DurbinKW":2yqlke43 said:
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.