Liver disease or dehydration? PLEASE HELP

Hi,
My bearded dragon Zoe, is about 5 months old, and I got her from a reptile expo 2 months ago. I never really worried about it, but she has wrinkled skin, droopy/sunken eyes and yellow urate. I may sound like a bad beardie owner but I am not!
I use the reptisun 10.0 tube, basking spot stays from 105-115 depending on the location, cool side 75 hot side 80 (I don't know why) baths in the tub every other day for 15 minutes, 50 medium crickets a day, I cut the ones that are too big for her in half. Collard greens and butternut squash every other day. I just ordered 700 Dubia roaches. That will last me 2 weeks.

The breeder at the expo, told me to dust her crix in calcium EVERY DAY FOR BOTH MEALS!!! I only did that for 1 week and 1/2, but I found out how terrible that was, so now we are on 4 days a week ONE meal a day.

I don't know if Zoe is dehydrated, or has liver disease! Somebody please help me! I don't want to loose my baby!!

I don't know how to send pics

Welcome to the forum!
I want to first start by saying I know very little of liver issues in dragons, but figured I can chime in quick before someone with more experience is able to respond.

To post photos, upload to:
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads
Once in your post, you will see the option for XIMG after Font Colour.

It sounds like she may be a little dehydrated based on your description regarding the eyes and urate. Dragons tend to have natural folds/creases in their backs depending on how they are positioned and is generally not a cause for concern.

As far as calcium dusting, many users will dust 3x a week with calcium for 1 meal each day and 2x a week for multivitamins for 1 meal each day, but this varies per person. Please be sure you're not caking the foods in powder, should be a light coating. Otherwise there is nothing terrible about dusting their foods, just try not to over do it.

Baths are not really necessary, especially that often, unless they soil themselves. Generally I give them soaks to help with shedding, to help them pass a stubborn poo, or when they're dirty. This may be about once a week.

I hope this helps in some regard!

Thank you for your quick reply! I appreciate it. I will read up more on calcium. I give her a bath every other day to try to help with the wrinkles, but It isn't working. I will try to post pics

Baths won't do too much to hydrate unless they drink from it.
If you have a syringe or an eye dropper you can drip water on the tip of his nose and s/he will likely lick it off. I've also cheated on this and had the sink running at a drip/small stream and got their mouth up next to it and they'll drink from that.

Many users will also mist their dragons to give them water to lick up

I have tried to drip water on her nose, but she just stares at me like I am crazy! I just tried to open her mouth gently and drip some down her throat. It worked! I hope I can see a difference in a few days! I only gave her a little because I didn't want to overdose her on water. Hopefully it is just minor dehydration and not kidney disease! I am a paranoid first time beardie mom! Does anybody know symptoms of kidney disease? I hope I am not too late on the dehydration. I don't want to see her die!

I'd be careful on forcing water. There's a chance she was not prepared for the water and she could have gotten it into her lungs.
If she didn't lick it off it's likely she isn't thirsty.

I know it's difficult to not get scared by every little thing they do :lol: being an exotic pet and being a new caretaker as well.
As long as she's eating fresh veggies and juicy bugs she'll be ok. She may have had too much calcium in her diet if you were doing every meal - I believe the yellowing urate is a side effect of that. My youngest guy had a darkened eye look as a baby as well and I was very concerned for him, he refused water, but now months later he's perfectly plump

Hope this helps!

Can you post a few pics of her + her set up ? And what method do you use to monitor the temps. ? Here's how to post :
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to attach pics

Dripping/spraying water on the snout is the way all of me babies were raised. [ many, many clutches of babies ] They get used to it right out of the egg but pet stores + some breeders don't do it so the beardie is not used to it, they don't realize what it is . When you do it again, drip [ or spray ] for a few seconds, then stop. Repeat after 10 seconds or so. After 20-30 seconds or so they usually realize what it is and begin to drink.

There's no need to feel that she has a liver problem....that usually happens to mature dragons and they usually stop eating and may look quite sick. And wrinkly skin can be normal at times, not always related to a health problem.

Warning poop in the tub





Thank you, I will try the drops on the nose later. She is moving into her 40 gallon tomorrow, and the uvb will be mounted INSIDE the cage. I know it is wrong now. I ask use a temp gun.

What a beautiful dragon and her enclosure is set up well!
Poo looks normal, very alert eyes

Just as a heads up, because I don't want you to be afraid, but moving her to the larger enclosure may give her temporary relocation stress and decrease her appetite. This is totally normal and will go away on its own She may not experience this at all, but I didn't want you to worry if it does happen

I agree, she's a very pretty dragon, great colors. Zoe looks fine, she could stand to be a tiny bit plumper but definitely looks healthy. My computer screen shows everything a bit darker so I can't see any contrasts in her eye, it all looks dark. The poo may be from excess calcium but is not uncommon or related to a health problem.

Nothing really to worry about from what I can see.

Thank you everyone for your help. You made me feel so much better. I will start to add some waxworks to her salad, to add a little weight on her.