Bearded dragon with bloated beard please help

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Idkman

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My 5 year old bearded Rex, has had a bloated beard for a few days. This morning it seems that it has gotten bigger. She seems lethargic, her eyes are usually only half opened and sometimes just closed. She’ll also sometimes puff out her beard even more, tilt her head up and mover her head around d in a circle. After that she’ll start sticking her tongue out like she’s in the middle of eating something. She’s eating somewhat normally, eating her greatest fried crickets and barely touching her veggies no matter how hard I try to get her to eat them. However she hasn’t been eating her lettuce and she LOVES lettuce. That’s about the only veggie that she actually likes. I don’t know if it’s important but I think it is so anyways about 2 weeks ago I took her to the vet along with my other beardie for blood in their poop. The vet said that he couldn’t find any parasites in their fecal sample but he still just thought it was due to parasites so they got a couple doses of medicine. Rex no longer has blood in her poop but it is still watery and the white part is still a bit chalky from dehydration. Her basking spot is a bit above 100 degrees, I have no idea what the humidity is, shes in the middle of shedding, and her flooring is paper towels now. I also have to say that i made a huge mistake in giving her too many vitamins. I gave her vitamins 5 days a week with her calcium.... I now know very well that it’s supposed to only be 2 days a week. I can’t go to the vet for her because I already blew 300 bucks the last time and I’m now broke. I really love her so much and if anyone can help in any way that’d be awesome. I’ll send pics of her when I figure out how to upload it on here- I have no idea how to do that.
 

Idkman

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My phones camera sucks if you couldn’t tell already. Sorry about that. She also looks more attentive cuz Y’know I am shoving a phone in her face. Her beard also looks bigger in person. Am I being overdramatic about the whole situation?
 

CooperDragon

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Do you remember which meds the vet prescribed? Sometimes those can be a bit harsh and make them feel off for a bit. It's likely that shedding has a lot to do with the beard flexing and appetite change. Sheds around their face can make them especially grumpy. I'd wait until she is done shedding and see if her mood and appetite return to normal. For the dehydration, you can drip some water on her nose to lick up. Sometimes they'll drink water from a bowl if you flick at the water to create motion and grab their attention.
 

Idkman

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She just got some doses of antibiotics. She got a dose of flagyl, and panacur but again... she got that stuff 2 weeks ago so for the big beard to just appear like that only a few days ago is a bit odd. Her beard isn’t hard or anything. It just feels soft like a whole lot of skin. Her behavior has always been basically normal while she sheds. It’s just this time that she’s acting weird. I fed her some crickets and after eating about7 she started flexing her beard and looked like she was about to vomit. She drinks water from her bowl almost every day and I throw her crickets in her water too so she can get a bit more water during meals. Shes just still dehydrated no mater what I do. She gets electrolyte baths every other day so I really don’t know what’s keeping her from being hydrated and not looking so crinkly. I’ve been giving her reptaid for 3 days now so hopefully that stuff kicks in soon and helps in some way.
 

Idkman

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So... it looks bigger now and are you supposed to feel 2 hard lumps near the bottom of their beard. I fed her just half a cricket soaked in water to soften it and she did the head tilt and circular motion with her head.
 

Drache613

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Hello,

How is your dragon doing this evening?
Are the sides of her beard still swollen? It looks like she is getting ready to shed that area,
so was she just stretching the skin there?
Does her beard reduce in size at all during the day?
Can you review your setup with us, such as the type/brand of UVB, supplementation & foods
given? Which vitamins did you give too much of?
What type of lettuce do you give, romaine or a darker green such as mustard or collard greens?

Tracie
 

Idkman

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She seems alright. Her beard is no longer too big and she is active and attentive. I guess she was just stretching it to properly shed because yesterday her whole head shed and she looked like this
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So a lot better. She does still flex her beard and sometimes it does still look pretty big. But for the most part she’s doing normal besides some other odd behaviors I’ve witnessed that I questioned in another one of my postes on this website.it was titled “stressed? Bored? Sign of aggression? Help please.” In the behavior discussion section. Leaving that there just in case these things could be connected. In my other post I was told that I shouldn’t be using a compact coil for my uvb light so I’ll be changing that to a reptisun tube fluorescent light VERY soon. She usually eats about 10-15 flukers freeze dried crickets a day. Unless I get her live crickets then she eats 20 of those a day. She gets reptcalcium for her calcium supplements. I gave too much of reptivite. Would that cause a big problem for her? I do give her romaine lettuce. Ik lettuce doesn’t hav any nutritional value for them but she’s just so picky it’s impossible to give almost anything else
 

Idkman

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Original Poster
Nvm I just saw her breathing hard and then puffing up and rotating her head and stuff. So it wasn’t the shedding that was causing all of that. I’m getting super worried. Also yesterday I took her outside to get some sun and I ended up really REALLY freaking her out. So ofc stupid stupid me accidentally towers over her and she puffed up and hissed at me. I feel so freakin bad. She’s never shown any aggression towards me and this is the first time I’ve ever even heard a sound come out of her. She turned super black but when I put her inside she calmed down and let me hold her to put her back in her cage. However she’s still pretty dark. She’s now dark brown and I don't know how to make her feel better.
 

CooperDragon

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Can you get a video of her behavior? You can post videos on a hosting site like vimeo or youtube and then link here.

It sounds like she was startled by something outside, but they tend to be pretty good about forgiving and forgetting that sort of thing, so I don't think she'll hold a grudge.

I think a lot of the behavior may still be related to shedding though, so keep monitoring how the shed progresses.

As far as diet goes, I'd probably reduce the cricket feedings to a couple per week and try to get her more interested in veges. At her age, she should be eating a higher proportion of veges than bugs if possible. Try things like cutting squash into worm shapes or chopping up some green beans and see how those go over. Hand feeding them can help too, in some cases. Try offering some dark greens like collards or bok choy or kale and see how those go over. Their mood and preferences can change so it's worth trying to offer a variety and rotate to see what she shows interest in over time.
 

Idkman

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Oh ok I’ll try to get a vid. I did video some of it when she was doing it today but it came out terrible. You could barely see her and at the moment she wasn’t moving her head. I’ll see how the shedding going. It’s basically done now just a few spots here and there that gotta come off. Thanks for the advice. I’ll definitely try getting her to eat those veggies.
 

Idkman

Member
Original Poster
It’s 1 am Whet I’m at but I have a few other questions about my girl Rex. (sorry if some things aren’t articulated well) There not related to the bloated beard. She seems all fine now. So now what I’m concerned about is that she has some retained skin on the tip of her tail and the very tip is black and crooked. When I had gone to the vet I had asked if it was tai rot but he said it was just retained skin. Although he said it was just retained skin without much concern he ended up not telling me how to help her get rid of it or how it could end up causing some problems for her. I ended up thinking the retained skin would just come off in a bath. I then learned that I should use some vitamin e oil to removí it. Now I’m a bit worried because it’s not coming off and when I touch it her tail flinches. She also has this spot on her back that’s kinda yellowish black. It looks like a bruise but she’s had it for a while now. It also sometimes changes shape over a period of time. She’s had these things before and it ended up just going away but this one just won’t go. Finally I just noted yesterday that near her vent she looked like she had some yellow coloring. I of course started freaking out thinking it was yellow fungus and finally today I did one last check and saw that some of that skin was peeling. She’s still shedding. I just never seen her shed be tinted slightly yellow so just to make sure I’d like another person to look to see if it’s normal. She still has her stress marks though so I still don’t know what’s the matter. Ik Im just being paranoid but I just want to make sure everything’s alright with her.
 

CooperDragon

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I probably wouldn't mess with the tail too much. Do take photos of it regularly so it's easy to compare changes over time. If it remains the same, it's not likely to cause a problem in the long run. If you see damaged skin/tissue appear to move further up the tail, then that could indicate a problem and should be checked out by the vet.

The spot you circled in the second photo doesn't look problematic to me. It looks like natural yellow coloring under some dull scales which may shed away eventually.
 
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