My Beardie Won’t Eat

My bearded dragon, Alice, was diagnosed with MBD about a month ago from the vet. We also found out that she was severely dehydrated and way too skinny (thought she was in brumation, sadly that wasn’t the case). She was prescribed some pain medicine and Oxbow Carnivore Care. I was also told to give her a bath twice a day, and I moved her UVB closer to her just in case. I had to take everything out of her tank that she could climb on because the vet worried she would fall and break. Since then, she has drastically improved. She is now able to walk almost completely normal (with or without pain meds) and is constantly running around her cage. However, she’s only gained about 70 or 80 grams. I’d feed her about 2 tsp of the powder a day, but as she’s getting more active it’s getting harder and harder to syringe feed her. I’ve moved down to 1-1 1/2 tsp a day. Whenever I put food in front of her she won’t eat it. I can’t use the starve method and wait until she eats because then she starts to loose a bit of weight. The vet said to continue syringe feeding her and giving her other stuff and slowly ween off the Carnivore care so I’ve been doing that for about 2 weeks and no change. I tried syringe feeding every other day and still nothing.

She has a bowel movement everyday. Her basking temps are about 97 F and cool side is about 75 F. I just made her a hide again (her usual one is a tree that she loves to climb and fall/slide off of) because she’s been trying to dig a lot.

I hate giving her her salad because she doesn’t eat it and it just dries out and she won’t touch her feeders either (Phoenix worms and hornworms and the occasional super worm and cricket). If I have to, I will continue to give her the salad everyday in hopes that she’ll eat one day, but I’m just wondering if that’s the only option?

Hiccup wasnt eating either and I have had everything done to see what the cause was--- my vet had me feeding him herbivore/carnivore care mixed 3ml's every other day- I went that route for a while trying in between feeding salads- he will eat from your hand but only a few bites- hes been on this diet for a while- I even went one week of not syringe feeding cuz I wanted him to eat -- he hadnt pooped either for quite awhile--- amazingly he hasnt lost any weight - he was at the vet yesterday for a re test of his blood work of which all came back normal again- and he has gained 21 grams-on the ride home he pooped and was very energetic - I left him out for awhile on the chair in the LR so he could look outside - after a hour or so he went back to his tank - I fed him his salad and low and behold he went to the bowl and started to eat - :shock: - I am going to try and feed again today his salad and see if he will eat it- they will gain weight on the herbivore/ carnivore so I recommend you keep feeding her ---does she have eggs-? was she checked for eggs? You said she was digging--?
Karrie

The vet never mentioned seeing eggs but is there a way I could check?

Not sure how to but others on the forum can help you there--
Karrie