Dmsmith1123
Member
My dragon Puff is 2 years old. She has suffered with gout and I could not convince my vet her swollen limbs were gout induced. Slowly her front feet have gotten so bad she didn't even use them and she had been given steroid shots twice. She is in a 55 gallon tank, her temp stays in the 90s and she has a reptisun uvb on the inside about 10" away from her highest location. She eats mostly salads, which consist of turnips baby arugula kale squash some times collards but she doesn't like them blueberries and blackberries on occasion. I mostly tried to keep her off protein except carnivore care once a week because the vet said to avoid live food in case an allergy was causing the swollen limbs, that underlying conditions can cause gout symptoms. I gave her cherry juice with her water until she suffered with some diarrhea so I reduced tha and only gave it to her a couple times a week. I syringe feed her water daily about 2-4 syringes depending on her tolerance and soaked her in the bath every other day. About 3 weeks ago she started really going down hill so back to the vet we went and she had a serious parasite problem. I did not know she could even get parasites without live food!!! So the vet gave her 3 weeks of dewormer, oral and shot antibiotics. She also told me to up her carnivore care so to my apprehension i began to give that to her every day. I just knew she wasnt going to make it. She would only eat about half a teaspoon a day the first week but has slowly improved and is now eating a teaspoon a day split between 2 feedings. But now she acts as if it is choking her and twice has closed her eyes and acted dead, her head goes very pale and she blackens her beard and tail, once when I was trying to feed her and once when I put her in the tub. I notice when I put her back in her enclosure she opens her eyes and acts fine and her color goes back to normal. I dont know if she just wants to be left alone or if it is some sort of shock. I am still offering her salads to no avail. The vet says we need to wait a month before we look in to her gout because her renal system can only handle so much medication. She has gained 5 ounces on the carnivore care, maybe her nutrition was in the crapper because I was trying to save her from her gout pain but now I worry about her gagging on it and the ridiculous amount of protein in it. She has also vomited twice and has had one or two coughs, she seems kind of phlegmy. Maybe it's how I hold the syringe. I try not to push too much and look in her mouth and wait for her to swallow. She is so much better but such a long way to go. Should I try baby food vegetables and will any brand do? If I can get her even remotely better before we tackle the gout I would like to and I think I'm headed I that direction, but this food gagging situation may affect her progress. Any help would be appreciated
She sounds very critical now and I'm shocked that the vet has not prescribed Allopurinol. It's pretty straight forward for experienced vets and should have been started immediately. Well, the first step actually would have been a fine needle aspiration to draw out + test the fluid to check for crystals that would indicate gout, which it really sounds like she has. It's good that she has not lost weight but the fact that the vet has given her 3 weeks of harsh dewormer and antibiotics is beyond me instead of treating the gout. Those meds. are hard on the kidneys so the vet in essence may have made Puff's condition worse. Not many vets would give a dragon that has gout 3 weeks of antibiotix + other meds. Do you know which meds. they were ? 
