Healthy to dead in 2 days?

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Beardy815

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So my beardy was probably 4.5 years old and healthy, or rather not displaying any signs of sickness. Three days ago ate a good amount of roaches/salad.

Two days ago I noticed she had her eyes closed in her normal basking spot, when at this time any other day shes awake and basking, or glass surfing because she was about to poop.

I didn't think much of it, said maybe I'd give it a day maybe she's going to brumate or something. The following day she was doing same thing, eyes closed in basking spot, but then she slowly slid off of it and onto her back before quickly rolling rightside up on the floor of tank.

She then turned her body like a spiral sideways, and kept turning and half-dragging all her limbs and occasionally what looked like involuntarily opening her mouth and closing it (seizure maybe?).. This continued for about 5 minutes, she would keep turning and contorting. Then what looked to me like agonal breathing or death gasps and stopped moving, and now is dead.

Any idea what this could have possibly been? She had been having small bowel movements in the days she was eyes closed on basking spot, and a big one before that and had not eaten since, so I don't think it was impaction.

EDIT: Eats Collared Greens/Dandelion Greens/Dubia Roaches. 10.0 UVB mounted in cage. 100W Lamp. Repti-carpet bottom.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Wow I am so sorry to hear about this ---- The 10.0 UVB mounted in cage. was that a tube or a coil? It almost sounds like a seizure of some sort but I am just guessing --- some others on here would haft to weigh in on this ---- they usually dont show signs of illness till its just too much or too late to do anything about it -- again I am sorry to hear about your girl :(
Karrie
 

Claudiusx

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hi there,

I'm so sorry.
If we could get more details on your setup we might be able to figure out something. But a lot of times, there really just are no answers. Bearded Dragons are notorious for hiding pain and sickness. A lot of times by the time they start showing it, it's already been affecting them for a long time.

Did she ever get out of her cage to roam around the room or outside? Is it possible she ate something she wasn't supposed to. Or did she eat anything new to her in the past week? Such as a new salad item?

-Brandon
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
They can go downhill very fast .

Inside a few hours if it's a sudden organ failure (ie aneurism ruptures , heat failure). Nearly always happens at a time when the local reptile vet is closed ( in my experience ).

Short of getting a vet to do a necropsy on the dead dragon, it's likely you'll never know what the cause was (could even have eaten something toxic or a poisoned bug) or been bitten by snake or spider.
Even if you choose to have a necropsy done , there is no guarantee the vet will be able tell definitively what the cause of death was.

My Toothless went from happy and healthy to dead in under 2 hours ( organ failure - heart attack ).
 

Gormagon

Extreme Poster
I am very sorry for your loss. I lost my Peaches last October 1st and, it happened in much the same way. The only thing I could think of was she ingested one of those pink ladybugs that seem to get in the house during the fall.

At 4 1/2 years old, I doubt very seriously that it was a husbandry problem.(not everything is about lighting). It sounds more like something that was ingested to happen that quick.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
Gormagon":2a2xbyhl said:
I am very sorry for your loss. I lost my Peaches last October 1st and, it happened in much the same way. The only thing I could think of was she ingested one of those pink ladybugs that seem to get in the house during the fall.

At 4 1/2 years old, I doubt very seriously that it was a husbandry problem.(not everything is about lighting). It sounds more like something that was ingested to happen that quick.

I agree , seems some here have blinkers on and everything bad is blamed on lighting , which is more often than not the cause even indirectly.
With the small gene pool of dragons in captivity , it's very often more to do poor genetics / inbreeding in the hobby and often misadventure ( eating something they find on the floor or that crawls into their tank with them that's toxic ( lots of people use insecticidal surface sprays & baits ( ie roach baits without a second thought to the effects if a pet eats a dead or dying insect/roach )).
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

Oh no, I am so sorry to hear that you lost your dragon so suddenly. :cry:
I agree, it really sounds like she could have ingrested something toxic possibly? The roaches
are from roaches you breed, or, where did you purchase them from & what type of foods do you
feed them?
Was anything different in her salad than usual?

I am so sorry for your loss.

Tracie
 
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Clapton is acclimating okay I think. He's quick as lightning so I'm not sure how much I should bring him out of his house yet. He's not at all interested in his salad though. I wonder if I should change what I'm giving him. Least he's eating his crickets.

Things to do:
Buy calcium powder
Material to raise surface for basking spot
Scenery decals for back of tank

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