rlanguid
Member
Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who takes their time to view this thread - I know we all have busy schedules and I appreciate any input!
TL;DR Located below directly above and below pictures! Scroll down if you'd like a summary!
12/24/15
**UPDATE** : We have taken Sam to a very skilled animal hospital, and he was diagnosed with one of two things; best case scenario being a brain lesion, and worst case scenario being a brain tumor. To aid in his recovery, we were provided with Baytril, an antibiotic, Neocalglucon, to aid in his deficiency, and a powder food mixture as his main food source for the time being. The doctor also believed that Sam was not experiencing brumation at all.
As I had thought, Sam's 'episodes' were indeed seizures.
Please share this thread if you happen to know anyone else experiencing these types of behaviors so they can learn from it!
For now, I ask if you all can send strength and happiness to my baby boy. He's tough as nails, and I know he won't let this get him down.
So recently, about two weeks ago I'd say, I believe our little Sam had started going through his cycle of brumation. He was not interested in any meals that I was offering him for a good three days, until he finally started entering very long periods of deep sleep - this is where my issue lies, though.
The last time he had brumated it was very cut and dry, with him easing into the sleep, then eventually resting for a good 3 months or so with no oddities at all. We had thought things were going well this time too, up until 4 days ago. He had randomly woken up from a deep sleep with an incredibly cranky beard. Albeit that's not too out of the norm, when I tried to approach him he was extremely aggressive with me, flaring up and widening out more than I had ever seen before. I summed it up as him just being cranky, and going through the symptoms of brumation - I know every one is slightly different.
Well this continued for 3 days or so. He'd randomly come awake and be incredibly aggressive, before calming down and going back to sleep. We had started to think that maybe it wasn't a brumation he was experiencing, so when we went to offer him a cricket, he drew back from us, almost spinning in circles trying to move his head away from the food. Each time I'd approach him with a little cricket pinched in my hand he would do this without fail. It didn't seem too unnatural, so we just left him to his own devices.
Well now, for the last couple of days, he's been doing something extremely odd. He'll go from a deep sleep - literally anywhere, not under anything or near/far from his heat source - to a full-on sprint around his cage, knocking into things and leaping around stuff. He does it so quickly that I could swear he does it in his sleep! He'll run for 8 seconds or so before coming to a stop, wherever he may be, then look dreary, and eventually fall asleep.
Are these behaviors normal during a brumation? Like I've said, he's only ever done it once, and it was very simple and nothing like this.
My biggest concern is that it may be an neurological issue. I've only seen this once since he's been doing this, but he was shaking his head from side to side after he had finished running around. I've been looking for twitching and such, but I haven't seen any at all. Sam has always been an incredibly lax dragon, even when he is alert and awake, so seeing this extreme behavior for the first time is puzzling.
I'll now list a tl;dr of his symptoms, and also information on my little man.
-Showed signs of brumation, but is waking randomly from it.
-Randomly sprinting around straight out of a deep sleep.
-Seems to have no discretion for what's going on - almost seems 'out of it'.
-Avoiding/leaning away from food when presented to him.
-Have witnessed him waving his head from side to side.
-Sam is about 4 and a half years of age.
-We live in Michigan, where 4 season weather is the norm. This Winter has been incredibly mild - much warmer than the usual temperatures.
-Sam's enclosure is 6ftx2ft, with proper heating of a 150watt bulb.
-Usually picks at a salad mix in the morning - parsnips, kale, spinach, carrots, spring mix, sometimes fruit, all distributed randomly.
-All crickets he eats are tossed in a bag of calcium powder.
-Most recent vet visit was about this time last year, with all of his tests showing us a healthy bearded dragon; blood, stool, and xrays. (little bugger was constipated last year, and we had to fix an ingrown nail for the baby boy)
Pre-'brumation', about 3 or 4 days before he began his sleep.
Post-'brumation', sleeping where he had last left himself after running about.
-We finally have footage of Sam during one of these moments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeq5JPO_ktY
*UPDATE*:
-We have our vet appointment scheduled for Thursday, @ 12:40, 12/03/15. For now, Sam's new light bulb has seemed to make him a little happier, albeit still with some issues. No rampant running for the last two days! He also had another bowel movement! This just keeps getting curious as the days go by. (12/02/15, 12:46pm EST)
-I have just bought Sam a new Exo Terra 125w UVB bulb(http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/solar_glo.php), so if an issue happened to be with his bulb - which it might be, it may have needed replacement - it should be fixed now. We are simply waiting on a call from the vet, and are hoping to receive it sometime today. (12/01/15, 12:07am EST)
-Something huge just happened. We had thought that Sam had taken care of his last bowel movement already, but he has just surprised us with one now. There was a smear blood near the end of it. Though, right after he did his business, he instantly went to the enclosure we have made for him and started to 'dig' in to the straps of towel we place under it. This is good news! I'll update this if he continues his running around. (11/27/15, 10:18pm EST)
-Have returned home from work, the girlfriend witnessing another session of head shaking. He seems to just be frustrated with his sleeping arrangements, we think. We've set up a little hideaway for him and plan to set him near it when he comes to again. (11/27/15, 9:08pm)
-I have to unfortunately go to work at 3:00, so I'll have to leave this thread unattended for now. I'll have my girlfriend check the forum though as soon as she gets home around 4:00pm. If you have any ideas/info, please feel free to post! (11/27/15, 2:22pm EST)
-As I was typing this, I witnessed him digging into his carpet, which I assume is him trying to brumate. He is slightly awake now, his head off of the ground. He waved his head side to side again for a couple of seconds. (11/27/15, 1:35pm EST)
TL;DR Located below directly above and below pictures! Scroll down if you'd like a summary!
12/24/15
**UPDATE** : We have taken Sam to a very skilled animal hospital, and he was diagnosed with one of two things; best case scenario being a brain lesion, and worst case scenario being a brain tumor. To aid in his recovery, we were provided with Baytril, an antibiotic, Neocalglucon, to aid in his deficiency, and a powder food mixture as his main food source for the time being. The doctor also believed that Sam was not experiencing brumation at all.
As I had thought, Sam's 'episodes' were indeed seizures.
Please share this thread if you happen to know anyone else experiencing these types of behaviors so they can learn from it!
For now, I ask if you all can send strength and happiness to my baby boy. He's tough as nails, and I know he won't let this get him down.
So recently, about two weeks ago I'd say, I believe our little Sam had started going through his cycle of brumation. He was not interested in any meals that I was offering him for a good three days, until he finally started entering very long periods of deep sleep - this is where my issue lies, though.
The last time he had brumated it was very cut and dry, with him easing into the sleep, then eventually resting for a good 3 months or so with no oddities at all. We had thought things were going well this time too, up until 4 days ago. He had randomly woken up from a deep sleep with an incredibly cranky beard. Albeit that's not too out of the norm, when I tried to approach him he was extremely aggressive with me, flaring up and widening out more than I had ever seen before. I summed it up as him just being cranky, and going through the symptoms of brumation - I know every one is slightly different.
Well this continued for 3 days or so. He'd randomly come awake and be incredibly aggressive, before calming down and going back to sleep. We had started to think that maybe it wasn't a brumation he was experiencing, so when we went to offer him a cricket, he drew back from us, almost spinning in circles trying to move his head away from the food. Each time I'd approach him with a little cricket pinched in my hand he would do this without fail. It didn't seem too unnatural, so we just left him to his own devices.
Well now, for the last couple of days, he's been doing something extremely odd. He'll go from a deep sleep - literally anywhere, not under anything or near/far from his heat source - to a full-on sprint around his cage, knocking into things and leaping around stuff. He does it so quickly that I could swear he does it in his sleep! He'll run for 8 seconds or so before coming to a stop, wherever he may be, then look dreary, and eventually fall asleep.
Are these behaviors normal during a brumation? Like I've said, he's only ever done it once, and it was very simple and nothing like this.
My biggest concern is that it may be an neurological issue. I've only seen this once since he's been doing this, but he was shaking his head from side to side after he had finished running around. I've been looking for twitching and such, but I haven't seen any at all. Sam has always been an incredibly lax dragon, even when he is alert and awake, so seeing this extreme behavior for the first time is puzzling.
I'll now list a tl;dr of his symptoms, and also information on my little man.
-Showed signs of brumation, but is waking randomly from it.
-Randomly sprinting around straight out of a deep sleep.
-Seems to have no discretion for what's going on - almost seems 'out of it'.
-Avoiding/leaning away from food when presented to him.
-Have witnessed him waving his head from side to side.
-Sam is about 4 and a half years of age.
-We live in Michigan, where 4 season weather is the norm. This Winter has been incredibly mild - much warmer than the usual temperatures.
-Sam's enclosure is 6ftx2ft, with proper heating of a 150watt bulb.
-Usually picks at a salad mix in the morning - parsnips, kale, spinach, carrots, spring mix, sometimes fruit, all distributed randomly.
-All crickets he eats are tossed in a bag of calcium powder.
-Most recent vet visit was about this time last year, with all of his tests showing us a healthy bearded dragon; blood, stool, and xrays. (little bugger was constipated last year, and we had to fix an ingrown nail for the baby boy)
Pre-'brumation', about 3 or 4 days before he began his sleep.
Post-'brumation', sleeping where he had last left himself after running about.
-We finally have footage of Sam during one of these moments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeq5JPO_ktY
*UPDATE*:
-We have our vet appointment scheduled for Thursday, @ 12:40, 12/03/15. For now, Sam's new light bulb has seemed to make him a little happier, albeit still with some issues. No rampant running for the last two days! He also had another bowel movement! This just keeps getting curious as the days go by. (12/02/15, 12:46pm EST)
-I have just bought Sam a new Exo Terra 125w UVB bulb(http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/solar_glo.php), so if an issue happened to be with his bulb - which it might be, it may have needed replacement - it should be fixed now. We are simply waiting on a call from the vet, and are hoping to receive it sometime today. (12/01/15, 12:07am EST)
-Something huge just happened. We had thought that Sam had taken care of his last bowel movement already, but he has just surprised us with one now. There was a smear blood near the end of it. Though, right after he did his business, he instantly went to the enclosure we have made for him and started to 'dig' in to the straps of towel we place under it. This is good news! I'll update this if he continues his running around. (11/27/15, 10:18pm EST)
-Have returned home from work, the girlfriend witnessing another session of head shaking. He seems to just be frustrated with his sleeping arrangements, we think. We've set up a little hideaway for him and plan to set him near it when he comes to again. (11/27/15, 9:08pm)
-I have to unfortunately go to work at 3:00, so I'll have to leave this thread unattended for now. I'll have my girlfriend check the forum though as soon as she gets home around 4:00pm. If you have any ideas/info, please feel free to post! (11/27/15, 2:22pm EST)
-As I was typing this, I witnessed him digging into his carpet, which I assume is him trying to brumate. He is slightly awake now, his head off of the ground. He waved his head side to side again for a couple of seconds. (11/27/15, 1:35pm EST)
