Spotteddragon
Member
Sorry about my first post being about a sick baby, but this is urgent. For some background I work at a veterinary clinic that has one vet that sees exotics. A chain store brought this little guy in on Friday, they received it Monday and it had not eaten or had supplements since arrival. They were calling it a failure to thrive and no one in the store had the time or willingness to deal with it. I thought I'd try. This is my first bearded dragon but I have successfully raised/rehabbed neonate leopard geckos and have several other reptiles.
The baby is 2.5 inches from nose to vent, 5ish inches from nose to tail tip. He is 5 grams. He presented very lethargic, dehydrated, and emaciated. We did a direct fecal and didn't see any parasites but couldn't get enough of a sample for a crypto test or swab for the atadenovirus. No medication yet since he is already anorexic.
I've syringe fed critical care diet with calcium added starting yesterday. He has fresh greens available at all times and phoenix worms - but will not eat. He was willingly lapping the diet from the syringe tip yesterday and this morning, but by mid afternoon today was really not wanting to eat at all and he developed a head tremor.
I know his chances are very slim, but any advice is appreciated.
Mainly: do i try feeding with pureed veggies / baby food or just stick with carnivore care - (it has a lot of protein in it)?, being sick do I keep his temps at the regular 95-100 basking during the day and 72-80 at night or should they be more constant? Right now he is being soaked twice a day per the vet to maintain hydration but he's getting wrinkly by mid-afternoon - do I add a 3rd soaking?
He is in a 20gal long with reptisun 10.0 on a 12 hour cycle, and a 75 watt basking bulb on a thermostat set at 98*F during the day with no additional heat at night. The room he is in is 76*F at night, Substrate is paper towel over slate tile. He has rocks to climb and bask, two hides (that he doesn't use), a flat butter dish lid with water and a flat lid with veggies. until this evening he was moving to thermoregulate on his own
The baby is 2.5 inches from nose to vent, 5ish inches from nose to tail tip. He is 5 grams. He presented very lethargic, dehydrated, and emaciated. We did a direct fecal and didn't see any parasites but couldn't get enough of a sample for a crypto test or swab for the atadenovirus. No medication yet since he is already anorexic.
I've syringe fed critical care diet with calcium added starting yesterday. He has fresh greens available at all times and phoenix worms - but will not eat. He was willingly lapping the diet from the syringe tip yesterday and this morning, but by mid afternoon today was really not wanting to eat at all and he developed a head tremor.
I know his chances are very slim, but any advice is appreciated.
Mainly: do i try feeding with pureed veggies / baby food or just stick with carnivore care - (it has a lot of protein in it)?, being sick do I keep his temps at the regular 95-100 basking during the day and 72-80 at night or should they be more constant? Right now he is being soaked twice a day per the vet to maintain hydration but he's getting wrinkly by mid-afternoon - do I add a 3rd soaking?
He is in a 20gal long with reptisun 10.0 on a 12 hour cycle, and a 75 watt basking bulb on a thermostat set at 98*F during the day with no additional heat at night. The room he is in is 76*F at night, Substrate is paper towel over slate tile. He has rocks to climb and bask, two hides (that he doesn't use), a flat butter dish lid with water and a flat lid with veggies. until this evening he was moving to thermoregulate on his own