Jessieamandabhb
Member
Hi everyone. This is hard for me to talk about, but I need answers and I trust this forum as this is where I did a lot of my research before I got my baby...
On Friday, I took my sweet girl Louise (estimated by me to be approx 3 m.o. due to her length when I got her 10/29 from PetSmart) to the vet for an emergency appointment. She was quite skinny for her length and not gaining weight, not her normal feisty explorer self, not pooping as much as she normally does and she was limping and had two feet that she was favoring that appeared over night (1 front, 1 back). I originally thought that she was impacted and gave her multiple baths or I thought that she may have broken or sprained her legs by jumping off her rock. I gave her a few days to see if maybe that was the case. I noticed she was still babying those legs and they seemed a little swollen, so I got her an emergency vet appointment.
Unfortunately, nothing was broken but she did have a soft tissue injury and muscle weakness and upon further tests, the vet discovered that she had gout and that her kidneys were failing so badly that they weren’t even attempting to filter anything. He said that her phosphorus levels were so high that the machine couldn’t read it and that her uric acid levels were extremely high. Her x-rays showed possible mbd as he said that her bones did not look as thick and strong as he would want them to, but he thought I was giving her enough calcium otherwise. She also had coccida and trichomonas... He said that he could give her medicine and do a bunch of things to try to help her get better but due to the fact that she was so very young and that her kidneys were so far gone and she was very skinny, he couldn’t paint a pretty picture of recovery and that sometimes, something occurs in the kidneys (can’t remember the name) where you can do all of this and still not heal it. He said that he regrettably recommended putting her down as that would be the nonselfish thing and he would do it if it was his pet. It sounds blunt the way I put it, but he was very kind about it and not at all pushy. You could tell that he was deeply saddened for how her tests transpired. My husband and I agreed as she was so young and her quality of life was so bad, and this vet is the only well respected avian and exotic vet in our area. However, I regret it. It’s only been 4 days today, and I have regretted it every single day and I miss her......
I kept asking him if her severe gout was due to bad husbandry on my part as I only had her about a month and a half, and he simply said that he thinks it was a combination of dehydration as baby bearded dragons have a hard time being convinced to drink water and that them having heat lamps dehydrated them with every breath and some other things I did not understand but the dehydration was his main point...
I am going to talk about my set up and supplies used and would like feedback on if what I was doing was correct or if I was in the wrong just for peace of mind and possible future reference. I have wanted a bearded dragon for 4 years and I’m so deeply saddened that my first one got so sick that I had to put her to sleep. I am so tempted to sell all of the supplies to get it out of my house, but my husband keeps telling me that I can get another bearded dragon but I’m so scared to...
Cage: 40g with screen top and front doors
Temperature measurements w/ 2 digital thermometers with probes
Heat: Lamp over a hammock with 100w bulb that normally stayed between 105-111F. I noticed it would fluctuate a little with the temperature of my house as it would sometimes go up to 115F and I would drop her hammock lower in those incidents.
UV: Reptisun 10.0 T8 bulb with fixture from Home Depot
Calcium: about 4 days a week with Fluker’s Repta calcium
Vitamins: about 2 days a week with Rep-Cal Herptivte
Greens: hand fed about 2-3x a week
Cleaning: Lysol wipes (more for my piece of mind) and Wipe Out spray
Temperature on cold side: stayed between 74-79F
Water source: via gutloading crickets, and once I realized she would rarely drink in the bath, for the last few weeks, I had begun gently shaking a 2 oz cup full of water in front of her to make the water ripple and would let her gulp it until she finished and would get annoyed with me still pushing it towards her. I would do this about every two days or so as she got really annoyed with me trying every day.
Flooring: originally carpet but we switched to ceramic tile a few weeks back
Food: Fed about 2-3x a day with as many crickets as she could eat. Occasional Dubai roaches and a mealworm or two. When I first got her, she would chase every cricket down and devour them. Recently, she would chase a couple and then stop and we would have to watch for awhile to make sure they wouldn’t bug her because she would eat them over the course of a few hours... Her tile had a small gap next to the wall so they would hide from her there a lot of the time and she would get annoyed. I was really worried about her eating habits, but on the 9th, she ate like 20 crickets in one feeding and we gave her a mealworm because we were running out of crickets. The next morning was when the limping and infrequent pooping began.
Baths: about once a week or so, except she got 3 within 24hrs where I was trying to get her to poop
I am going to try to post pictures of my set up.
Before tests were ran at the vet, I showed the vet her set up and he said that he was pleased with it and it seemed like I had done my research.
He also recommended to gently mist a baby bearded dragon’s head until they stopped drinking, twice a day.
After he did all tests and before the decision was made to put her to sleep, he recommended switching to Zoo med’s reptivite? He also said he would not give it as often maybe 2-3 times a week and would cut back on feeding as often if I was using that to dust? Does that make sense to anyone??
Does it seem like a mistake on my part or genetic issues?
I’m sorry this was so long and not grammatically correct. I’m trying to spill out as much information as possible; it’s overwhelming.
**note: the stick on thermometer/hygrometers were stuck on but were not used to access temperature
On Friday, I took my sweet girl Louise (estimated by me to be approx 3 m.o. due to her length when I got her 10/29 from PetSmart) to the vet for an emergency appointment. She was quite skinny for her length and not gaining weight, not her normal feisty explorer self, not pooping as much as she normally does and she was limping and had two feet that she was favoring that appeared over night (1 front, 1 back). I originally thought that she was impacted and gave her multiple baths or I thought that she may have broken or sprained her legs by jumping off her rock. I gave her a few days to see if maybe that was the case. I noticed she was still babying those legs and they seemed a little swollen, so I got her an emergency vet appointment.
Unfortunately, nothing was broken but she did have a soft tissue injury and muscle weakness and upon further tests, the vet discovered that she had gout and that her kidneys were failing so badly that they weren’t even attempting to filter anything. He said that her phosphorus levels were so high that the machine couldn’t read it and that her uric acid levels were extremely high. Her x-rays showed possible mbd as he said that her bones did not look as thick and strong as he would want them to, but he thought I was giving her enough calcium otherwise. She also had coccida and trichomonas... He said that he could give her medicine and do a bunch of things to try to help her get better but due to the fact that she was so very young and that her kidneys were so far gone and she was very skinny, he couldn’t paint a pretty picture of recovery and that sometimes, something occurs in the kidneys (can’t remember the name) where you can do all of this and still not heal it. He said that he regrettably recommended putting her down as that would be the nonselfish thing and he would do it if it was his pet. It sounds blunt the way I put it, but he was very kind about it and not at all pushy. You could tell that he was deeply saddened for how her tests transpired. My husband and I agreed as she was so young and her quality of life was so bad, and this vet is the only well respected avian and exotic vet in our area. However, I regret it. It’s only been 4 days today, and I have regretted it every single day and I miss her......
I kept asking him if her severe gout was due to bad husbandry on my part as I only had her about a month and a half, and he simply said that he thinks it was a combination of dehydration as baby bearded dragons have a hard time being convinced to drink water and that them having heat lamps dehydrated them with every breath and some other things I did not understand but the dehydration was his main point...
I am going to talk about my set up and supplies used and would like feedback on if what I was doing was correct or if I was in the wrong just for peace of mind and possible future reference. I have wanted a bearded dragon for 4 years and I’m so deeply saddened that my first one got so sick that I had to put her to sleep. I am so tempted to sell all of the supplies to get it out of my house, but my husband keeps telling me that I can get another bearded dragon but I’m so scared to...
Cage: 40g with screen top and front doors
Temperature measurements w/ 2 digital thermometers with probes
Heat: Lamp over a hammock with 100w bulb that normally stayed between 105-111F. I noticed it would fluctuate a little with the temperature of my house as it would sometimes go up to 115F and I would drop her hammock lower in those incidents.
UV: Reptisun 10.0 T8 bulb with fixture from Home Depot
Calcium: about 4 days a week with Fluker’s Repta calcium
Vitamins: about 2 days a week with Rep-Cal Herptivte
Greens: hand fed about 2-3x a week
Cleaning: Lysol wipes (more for my piece of mind) and Wipe Out spray
Temperature on cold side: stayed between 74-79F
Water source: via gutloading crickets, and once I realized she would rarely drink in the bath, for the last few weeks, I had begun gently shaking a 2 oz cup full of water in front of her to make the water ripple and would let her gulp it until she finished and would get annoyed with me still pushing it towards her. I would do this about every two days or so as she got really annoyed with me trying every day.
Flooring: originally carpet but we switched to ceramic tile a few weeks back
Food: Fed about 2-3x a day with as many crickets as she could eat. Occasional Dubai roaches and a mealworm or two. When I first got her, she would chase every cricket down and devour them. Recently, she would chase a couple and then stop and we would have to watch for awhile to make sure they wouldn’t bug her because she would eat them over the course of a few hours... Her tile had a small gap next to the wall so they would hide from her there a lot of the time and she would get annoyed. I was really worried about her eating habits, but on the 9th, she ate like 20 crickets in one feeding and we gave her a mealworm because we were running out of crickets. The next morning was when the limping and infrequent pooping began.
Baths: about once a week or so, except she got 3 within 24hrs where I was trying to get her to poop
I am going to try to post pictures of my set up.
Before tests were ran at the vet, I showed the vet her set up and he said that he was pleased with it and it seemed like I had done my research.
He also recommended to gently mist a baby bearded dragon’s head until they stopped drinking, twice a day.
After he did all tests and before the decision was made to put her to sleep, he recommended switching to Zoo med’s reptivite? He also said he would not give it as often maybe 2-3 times a week and would cut back on feeding as often if I was using that to dust? Does that make sense to anyone??
Does it seem like a mistake on my part or genetic issues?
I’m sorry this was so long and not grammatically correct. I’m trying to spill out as much information as possible; it’s overwhelming.
**note: the stick on thermometer/hygrometers were stuck on but were not used to access temperature