aarondavidross
Member
Hello! Hoping someone here can help because our vet visits were not productive.
My bearded dragon (Zoot) is around 10-12 months old, ~16in, ~300g. We adopted her from a friend who couldn’t care for her so its possible her early-life husbandry was inadequate. We’ve had her about 7 months. She is in a 55 gallon tank with UVB ReptiSun 10 T8 and a basking bulb (temp gradient 80-110). She eats dubias, greens and superworms, dusted with a mix of 70% ZoomMed ReptiCalcium and 30% ZooMed Reptivite daily. Her substrate is excavator clay, which I know is controversial, but she is fed on a ledge away from the substrate and does not eat it. She does enjoy burrowing occasionally and spends her time on the rocks and logs in her enclosure.
A few months ago, we noticed a small lump forming on her front arm. A few weeks after, the lump had grown we noticed another one on her other front arm, around the joint, and a few small lumps on her digits. We took her to the vet, who suspected she had bone fractures as a baby that were healing and causing deformations during her growth spurt, but after looking at her x-rays it appeared she didn’t have any fractures. The vet then prescribed an anti-inflammatory that we gave to her orally, which didn’t seem to help. Zoot seemed to be healthy despite the lumps, she continued to eat and poop and move around normally, so we decided to hold off on any more vet visits during the pandemic...
We continued to monitor her health, and over the past couple of months her condition has worsened, the lumps are a lot bigger and now its definitely become difficult for her to walk / climb / use her front limbs in general. She spends a lot of time now laying around because she cant move easily, and is gaping instead of leaving her basking spot to thermoregulate. When she tries to move her arms they often look shaky and potentially painful, but she still will occasionally will run around, seemingly unaffected, however this is now rare. It has also now has spread to her rear legs as well. She eats and poops, but less, she is refusing greens, and is acting lethargic except for her energetic head and eyes darting around.
We took her to the vet again last week and got another set of x-rays, a blood test, and uric acid test. According to the vet, her results came back normal across the board- no calcium deficiency, no uric acid buildup / gout, and her bone density is better than it was on the last visit. The vet recommended we start a series of antibiotic injections, which would require us taking her to the clinic every 3 days for 2 weeks... She also offered an invasive procedure that would entail gathering cells from her joints to further examine the issue.
Both of these are possible but difficult for us and Zoot, the vet is far away and frequent transportation and injections are stressful to Zoot, so I just really wanted to get some other opinions before doing this, because the vet admitted herself not having much experience with bearded dragons and offering this as a last resort since she didn't learn anything from the tests we ran.
Photos, X-ray and test results here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18KuHgJXJ36T33gqFIyyIclXs2Gt0-S7HpqLgIKnSmOo/edit?usp=sharing
Really appreciate anyones help with this!!
My bearded dragon (Zoot) is around 10-12 months old, ~16in, ~300g. We adopted her from a friend who couldn’t care for her so its possible her early-life husbandry was inadequate. We’ve had her about 7 months. She is in a 55 gallon tank with UVB ReptiSun 10 T8 and a basking bulb (temp gradient 80-110). She eats dubias, greens and superworms, dusted with a mix of 70% ZoomMed ReptiCalcium and 30% ZooMed Reptivite daily. Her substrate is excavator clay, which I know is controversial, but she is fed on a ledge away from the substrate and does not eat it. She does enjoy burrowing occasionally and spends her time on the rocks and logs in her enclosure.
A few months ago, we noticed a small lump forming on her front arm. A few weeks after, the lump had grown we noticed another one on her other front arm, around the joint, and a few small lumps on her digits. We took her to the vet, who suspected she had bone fractures as a baby that were healing and causing deformations during her growth spurt, but after looking at her x-rays it appeared she didn’t have any fractures. The vet then prescribed an anti-inflammatory that we gave to her orally, which didn’t seem to help. Zoot seemed to be healthy despite the lumps, she continued to eat and poop and move around normally, so we decided to hold off on any more vet visits during the pandemic...
We continued to monitor her health, and over the past couple of months her condition has worsened, the lumps are a lot bigger and now its definitely become difficult for her to walk / climb / use her front limbs in general. She spends a lot of time now laying around because she cant move easily, and is gaping instead of leaving her basking spot to thermoregulate. When she tries to move her arms they often look shaky and potentially painful, but she still will occasionally will run around, seemingly unaffected, however this is now rare. It has also now has spread to her rear legs as well. She eats and poops, but less, she is refusing greens, and is acting lethargic except for her energetic head and eyes darting around.
We took her to the vet again last week and got another set of x-rays, a blood test, and uric acid test. According to the vet, her results came back normal across the board- no calcium deficiency, no uric acid buildup / gout, and her bone density is better than it was on the last visit. The vet recommended we start a series of antibiotic injections, which would require us taking her to the clinic every 3 days for 2 weeks... She also offered an invasive procedure that would entail gathering cells from her joints to further examine the issue.
Both of these are possible but difficult for us and Zoot, the vet is far away and frequent transportation and injections are stressful to Zoot, so I just really wanted to get some other opinions before doing this, because the vet admitted herself not having much experience with bearded dragons and offering this as a last resort since she didn't learn anything from the tests we ran.
Photos, X-ray and test results here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18KuHgJXJ36T33gqFIyyIclXs2Gt0-S7HpqLgIKnSmOo/edit?usp=sharing
Really appreciate anyones help with this!!