Cheddar's Tremors

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possumpeg

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Cheddar has developed some pretty severe tremors in her legs just today. I took her to the vet in my tiny town. She did a full exam. Says her muscle tone is good, and she looks very healthy. She had no swollen joints or any other indicators of MBD. We went over her diet, which the vet said was excellent, and vitamin routine. I do have a weird Beardie in that mine actually drinks from a dish. They took a look at a fecal sample and she is parasite free. The vet and I agreed to dust everything in her diet with calcium for a week and add a liquid calcium supplement as well. She told me that potassium deficiency can also cause tremors, so I'm adding about a gram of gatorade to her water dish. We also agreed to replace her reptisun 10 with a new one - just in case it is the culprit. When I got her home, i did notice that the cover on the t5 fixture was cloudy and yellowed, so I took the cover off immediately. She seems very weak and she's not moving around very well, so I'm hoping to see some serious improvement in the next 48 hours. I have a followup with the vet in two weeks, but I will take her back if she doesn't start improving. Again, this started just today, very suddenly, so we are praying that we caught this in time. If anyone has anything to add, please do.
 

AHBD

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Hi there, sorry about your poor girl. Did I understand right that there's a cover over your uvb bulb ? That would block all the uvb out. Can you post a picture of the fixture ? Also of the entire set up ?
 

Claudiusx

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Agreed! You dont want anything covering the bulb so good catch and good that you removed it

So this is the t5 HO bulb right? Is it inside the tank and how close is it to the basking surface?

Can you go over cheddar typical daily diet with us just so we can see if there's anything we can add?

-Brandon
 

possumpeg

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The fixture is inside the tank. Attached to the back with command Velcro fasteners. It's about 10" from the basking spot.

Her diet consists of crickets and dubias gut loaded. I give her as many as she will consume in ten minutes and remove any left in the tank. She gets super worms as a treat a few times a week, and once a day during a shed. All protein is dusted with calcium at least one feeding per day and vitamin supplements twice a week. She gets fed about three times a day. She gets a bowl of turnip, collard,and/or mustard greens daily, which she picks at. No kale or spinach. Occasionally some shredded carrot, blueberries, or bell pepper. She gets fresh bottled drinking water daily. I remove her excrement when it appears so she doesn't spread it around.

Usually she loves hunting her prey, and loves being out of her enclosure, but she just seemed dull and puney. When I saw the leg twitch, I knew I had to get her looked at. I hate forcing her to take her medicine, but I gotta do what I gotta do.
 

kingofnobbys

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possumpeg":wx0ha12e said:
The fixture is inside the tank. Attached to the back with command Velcro fasteners. It's about 10" from the basking spot.

Her diet consists of crickets and dubias gut loaded. I give her as many as she will consume in ten minutes and remove any left in the tank. She gets super worms as a treat a few times a week, and once a day during a shed. All protein is dusted with calcium at least one feeding per day and vitamin supplements twice a week. She gets fed about three times a day. She gets a bowl of turnip, collard,and/or mustard greens daily, which she picks at. No kale or spinach. Occasionally some shredded carrot, blueberries, or bell pepper. She gets fresh bottled drinking water daily. I remove her excrement when it appears so she doesn't spread it around.

Usually she loves hunting her prey, and loves being out of her enclosure, but she just seemed dull and puney. When I saw the leg twitch, I knew I had to get her looked at. I hate forcing her to take her medicine, but I gotta do what I gotta do.

How old is the UVB tube ?

You might find she will enjoy some slices of banana , banana is rich in K , 358 mg K per 100 g.

Is a time honoured food treat for my bluetongue and water skinks and I give it occasionally to my bearded dragons as a treat too. They all love it.

Other K rich foods are
Sweet Potatoes are an especially nutritious way of supporting your potassium intake — one medium-sized sweet potato contains 541 mg potassium.
One cup (205 grams) of butternut squash can give you 582 mg of potassium.

Did the vet suggest removing the water dish ?
…., your dragon might be drinking too much (due to perhaps an issue with the kidneys) and hence leaching all the dietary K from it's body in it's urates.
 

possumpeg

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As far as I know, the uvb is only 3 months old.

Sweet potatoes and squash, do you cook them to soften, or shred like carrots?
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
You can do either, but if raw shred it very well. Kale is O.K as well . BTW, never with hold water from a beardie if he's wanting to drink. That can have serious results including kidney damage.
 

possumpeg

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She's been up about 30 minutes, and no tremors, but it's obvious she's still not feeling well. She's not interested in eating...yet, and her beard is grey and mottled.

There's Gatorade in her water, so I won't remove it. That's what the vet told me to do.

I'll get her a sweet potato today and see if she likes it, but she may just need a few days to recover from the stress of the vet yesterday. She was such a good patient, but afterwards all she wanted to do was cuddle into my neck for over an hour.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
I always cook my sweet potato in the mic and then cut it in pieces--- its soft then - they usually end up wearing it around the mouth - thats how you know they have eaten it :lol:
Karrie
 

Claudiusx

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AHBD":1nsr98je said:
BTW, never with hold water from a beardie if he's wanting to drink. That can have serious results including kidney damage.
Agreed.

Were you going to pick up a new reptisun? Or were you just going to try it with the cover off now. If it's only a few months old it should still be putting out decent UV. I doubt having the plastic diffuser had too big of an impact on the bulb.
If you can take cheddar out for some natural sunlight I'm sure he will enjoy it :)

Sometimes they just aren't interested in eating until their bodies have warmed up a bit more. If you have a multivitamin powder you might consider dusting with that a couple times a week now, along with calcium +d3 especially if cheddar will eat insects for you :)

Good luck.

-Brandon
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
KarrieRee":2772l1jt said:
I always cook my sweet potato in the mic and then cut it in pieces--- its soft then - they usually end up wearing it around the mouth - thats how you know they have eaten it :lol:
Karrie

Best way to deal with hard veg like carrot and sweet potato is wash the outside and then grate it raw.
Wont loose any nutritional benefits this way.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
possumpeg":1fdya9up said:
As far as I know, the uvb is only 3 months old.

Sweet potatoes and squash, do you cook them to soften, or shred like carrots?

I grate it raw , just make sure you wash it first.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
AHBD":1le4uqgb said:
You can do either, but if raw shred it very well. Kale is O.K as well . BTW, never with hold water from a beardie if he's wanting to drink. That can have serious results including kidney damage.
I was not saying to stop offering water and other sources of hydration ( fresh salad , live insects ) and giving the dragon a drink by misting it or dripping water on it's snout.

A bearded dragon who constantly drinks and drinks too much water, may have health problems.

There is also the risk of a dragon who is weak and sick drowning in it's water dish if it's left in the tank unsupervised.
 

possumpeg

Member
Original Poster
We'll, she still is refusing to eat her bugs, but she's nibbling at salad. Drinking a bit as well. I lowered one end of her hammock because she hasn't been basking today, and she climbed right on. No tremors at all, but still under the weather. Fiesty enough to bite the medicine syringe though! That's a big improvement! As well as walking around and tasting. BM still looks good. And she seems a bit perkier. I feel a sense of relief, but I know she's not out of the woods yet.

I did order a new reptisun bulb, but it hasn't arrived so I'm leaving the cover off of the one that's in there now. I don't plan on putting a cover on it again. I just thought better to be safe and replace, since it don't know how long that one sat on the shelf before I got it - in case that makes a difference.

I didn't take her out in the sun today because I wanted her to be relatively undisturbed today. Don't want to add more stress since that alone can cause tremors from what the vet said. Just trying to let her relax. I'll get her out and take her outside for some sun tomorrow, as long as she's still improving.

Thanks for all the input and support. I'll keep y'all updated.
 

possumpeg

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kingofnobbys":20u3s3no said:
AHBD":20u3s3no said:
You can do either, but if raw shred it very well. Kale is O.K as well . BTW, never with hold water from a beardie if he's wanting to drink. That can have serious results including kidney damage.
I was not saying to stop offering water and other sources of hydration ( fresh salad , live insects ) and giving the dragon a drink by misting it or dripping water on it's snout.

A bearded dragon who constantly drinks and drinks too much water, may have health problems.

There is also the risk of a dragon who is weak and sick drowning in it's water dish if it's left in the tank unsupervised.

Thanks for the clarification ?. She has to climb up the side of the dish to get to the water and it's only about as big as her head with maybe .75 oz of water.
 
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