Hello all, not entirely pleased to have this as my first post in the forum but I'm desperately searching for answers as to what might have brought these parasites into my baby bearded dragons enclosure while she was here for such a short period of time.
Since she had arrived May 13th her behavior was quite strange, but I chalked it all up to relocation stress(almost in transit for 4 days) and the fact that I had unfortunately been using a reptisun 10.0 compact coil for the first 2-3 days. However that was promptly replaced with a 36" sunblaster fixture+reflector and an arcadia t5 12% linear bulb that was mounted inside the viv approx. 12" from her basking spot. Her enclosure was also a large 75g(4x2x2) so I'd used a piece of cardboard to section off about half of it so that the space wasn't so overwhelming for her. Also worth noting that the heat bulb she was using is a Thrive brand 150w on a dimmer to better control temps when the summer heat comes. I had used a temp gun to read surface temps which were kept between 80-95F, and there was a digital thermometer/hygrometer inside at the back midsection to monitor humidity levels.
Since day one, particularly with the reptisun coil, she was lethargic, had minimal appetite and was lacking her vivid colours. After swapping the light set up she seemed to perk up for the first couple days which was very good to see! She looked a lot more alert overall and her normal colouring had finally shown up. On the second day of new lighting she gobbled up somewhere between 20-30 crickets in one feeding. After this though her eating was very sporadic... She would only eat one or two pieces of greens(arugula usually but switched up with collards) only if hand fed. Very rarely would she touch veggies on her own which I know is pretty common for babies.. But what threw me right off was with live feeders. She would typically eat anywhere from 5-6 crickets on a good day though her typical daily intake was only 2-3, all dusted with zoomed calcium(no D3) and the crickets are gut loaded on veggies+repashy beardie buffet. I'd also tried feeding her some BSFL in the first week or so that she was here but had stopped almost immediately because a few times she had the worms come out still alive and wiggling around in her stool.... What an experience that was! I got a feeling something was up when I saw that, but in discussion with the breeder it just kinda sounded like she was just having a hard time adjusting and that her overall health should be okay. Still the minimal appetite+lethargy continued and she would only seem to really perk up when taking her out of the enclosure to bask by my window screen on sunny days. She seemed to really love watching the trees swaying in the backyard and it was kinda the only times she truly looked happy.
Fast forward to Monday last week, I woke up in the morning to see her going to town on her water dish only an hour or so after her lights turned on... I thought this was kinda weird because from my understanding beardies don't drink standing water? But I kinda got excited thinking she just figured it out ya know? That day she was more or less her usual self, not very active though alert looking and had 2 crickets that day.
The next day however was the first day things really struck me as odd and I began to think that something might be up. Tuesday she refused all food, insects or veggies and just kinda basked on her hammock but not how she normally would all propped up on her arms. She was keeping very low but otherwise looked like her usual self. She also didn't have a bowel movement in her water dish or the bath like she typically would that day. I thought this was all really odd, but considering she was part way through shedding her tail+head as well I gave benefit to doubt and thought maybe it's just her being moody as a result.
On Wednesday she looked a bit dehydrated cuz her skin had some tiny wrinkles on her back and her fat pads didn't look quite so round. I kept a very close eye on her that day, gave her two baths of which she took long drinks during both. She also once again refused all food offerings that day but she drank endless amounts of water from her dish too. I actually had to refill it at one point during the day but I figured if she was dehydrated it was likely due to the dry spell we had recently so hopefully all her drinking would've fixed that right up. Still, seeing that was super concerning and I barely slept a wink that night constantly getting up to ensure she was okay.
The next morning when she woke up she looked critical... It was as if she never drank any water the previous day because she just looked 100% dehydrated. I immediately tried giving her some pedialyte+calcium water in a syringe which she licked up a good amount of, but shortly after this she began thrashing about on her basking spot and vomited some kind of chunky, dry-ish dark stuff. I could see in there a bit of the head from a cricket so I assume this was likely one of the two she had ate earlier that week.. Once she threw that up she kinda just seemed to be zapped of energy entirely and remained this way. I tried getting some more fluids into her from the syringe but when I dribbled some in the opening of her mouth she didn't try to lick it up and breathed in a little bit of it! I got her calmed down again and made sure she was breathing normally after this, then I got on the phone and started calling around to all of the vets in my area. Came to find out that many of them don't treat reptiles, or the ones who do weren't taking emergency appointments that day so my was only option was to take her to a general medical clinic for animals where they do not have an exotics specialist on hand, but they had tried administering fluids via catheter and did a fecal exam once she had pooped later that day. It was just over 6 hours after I dropped her off when the vet called me to say that she unfortunately had passed away...
Finally once I was on my way to the clinic the vet had finished processing the stool sample she passed earlier that day and they had found isospora amphiboluri +1 & a rare oxyurid called ozwaldocruzia sp. in large quantities. Her stool was also really runny, smelly and contained a very large amount of urate which the vet said was an indicator that her body had begun consuming her muscle/bone mass to feed herself. These are qualities I hadn't ever seen in her bowel movements leading up to this, but while she was here she never really had very firm poops anyways and I kinda figured that was due to relocation stress and the gutloaded bugs+hydration in the vegetables.
I won't lie, when preparing to house a bearded dragon I had been made aware of coccidia but I was not at all aware of the various forms of it, nor the prevention methods necessary to control it at safe levels. I have come to find that isospora amphiboluri is quite common, but that the other one is likely not even an oxyurid like the vet said it was, but a superfamily variety of nematode somehow related to hook worm I think?? I wish I was more of an academic with science stuff but I just never understood it well which is probably why I'm an animator now instead of a teacher.. I've spent countless hours since reading over all kinds of studies on these particular parasites but the ozwaldocruzia one has been hard to find any info on so that's why I'm coming here in hopes that someone can possibly shine some light on the situation.
I had thought that my husbandry in terms of habitat and conditions were textbook examples and yet my poor baby had struggled to thrive. The breeder said she doesn't screen all of her babies for parasites, but she does regular exams on her breeders and other adults to ensure that nothing is transmitted to the hatchlings during birth. The parents of this baby came back 100% clean and she is a reputable breeder so I don't get the feeling that my beardie came with this already. I am terrified to think that when I cleaned up the enclosure from the previous owner that his gecko had something I wasn't able to kill off because regrettably, I only used vinegar+ hot water since it's non-toxic and was recommended online for cleaning up beardie messes.... I wasn't aware that something like F10/zirkon-S and steam cleaning is the only way to actually rid these parasites because often bleach isn't even enough to kill the eggs.
I'm wracking my brain thinking of any other reason for this other than my own stupidity because if I ever plan to house another beardie in the future I want to be certain that this situation never presents itself again. Routine fecal exams will also be a a must because after spending so much time reading into coccidia, it's got me all kinds of paranoid. But with everything that happened in such a short period of time and knowing that the other babies from the same clutch seem to be doing more or less okay, I'm really struggling to come up with a theory that makes sense here aside from her immunity being down from relocation stress and then becoming a host to parasites that were likely already there in the tank to begin with.. Really just want to find some answers because this has been devastating. I would send her for an autopsy but unfortunately I just cannot afford to do such a thing.. She has been buried in my succulent garden though so I just hope now that she can find some peace. Had I been aware of all of the behaviors/symptoms associated with coccidia/other parasites I would've got her tested that very first week she had arrived in order to catch it early and get her the necessary medications. Now I'm sitting here wondering about all the things I may have done wrong despite all attempts to provide nothing but the best care and love possible. Any insight on all of this would be greatly appreciated.
Since she had arrived May 13th her behavior was quite strange, but I chalked it all up to relocation stress(almost in transit for 4 days) and the fact that I had unfortunately been using a reptisun 10.0 compact coil for the first 2-3 days. However that was promptly replaced with a 36" sunblaster fixture+reflector and an arcadia t5 12% linear bulb that was mounted inside the viv approx. 12" from her basking spot. Her enclosure was also a large 75g(4x2x2) so I'd used a piece of cardboard to section off about half of it so that the space wasn't so overwhelming for her. Also worth noting that the heat bulb she was using is a Thrive brand 150w on a dimmer to better control temps when the summer heat comes. I had used a temp gun to read surface temps which were kept between 80-95F, and there was a digital thermometer/hygrometer inside at the back midsection to monitor humidity levels.
Since day one, particularly with the reptisun coil, she was lethargic, had minimal appetite and was lacking her vivid colours. After swapping the light set up she seemed to perk up for the first couple days which was very good to see! She looked a lot more alert overall and her normal colouring had finally shown up. On the second day of new lighting she gobbled up somewhere between 20-30 crickets in one feeding. After this though her eating was very sporadic... She would only eat one or two pieces of greens(arugula usually but switched up with collards) only if hand fed. Very rarely would she touch veggies on her own which I know is pretty common for babies.. But what threw me right off was with live feeders. She would typically eat anywhere from 5-6 crickets on a good day though her typical daily intake was only 2-3, all dusted with zoomed calcium(no D3) and the crickets are gut loaded on veggies+repashy beardie buffet. I'd also tried feeding her some BSFL in the first week or so that she was here but had stopped almost immediately because a few times she had the worms come out still alive and wiggling around in her stool.... What an experience that was! I got a feeling something was up when I saw that, but in discussion with the breeder it just kinda sounded like she was just having a hard time adjusting and that her overall health should be okay. Still the minimal appetite+lethargy continued and she would only seem to really perk up when taking her out of the enclosure to bask by my window screen on sunny days. She seemed to really love watching the trees swaying in the backyard and it was kinda the only times she truly looked happy.
Fast forward to Monday last week, I woke up in the morning to see her going to town on her water dish only an hour or so after her lights turned on... I thought this was kinda weird because from my understanding beardies don't drink standing water? But I kinda got excited thinking she just figured it out ya know? That day she was more or less her usual self, not very active though alert looking and had 2 crickets that day.
The next day however was the first day things really struck me as odd and I began to think that something might be up. Tuesday she refused all food, insects or veggies and just kinda basked on her hammock but not how she normally would all propped up on her arms. She was keeping very low but otherwise looked like her usual self. She also didn't have a bowel movement in her water dish or the bath like she typically would that day. I thought this was all really odd, but considering she was part way through shedding her tail+head as well I gave benefit to doubt and thought maybe it's just her being moody as a result.
On Wednesday she looked a bit dehydrated cuz her skin had some tiny wrinkles on her back and her fat pads didn't look quite so round. I kept a very close eye on her that day, gave her two baths of which she took long drinks during both. She also once again refused all food offerings that day but she drank endless amounts of water from her dish too. I actually had to refill it at one point during the day but I figured if she was dehydrated it was likely due to the dry spell we had recently so hopefully all her drinking would've fixed that right up. Still, seeing that was super concerning and I barely slept a wink that night constantly getting up to ensure she was okay.
The next morning when she woke up she looked critical... It was as if she never drank any water the previous day because she just looked 100% dehydrated. I immediately tried giving her some pedialyte+calcium water in a syringe which she licked up a good amount of, but shortly after this she began thrashing about on her basking spot and vomited some kind of chunky, dry-ish dark stuff. I could see in there a bit of the head from a cricket so I assume this was likely one of the two she had ate earlier that week.. Once she threw that up she kinda just seemed to be zapped of energy entirely and remained this way. I tried getting some more fluids into her from the syringe but when I dribbled some in the opening of her mouth she didn't try to lick it up and breathed in a little bit of it! I got her calmed down again and made sure she was breathing normally after this, then I got on the phone and started calling around to all of the vets in my area. Came to find out that many of them don't treat reptiles, or the ones who do weren't taking emergency appointments that day so my was only option was to take her to a general medical clinic for animals where they do not have an exotics specialist on hand, but they had tried administering fluids via catheter and did a fecal exam once she had pooped later that day. It was just over 6 hours after I dropped her off when the vet called me to say that she unfortunately had passed away...
Finally once I was on my way to the clinic the vet had finished processing the stool sample she passed earlier that day and they had found isospora amphiboluri +1 & a rare oxyurid called ozwaldocruzia sp. in large quantities. Her stool was also really runny, smelly and contained a very large amount of urate which the vet said was an indicator that her body had begun consuming her muscle/bone mass to feed herself. These are qualities I hadn't ever seen in her bowel movements leading up to this, but while she was here she never really had very firm poops anyways and I kinda figured that was due to relocation stress and the gutloaded bugs+hydration in the vegetables.
I won't lie, when preparing to house a bearded dragon I had been made aware of coccidia but I was not at all aware of the various forms of it, nor the prevention methods necessary to control it at safe levels. I have come to find that isospora amphiboluri is quite common, but that the other one is likely not even an oxyurid like the vet said it was, but a superfamily variety of nematode somehow related to hook worm I think?? I wish I was more of an academic with science stuff but I just never understood it well which is probably why I'm an animator now instead of a teacher.. I've spent countless hours since reading over all kinds of studies on these particular parasites but the ozwaldocruzia one has been hard to find any info on so that's why I'm coming here in hopes that someone can possibly shine some light on the situation.
I had thought that my husbandry in terms of habitat and conditions were textbook examples and yet my poor baby had struggled to thrive. The breeder said she doesn't screen all of her babies for parasites, but she does regular exams on her breeders and other adults to ensure that nothing is transmitted to the hatchlings during birth. The parents of this baby came back 100% clean and she is a reputable breeder so I don't get the feeling that my beardie came with this already. I am terrified to think that when I cleaned up the enclosure from the previous owner that his gecko had something I wasn't able to kill off because regrettably, I only used vinegar+ hot water since it's non-toxic and was recommended online for cleaning up beardie messes.... I wasn't aware that something like F10/zirkon-S and steam cleaning is the only way to actually rid these parasites because often bleach isn't even enough to kill the eggs.
I'm wracking my brain thinking of any other reason for this other than my own stupidity because if I ever plan to house another beardie in the future I want to be certain that this situation never presents itself again. Routine fecal exams will also be a a must because after spending so much time reading into coccidia, it's got me all kinds of paranoid. But with everything that happened in such a short period of time and knowing that the other babies from the same clutch seem to be doing more or less okay, I'm really struggling to come up with a theory that makes sense here aside from her immunity being down from relocation stress and then becoming a host to parasites that were likely already there in the tank to begin with.. Really just want to find some answers because this has been devastating. I would send her for an autopsy but unfortunately I just cannot afford to do such a thing.. She has been buried in my succulent garden though so I just hope now that she can find some peace. Had I been aware of all of the behaviors/symptoms associated with coccidia/other parasites I would've got her tested that very first week she had arrived in order to catch it early and get her the necessary medications. Now I'm sitting here wondering about all the things I may have done wrong despite all attempts to provide nothing but the best care and love possible. Any insight on all of this would be greatly appreciated.
It is VERY significant that she was in transport for so long. That would certainly elevate any parasite levels or add to the burden on her body. Where from and who shipped her to you ? Do you know what the temps. were in the departure state as well as yours ? How big + what age was she ?
