Sick Beardo

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DurbinKW

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Hello all, I am new here and have some concerns with my ~1.5 yo male beardie. I've had him for about 4 mos and all was good in the world until about 3 weeks ago when he suddenly stopped eating/having bowel movements and his eyes began to swell. I took him to the vet about a week after this started and following a physical examination the vet suggested that it was likely a neurological problem. From there he prescribed prednisone, tribrissen and a probiotic which seemed to help initially but things reverted from there. I've started soaking him 20 mins at least every other day and have gotten 3 bowel movements from him as result with urates seeming normal in makeup (white and soft) but getting smaller, until the last movement where they were yellow and crumbly which I thought might have been result of the medications. The other portion of the last movement was bright green (looked like the probiotic) and didn't appear to have any actual greens or insects in the makeup. His last bite of food was about 3 weeks ago today. He was eating mustard, collard greens and kale daily + 4-5 superworms every other day. He's in a 40 gallon zoomed glass enclosure with zoomed 100w basking lamp (replaced a week ago) and reptisun 10 (compact) uvb. Basking temps are 105F and cool side around 78F. He drinks water from a dropper daily and is misted on days he doesn't get a soak. His weight at the doc 3 weeks ago was 216kg and he is 213kg today. My biggest concerns at this point is his eyes (they look pitiful) and not being able to get him to eat. Anyone experience anything similar and/or have any pointers? He's a sweet boy and I hate to seem him suffer. I might also add that when I first got him, he was starting to shed and has done so about 2-3 times in some areas in the first 2 months I had him.
 

destiny1998

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Hi. Poor guy :( I would change the uvb bulb. Those cause eye problems. A reptisun 10.0 t5 tube is what you want. Also I'd have the vet do a blood test and check his kidneys. Swollen eyes like he has can mean trouble with the kidney's.
 

kyleena29

Sub-Adult Member
Swollen eyes can also mean too much vitamin A. How often are you giving him calcium and vitamin supplements. How many days for calcium, how many days for vitamins. List everything you have been feeding him as well.

I would also get him started on some turkey and squash babyfood mixed up together. He is going to need to eat.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
Need a vet to assess this , might need bloods taken to check her bloodwork and to determine exactly why she has such swollen eyes , maybe nothing to do with VitA toxicity or the existing UV source, might be fluid buildup due to a more serious underlying condition.

I think an trip to a reptile vet is urgent. Otherwise you and we are all flying blind and only making guesses.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
DurbinKW":2yqlke43 said:
94222-7592859273.jpg
Hello all, I am new here and have some concerns with my ~1.5 yo male beardie. I've had him for about 4 mos and all was good in the world until about 3 weeks ago when he suddenly stopped eating/having bowel movements and his eyes began to swell. I took him to the vet about a week after this started and following a physical examination the vet suggested that it was likely a neurological problem. From there he prescribed prednisone, tribrissen and a probiotic which seemed to help initially but things reverted from there. I've started soaking him 20 mins at least every other day and have gotten 3 bowel movements from him as result with urates seeming normal in makeup (white and soft) but getting smaller, until the last movement where they were yellow and crumbly which I thought might have been result of the medications. The other portion of the last movement was bright green (looked like the probiotic) and didn't appear to have any actual greens or insects in the makeup. His last bite of food was about 3 weeks ago today. He was eating mustard, collard greens and kale daily + 4-5 superworms every other day. He's in a 40 gallon zoomed glass enclosure with zoomed 100w basking lamp (replaced a week ago) and reptisun 10 (compact) uvb. >>> not the best

Basking temps are 105F and cool side around 78F. He drinks water from a dropper daily and is misted on days he doesn't get a soak. His weight at the doc 3 weeks ago was 216kg and he is 213kg today.>>>> 3 g loss is not significant but he needs to eat at least once per day as a juvenile and still needs some insects each day.

My biggest concerns at this point is his eyes (they look pitiful) and not being able to get him to eat. Anyone experience anything similar and/or have any pointers? He's a sweet boy and I hate to seem him suffer. I might also add that when I first got him, he was starting to shed and has done so about 2-3 times in some areas in the first 2 months I had him.

>>> both eyes swollen and inflamed is serious. especially since this developed pretty quick.

My boy Puff developed a swollen eye as a secondary symptom , he had an aneurism on his jugular which eventually killed him . in his case there was fluid build up the side of his face , lips and eyesocket, which was though to be due to a large abscess or haematoma on the back of his head (misdiagnosed by two vets as an abscess and secondary swelling). Puff's big lump was discovered in surgery to actually be an aneurism on his jugular and he died in recovery .

Another person here had a beardied who had a very swollen eye not so long ago which the vet stuggled to treat and diagnose properly , after months of struggling with medications (antibiotic ointments and honey and constantly washing the pus away) it was decided the problem was due to an abscess in the eyesocket and the only viable treatment was to remove the infected eye and clean the eyesocket.
Then the swelling returned and the vet thought maybe a blocked tear duct , then the good eye started going the same way as the removed eye and tests determined an aggressive cancer was the cause , after months of intensive loving care she lost her beardie.

I hope I am wrong and this is easily fixed by modifying his diet and or replacing the UV source , and maybe a cause of antiinflamatories , I really do, but since it's both eyes and this came on fast ,so I strongly suspect a serious perhaps life threatening health issue , so sooner you get him to a good reptile vet and tests are done and images taken (Xray , Ultrasound , etc) the sooner his treatment can be started and the better his prognosis.

Taking a wait and see approach and wasting time trying home remedies will only make this worse and more expensive to deal with.
 

DurbinKW

Member
Original Poster
destiny1998":1jv4wjd8 said:
Hi. Poor guy :( I would change the uvb bulb. Those cause eye problems. A reptisun 10.0 t5 tube is what you want. Also I'd have the vet do a blood test and check his kidneys. Swollen eyes like he has can mean trouble with the kidney's.

These are the next steps today and tomorrow. I turned the UVB off for a week or so too thinking that could be related but then the heat lamp bulb blew. When I replaced it it turned both back on.
 

DurbinKW

Member
Original Poster
kyleena29":1a9ba5ke said:
Swollen eyes can also mean too much vitamin A. How often are you giving him calcium and vitamin supplements. How many days for calcium, how many days for vitamins. List everything you have been feeding him as well.

I would also get him started on some turkey and squash babyfood mixed up together. He is going to need to eat.

He will not touch anything with vitamins/calcium dusted on them. Tried gutloaded freezdried crickets which lasted a week. Ended up with just gut loading the superworms.

Started with just collard greens and crickets but he lost interest in crickets early on. Up until this episode I was offering (he was eating) kale, collard greens and mustard greens daily; cooked yellow squash, sliced carrots, grapes and strawberries occasionally; and 4-5 superworms a day (he would actually stop himself at that point). Since then I've tried all the above + papaya, grapes, bananas and flukers dragon diet without any success. If it makes it in his mouth he spits it out.
 

DurbinKW

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Original Poster
kingofnobbys":fck40ums said:
Need a vet to assess this , might need bloods taken to check her bloodwork and to determine exactly why she has such swollen eyes , maybe nothing to do with VitA toxicity or the existing UV source, might be fluid buildup due to a more serious underlying condition.

I think an trip to a reptile vet is urgent. Otherwise you and we are all flying blind and only making guesses.
I think I agree here. The vet he was at already seemed pretty knowledgeable and had seen many dragons in the past. Said aside from his eyes he appeared to be one of the healthiest dragons he'd seen in a while. But was a generalist technically. Found an exotic (reptile/avian) vet I'm going I try next. Thank you for your advice.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
DurbinKW":21fnskwc said:
kyleena29":21fnskwc said:
Swollen eyes can also mean too much vitamin A. How often are you giving him calcium and vitamin supplements. How many days for calcium, how many days for vitamins. List everything you have been feeding him as well.

I would also get him started on some turkey and squash babyfood mixed up together. He is going to need to eat.

He will not touch anything with vitamins/calcium dusted on them.

<<< I recommend perhaps try some good quality vet grade liquid calcium (ie CalciVet see http://vetafarm.com.au/product/calcivet/ ) and liquid vitamins (ie HerpaVite see http://vetafarm.com.au/product/herpavite/ ) these may be a solution for him once the vet works out what is going on. Chances the vet will prescribe something similar if he thinks it's needed.


Tried gutloaded freezdried crickets which lasted a week. Ended up with just gut loading the superworms.

Started with just collard greens and crickets but he lost interest in crickets early on. Up until this episode I was offering (he was eating) kale, collard greens and mustard greens daily; cooked yellow squash, sliced carrots, grapes and strawberries occasionally; and 4-5 superworms a day (he would actually stop himself at that point). Since then I've tried all the above + papaya, grapes, bananas and flukers dragon diet without any success. If it makes it in his mouth he spits it out.
 

DurbinKW

Member
Original Poster
Beardo is back from a long half day journey to the vet. The nearest exotic specialist is an hour away from the homestead. No bloodwork was taken and we weren't able to get enough fecal matter for definitive testing BUT the doc did take saliva and eye fluid samples for inspection under the scope. The result so is far is bacterial infection and two shots were administered at the office (I don't recal the name of the first but it started with an F?) and the other was Amikacin which I will be administering every 72 hours for 6 doses. If we don't see improvement in a week's time or things get worse before then, the vet wants to see him back and we'll likely get more aggressive with treatment. He expressed concern with the previous vet giving prednisone due to its affect on the immune system and stated that we need the immune system to fight this infection along side the antibiotics. Obviously correcting the swollen/infected eyes is the first order of business but he also gave us a critical care food to help balance his stomach flora while we also syringe feed him puréed food as we're able. We'll do a fecal as soon as I'm able to get a sample but until then, let's hope the antibiotics help the little guy out! I'll also be replacing the uvb this weekend with the 18in reptisun tube.
 

DurbinKW

Member
Original Poster
So far he seems to be getting worse. His second dose is tomorrow, going to message the doc in the morning to see if there is anything else we can do to speed the process up. I feel so bad for him.
 
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