SUFFOCATING/TROUBLE BREATHING?

My bearded dragon (male, about 15.5 inches - eyes open and mobile atm, fine looking stool, drinking water, eating a bit) seems to be having a seriously hard time breathing.
He's acting similar to when my female bathes, how she 'swallows' air to puff up.
He does that in between 'breaths', which is just him practically gagging and breathing heavily for a second - only to stop again. It looks very similar to what a beardie does when it's about to puke, but much worse. During the struggle, he convulses a lot.
Please help, I'm not sure how to help him or what to do.

To elaborate, he has an adequate set up with paper towel substrate. The humidity levels in his tank aren't high. His temps are good. Proper UVB lighting. No new foods recently. No actual expulsion/vomiting. Started about an hour ago.

Take a close look at the nostrils , may be blocked (common problems is the nasal shed doesn't all come out and it restricts air flow through the nostrils when breathing , and it can go on for months).

His nostrils look fine, no blockages or anything like that.
I gave him a long soak in warm water, during that time his breathing was normal and steady. Phew.
Cleaned his tank for good measure while he dried off, now he's basking. Hopefully he's feeling at least a little better.
Bedtime will be soon, so I'll check on him in the morning and report back.

Hello,

Which brand of UVB are you using?
Do you know what the humidity is in the tank? It could be the beginning of a respiratory
infection, but, not sure. Could he have swallowed water the wrong way during his bath?
Is he puffing up his beard also?
I hope he is feeling better. Let us know how he is doing. If there is no improvement, I
would recommend a vet visit to be sure it isn't a respiratory infection starting.

Tracie

The UVB brand is a Zoo Med T5 bulb. (I know T5 isn't the best) I got it not long ago so I know it doesn't need replacing.
The humidity is as low as the gauge will read, which is 0%. I tested to make sure it wasn't stuck by breathing on it and it went up, so that's good.
I don't think he swallowed water the wrong way, when he was in the bath he was breathing normally. Before and after the bath, however, he was breathing strangely.
He looks alert, eyes wide open and active as ever but he's still doing this weird breathing. It's very worrying but the fact he made it through the night just fine says a lot.
I tried uploading a video of what he did last night but I'm not sure if you'll be able to see it or not. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yNc1bMBQXk99LZ2uv2DmFlDAreWT3zxA/view?usp=sharing If not maybe you could download it to see for yourself. I'm not sure how else to show the video.

Hi there, it looks like what they do when they are almost vomiting , you can see a bit comes up + then he swallows it back down. What exactly was his last meal, how many +big were the bugs and how late did he eat ? He does look a bit bloated. It's important to keep him in the tank where the heat is [ always for at least 2 hours after a meal ] Hopefully he will digest everything and he'll be back to normal. Don't bathe him right now, it won't help + can make things worse.



Be sure your basking temp. is about 105 , and by the way the Reptisun 10.0 t5 is an excellent bulb and as for humidity, it should not be zero but should be 35-55 % . Lower than that is getting too dry + can cause breathing problems [ if below 20% ] and problems shedding.

I hope your dragon is ok, and I do not want to alarm. But my guy was just diagnosed with pneumonia on Wednesday, and he was doing that motion a lot at the vet, who says it was due to struggling to breath.

I did not even know he had a RI, as his symptoms were mild and intermittent, only lip pops after eating, or once he finished eating. This was my only indication, until Monday night when I started to see the littlest bit of mucous at the sides of his mouth. I will not say more, but I would really watch this.

Best of luck for a speedy recovery, whatever this is.

Thank you for your feedback and concern so far guys. I really appreciate it.

He won't breathe between 'gags' though, which is very concerning to me. His last meal was last night, a bit before he started acting up. It was just a few small dubia roaches, maybe around 3/4" or so. He is bloated, yeah. He pooped this morning though, so that's good.
How would I go about increasing the level of humidity in his tank? I would like it to be steady instead of big fluctuations at once. I thought about adding a very large water dish but if he isn't supposed to bathe that might be a bad idea.

I'm sorry to hear your guy is sick. Hopefully this isn't a RI or pneumonia. I haven't seen any mucous yet.

No, I did not see mucous either. Not for a while. My guy seemed normal for week and half, except for when eating, by the time the mucous was present on Monday, I gather he was already very sick.

It does not make much sense to me that humidity would be completely zero, even in a dry climate or home, humidity should be reading something. I would try to get another type of hydrometer, I use one like this, it reads basking, cool, and humidity all together.
https://www.beardeddragon.org/media/28979/full
But to increase humidity misting the cage often should work. Buying a humidifier for the room the dragon is kept in to raise the overall humidity of that room would be better and far less upkeep.

I'll keep an eye on him and if he's still acting up on Monday I'll call the vet and see if I can get him in.

I'll also look into getting one of those, digital seems much better than the others.
I do have a humidifier so I'll see if I can set that up in a good spot for them. For now misting will have to do.

I'll keep updates coming as needed.

Should I be feeding him? I've been offering him water and he's been drinking it up, but I'm not sure if it's okay to feed him in this situation.

How is he breathing today, is the problem continuing ? You say it started after his meal last night ?

It's probably best to not feed him for a day or so at least and see if there's any change. After a couple of days feed him but just small items , a few at a time. I really hope it's not serious. And sorry about your guy Bayou, I remember that there was a problem + hope he gets over this ASAP !

I checked on him not long ago and he seems to be doing better. Since I cleaned and misted his tank I haven't seen him doing that choking/gagging thing. His breaths are shallow though. I'm really hoping tomorrow he'll be back to normal, fingers crossed.
He's small so I'll feed him wax worms in the morning (since I fasted him for a day and I don't want him to lose much, if any, weight), those are small and easy to digest right? Either that or maybe I could feed him some pureed carrots? I could mix some calcium and vitamins in with it and see if he'll take that. Which do you think would be best?
I'm worried for my buddy, I don't want him to lose too much weight or be too stressed from what's going on. I have been giving him plenty of water when he'll lick it up, so at least he's getting something.

A few waxworms are probably fine as well as a couple of dubias if they're not too big.