SqueakstheTiger
Member
- Beardie name(s)
- Frank
I've been treating my six month old male beardie Frank for parasites. The vet perscribed Metronidazole and Albon, however, she wanted me to give them to Frank one after the other instead of together. I was supposed to start with the Albon, but the place she had me order it from was taking a bit getting the order out, so we went ahead and started with the Metronidazole, once a week for four weeks.
Frank did fine on the Metronidazole. Before I started him on the Albon, I had another fecal test done just to be sure. The vet confirmed that the Albon was still necessary, so I started him on that: .16 ml once a day for five days, then once every other day for five more doses.
The problem came half way through the Albon treatment, when I realized that when the vet did the dosage for Frank at the appointment, he weighed 152 grams. When I weighed him last Thursday, he was at 320 grams (I weighed him yesterday and he was 338 grams, haven't measured him but I'm guessing he's at around 16 inches or more). I called the vet, and she adjusted the dosage to .32 ml for five more doses every other day.
There are three more doses left, and then the vet wanted me to wait two weeks to do a fecal. I'm worried that the Albon won't clear it and that I'll have to put him through the meds for another round.
He still poops either daily or every other day. They're a little watery and chunky looking, with some undigested bug bits, but still formed. The urates are white and don't look hard. I'm hoping to catch a fresh poop from him tomorrow since I'm home, it's hard to really get an idea when his poop has been sitting for a while by the time I get home from work.
Frank's appetite has gone down a lot since being on the Albon. He still eats at least 3-5 super worms a day, his greens are a hit or miss, but he'll either eat a few bites or finish off half. Yesterday when I came home, he hadn't touched the 5 super worms and 2 butter worms or the salad I left for him, and was napping under his half log. But when my husband dropped the worms in front of Frank, he ate them just fine. I was curious about when I should break out the critical care and start feeding him. I've been weighing him once or twice a week, and he's only been gaining weight. I don't want him to be lacking in nutrition, but at the same time, if he's still gaining weight, I don't want to force food in him if he might not need it.
As far as water, I don't have a water bowl in his cage. I spray his greens down and give him 10 minute bath every couple of days. Plus I give him a liquid multivitamin twice a week via syringe diluted with water. Also he has been getting acidophilus+ via syringe daily. I've only see him actually drink water in the bath twice since I've gotten him, so I'm guessing if he's thirsty, he'll drink. But I don't know, thoughts?
Frank has been napping more on top of the gradually decreasing appetite, but he's still fairly aware. When I take him out, he wakes up, climbs around my shoulder and explores a bit when I have him with me on the bed. When I put him back in his cage, he usually basks for an hour or so when I put him back in his cage. He's always been fairly mellow since I got him in August. The breeder I got him from said that Frank slowing down kind of sounded like he was getting ready to brumate. I thought he was too young for that, but he said that Frank is pretty large for his age. So now I wondering if brumation is possibly kicking in while I'm trying to clear him of parasites or if this kind of behavior is just the meds.
Cleaning I stepped up on this last week. The vet had said it should be fine to just make sure to clean thoroughly the spot he pooped on. But last week I just took everything out, laid down paper towels, and now he only has his cave, half log, and basking rock. Daily I through out the paper towels around where he pooped, spray the area down with F10 disinfectant and let it sit for a few minutes. He always poops next to his basking rock, so I take that out and scrub it with f10 even if he didn't poop on it directly. Every other day I take out everything, spray down the cage surface with f10 and let it sit. I also spray down the cave, log, and rock, the log I dry in the oven at 250 for an hour. But with the horror stories I've read about parasites, I feel like the cleaning I'm doing is not enough.
Other info:
- Frank's cage is 5 ft x 2 ft x 2ft ( the two pieces of grapewood in the picture are not in his cage at the moment)
- Frank in a picture I took a few days ago, looking super healthy and making me look like a crazy person for worrying so much.
- The basking light is a philips duramax 65w 120v flood bulb
- There is also a Zoo Med ReptiCare Ceramic Infrared Heat Emitter 60 Watts on a lamp dimmer
- For UVB I have an Arcadia 34" T-5 HO Fixture with an arcadia D3+ 12% HO Bulb with a reflector, and then there is also a Arcadia Natural Sunlight T8 Bulb 2% UVB 18 Watt 24". The closest point point to the light uvb is 16", I'm going to try and figure out a way to hang the T5 fixture lower. With the solar meter 6.2 I have, the UVB output around the areas Frank usually sticks around range between 80-140 uW/cm², some spots get up to 170 uW/cm² or more. Going off the http://www.uvguide.co.uk/ website, that seems like a good range, but if anyone has more input on levels of UVB, please share.
- Temps in the cage are:
*Basking spot around 100-107F
*warm side in general is around 95F-100F
*Cool side averages in the lower to mid 80s
- Humidity on the cool side tends to stay between 37%-41%, I have the digital thermometer/hygrometer on the cool side. I need to get one for the warm side, but the last time I checked the humidity on the warm side, it was in the low 30s.
-Night temps are around 70F on the cool side (humidity usually goes up to around 40%-44%), and the warm side is around 78F-80F. I've been keeping it a tad warmer at night for him while doing the meds.
- I was dusting his morning meal with calcium 5x a week. But then I was worried he wasn't getting enough calcium when his nose felt a little soft. Also since he probably wasn't getting to his breakfast right away, the bugs probably cleaned off the calcium powder by the time he would get to them. I'm probably being overly worried, but I decided to just switch to liquid calcium (ordered some liquid calcium glubionate so I know for sure that Frank is getting calcium).
This post is way too long, I realize that. It's a mixture of questions but also just thinking out loud and hoping for feedback. I'm trying to keep cool, but I feel helpless since this is my first reptile. Despite all the research, I feel like I'm fudging stuff up.
Frank did fine on the Metronidazole. Before I started him on the Albon, I had another fecal test done just to be sure. The vet confirmed that the Albon was still necessary, so I started him on that: .16 ml once a day for five days, then once every other day for five more doses.
The problem came half way through the Albon treatment, when I realized that when the vet did the dosage for Frank at the appointment, he weighed 152 grams. When I weighed him last Thursday, he was at 320 grams (I weighed him yesterday and he was 338 grams, haven't measured him but I'm guessing he's at around 16 inches or more). I called the vet, and she adjusted the dosage to .32 ml for five more doses every other day.
There are three more doses left, and then the vet wanted me to wait two weeks to do a fecal. I'm worried that the Albon won't clear it and that I'll have to put him through the meds for another round.
He still poops either daily or every other day. They're a little watery and chunky looking, with some undigested bug bits, but still formed. The urates are white and don't look hard. I'm hoping to catch a fresh poop from him tomorrow since I'm home, it's hard to really get an idea when his poop has been sitting for a while by the time I get home from work.
Frank's appetite has gone down a lot since being on the Albon. He still eats at least 3-5 super worms a day, his greens are a hit or miss, but he'll either eat a few bites or finish off half. Yesterday when I came home, he hadn't touched the 5 super worms and 2 butter worms or the salad I left for him, and was napping under his half log. But when my husband dropped the worms in front of Frank, he ate them just fine. I was curious about when I should break out the critical care and start feeding him. I've been weighing him once or twice a week, and he's only been gaining weight. I don't want him to be lacking in nutrition, but at the same time, if he's still gaining weight, I don't want to force food in him if he might not need it.
As far as water, I don't have a water bowl in his cage. I spray his greens down and give him 10 minute bath every couple of days. Plus I give him a liquid multivitamin twice a week via syringe diluted with water. Also he has been getting acidophilus+ via syringe daily. I've only see him actually drink water in the bath twice since I've gotten him, so I'm guessing if he's thirsty, he'll drink. But I don't know, thoughts?
Frank has been napping more on top of the gradually decreasing appetite, but he's still fairly aware. When I take him out, he wakes up, climbs around my shoulder and explores a bit when I have him with me on the bed. When I put him back in his cage, he usually basks for an hour or so when I put him back in his cage. He's always been fairly mellow since I got him in August. The breeder I got him from said that Frank slowing down kind of sounded like he was getting ready to brumate. I thought he was too young for that, but he said that Frank is pretty large for his age. So now I wondering if brumation is possibly kicking in while I'm trying to clear him of parasites or if this kind of behavior is just the meds.
Cleaning I stepped up on this last week. The vet had said it should be fine to just make sure to clean thoroughly the spot he pooped on. But last week I just took everything out, laid down paper towels, and now he only has his cave, half log, and basking rock. Daily I through out the paper towels around where he pooped, spray the area down with F10 disinfectant and let it sit for a few minutes. He always poops next to his basking rock, so I take that out and scrub it with f10 even if he didn't poop on it directly. Every other day I take out everything, spray down the cage surface with f10 and let it sit. I also spray down the cave, log, and rock, the log I dry in the oven at 250 for an hour. But with the horror stories I've read about parasites, I feel like the cleaning I'm doing is not enough.
Other info:
- Frank's cage is 5 ft x 2 ft x 2ft ( the two pieces of grapewood in the picture are not in his cage at the moment)
- Frank in a picture I took a few days ago, looking super healthy and making me look like a crazy person for worrying so much.
- The basking light is a philips duramax 65w 120v flood bulb
- There is also a Zoo Med ReptiCare Ceramic Infrared Heat Emitter 60 Watts on a lamp dimmer
- For UVB I have an Arcadia 34" T-5 HO Fixture with an arcadia D3+ 12% HO Bulb with a reflector, and then there is also a Arcadia Natural Sunlight T8 Bulb 2% UVB 18 Watt 24". The closest point point to the light uvb is 16", I'm going to try and figure out a way to hang the T5 fixture lower. With the solar meter 6.2 I have, the UVB output around the areas Frank usually sticks around range between 80-140 uW/cm², some spots get up to 170 uW/cm² or more. Going off the http://www.uvguide.co.uk/ website, that seems like a good range, but if anyone has more input on levels of UVB, please share.
- Temps in the cage are:
*Basking spot around 100-107F
*warm side in general is around 95F-100F
*Cool side averages in the lower to mid 80s
- Humidity on the cool side tends to stay between 37%-41%, I have the digital thermometer/hygrometer on the cool side. I need to get one for the warm side, but the last time I checked the humidity on the warm side, it was in the low 30s.
-Night temps are around 70F on the cool side (humidity usually goes up to around 40%-44%), and the warm side is around 78F-80F. I've been keeping it a tad warmer at night for him while doing the meds.
- I was dusting his morning meal with calcium 5x a week. But then I was worried he wasn't getting enough calcium when his nose felt a little soft. Also since he probably wasn't getting to his breakfast right away, the bugs probably cleaned off the calcium powder by the time he would get to them. I'm probably being overly worried, but I decided to just switch to liquid calcium (ordered some liquid calcium glubionate so I know for sure that Frank is getting calcium).
This post is way too long, I realize that. It's a mixture of questions but also just thinking out loud and hoping for feedback. I'm trying to keep cool, but I feel helpless since this is my first reptile. Despite all the research, I feel like I'm fudging stuff up.