Neglected Beardie

Hello, all!
I recently adopted another bearded dragon. I wasn't planning on it, but I saw an ad online that broke my heart, and here we are!
I need some help. I have experience with beardies (my gal is 12 years old, going on 13), and through her I have learned a lot about getting beardies through some different health issues (constipation, diarrhea, anorexia, diet insufficiencies, dehydration).
Thankfully, however, my girl has never been in as rough shape as this new guy. He is terribly thin: I can see his spine down from his neck to his tail perfectly, and I can see his little hip bones. His tongue is more pale than I would like... He has some difficulty walking, but I'm not sure if that's from weakness or if he has MBD. His owners didn't use a UVB bulb for most of his life. He is 2-3 years old, and only had one eensy heat lamp that he couldn't get close enough to. When I picked him up yesterday they handed him to me and he was ICE cold, sitting as close as he could to his "basking spot".
He is definitely dehydrated too. When I asked how much he ate I was told "Oh, he's not a big eater", and they pointed out the uneaten lettuce in his tank (which was in a very cold basement)
If anyone has any advice, please chip in. I want this guy to do well, as he is so young and just a sweet beautiful little guy! This is what I've done for him since I got him home last night:

-Gave him a bath (which he loooved)
-Gave him a drink of water with a small amount of juice in it (from a dropper and then a dish)
-offered dandelion greens/squash which he completely ignored
-Offered a few gutloaded/dusted crickets, which he gobbled up immediately (fridged them so they were slower, as he is a clumsy eater)

Now, my biggest concerns are: While I'm glad he has an appetite, I'm hesitant to feed such a malnourished animal too much protein at once, as I don't want to tax his kidneys. I also don't want to load him up with bugs until he's more well hydrated. I'm going to try different veg today and try feeding on tongs to make it more exciting. If that doesn't work, then I'm going make a smoothie and see if he'll lick it off his nose (he drinks water if you drop it on his nose!!! My beardie has never done that. I was so SOOO excited).
I'm also going to hold off on the multivitamin supplement as well for a little while for similar reasons, but does anyone have any idea when would be a good time to start introducing it?

Right now he has a powersun UVB and another basking bulb (in case he wants to get away from the powersun), and the calcium supplement I have is repashy low D. I suspect this guy has some serious calcium deficiency going on He doesn't have any tremors or anything too alarming, except that when he walks he is uncoordinated, and his limbs and feet are sometimes quite... floppy. What is a good calcium supplement I can be giving this guy? I don't want to overdo the vitamin D, as I Do have a powersun.. so what kind of supplementation am I looking for?

OH! I went out last night while my SO was giving him a bath, and he said that while I was out he pooped (he knows me so well. He saved the poop in a container so I could look at it when I got home lol). His poop was very small, solid, but not hard and not runny either, but it looked to be just one foul smelling undigested cricket and a terrible little urate. The urate had little streaks of red in it, so my first thought is parasites, but could this also be indicative of kidney damage?
As soon as he has another poop I'm going to collect it and bring it to a vet. This one I couldn't salvage because it was so tiny and smeared on paper towels. I'm hoping to make a vet appointment for him next week.

I'm also noticing that he has stress spots on his belly almost constantly. With my other beardie I only see stress spots when she's PO'd (like when we brought this guy home last night), or when she's afraid (trip to the vet). What could this mean?? Pain??

Sorry for all the info and questions. I just want him to be happy. Last night he found his new basking spot on a rock, set up camp, and perched there for hours He looked sooo pleased.

Oh, and don't worry! Both beardies have their own enclosures. We had to move the new guy's cage though, because my old lady could see the new guy across the room and was getting pretty mad! Giving him the hairy eyeball, and running along the glass lol. Spunky little thing!

Thanks in advance for your help and input! Any little tidbit of information helps!

EDIT: I thought I had an unopened jug of unflavoured electrolyte solution at home, but apparently I don't! I'm heading out today to pick some up, and then I'll be adding that to his drinking/bath water. Any concerns with electrolyte solutions and malnourished beardies I should know about?

Hi there....so nice of you to take in this poor thing ! You're correct about limiting the live prey + protein. And he is too weak to be treated for parasite now, so let him get some weight on + settle in a bit before treating him for parasites. The shaking may be a combo of calcium/vitamin deficiency as well as muscle weakness from malnutrition/starvation. Just get some chicken, squash + green beans baby food and then a smoothie of greens would be helpful. Give him a few SOFT crickets at a time, just 2-4 each day until he digests them properly. You can use Rep -cal without D3 a couple times a week, and just a VERY slight pinch of multivitamin once a week for now. Hopefully he will do well for you. !

AHBD":1xjh1g47 said:

Hi there....so nice of you to take in this poor thing ! You're correct about limiting the live prey + protein. And he is too weak to be treated for parasite now, so let him get some weight on + settle in a bit before treating him for parasites. The shaking may be a combo of calcium/vitamin deficiency as well as muscle weakness from malnutrition/starvation. Just get some chicken, squash + green beans baby food and then a smoothie of greens would be helpful. Give him a few SOFT crickets at a time, just 2-4 each day until he digests them properly. You can use Rep -cal without D3 a couple times a week, and just a VERY slight pinch of multivitamin once a week for now. Hopefully he will do well for you. !

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Thank you! I will pick up some chicken when I head out and get stuff to make a smoothie for him. The timing is unfortunate, as I may be going out of town either tonight or tomorrow for a day or two, but I'm going to prepare food for him and I have my mom (who, by proxy, has a lot of experience with reptiles) coming to check in on them and feed them. My partner suggested picking him up when we get back, but I couldn't leave the little dude in those conditions any longer. The lights are all set up to timers, so they're good on that front.

The calcium supplement I have no is the repashy low vitamin D3 formulation. Is that sufficient?

Thank you so much for your timely response I really appreciate it. I'm off to go do some shopping for this little feller.
I'll also try offering a plain green salad with vitamins dusted.... maybe he will be more settled today and more accepting of food in a dish.
EDIT: I'm hoping he will do well, because he seems motivated to do well. He wants to eat, drink/bathe, bask and move around, so that's always a plus!

Yes, chicken baby food along with veggies and the Repashy powder should be fine, but it might be good to have some around with no D3 at all. And his activity level is definitely a good sign. Is that a pic of him in the rescue forum ? If so, he's not too emaciated....looks like all he needs is some TLC.

https://plus.google.com/photos/101878499064379544948/albums/6092196563838391697

Here he is! Drinking, basking and hopefully on the mend. He loves chicken baby food. So does my other beardie (I had to give her a taste. It felt unfair lol)

I had good luck putting weight on my rescue using a variety of baby food fed via syringe. Squash and green beans were favorites. After he gained back a good amount of initial weight, I started blending smoothies based on fresh veggies so he would get a nice balanced diet (mouth rot and infection has been keeping him from eating many solids). He has done well on a blend of water, turnip/collards/dandelion greens, green beans, squash, sometimes some bell pepper or a bit of fruit, whatever else is fresh at the time mixed into the consistency of baby food. I haven't bothered adding supplements to the mix, I just let the nutrients in the veggies do their thing. Once he started eating worms on his own, I started dusting them with calcium and 1x per week some vitamin powder. It takes a lot more time and patience to work with a rescue than it does with a healthy dragon, but it's very rewarding. I'm glad you adopted him =).