Unsure of antibiotics recommendation

Our 10 month old female bearded dragon showed a decrease in appetite and infrequent bowel movements about 3 weeks ago, as well as noticeable decrease in energy levels. In the past, she has been lethargic and when we had her checked by the vet, she had pinworms and was cleared after a dose of panacur.

We took her to a reptile specialist this time around. This vet recommends syringe feeds of emeraid carnivore for 2 weeks and daily soaks, with gradual additions of vegetables after a week followed by insects after 2 weeks. She is also recommending 10 doses of antibiotics given by shots every 2 days as a precaution of infection since she is backed up.

I am very worried about giving her the antibiotics. I don't want her to have even more issues with bowel movements in the future, plus a part of me is traumatized from seeing her get a shot in the arm.

Curious about opinions of giving antibiotics without definite reason/bloodwork to show it is really necessary.

Hi there.....I would absolutely decline that regimen, especially the shots. I'm pretty shocked at that suggested treatment. There have been sooooo many threads where beardies have been constipated for 2-3 weeks, all eventually got going again with a few natural laxatives and none of them developed infection. Natural laxatives are ....baby food squash, canned pumpkin [ no spice, unsweetened applesauce and 1/4 teaspoon of veg. oil mixed in.

Any dragon that has a decrease in appetite will naturally have decreased bowel movements. So the thing to figure out is why she's eating less. Can you list the exact type/brand of lights you have ? What was she eating before and what + how much now ? How big is she ? Some dragons perk up if you get them in the sun [ not in a glass tank ] so you might get her out for 30-45 minutes a day if you can. But no, I'd not do the antibiotics, never heard such a thing.

Thank you so much for your quick response.

we guess that she is 10 months old. She is 12 inches long and 158 grams. She is in a 40 gallon tank where the cool side ranges from 75-80 degrees. Her basking spot ranges from 105-110.

The basking bulb is a 50 watt reptisun bulb. I am learning now that we are using a controversial coil UVB light- it is the reptisun 10.0 that came with the tank that my fiancé surprised me with for Christmas.... I intend to buy a 10.0 tube to mount in the cage this weekend as I am now aware that these are awful

I told the vet that our beardie, Donnie, seemed to poop less when I gave her calcium supplements on the crickets and she said it was probably due to dehydration and lack of changing the UVB light since December. I was not aware that the UVB lights needed to be changed every 4 months as the box states they are good for 12.

Pre-issue, Donnie ate crickets, kale, yellow squash, green beans, occasional broccoli and occasional carrots. She is not offered banana often but when she is, she always eats it. Her refusal of banana 3 days ago finally caused enough concern for me to take her in.

I just feel awful right now about all of this, I am really hoping she can bounce back to her normal self and I am really hoping the coil light/lack of calcium that the vet suspects hasn't affected her long term health. I am wondering if changing the UVB light and soaking her/giving laxatives will be enough to help, even though she already got one shot of antibiotics I am VERY hesitant to continue the dosages.

Hello,

I completely agree, as antibiotics are very hard on their systems & without a diagnosed issue present I wouldn't give the antibiotic. Which one was given, do you know the name of it?
Do you have a picture of her & the tank setup?
I think that UVB improvement along with proper calcium supplementation she should start doing better. How often do you supplement calcium? She will absorb her calcium & vitamins more efficiently with a better UVB. The tube bulbs are usually good for at least 6 months or so. Are you using a light fixture with reflective backing also?
Donnie is a cute name, too.

Let us know how she is doing.

Tracie

Thanks so much for your advice, I was hoping for confirmation that my vision of what she needs isn't clouded by the fact that I hate the thought of her getting poked with needles every two days for the next NINE doses. The antibiotic is ceftazidime. Should I be concerned that they already gave her one dose? I'm so mad that I let them do it before looking in to it....

Pre-issue she was eating 10-15 crickets daily with calcium powder dusted twice weekly. I also have a multivitamin powder but have not used it consistently.

Now that I look, her coil and basking bulb are in a dome where they are next to each other with what looks like a reflective backing. I am unsure of if this is a good thing or not :/

We really care about our little Donnie so much! I can't believe they sell things that aren't good for them. I would like to get everything situated this weekend and would love advice on exactly how to set up the cage.

I will try to post pictures later today, I need to figure out how to do it first.

Thanks so much!

To post pictures use this link. It's quite easy once you get used to it. You can find it on the Other Fun Stuff sidebar.

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/

Amanda, with a few adjustments she should hopefully [ and very probably ] start doing better. You can try to get more fluids in her by dripping water on her nose or mixing it in the baby food squash.

Here's how to post pics:
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/
Then hit XIMG

Donnie!

This is the inside of the light fixture

Our set up

Donnie's very pretty ! The basking log is nice, she can perch at different levels to get heat as she likes. How do you measure the heat ? I think you'd need at least a 75 watt to get the proper temps. And it's great that you're getting the Reptisun tube, if you haven't ordered it yet, you might get the t5 ....it produces more uvb than the t8 and you can set it on the screen. It's best for the uvb to come from above rather than the side [ that can bother their eyes ]

So is she eating anything at all ? What insects have you tried aside from what she used to eat ? Just to see if she'll eat a new prey item like silkworms or hornworms. Are you in the U.K ? Not sure what type of greens you have access to, but rocket [ arugula ] is good for beardies if you can get it as well as dandelion or mixed bag greens as long as it's not all lettuce or spinach. How is Donnie doing today ?

I have been feeding Donnie emeraid carnivore through the syringe. She is much more alert and active today, she has not pooped since Wednesday.

I tried to ask the vet today if she thinks the antibiotics are absolutely necessary. The only response I got was that "most of the time the problem that causes constipation is bacterial." I am having a hard time deciding what to do. We did not take her in for her scheduled shot today but I am afraid that if things don't clear up I will regret not following through with the vet's plan!

Thanks for the lighting advice!!!

Never heard of bacterial problems being a major cause of constipation. Certain bacteria can cause G.I problems but those are usually the opposite, causing diarrhea + bloody stool. Look up impaction or costipation on this forum and you'll see a lot of threads, most resolved by the natural laxatives already mentioned. Not pooing for 2 days is a non issue. I know you're concerned about Donnie , you certainly want the best for her....good that she's taking the Emeraid formula . Add some canned pumpkin or baby food squash. I'm pretty sure her problems are just related to lack of good uvb , that won't be corrected overnight though, but she'll probably poo soon. Two days is not a long time at all, even a week or more is not an emergency.

Donnie was like a different little lizard this morning. She was so alert and appeared to actually be hungry considering she went crazy over the emeraid. I'm not sure how quickly the natura laxatives work, but I fed her some puréed squash this morning and 20 minutes later she had pooped! I am so happy- she is full of energy like her old self. I definitely think part of it was dehydration.

Thanks so much to everyone who replied! I will be getting the new lights set up and will be keeping an eye on her calcium and hydration. Will be keeping foods soft for another few days before adding in insects just so she can get everything that was backed up out of her system.

Yay ! I'm glad for you + Donnie She's probably ready for medium sized bugs already...it's good that she likes the Emeraide + squash too since that adds extra hydration. Hopefully she'll continue to improve, especially once you get the new lights. Extra hydration via syringe [ water with or without pureed squash ] will help keep her bowels moving. And remember, it's perfectly fine if she doesn't poo every day ....many adults go only once -twice a week.