brain damage to baby beardie?! please help

Status
Not open for further replies.

jensnake

Member
Hi so I got 2 babies on Saturday, first day they were both fine, one is kinda smaller/skinnier but alert and perky. I offered food, small one didn't eat. OK I thought its just settling in. Next day it ate a few small mealworms because that's all I have at the moment.. I saw it was acting a bit strange, I researched and thought it might be dehydrated. Didn't want to drink from a dropper so I gave it a bath with with warm water in the sink when suddenly it ran up my arm out of the sink and then fell to the floor! Maybe 4 feet! :( I picked it up and quickly put it back in the viv and observed it. Seemed okay. Soon after, its head was always tilted to its right side.. Won't eat or drink, its been 3 days he only drank a tiny bit of water from the dropper, eaten nothing, and his condition keeps getting worse. He does barrel rolls, flips over, can't balance, head and whole body always tilted to his right side, sometimes runs in circles, sometimes runs up and down the viv for a bit, lies down for long periods with eyes closed like it can't hold its head up, sometimes breathes really heavily and opens and closes its mouth. Its also very pale and never goes dark even if it sits under the heat lamp or in the sun... I hate to see this so much and I feel so helpless I don't know what to do? like maybe it has a concussion or something I have no idea ?
The tank is like a meter long and just over a foot wide/deep, there's fake grass on the bottom, hollow cork wood hide/log which they sit on top to bask (but the small one always falls off it) food bowl, a rock, a plastic crocodile for decoration.. I have reptisun 10.0 tube for uvb and normal bulb for heat, neither of these are near the reach of the babies. They came with the tank and everything in it except the lights. They were fed on roaches before. The babies are about 12/13 cm long... i don't know what else to say please ask anything I just don't know what to do I hate to see it like this i want it to get better?
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Wow, so sorry to hear this ! Poor little dude....not much you can do really. There may be some inflammation that could possibly respond to Metacam but it would very difficult to give to a tiny baby and only the most experienced reptile vet could assess whether that would be an option. It's best to keep the babies separate now, I'll post a pic at the end of this of a simple set up in a plastic tote. Anyway, for now just offer water via syringe like you do as well as small amounts of baby food chicken + squash via syringe. Keep climbing areas very low and get an extra uvb bulb and a heat bulb . The heat bulb + fixture can be bought at wWalmart/Home Depot/Agway....all you need is an aluminium dome reflector and a halogen bulb of appropriate wattage, probably about 75-100 or something similar. Here's a simple set up, lights are on top but can't be seen in the pic. You don't need that many branches, there were 4-5 hatchlings in there , that's how I raised my dragons that I bred.
https://www.beardeddragon.org/media/29895/full

Best wishes for the baby, it may be something that he recovers from to a degree but will likely have motor skill problems ongoing. Who knows how much he can recover, just wait + see.
 

jensnake

Member
Original Poster
Thank you very much, all help/advice is much appreciated! I will set up a new place for it to be alone tomorrow. If I drip water on its nose it does not drink it, so I'm not sure how feeding squash will go. I'm nervous to actually stick anything in its mouth/force it's mouth open because even if I gently touch it, it freaks out and starts rolling all over the place. I'm so afraid of hurting it more... :( but I guess I gotta keep trying.
Thank you!
 

Calcal

Member
jensnake":cpczzbko said:
He is fully recovered now. Eating drinking and climbing perfectly! Thank you all for the advice :)
Wait, really?! I was expecting him to be dead or.. worse or something. I'm so glad he recovered! Baby beardies are such sweet little things.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
That's great ! :) Glad to hear that he's O.K and hopefully won't have any future seizures or episodes.
 

jensnake

Member
Original Poster
AHBD":1fupip8l said:
That's great ! :) Glad to hear that he's O.K and hopefully won't have any future seizures or episodes.

It's been about 2 weeks and haven't seen any suspicious behavior since. :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Staff online

Members online

Latest resources

Latest posts

Latest profile posts

Getting ready for another day. Feeling sleepy. 😴
I just walked into my room and instead of looking at me, Swordtail's eyes darted directly to the ice cream drumstick I'm holding
Finally replaced Swordtail's substrate
I miss you so much, Amaris 💔
What is a quick way to warm up a cold beardie? His heating element went out overnight and now he's very cold.

Forum statistics

Threads
156,042
Messages
1,257,112
Members
76,044
Latest member
SunshineP95
Top Bottom