First off, I'd like to thank all forum contributors for their help over the years. I am a brand new Bearded Dragon owner and these forums have been so helpful for me, especially with my beardie's health problems. I know the customary first post usually contains husbandry information but I'm going to skip that for now as we already know his illness. So here we go:
My Beardie is named Shakespeare. He was recently adopted from a family who are being assigned overseas. He is approximately 3 years old and apparently has been healthy over his entire life (until a month ago). Three days prior to the adoption day, Shakespeare developed a limp in his front right limb. His previous family took him to the vet here in Northern Virginia, and they did x-rays/exam and thought it might be an infection. He was put on antibiotics and anti-inflammation meds. I adopted him and have been giving him his meds as directed. He was lively, had a great appetite of mostly greens with occasional live food dusted in calcium, but he started to decline. His limp got worse and eventually stopped using the foot completely. I called the vet and she said it could take time to clear the infection so to keep monitoring him.
A week goes by and he begins shaking when picked up, and when walking. I started some serious research and thought it might be MBD. After reviewing his enclosure more closely, I realized his bulb was not a UVB bulb. When I asked the previous family, they said they had him on a "basking bulb" for his entire time with them. OH NO! 2 years without UVB! So I immediately got him a new bulb, and increased his calcium uptake. Also I started giving him daily baths to try to alleviate any pain he was suffering from.
A few days go by and now he's refusing to move, with almost no appetite. So I call the vet and make an emergency appointment. The vet saw him yesterday and asked if I would approve paying for a blood test. It was crazy expensive, but I felt I owed it to him (and myself) to get to the bottom of the issue. Turns out his Uric acid level was around 24. It's supposed to be .5-12 or something like that, so the vet confirmed Shakespeare has Gout.
She prescribed him Alluporinol to combat the Uric acid levels and Tramadol for pain (med info below). She also gave me 14 syringes filled with saline solution to be administered subcutaneously to help "flush" his system and get his kidneys fire up.
Allopurinol 50mg/ml. Give 0.1 mL by mouth once daily until otherwise directed.
Tramadol 50mg/ml. Give 0.05 mL by mouth twice daily until otherwise directed.
Saline solution 8mL. Give contents of syringe subcutaneously for 14 days.
I'm writing this for a combination of help from this amazing forum, but also to offer information to any Beardie owners who have to go through this in the future. Also, I figured it would be helpful for me to have an official place to track his progress. I want him to be better today, but I realize it will probably take a month for the Gout issues to improve, and will be a lifelong issue he will have to be medicated for. Again, many thanks for being such a great resource for new and seasoned Bearded Dragon owners. I'll update soon.
-DaveKovo
And here is the special guy....
Having fun outside with the family (three weeks ago)
And him today, definitely not feeling well.
My Beardie is named Shakespeare. He was recently adopted from a family who are being assigned overseas. He is approximately 3 years old and apparently has been healthy over his entire life (until a month ago). Three days prior to the adoption day, Shakespeare developed a limp in his front right limb. His previous family took him to the vet here in Northern Virginia, and they did x-rays/exam and thought it might be an infection. He was put on antibiotics and anti-inflammation meds. I adopted him and have been giving him his meds as directed. He was lively, had a great appetite of mostly greens with occasional live food dusted in calcium, but he started to decline. His limp got worse and eventually stopped using the foot completely. I called the vet and she said it could take time to clear the infection so to keep monitoring him.
A week goes by and he begins shaking when picked up, and when walking. I started some serious research and thought it might be MBD. After reviewing his enclosure more closely, I realized his bulb was not a UVB bulb. When I asked the previous family, they said they had him on a "basking bulb" for his entire time with them. OH NO! 2 years without UVB! So I immediately got him a new bulb, and increased his calcium uptake. Also I started giving him daily baths to try to alleviate any pain he was suffering from.
A few days go by and now he's refusing to move, with almost no appetite. So I call the vet and make an emergency appointment. The vet saw him yesterday and asked if I would approve paying for a blood test. It was crazy expensive, but I felt I owed it to him (and myself) to get to the bottom of the issue. Turns out his Uric acid level was around 24. It's supposed to be .5-12 or something like that, so the vet confirmed Shakespeare has Gout.
She prescribed him Alluporinol to combat the Uric acid levels and Tramadol for pain (med info below). She also gave me 14 syringes filled with saline solution to be administered subcutaneously to help "flush" his system and get his kidneys fire up.
Allopurinol 50mg/ml. Give 0.1 mL by mouth once daily until otherwise directed.
Tramadol 50mg/ml. Give 0.05 mL by mouth twice daily until otherwise directed.
Saline solution 8mL. Give contents of syringe subcutaneously for 14 days.
I'm writing this for a combination of help from this amazing forum, but also to offer information to any Beardie owners who have to go through this in the future. Also, I figured it would be helpful for me to have an official place to track his progress. I want him to be better today, but I realize it will probably take a month for the Gout issues to improve, and will be a lifelong issue he will have to be medicated for. Again, many thanks for being such a great resource for new and seasoned Bearded Dragon owners. I'll update soon.
-DaveKovo
And here is the special guy....
Having fun outside with the family (three weeks ago)
And him today, definitely not feeling well.