Completely confused

My bearded dragon has been so back and forth. 1 week she will sleep, not eat and avoids all lights. Another week she is running around basking and eating. She hasn’t lost any weight and She has had 4 sets of x rays and only thing found is arthritis in both of her back knees. She had a ultra sound and it was normal. I work at a animal hospital with a exotic vet but unfortunately our hospital doesn’t deal with exotic animals and we don’t have equipment for blood work to be done. Her bones are excellent and no signs of MBD. Does anyone know why a beardie would just sleep for a long period of time for no reason? My doctor has researched and researched but nothing can explain her sleep habit. Her backing area stays between 98-90 degrees (large basking platform to bask at temps that she wants all under UVB) replaced uvb bulbs last month.

NICE double bay beardie palace...

you mention arthritis , so I expect she's getting on in years ? hurts to move so she avoiding moving …. ?

I think she may benefit from regular feeds of silkworms , there are natural antiinflamatories in these that the Chinese have been using for human arthritis for centuries.

kingofnobbys":2xxeeuvv said:

NICE double bay beardie palace...

you mention arthritis , so I expect she's getting on in years ? hurts to move so she avoiding moving …. ?

I think she may benefit from regular feeds of silkworms , there are natural antiinflamatories in these that the Chinese have been using for human arthritis for centuries.

Click to expand...

Thank you. My dad spent months researching and building my enclosure. Yes she has pretty bad knees but she gets around pretty well. I put a ramp over her steps to make it easier to get up and down. when she is being a normal dragon she will go up and down her ramp. Or climber her log and bask. When I see her sleep during the day I will put her under her basking light and she will just walk down her ramp and go back to sleep under her platform. She will wake up and eat live prey but will go back to sleep. (Which I’m then forced to give her an emema in fear of her getting back up from not basking) she has prescribed anti inflammatory and pain meds. But they make her sleeping worse and only give them when she is clearly in pain and not walking. But when she is awake she puts weight on her back legs and has really good range of motion. She weights 411grams and has been holding steady at that weight for the past few months. So the sleep and not eating isn’t causing weight loss. She just sleeps. She is maybe 5 or 6. She is a rescue and they don’t remember how old her was when they got her or for how long they had her. They think they had her for 4 years and I have had her for a year and half

She prefers to sleep in a cooler spot , that's fine ,so long as she's thermoregulating and basking too.

She might benefit from some HerpaBoost , it's given daily as a food orally by syringe (is very thick and pasty so you will need an 10G feeding needle and a large bore 10ml feeding syringe (has a bore at the needle of 3mm)
http://vetafarm.com.au/product/herpaboost/
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=232687

Though the feeding needles are designed to help deliver the food directly into the gut (down the throat) , they are also great for getting food past the teeth into a reptile's mouth too and have the advantages of being blunt (wont cut the lips or gums or tongue or mouth) and are virtually indestructible (the angry lizard to bite it as hard as it wonts and will have no effect on it - unlike glass and plastic feeder nozzles and tubes).