URGENT!! Please help with my beardie!

Hello all! I need any help y’all can give me, so reptile lover community, do y’all’s thing! My name is Katy & I’m a 20 year old sophomore at Texas A&M University. I LOVE reptiles more than any other thing in this world, but most importantly my 4 1/2 year old leopard gecko Reggie & my 1 1/2 year old bearded dragon, Rico! I’ve had Rico for about 3 months now, & I got him from a lady who was very experienced with beardies. Here’s the rundown: Rico has always been super energetic & LOVES attention. He’s also a chow hound! He will eat anything & everything even if he is full lol. But the past few days I noticed he wasn’t moving around as much or begging me to get him out. He also hasn’t been accepting any food... I tried to feed him all of his favorites: squash, apple sauce, blackberries, crickets, silkworms, & even superworms (which he only gets every now & then) I haven’t changed anything in his tank or eating habits or diet! At first I thought he might be impacted but I put him in a warm bath like I usually do once a week & although he did not poop, I feel as if the issue isn’t impaction but possibly something much worse.
He’s always been fairly chunky but the last few days he’s starting to look thinner & thinner because he’s not eating. I have definitely ruled out MBD & now I’m thinking that he might have fractured a rib or something along those lines, also I noticed that he’s kind of dragging his front left arm & when he actually does move he just moved a little bit walks funny like he’s in pain... I have no idea what to please help!! ? Because I’m in college I don’t have enough money to bring him to a vet but I’m currently trying to sell some clothes & jewelry I don’t wear & things like that to get the money. I use a ZooMed Reptisun 10.0 UVB strip light & a ZooMed basking light, I have a small section of his tank with sand for digging but it’s very small & the rest of the tank is repticarpet, the cool side is about 83 degrees and the hot side is 97 degrees, I’ve had his tank set up this way for as long as I’ve had him because it’s how his previous owner had it. I’m really at a loss on what to do, I am so upset & distraught

UPDATE: While I was typing this message out my beardie started gaping her mouth I’ve never seen him do this EVER before!! I figured because he’s not wanting to move he got too hot so I took him out, & started petting him, his mouth was still gaped so I took it as an opportunity to get him to eat which he has not even with me holding it up to his mouth, so since he had his mouth open I had some yams out & I kind of placed them on the edge of his mouth & he surprisingly accepted it & ate some of them!! & even licked some water i dropped on the edge of his snout, but I am still very worried (ESPECIALLY about the limp arm that he seems so bothered by) I have attached some before & now pictures.

Hi Katy, hopefully we can help your baby. Rico's body condition looks pretty good even though he's a bit thin and it sounds like you've been taking good care of him for the most part. I actually do think that a calcium deficiency or MBD is playing a role. Not a broken rib but possibly a slight fracture to the arm. It may also be just a sprain. So here are the questions :

How long do you keep him out of the tank most days ? Where is the Reptisun bulb placed , in the tank or on top of the screen and how old is it ? what type of calcium powder do you use if any ? Do you have a hammock ? Some beardies snag their claws + sprain legs on hammocks.

Please post several pics of the tank, including shots that show where your bulbs are.

Hi Katy, welcome....I have to agree with AHBD, I too believe it's MBD related, as you've only had him for 3 months or so, and he's quite stunted for a year and a half old. This is something that started long ago and not your fault, usually due to inadequate UVB light, inadequate temps, and inadequate diet/supplements, but typically the UVB light is the culprit.

Do you know how old the Reptisun 10.0 UVB tube is, and is it the T8 version or the T5HO version? Most people buy the 18" 10.0 T8 version, which only emits UVB light for 6 months then must be replaced every 6 months (even though the tube won't be burnt out, it stops emitting any UVB light at 6 months old). Also, if you have the T8 UVB tube on top of a mesh lid, the mesh is blocking 40% of the already too weak UVB light, so essentially he's not getting any UVB light. Also, the T8 version must be mounted within 6" of his basking spot or adequate UVB light won't reach him. If you don't already have one, I suggest going on Amazon.com ASAP and upgrading to the Reptisun 10.0 T5HO UVB tube, a 22" tube will cost you $23 on Amazon.com (the T5HO comes in 16" and 22", the 22" is the same price as the 22"), and a new 24" matching length T5 rated fixture with a reflector.

I know money is tight, but the T5HO version and a fixture will cost you under $50 with free shipping on Amazon, and it will save you a fortune in the long run. For starters, the T5HO can sit on top of the mesh as long as it's within 11" of his main basking spot, and it only needs to be replaced once every year instead of every 6 months like the T8. Also, it's going to provide him with much stronger UVB light that a stunted beardie with MBD or other nutritional deficiencies needs (again, not your fault, this didn't happen in 3 months). A T8 strength UVB tube just isn't strong enough to treat a beardie with MBD.

So I feel in the immediate future, your money is better spent on an upgraded T5 strength UVB tube instead of a vet, as only a certified reptile vet or a very experienced reptile specialist is going to be able to help you or be worthwhile and not a total waste of money. "Exotics" vets or general vets know nothing about MBD, Vitamin B1 deficiency, or Calcium/UVB light deficiency, and most likely wouldn't even ask you any questions about your lighting or general husbandry anyway, they'd just give him a Calcium shot and send you home after $100+...So getting him a new, strong, T5 UVB tube and fixture, along with an adequate Digital Probe Thermometer instead of a stick-on thermometer (only around $4 on Amazon or $10 at any Petco) will help him much more at this point.

I'm mentioning the stick-on thermometers due to how you only listed 2 temperatures inside his tank, a hot and a cold, so I'm assuming that you only have stick-on thermometers and are not using either a Digital Probe Thermometer or a Temperature Gun to take his tank temps. If you are then ignore me, but if not then you would be doing him a huge favor by getting rid of the stick-on thermometers and changing over to a single Digital Probe Thermometer. The stick-on thermometers, whether they are the round ones meant for reptiles or they are any type of "aquarium" stick-on thermometers are extremely inaccurate, and when tested are usually off by between 10-20 degrees. More importantly with specifically a Beardie is that you have no way to measure the Basking Spot Surface Temperature with a stick-on thermometer at all, only Ambient (airs) temps, and for a Dragon this is the most important temperature, due to Bearded Dragons being desert reptiles.

He needs to have a Basking Spot Surface Temperature between 100-105 degrees, a Hot Side Ambient (air) Temperature between 88-93 degrees, and a Cool Side Ambient (air) Temperature between 75-80 degrees. So if you don't have a Digital Probe Thermometer or a Temperature Gun, you really need to get one ASAP so you can measure his Basking Spot Surface Temperature and make sure it's between 100-105 degrees, otherwise he cannot digest his food properly and this can cause an impaction.

At least for the time being, I would remove all of the sand and any other loose substrates that may be inside his tank. I'm not going to lecture you on loose substrates for adult Bearded Dragons, unless it is any type of Calcium Sand or "ReptiSand" that you're using, then I will tell you that you shouldn't ever, ever use any type of Reptile Calcium sands (Calcisand, ReptiSand, etc. are all the same thing, Calcium sands) for ANY reptile or amphibian, because as you can test yourself, they all turn into cement-like rocks as soon as they get wet, and inside of any reptile or amphibian this will cause bowel obstructions and frequently death. The other one is Crushed Walnut Shell substrate, it kills just as many reptiles as the Calcium Sands do...So if you must put sand in an adult beardie's tank, please only used washed Play Sand like you buy at Home Depot and Lowes for $4 per 50 pounds. However, for right now, until you figure out what's going on with him for sure and he starts to feel and act normally again, please remove whatever sand or loose substrates that are in his tank and then disinfect the area where the sand was. Beardies lick EVERYTHING all the time, and he doesn't need the risk of an impaction right now, plus all loose substrates harbor tons of bacteria, fungi, and parasites and are perfect breeding grounds for them, so he doesn't need a secondary infection right now. Just my suggestion, again I'm not trying to lecture you on adult dragons and loose substrates, it's just always a great idea when their sick or have a health concern to eliminate any extra potential problems...

Also, how often to you dust his live insects and/or in Calcium? Multivitamins? It's going to be important that he get adequate supplementation of both from now on, but remember that without 13-14 hours of adequate UVB light and adequate temperatures every single day, he cannot absorb or process/use ANY vitamins, minerals, or nutrition in general, no matter how much he eats. So getting his lighting and temperatures corrected is going to be step 1 for sure.

Thanks for caring for your little guy, and as AHBD already asked, if you could post photos of his entire enclosure and his lights, showing how they are set-up over the tank, as well as some photos of him, like of his head, face, etc. it will help us help you. This is a very common issue, in fact improper UVB lighting and temperatures are almost always the cause of issues. Sometimes it takes a while for the improper lighting to catch up with them as far as their appetites and activity levels, but the good thing is that it's easily corrected...