Am I doing things right? Parasites!

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Bethnjuju

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Hi!
My beardie has recently been having some strange behavior. It started out as thinking she was gravid as she kept scratching at the walls of her viv, so i made her a dig box. Took her to the vet and he took an xray. No eggs were shown. The doctor gave her a shot of antibiotics as he thought that would be the problem. The next few days I monitored her. She was still acting way more hyper and actually stopped eating food completely for four days! She was pooping with pink urates. I took her back to the vet on Friday and she was determined to have two parasites: tritrichomonas and pinworms. She had her first dose of Panacur yesterday. They have her taking .15mL every 14 days. Since the last vet visit, I have been getting her to eat more.She's been having one hornworm a day and i have made her a slurry of kale, collard, and mustard greens mixed with chicken and squash baby food with calcium and D3 mixed in. Today we had a victory! She ate two dubia roaches! I was such a proud mom! However, she still is bouncing off the walls- will even try climbing up my carpeted stairs. She also had a very small solid poop with slightly pink urates again but thats better than the diareaha she had before. I could see a tiny bit of blood. She has been getting a bath everyday as well. Throughout this whole situation her colors have been fantastic, never once a black beard or aggressiveness. She has been bright orange and yellow. Her eyes have stayed alert too. She never seemed drowsy. Before the whole situation occurred she was normally lazy. She was overweight but we reduced her intake and she lost a healthy amount. What else can I do to help improve? Should i take her back to the vet since i saw blood or is only one day after her first dose of medication too soon to tell?

A bit of background information: Juno is going to be one year old in ten days! She is housed in a 60-gallon tank with a 10.00 UVB tube running towards the back. Her basking spot is 115 F with a cool side of 75 F. Her substrate is paper towel roll and she has both a hide and something to climb on. Upon finding out she has parasites when she poops everything is sterilized with hot water and she is given a bath. I have recently only fed her crickets as a staple from Petsmart along with greens and occasional treats, but after this whole fiasco I am changing over to dubias online as i think she may have gotten the parasites from there.

Any advice would help. Shes my baby girl and I am willing to do anything for her health and happiness.
 

Hedoraht

Member
I wouldn't recommend chicken for beardies, at least not very often.
She also probably doesn't need baths every day unless that's the only way you can get her to poop.
I'd also use vinegar in addition to hot water.
Aside from that, I don't notice any particular problems, just keep her home sterile and give her space to get better.
 

Janelle

Member
I believe 115* is too hot a basking spot--even for a baby. For a dragon over a year old, I think it's supposed to be closer to 95*. I have no idea if that has anything to do with the weird behavior. Just something you may want to look into.
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
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If she is acting hyper then I'd guess it's more just her age/hormones than anything else. When they go hyper like that (this can happen seasonally too) they just tend to prefer running all over the place to eating. As long as she isn't acting lethargic I wouldn't worry about it. The meds may do more harm than good and force feeding may just stress her out. I'd give her some space to run around outside the tank a bit and see if that helps her burn off some energy. If i'm correct, then this phase should be over in a few weeks or so (this varies).
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
I agree with the good advice given and the temp. being too hot. Lower it by about 10 -12 degrees on the basing spot.
 
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