Need help with sick beardie

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rhaegaldrogo

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Damienne17":2sqkkcjq said:
If he hasn't gotten rid of the coccidia ask for toltrazuril next time. My boy just got over coccidia. I did 3 doses of toltrazuril 3 days in a row, then retest after a week.
Yes, he black bearded for a couple of days too, but was fine once he was off the meds. I also gave him probiotics. (I ended up having to use coconut yogurt because it was taking too long for the probiotics to come in and no stores had soy yogurt).
It's also very important to keep the enclosure very clean while dealing with coccidia. Don't leave any feeders in the terrarium, use paper towels and replace everything and do a thorough clean immediately after he poops. Keep all decorations to a minimum, and clean his basking rocks too.
I couldn't handle cleaning with ammonia, so I used a clothes steamer to clean his terrarium. And boiling water to clean his basking rocks.
I know this post was last week, so maybe you don't need the info anymore. But maybe it will help the next person :)


Thank you! I Steam cleaned the vivarium once his treatment was done and boiled his rocks too :).
I would give my boy more soy.yogurt, but I don't want to stress him out anymore with the force feeding. He hates it, and he will not eat insects so that's a problem. How would you inject them with the medicine tho?
He is acting like he was before the medicine. So I guess he still has coccidia, or they aren't the main thing wrong with him. My vet guessed they were a secondary cause, because something else was causing him to be stressed and I think she was right :(
 
You're welcome :)
I used the syringe that has a needle on the end of it, the smallest available. I was able to buy a few from the drug store. I'm up in Canada, where the only bug that's affordable is crickets lol.. So, I took the largest one, put it in a clear shot glass, put cling wrap on top so it couldn't escape, and injected the meds into it.
For the yogurt, I took a spoonful on a plate, warmed it up for 4 seconds in the microwave, and then dipped the crickets into it.
But, if your guy doesn't eat bugs, you'll have to be creative ? Maybe dip his veggies in it?
I agree that there is likely something else stressing him that caused the coccidia in the first place. For me, it was listening to the damn pet store and buying a 20 gallon kit that was top opening. It was very stressful for my boy trying to get him out of the enclosure, he would freak right out when I would try to handle him, and I suspect that there wasn't really a good enough "cool" area for him to cool off either, so he was doing a lot of glass surfing. Within a month I decided that I really needed to upgrade his tank and got him a front opening tank, and he's calmed down soooo much since.
 
Sorry going back and rereading the whole thread more carefully.
Is he eating superworms still? Or has he stopped eating anything besides what you force feed into him?
What about mixing the probiotic yogurt in with the critical care, (if you we're able to get some?) There are recipes around to make a slurry if need be, too.
How much more of the medication does he need to take, and how long has he been on it? What is he acting like now? How is his poops? The blackbearding, not wanting to eat, and hiding on the cool side is exactly what my boy did on the medication. Probiotics really helped a lot with helping him to feel better quickly. It took him a bit for his poops to start looking normal again, and for his appetite to come back.
 

rhaegaldrogo

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Damienne17":2i0yl2fc said:
Sorry going back and rereading the whole thread more carefully.
Is he eating superworms still? Or has he stopped eating anything besides what you force feed into him?
What about mixing the probiotic yogurt in with the critical care, (if you we're able to get some?) There are recipes around to make a slurry if need be, too.
How much more of the medication does he need to take, and how long has he been on it? What is he acting like now? How is his poops? The blackbearding, not wanting to eat, and hiding on the cool side is exactly what my boy did on the medication. Probiotics really helped a lot with helping him to feel better quickly. It took him a bit for his poops to start looking normal again, and for his appetite to come back.

He's stopped eating almost everything.. He'll occasionally take a bite of veggies though, so maybe that can be how I get yogurt into him. I haven't been able to get critical care unfortunately :(. I may be able to soon tbough.

He's finished his medication, and he's in a betternmood now. He usually basks incthe morning, glass/wall surf's, then hides for hours. He rarely poops, and when he does they're very small, surrounded by a good bit of water but don't really smell
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
You can order critical care off of Amazon -- look for the Oxbow Critical care either the herbivore or the carnivore
Karrie
 
Here's a slurry recipe that people use on another group I'm in. You blend it in the blender and syringe feed.
The people who have tried it said their dragons liked it enough that they just put a bit on the end of their nose and they will lick it off. I'm sure you could change out the veggie for whatever kind he likes best.

Curly mustard greens
1/4 tsp repashy calcium +
1/4 tsp bee pollen
1/3 cup of water
1/4 tsp probiotic
 

rhaegaldrogo

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Damienne17":17ug3r0m said:
Here's a slurry recipe that people use on another group I'm in. You blend it in the blender and syringe feed.
The people who have tried it said their dragons liked it enough that they just put a bit on the end of their nose and they will lick it off. I'm sure you could change out the veggie for whatever kind he likes best.

Curly mustard greens
1/4 tsp repashy calcium +
1/4 tsp bee pollen
1/3 cup of water
1/4 tsp probiotic

Thank you very much for that!

Update: He's started to eat a fea roaches again, and a very rare veggie.
But his problems before the antibiotics/parasites are back and I don't know what to do. Hiding (mostly during the day after his morning bask, he usually comes out at night but not always), barely eating, occasional Blackbeard. Nothing I've tried seems to be working. He gets himself really quite cold by hiding a lot.
I've tried blocking off the window in case he was scared, nothing.
His hot side is a little warm, so I tried cooling it down for him, changing the bulb, applying a fan etc. Same behaviour
I've tried turning off the UV lamp in case it was bothering him. Still acting the same.

Please, has anyone any idea what's wrong with him?
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
How long has he been off the meds now? Have you ordered any Oxbow CC? Are you keeping track of his weight? If not I suggest you get a weight - put him on a kitchen food scale weigh in grams and keep track of him - if hes not been off the meds that long he could have possible upset stomach - I would keep the basking temps and the warm temps the same - if hes not feeling good it will keep his immune system up - how often is he black bearding and is it really black like the one pic you had posted ?
Karrie
 

rhaegaldrogo

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
KarrieRee":36hhsydg said:
How long has he been off the meds now? Have you ordered any Oxbow CC? Are you keeping track of his weight? If not I suggest you get a weight - put him on a kitchen food scale weigh in grams and keep track of him - if hes not been off the meds that long he could have possible upset stomach - I would keep the basking temps and the warm temps the same - if hes not feeling good it will keep his immune system up - how often is he black bearding and is it really black like the one pic you had posted ?
Karrie

He's been off them for nearly 2 weeks now. This was the behaviour he was doing that made me bring him to the vet in the first place - so the parasites must have been secondary . I haven't been able to get him retested for parasites, but his poops now have almost no smell so I'd say that's a good sign they're gone.

Oh ok. I thought maybe that was why he was hiding. Cool side is between 26-28° celsius before I lower it though, although I can only get it down to 24-25°.

He tends to only blackbeard when he's trying to hide but can't for some reason. And the occasional one in his hide too. Sometimes he gets one right after eating (he also doesn't bask after eating even if he's a bit cold). No, definitely not as dark as that
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Yes the parasites are probably gone since the smell is not there - you can however have it retested for sure -- the cool side tank of 26-28 is good --- no lower during the day -- it may take a little bit longer for the appetite to comeback completely -- I am confused on the part of "trying to hide but cant" - so he is trying to blackbeard and cant or hes trying to hide and cant? Did you get him a regular hide or is he still using the shoe box? And I am wondering if the basking rock is getting too hot w/ as close as it looks in the pic
Karrie
 

rhaegaldrogo

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
KarrieRee":3ttgj4qu said:
Yes the parasites are probably gone since the smell is not there - you can however have it retested for sure -- the cool side tank of 26-28 is good --- no lower during the day -- it may take a little bit longer for the appetite to comeback completely -- I am confused on the part of "trying to hide but cant" - so he is trying to blackbeard and cant or hes trying to hide and cant? Did you get him a regular hide or is he still using the shoe box? And I am wondering if the basking rock is getting too hot w/ as close as it looks in the pic
Karrie

Trying to hide and can't, apologies. Sometimes he thinks he can't get into the shoebox and gets annoyed about it, which makes him black beard.
Still a shoebox, but a different one. It used to get very hot, but now it doesn't really go past 39°C
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
So his hide is 39 c inside it? I would put his hide on the cool side of the tank-- is he in a 20 gallon tank?
Karrie
 
My boy has been wanting to do that too since he finished the meds. I had him retested and he's been cleared for parasites. Not blackbearding, but hiding and wanting to go on the cooler side. He had a really low appetite at first, but it's been about a month now and his appetite has returned to normal :) Keep getting those probiotics into him if you can, I think that helped quite a bit with my boys recovery.
Two changes I've made was, I bought a lower wattage bulb, which helped a bit, he at least quit hiding, but was still hanging on the cool side and it was starting to get to the point his food wasn't being digested properly.
The second thing I did was invest in a couple of digital humidity gauges and put one on each end of the tank (forgive me, I'm new at this too and have been dealing with his tank setup in order of importance since the stores really burned me when i initially bought a setup and had to rebuy everything again) and instantly discovered that the hot side had an extremely low humidity. I am thinking that is why he hasn't been wanting to go on that side. I've been playing around with it the last couple of days and seem to be able to keep it at roughly 30 if I put a water dish in in the morning and take it out at night.
Don't know if youve been checking the humidity but it is a good next step if you haven't.
He's still spending too much time on the cooler side but is now basking enough that his food digested properly yesterday :)
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Humidity levels can be anywhere from 30% to 70% - if it gets to 70% its too high - optimal levels from what I have read are 35-40% in the tank - it will vary at nite as they do rise --
Karrie
 
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