Hello everyone, my name is Adam, I am not a beginner to reptiles by any means and have studied them all my life, but I finally got my first bearded dragon.... It's not pretty, and a long story, so here goes:
I got my bearded dragon Spike from Petco(EEEK, I know, I do not need to hear it, and I am highly regretting it although happy I may have saved his life.) and this is where I made my first mistake, and I should have known better than this. They had 2 sets of dragons, normal, which were all babies in a big clean tank with no apparent issues, and then their apparent "special" dragons which were about 9-10 inches long and on sale. I took a quick glance, and noticed their tank was COMPLETELY humid, and did not look right, and I could not see into it. I was in an excited state of mind and irresponsibly asked the Petco person "Just give me the most active, colorful dragon you can see(It was so humid you could not see, and they were on top, and I am short.) She pulled out this beautiful dragon, with a seemingly calm demeanor, he seemed alert, and was very colorful. I purchased the animal, and got him home as carefully as I could.
This is where things get interesting, and let me explain why. I set up his tank (20L, will upgrade to 6x2 when he gets a bit bigger), Powersun 80w UVB and heat combo lamp(Hot side 85 on the ground, 100 on his log, 72 on the cool side) , reptile carpet, and 2 hides, with a shallow water dish. I let him sit in, offered a couple of meal worms and he ate one, and I removed the other, which I found odd. I then, as you are supposed to, did not handle or mess with him much besides offering and removing food for the next 3 days. He had 1 normal bowel movement, and then things began to get funky very rapidly. At first I would offer food, nothing, and he began shedding over the course of a week, did not have an issue really, I soaked him during the shed, which he seemed to love. Okay, great I thought.... He was just shedding, I have dealt with reptiles before... he'll be dandy! Wrong. Over the next 3 days, he went from his bright, colorful self to an almost lifeless brown animal(Not black mind you), and would just collapse on his rock and bask all day. Okay I thought, I am going to keep an eye and just be patient, in case he begins to perk up. Still not eating...and now having diarhea seriously badly.... and when I would hold him, he was almost limp in my hand. Granted, he had great spurts of energy from time to time but.... he was struggling with something and getting worse very quickly. It was time for human intervention, and note throughout this process, he showed no black beard or stress marks which I found odd. I took him straight to the vet, they told me I needed to begin force feeding him, they tried to collect a stool sample but were unable due to him being so empty. I was sent home with some syringes, and some antibiotic ointment just incase the tiny black tip on his tail grew and was the source of the issue, which it did not seem to do. At this point, I got him home and he was, fairly limp in my hand (Muscle tone but his feet and all had no rigidity to them). So far I was trying to guestimate a few things. I imagine A: He got nipped by another beardy, that's a given, and his tail was probably bothering him albeit not critical yet(I have began soaking it and covering in their provided topical antibiotic as instructed). B. He was dehydraded and C. Had no energy due to whatever was wrong + no food. Force feeding was not fun and despite being so weak, he had a decent fight but I was sure to carefully secure him, and open his mouth without harming his teeth. A couple points through this process, he appeared dead, and I actually had to massage his back to get him to begin breathing again. At this point, food is in him, he's worse than he's ever been, and I said a prayer and very gently put him in his cage under his light, and left him alone, I knew either I was going to lose him or I may have just saved his life. Fast forward to about 4 hours later, he was under his lamp head held high, and much more colorful. I went to sleep and then we reach today. He was once again returning back to his previous state, becoming slow and lethargic, not eating, same process, with a rapid decline. I fed him again, and he perked back up, even better this time. At this point my only thought was parasites, so I had Reptaid overnighted and it will be here Thursday. My goal, and my plan, is leave him alone until then, continue to forcefeed carefully to keep him alive and hydrated, continue to carefully treat his tail, and get the reptaid in him as soon as possible, as this is a bandaid and most likely a VERY temporary one. I have made mistakes, I identified and corrected them as soon as possible environment wise... but his health and his decline is so concerning to me. Does anyone have any ideas of what could be going on? From his behavior, he is holding and actually getting but, I know it will not last but a few hours until his next force feeding.
I got my bearded dragon Spike from Petco(EEEK, I know, I do not need to hear it, and I am highly regretting it although happy I may have saved his life.) and this is where I made my first mistake, and I should have known better than this. They had 2 sets of dragons, normal, which were all babies in a big clean tank with no apparent issues, and then their apparent "special" dragons which were about 9-10 inches long and on sale. I took a quick glance, and noticed their tank was COMPLETELY humid, and did not look right, and I could not see into it. I was in an excited state of mind and irresponsibly asked the Petco person "Just give me the most active, colorful dragon you can see(It was so humid you could not see, and they were on top, and I am short.) She pulled out this beautiful dragon, with a seemingly calm demeanor, he seemed alert, and was very colorful. I purchased the animal, and got him home as carefully as I could.
This is where things get interesting, and let me explain why. I set up his tank (20L, will upgrade to 6x2 when he gets a bit bigger), Powersun 80w UVB and heat combo lamp(Hot side 85 on the ground, 100 on his log, 72 on the cool side) , reptile carpet, and 2 hides, with a shallow water dish. I let him sit in, offered a couple of meal worms and he ate one, and I removed the other, which I found odd. I then, as you are supposed to, did not handle or mess with him much besides offering and removing food for the next 3 days. He had 1 normal bowel movement, and then things began to get funky very rapidly. At first I would offer food, nothing, and he began shedding over the course of a week, did not have an issue really, I soaked him during the shed, which he seemed to love. Okay, great I thought.... He was just shedding, I have dealt with reptiles before... he'll be dandy! Wrong. Over the next 3 days, he went from his bright, colorful self to an almost lifeless brown animal(Not black mind you), and would just collapse on his rock and bask all day. Okay I thought, I am going to keep an eye and just be patient, in case he begins to perk up. Still not eating...and now having diarhea seriously badly.... and when I would hold him, he was almost limp in my hand. Granted, he had great spurts of energy from time to time but.... he was struggling with something and getting worse very quickly. It was time for human intervention, and note throughout this process, he showed no black beard or stress marks which I found odd. I took him straight to the vet, they told me I needed to begin force feeding him, they tried to collect a stool sample but were unable due to him being so empty. I was sent home with some syringes, and some antibiotic ointment just incase the tiny black tip on his tail grew and was the source of the issue, which it did not seem to do. At this point, I got him home and he was, fairly limp in my hand (Muscle tone but his feet and all had no rigidity to them). So far I was trying to guestimate a few things. I imagine A: He got nipped by another beardy, that's a given, and his tail was probably bothering him albeit not critical yet(I have began soaking it and covering in their provided topical antibiotic as instructed). B. He was dehydraded and C. Had no energy due to whatever was wrong + no food. Force feeding was not fun and despite being so weak, he had a decent fight but I was sure to carefully secure him, and open his mouth without harming his teeth. A couple points through this process, he appeared dead, and I actually had to massage his back to get him to begin breathing again. At this point, food is in him, he's worse than he's ever been, and I said a prayer and very gently put him in his cage under his light, and left him alone, I knew either I was going to lose him or I may have just saved his life. Fast forward to about 4 hours later, he was under his lamp head held high, and much more colorful. I went to sleep and then we reach today. He was once again returning back to his previous state, becoming slow and lethargic, not eating, same process, with a rapid decline. I fed him again, and he perked back up, even better this time. At this point my only thought was parasites, so I had Reptaid overnighted and it will be here Thursday. My goal, and my plan, is leave him alone until then, continue to forcefeed carefully to keep him alive and hydrated, continue to carefully treat his tail, and get the reptaid in him as soon as possible, as this is a bandaid and most likely a VERY temporary one. I have made mistakes, I identified and corrected them as soon as possible environment wise... but his health and his decline is so concerning to me. Does anyone have any ideas of what could be going on? From his behavior, he is holding and actually getting but, I know it will not last but a few hours until his next force feeding.