Super sick Beardie

Please help me. Our bearded dragon is very very sick. We took her to the vet and they said she has a calcium rating of 3.8 which is barely compatible with life. Apparently we were doing a lot wrong and I'm still not sure if we have everything sorted out correctly or if there is even a chance for recovery. She is barely moving at all.

Here is what we have

9 month old beardie named Sahara about 13 inches long

40 gallon breeder tank
desert carpet
a 100 watt night red heat bulb
a slimline reptile fixture with 7% UVB (brand new)

We are feeding her
crickets, mealworms, carrots, and green beans. The vet gave us OX BOW critical care dusting powder that we have mixed into a paste and her lick off fingers and dusted on the crickets and mealworms.

Vet also told us to add Premium multi-drops vitamin supplement (from walmart) to the water.

She is not willing to eat any veggies any more and almost no water. Eating about 4-5 crickets a day (way down from 8 or so previously)

Temp in cage is 85F and humidity is 42.

The uvb is a Zilla uvb? The fixture is probably fine but I'd replace the zilla bulb with the reptisun 10 tube. I think that's part of your problem. Since you have the size tank you have and since he's so sick, I suggest you get a mega ray, that's the best uvb bulb you can get and it puts out heat and uvb in one bulb. You should go to Home Depot and get the ceramic drop light they have that is rated for 250 or 300 watts. This is because the mega ray gets really hot and it will do better in a bulb like that.

Your temps are way too low... You should have a hot side with a basking spot that reaches 100-110*, and a cool side that's 80-85*. Getting the UVB light the previous poster suggested and upping your temps should help her appetite. Take out the red light and get a bright white one. A 75 watt regular household bulb will usually do the trick. Night lights are not nessisary and can be bad for their health because they keep portions of their brain active all night and they don't get the deep sleep they need. If your temps are dropping below 60* at night, get a ceramic heat emitter. It's like a lightbulb, but it doesn't give any light off, just heat. Otherwise, your dragon is fine and NEEDS the temp drop at night.

For a 9 month old dragon, 4-8 crickets a day isn't even CLOSE to enough. They should be offered food 3x a day for 15 minutes at a time, and the numbers should be between 50-100 PER DAY. The higher temps should help with that. Mealworms are bad for her because they can cause impaction, she can be fed superworms once she gets to 16", but not before. Soft worms like hornworms, silkworms, butterworms, and phoenix worms are all good options as well, although at the amounts she should be eating, get expensive fast. This website will help you make better veggie choices as well: http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

Many dragons will not drink out of water dishes, baths 3-5x a week will help keep her hydrated.

I hope some of that helps and that your little one starts showing improvment soon.

Hello and welcome. YOu will get some very good advice here.
Dragons get their water through the vent (where they poo). She needs soaks 20 minutes in baby warm water. Do not leave alone. The reptiSUN can be found at http://www.petmountain.com /discount code LOVE. No light at night. Household white bulb for heat, I am using 75watt right now. You can feed baby food chicken with a plastic dropper. When is the last time she pooed? What did it look like?

i had that same uv set up (from petco right?) its the worst ..and i belive it made reptilla sick along with low temps,that light just got dimmer and dimmer slowly it took me 5 days or so before i realized it. GET A REPTI SUN FORSURE

I'm so sorry about your ailing dragon.

Just wanted to concur, swap out the Zilla bulb for a ReptiSun 10. Our beardie was heading the same way a few weeks ago, and was feeling better WITHIN HOURS of changing the bulb (we had a Zilla compact, the worst!). At any rate, our little guy is back to eating more, sleeping less, and most importantly, growing again (he shed for the first time in months this week). He is a totally different dragon. The thing to remember is that you can give the all the calcium they supposedly need, however, if they don't have sufficient UVB exposure, they can't actually process any of it, and it virtually does them no good.

You've already received excellent advice, and if it helps, I just wanted to chime in as someone who recently took that advice, and has a much happier and healthier beardie for it. The right UVB, tracking separate temps with a good digital thermometer and making sure they were optimum... these were the things that really turned things around for us.

Also, someone mentioned to lose the mealworms. Indeed. We recently added phoenix worms to our beardie's diet and they are an excellent source of nutrition, and in particular, CALCIUM (no need to dust). We use the medium size. Here is a link that explains more: http://www.mulberryfarms.com/phoenix.htm

I wish you the best of luck with your sick beardie. I hope things get better VERY soon.

Em

Hello, I am sorry your beardie is not well. So far you have received some excellent advice. I would up your temps right away. I would also call the vet and ask them for some liquid calcium. With calcium levels that low, the powder will not be nearly enough. I would even recommend you return to the vet and ask them to give your beardie an injection of calcium to give him a boost. I would also ask them for some carnivore care which you can mix with a little water and feed through a syringe. But definitely get the liquid calcium asap since that is what will give him the best chance. With proper care and supplementation there is a good chance he will make it and slowly improve. Also, phoenix worms would be a great feeder for your beardie because they contain lots of calcium, like the other poster mentioned. The best of luck, keep us posted.

Almost forgot... I read through the others posts quickly so forgive me if I missed it, but make sure your beardie can get within 6-8 inches of the UVB. Also, if your UVB tube doesn't cover the entire length of the tank, you may want to "shift" it toward the basking end so that the basking bulb, and the UVB have a place where they sort of 'meet up' for optimum beardie sun bathing. Best of luck! Em

Hello,

Wow, that is an extremely low calcium reading, very very low. That has got to come up immediately.
Did the vet give you some liquid calcium?
The UVB light you have the slimline is an ESU which is not dangerous, it just basically puts out no UVB. They are only good for adding brightness to the tank, & emitting UVA but should not claim that they emit UVB because the emissions are so low it is not even worth mentioning.
As suggested, place the UVB flourescent tube bulb directly next to the basking light so there is a focused basking area where she can get UVB & heat in the same place.
The best liquid UVB is from http://www.beautifuldragons.com
The powder will not be absorbed quickly enough. I am surprised that the vet did not give your dragon a calcium booster shot during the visit, that would have helped alot.
You do have a 40 gallon or larger, so you should consider getting a Megaray or a T-rex active UV heat either one are great. They have much better UVB emissions than the flourescent tube bulbs & will help improve your dragon much more quickly.
Is she eating anything on her own?
The red bulb at night should be turned off. If you need nighttime heating, use a ceramic heat emitter. They can be disturbed by red light spectrums.
The recommended basking temps are 95-110 measured with a digital probe or a temp gun.
The feedings daily should help her alot. Do you have the critical care powdered mix by Oxbow or carnivore care?

Tracie

Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to respond. We have made the following changes:

1. Got rid of the meal worms. Bought some wax worms as a supplement. Bought Bok Choy and blendered that with some water and Ox Bow critical care powder into a paste. So far no luck in getting her to eat any. If we try and use a syringe, how do we go about it?

2. Bathed her in warm water and she did start drinking again!! Yay. She seemed a little freaked out when we first put her in the warm water but she drank when she calmed down. She was in up to about her shoulders and we set a wash cloth in the bottom so it wouldn't be too slick. Should we do that daily right now to be sure she isn't dehydrated or every other day?

3. Got rid of the slimline unit with florescent bulb and the infrared light. Now using one ceramic bulb holder for a 100 watt ceramic heat emitter to keep the tank warm at night and using another one with a Powersun UV 100 watts which is supposed to put out UVB and UVA as her basking light (couldn't find the MegaRay brand). We also increased the size of the the Reptitherm under tank heater to one for a 30-40 gallon tank. All those things are on the same side of the tank.

4. In response to your questions - yes she is within six inches of her basking light but nowadays we have to put her there cuz she can't get up by herself. She pooped yesterday and it looked pretty much the same as usual. The vet analyzed her stool when we took her last week and said it looked fine at that time.


We are still watching for signs of improvement.

Tomorrow I will get some kale, butter nut squash and collard greens to start feeding daily. Should I try baby food or fresh? The local pet stores do not sell silk worms or some of the other types mentioned in the posts. Do I need to order those online?

Mulberryfarms is where you can get silks, though be warned, they take a special diet that isn't cheap. Instead of Kale, try collards and mustard greens as these are more nutritious than kale.
Janie.

zebraflavencs":65522 said:

Mulberryfarms is where you can get silks, though be warned, they take a special diet that isn't cheap. Instead of Kale, try collards and mustard greens as these are more nutritious than kale.
Janie.

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Thank you. I will get the mustard and collard greens.

Welcome. Check out the BeautifulDragons Nutritional list, it has daily (green), occasional treats (black) and not recommended (red,blue and yellow.)
This will help you out greatly in providing a healthy diet for your dragon.
Janie.

Hi, I hope she starts acting better real soon. It's good that you got the 100 watt Powersun but since it is a mercury vapor bulb, it should be a minimum of 12" from your beardie otherwise it could get to hot and the ultra violet rays could be too strong for her. The distance of 6 to 8" was for the Repti-Sun 10.0 fluorescent if you had gotten that so please adjust the distance to the MVB. Are you using either a temperature gun or digital thermometer with long wire & probe end to check the temps? Those are the only 2 ways to get an accurate reading. Any type of stick on can be as much as 20 degrees off.

Here's the link to the Beautiful dragons site that Zebraflavencs was talking about. http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html Good luck and please keep us updated on how she is doing.