all of a sudden unresponsive???

so my beardie, booger, is about three years old now and aside from a few runny poo's she's always been very alert, active and has had a healthy appetite. we've given her baths (although not on a regular basis) when she's appeared dehydrated and she's always happy and content.
well over the last two days she's become VERY lethargic and unresponsive to us or food. she doesnt stand up with her belly off the ground and just lays there with her eyes closed(like she's dying?). i set her on the table to observe and it seemed like she was trying to poo but nothing was coming out. she was kind of moving her lower half around while she was trying to do this also.

so basically my questions are: should i assume that she is severly dehydrated and treat it as such or could it be something else? i know its hard to diagnose probelms without actually seeing anything but she has never acted the way she is right now and i fear it may be too late(we're going to a reptile vet on monday morning).

she hasnt been losing weight, she's only been this way for a couple of days now but she just appears to be half dead already(she doesnt really open her eyes). her color is a pale yellow and she's had a black beard and tail throughout this whole situation.

i've read alot on here and i killed the Repti-Glo compact i was using and i'm buying the ReptiSun tomorrow but can that(and medication) really turn this situation around?

if anyone has any suggestions as to what i can do til monday i would greatly appreciate it. it's such a dramatic turnaround from even just four days ago that i just dont know what to do.

Hello,

How long have you been using the Reptiglo compact light, is it a 10? So you ordered the Reptisun 10 flourescent tube then?
How close did you have the compact to her? Did you have a bright white basking light beside the compact light?
Have you been supplementing calcium as well?
Do her eyes appear sunken in at all? I would begin rehydrating with water & pedialyte being careful not to have her aspirate any fluid into the glottis area (hole on back or base of the tongue) while getting fluids into her.
Will she tolerate a bath?

Tracie

honestly, i have been using the Repti-Glo compacts the whole time i've had her. it was the 13W Desert one(10.0 i believe). i havent ordered the new bulb yet, are they hard to find at pet stores? i also use the ZooMed basking lights for heat. all lights are about 18" away from her. i kept the Repti-Glo to one side of the enclosure(away from the heat lamps). she gets calcium and vitamin supplements regularly.

she's keeping her eyes closed all the time so if her eye-ball is sunk in, it's hard to tell but her eyelids are not sunk in at all and appeaer normal.
im soaking her right now and she is just laying in her tub motionless except for every now and then she seems to take a couple of deep breathes and puffs up her body a little and kind of wiggles a little and then back to nothing.

to avoid the glottis area on her tongue should i just inject the pedialyte onto the side of her tongue? or how should i go about doing it?

Hello,

How old are your dragons?
Ok, if you have been using the compacts her whole life at 18 inches away then she has not been getting any UVB exposure basically the entire time. So even though you have been giving calcium, she has not been able to absorb it properly due to no or very little UVB exposure.
If you look online at:
http://www.petmountain.com you can find the Reptisun 10 flourescent tube bulb for much cheaper than you can buy it from the petstore.

Yes, you can go to the side of the tongue to avoid the glottis, that is fine. She could be beginning to have hypocalcemia which is the precursor to metabolic bone disease.
So, when you get your new light, make sure it is 6-8 inches away from her & the basking light is the same distance roughly. You wil want to place the basking light directly beside the UVB tube light to encourage basking behavior. That way she can get UVB & heat all focused in the same area.

Let me know how she is doing.

Tracie

If it's any consolation, I just got done battling the effects of the Repti-Glo 10.0 comact bulb. My beardie, Squirrel, ended up having seizures, the effects were so bad on her, and she had only been under it for about 2 mos. Now she's back to her old self after about 20 days.

So it's not all hopeless! Good luck and keep us posted!

so if it is the begining of hypocalcemia do you think i should be doing an oral calcium dose?
i have an electrolyte & D3 supplement i can introduce orally also.

would the beginnings of hypocalcemia be so drastic though(in her three years i've only used the Repti-Glos;i have them for my turtles also)?
right now she is back in her tank and i set her right on top of where her heat pad is.

thanks.

We got Squirrel some liquid calcium to try and get some into her quickly. But we also had to re-dose her UVBs when we switched her to the Repti-Sun 10.0. If you get a calcium liquid supplement you need to make sure that you give her ample time under the Repti-Sun. I was just told that when you use the liquid calcium make sure to follow the direction exactly. If she doesn't get enough, problems will still be there. But if she gets too much, that can also cause troubles.

I've had my dragon a little over 2 weeks now (he's very young, about 2 months or so), and yesterday and today he's had the same symptoms as your beardie. I am very worried and am going to try calling an emergency vet clinic tomorrow to see what can be done. I hope things work out ok...

Hello,

Well, that is just it. To us, it seems like it is all of the sudden, but they are very good at hiding things. He has probably been sliding towards hypocalcemia for quite awhile but you just hadn't noticed it. Has he been as active lately as he should have been, or has he been climbing as much as he used to, etc? Does his mouth close properly, or does his tongue hang out at all, every so often?
I would get some liquid calcium from:
http://www.beautifuldragons.com
Get the calcium glubionate, it is excellent calcium & should greatly help out.
The Reptiglo 8 flourescent tube bulb was a great bulb, but the Reptiglo 10 bulb is horrible. I have worked with quite a few people who have ended up having problems such as this after using that bulb for extended amounts of time. Remember too, while the Reptiglo 8 was a good bulb, it still really was not all that strong & should have been changed at least every 4-5 months for optimal UVB emissions.
This can be fixed, but you have to act quickly before he declines any further. Otherwise, the calcium levels drop so low & it leaches the bones to the point that it is extremely hard to get them to fully recover.
Be careful with administering liquid D3 as it can be easily overdosed. I normally recommend using a good quality UVB light instead of liquid D3. There are no studies to determine the exact doses of D3 in reptiles. It is usually best to allow their body to synthesize D3 from UVB exposure. That way, they regulate how much they need & can utilize, so therefore it can't become toxic.
Please keep us posted on him.

Tracie

well i checked her this morning and she's still the same. its not any worse yet but i thought for sure it was gonna be over when i got up.
she's laying exactly where i placed her last night so theres still very little movement.

up until just these last couple of days she was climbing and basking, eating and basically everything she always did. it was just one day she kinda stayed in one area the whole day and then the next day she just layed there and closed her eyes and that was it. thats why i expected the worst because its already gotten this far in a couple of days, hopefully monday morning wont be too late.

im going to the pet store today to get what i believe i need(light and liquid calcium supplement). the herp vet in my area opens at 7:30am on monday so hopefully they'll be able to do something(at least now,with all the advice from here, we'll have a starting point from which to work from). i guess its just a question as to how bad it is. to me, her not even standing or anything really makes me think the worst.