Severly sick, or severely injured

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UnioMentium

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Not sure if anyone can help here, but we recently returned from a cruise and my husbands mother had been babysitting our dragon. However, when we got him back, she was distraught and unsure what had happened to him, other than telling us he was very aggressive and has been like this for three days.

We were both incredibly alarmed to see that his entire left side looked to have caved in or was crushed. He wasn't moving and when we picked him up, he was completely limp and barely opened his mouth. From all appearances, something had accidentally crushed him and he was slowly dying.

We were only gone for 5-6 days and she had everything she needed to take care of him. I'd given her a hotdisk in case her power went out and she could move some of his items and put it in there. She's used to taking care of self sufficient animals like dogs or cats and probably got confused or something.

Long story short, we took him out, got him to drink a little bit of water and gave him a little bit of gel foodstuffs (can't remember the name of the food) and then held him in some very warm water for a while. We then put him back in his cage under a light and let him warm up. He has thus stopped moving entirely and only occasionally gaped open his mouth and looks like he's trying to swallow. We can't see him breathing and he's as limp as a boned fish. Have tried for several hours to find the problem, and there's been no improvement. 99% sure he's dying, but are broke and cannot afford a vet.

Any ideas, suggestions, even if it's putting him down. I can't watch him suffer like this and I'm clueless as to what happened. She has no clue either. It looks as though somehow something fell on him, but that could have only happened if someone put the hotdisk in there on top of him, which as I am aware, no one would do that. This is what he currently looks like.

96756-2702525840.jpg

He appears to have inflated a bit more, but he is still limp, won't move accept to gape open his mouth as though struggling to swallow and won't open his eyes.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
How sad, the dragon is in severe distress right now and really needs an experienced vet. Any way you can borrow money from someone ? Were there other people in the house [ especially kids ] that might not be fessing up to a possible [ very probable ] accident ? It really appears that someone dropped something on him. Poor thing, other than a vet he probably is dying as you suspect. Did he try to move at all when you put him in the water ?
 

UnioMentium

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AHBD":361xj67m said:
How sad, the dragon is in severe distress right now and really needs an experienced vet. Any way you can borrow money from someone ? Were there other people in the house [ especially kids ] that might not be fessing up to a possible [ very probable ] accident ? It really appears that someone dropped something on him. Poor thing, other than a vet he probably is dying as you suspect. Did he try to move at all when you put him in the water ?

No children, but I suspect it was an accident due to complete ignorance of Reptiles. The soonest we would be able to get him to a vet is the end of the week. If he survives until then, we'll see if we can get an X-ray for him. Until then...the most I can do is keep him warm, and continually give him water and perhaps a bath and see if I can coax some movement into any of his limbs.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
It's best not to move him now, no baths or handling and take the log out for now, you can put a small rolled up towel instead in case he wants to prop himself on something that he won't fall off . I'm really sorry that this happened, my heart goes out to you . At least he drank a bit, offer water via syringe or eyedropper on his snout. See if he'll eat by taking a bug + squishing it until the guts come out , then rub it lightly on his snout . You can also offer baby food squash, sweet potato + green bean, you can mix a bit of calcium powder in as well.
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

Poor thing! I am sorry that happened to him. It's too bad no one is admitting anything,
but likely an accident occurred. Things like that just don't appear on them, something
caused that.
Do the best you can to keep him comfortable until you can get him to a vet for x-rays.
I hope that he can hold on that long for you. If you can get him to eat or drink, that
would be very good, but as suggested, limited handling right now.
Keep us posted on him.

Tracie
 

UnioMentium

New member
Original Poster
Drache613":2wwm7ebx said:
Hello,

Poor thing! I am sorry that happened to him. It's too bad no one is admitting anything,
but likely an accident occurred. Things like that just don't appear on them, something
caused that.
Do the best you can to keep him comfortable until you can get him to a vet for x-rays.
I hope that he can hold on that long for you. If you can get him to eat or drink, that
would be very good, but as suggested, limited handling right now.
Keep us posted on him.

Tracie


This is sad news, but our lizard passed away last night and is no longer suffering. We still can't figure out what happened, and a few of our guesses was that it might have been some sort of disease in his bones that ended up doing that to him. Both of us know that my mother in law couldn't bring herself to hurt anything purposefully. The only way it could have happened is by accident or someone unknown to either of us mishandled it, of which we would have no idea who that might have been. Either way, I feel relief that our tiny child is no longer suffering. May or may not sell the light, lamps and cage.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
So sad,I thought this would probably happen. I'm so sorry, poor baby. My sympathy to your family. :(
 

EllenD

Gray-bearded Member
I'm very sorry you lost your dragon, but he was no doubt suffering greatly and it's better that he passed and is out of pain. Something had to have fallen on him, as there is no "bone disease" or any other "disease" or illness that would cause that to happen that quickly, or even over time, but certainly not in 5 or 6 days. I'm sure it wasn't a purposeful thing, but something absolutely did happen here, just for your own future reference if you get another one, just so you can make sure that another accident doesn't happen again. This is very sad, I feel for you guys having to come home to that, and I feel for your dragon, but he's not in pain anymore...

If I can ask, just because I have no idea what you're talking about, what do you mean by a "hotdisk"?
 

UnioMentium

New member
Original Poster
EllenD":2zpoo32y said:
I'm very sorry you lost your dragon, but he was no doubt suffering greatly and it's better that he passed and is out of pain. Something had to have fallen on him, as there is no "bone disease" or any other "disease" or illness that would cause that to happen that quickly, or even over time, but certainly not in 5 or 6 days. I'm sure it wasn't a purposeful thing, but something absolutely did happen here, just for your own future reference if you get another one, just so you can make sure that another accident doesn't happen again. This is very sad, I feel for you guys having to come home to that, and I feel for your dragon, but he's not in pain anymore...

If I can ask, just because I have no idea what you're talking about, what do you mean by a "hotdisk"?

If anything did happen, it would have been caused by the hotdisk falling on him. He was rather small, a juvenile, and the hotdisk itself is 1.9 Lb. A hotdisk is actually called a Snuggle Safe Microwave Heating Pad - https://www.amazon.com/Snuggle-Safe-Pet-Microwave-Heating/dp/B00008AJH9
 

EllenD

Gray-bearded Member
Oh, I gotcha, I have something similar for my back. That would absolutely have caused this, they are heavy, especially for a 3 month old dragon's little chest cavity and ribs. Certainly if someone (well meaning, trying to keep him warm) put that on top of him, or even if it was simply placed inside his tank and he himself crawled underneath it, this could have certainly caused his little chest cavity to collapse. She may have just put it inside his tank for him, and if he had crawled underneath the heaviest part of that thing (I'm assuming it was filled with some type of rice, beans, stones, etc.), right underneath the little beans or whatever was inside it, he may have gotten himself stuck underneath it, or may not have even realized how heavy it was. What happens with very small chest cavities made up of very tiny, delicate ribs is that when they are compressed underneath something like that, every time they take a breath and try to expand their chest cavity, it actually gets more and more compressed with every breath, until it simply collapses. I'd be willing to be that's exactly what happened here, it wouldn't have to have actually "fallen" on him, though that would have certainly had the same result, but as you said, if it looked like his entire side was "sunken in" or "collapsed", I'd bet it was simply on top of him, was too heavy and literally "suffocating", as those things mold to the shape of whatever they are on or around, and eventually it just caused his rib cage to collapse.

This wasn't anyone's fault, this was just a really freak accident that no one could have ever suspected could happen. I'm so, so sorry, what a horribly sad, unfortunate thing to have happened. Like I said, he's out of pain now, and the best you can do is learn from it, and everyone who reads this post will also learn from it. I wouldn't advise using anything like that for a Bearded Dragon or any other reptile that wasn't an adult and would not be overwhelmed by the weight and the molding kind of nature that those things are built to have.
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

I am so sorry he passed, he was in a lot of pain. :cry:
I agree, if there was one of those pads in there which is that heavy, that is most likely
the cause. How would it have fallen on him, was it mounted on the top or the side of
the tank?
I am sorry for your loss of your precious boy.

Tracie
 
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