An concern for our little baby.

I'd get rid of the red light and stick with a bright white light that gets the temps up to spec. As far as UVB goes, it depends on the distance. How far is the top of the tank from the basking spot? How long is the tank?

Just wanted to jump in and ask where you heard about using bloodworms ? I wouldn't use them, they can potentially carry parasites that beardies don't usually encounter. Stick with the crickets and/or get some BSFL [ Phoenix or calciworms ]

Thank you for the advice. I will get rid of the red lights I always thought the red light was his night time heat source. So if I get rid of it do I run the 100-150 watts all day long? As far as distances for the uvb light I'm at work. I'm trying to get the measurements. I'm pretty sure it's 30in long deep I'm not sure at all. It's pretty deep it's a breeding tank. Bloodworms were given to me by a local pet store employee who owns them. That's what's been so hard about all of this. Is the conflicting advice. Now I trust anyone on here more than a pet store. I know they usually have no clue what there talking about. So I appreciate this site and what it represents.

The idea is to simulate sunlight as closely as possible so you'll want a bright white light that produces heat along with UVB over the basking spot. At night, you don't need heat unless the tank temps drop below about 65. In that case you want a low wattage ceramic heat emitter (infrared, not visible red) to bump the temps just a little, into the low 70s if needed. The basking and UVB lights should be off at night.

If you have 12'' above the basking area, I suggest getting a T5 UVB light. The 22'' should work well. If it's going through a screen, 10-12'' is about right.

I do have different levels of basking, some go all the way up to the top with hisbhammocks used as ladders kinda. Not sure if you can see in my pictures. An I've updated the tank slightly. I also just ordered a waterfall that he's not able to actually get into or submerge himself bc I know sick babies will offten end up in there water dishes but he really like the splashes of the sink to drink from so I thought we'd try it and a heat rock that's low watts. What's everyone think of that? Also looking on info about reptiaid. Thanks folks!

Bearded family

I'm sorry to say my precious baby shadow didn't make it through the night! I'm so heart broken! I never thought my heart could ache so badly. Thanks for everything everyone did for us. I will definitely be getting a healthy baby bc I know I meant to be a beardie mommy. Plus I have an obscene about of stuff that needs put to use. Just sad, so sad. RIP SHADOW you'll never be forgotten baby boy.