Sick baby beardie

KyleA

Member
I recently purchased my first beardie from PetSmart a few weeks ago and it has not been easy whatsoever and wanted to see if anyone else has had any similar problems or is able to provide suggestions. I'll try my best to explain everything and this might be a little all over the place so I apologize.

I got Georgie a few weeks back and it started off well. She was eating crickets just fine on her own which I was surprised about since most employees told me she probably wouldn't eat for a good couple of days since she would be getting used to her new environment. She's currently kept in a 40 gallon tank (I know some people say this is too big for a baby but some people have told me that it should be fine I'm not too sure myself) and I currently have a heat projector with a thermometer monitoring heating up one side which normally stays a consistent 90-100 degrees. For uvb, I have an arcadia t5 bulb going across the top screen. I know some people say the screen can cut off some of it but I just wasn't sure how else to mount it.

After those couple of days of doing alright, she completely started cutting off any food I would try and give her for the next couple of days, and didn't know what to do. I later switched to dubias to see if they would catch her attention and they did, but only for about two, and never gave another care in the world. A couple more days would pass and you could tell she was slowly getting weaker and weaker and would notice large sums of blood in her stool. I just didn't know what else to do so I quickly drove her a couple of hours away to a 24/7 emergency clinic after a few days of her staying there in critical care they found some sort of worm eggs in her which I don't remember the name of and kept her for a couple more days. They said I was doing everything perfectly on my end I was just unfortunate to pick up a sick beardie from the pet store. They said it seemed like she may have an infection, the worms as I previously said, and it looked like she may have just been really constipated from all the bugs and just couldn't digest them well. After keeping her for a couple more days there were no signs of any parasites and all blood was removed from her stool. She was doing much better, gaining weight, and regaining her color. We were all thrilled to finally get her back home. Since she still didn't show much interest in bugs the vet suggested we try and give her wax and meal worms so it would be easier for her to digest since she couldn't get the roaches and crickets down but didn't ever show any interest in those either. We continued to give her critical care just to keep filling her up she has been using the bathroom great ever since, and just as we thought all was well she started to stargaze very badly. I was so worried we quickly called the vet back and they took her in and did an examination but since she is so small (8-9 grams) they were unable to do any blood work or any xrays so they went ahead and gave her an antibiotic injection since she was also too small to take them normally and goes back in about a week for another. I'm so worried she might have atadenovirus but she isn't seizing or anything else scary just stargazing, pretty sleepy, and not much interest in food. Currently, she's still stargazing but only does it in her tank which I just don't understand. She didn't do it at the vet or on the way, she doesn't do it when we soak her in the kitchen to try and hydrate her. She just does it in her tank. Right now, she is taking critical care just fine and is still using the bathroom perfectly on her own with no blood.

I've done a lot of research about stargazing and I've seen different things from so many people I don't know if maybe she just isn't getting enough calcium or what else it could be. I was thinking about just putting a little bit of liquid calcium in her critical care or maybe even just starting a normal routine with d3 and none d3 dust and seeing if it would mix in with the critical care but I'm worried she might get too much then. I'm really just at a complete loss at this point and will do anything I can to help her. If anyone has any suggestions or questions it would be appreciated more than you could imagine. I'll do whatever to help her.
 

xp29

BD.org Addict
Photo Comp Winner
Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
Is she under her basking when she is "star gazing"? That term gets abused some. It is quite normal for them to set with their head straight up while basking. If thats the only time she does it then it's not an issue. If unsure test it, move her around her habitat and see if she still does it when not under the basking light.
 

KyleA

Member
Original Poster
Is she under her basking when she is "star gazing"? That term gets abused some. It is quite normal for them to set with their head straight up while basking. If thats the only time she does it then it's not an issue. If unsure test it, move her around her habitat and see if she still does it when not under the basking light.
Unfortunately, she does it anywhere in the tank including in both hides and on the colder side.
 

Groggyfroggie

Juvie Member
Photo Comp Winner
Beardie name(s)
Draco
Can you get a video of her doing that? It’ll be helpful to identify if she really is stargazing
 

KyleA

Member
Original Poster
This is her right now and pretty similar to how she normally is, but it gets worse after we feed her. Almost looks like she's breaking her neck. She's also just not active and this might just be me being impatient and a worry wart because they told me she would heal pretty slowly and like I said she does go back for another injection in about a week. Like you guys said the term gets abused but I just wanna be sure.
1665187643518.jpg
 

Groggyfroggie

Juvie Member
Photo Comp Winner
Beardie name(s)
Draco
Yeah I had the same worry when mine was a baby too, so I totally understand how it feels. I’m not an expert on ADV so best wait for experienced people to reply.

In the meantime, it’ll make things easier if you can provide more information about the vet visits, any paperwork or scans you got would be great, just upload here and vets on the forum can take a look at them. Also what type of thermometer are you using to take the temperature? Is it a probe or others? What basking bulb do you use? A full picture of her enclosure would help. Since she can’t really be tested at the moment you’ll want to eliminate the causes of her behavior, starting by the basics.

Hope she gets better! 😀
 

KyleA

Member
Original Poster
Yeah I had the same worry when mine was a baby too, so I totally understand how it feels. I’m not an expert on ADV so best wait for experienced people to reply.

In the meantime, it’ll make things easier if you can provide more information about the vet visits, any paperwork or scans you got would be great, just upload here and vets on the forum can take a look at them. Also what type of thermometer are you using to take the temperature? Is it a probe or others? What basking bulb do you use? A full picture of her enclosure would help. Since she can’t really be tested at the moment you’ll want to eliminate the causes of her behavior, starting by the basics.

Hope she gets better! 😀
Thank you :)

This is how her tank is currently set up and open to any suggestions or changes that would benefit her. The only thing I'm not sure about myself is how I currently have the uvb. I originally had plans to install it inside but I was worried that the heat projector would interfere with how I wanted to have it set up and I didn't wanna take the risk of something potentially hurting her.

As for the vet paperwork everything that I stated is pretty much all that went down. Just provided water under the skin and nursed her back to a stable condition with critical care. She received the whole deworming treatment and has had one injection for any potential infection and goes back for her second I believe Friday.
IMG_0009.jpg
Untitled.jpg
 

xp29

BD.org Addict
Photo Comp Winner
Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
The uvb could stand to be pulled forward a little bit, you can turn it diagonal to clear the basking bulb dome. Being on top of the screen i would give her something to be able to get to about 12 inches under the uvb. Also I'm still skeptical if she is star gazing, i think it's just their head and neck when it is star gazing, she is stretching up towards the uvb on her front legs, try getting her closer to it. They are really good at knowing what light they need follow her lead.
 

xp29

BD.org Addict
Photo Comp Winner
Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
Also her basking temps need to be 105 to 110. You need a digital probe thermometer to get accurate reading. You can pick one up at petsmart or petco for about 10 to 15 bucks, it don't hurt to have a second one on the cool side so you get an accurate picture of her temperature gradient. The ur guns are nit 100 percent accurate on all materials.
 

KyleA

Member
Original Poster
The uvb could stand to be pulled forward a little bit, you can turn it diagonal to clear the basking bulb dome. Being on top of the screen i would give her something to be able to get to about 12 inches under the uvb. Also I'm still skeptical if she is star gazing, i think it's just their head and neck when it is star gazing, she is stretching up towards the uvb on her front legs, try getting her closer to it. They are really good at knowing what light they need follow her lead.
I'll try and grab her a little something just to get a little higher, and that's what I thought originally too she was just trying to soak in the light but she does it in her hides too, and even throughout the night. She'll sleep all night just like how she's doing in that picture. I just don't understand what's different now than before. She only started doing this after she got home from the vet.
 

xp29

BD.org Addict
Photo Comp Winner
Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
It may be a reaction to the meds maybe.
I hope it turns out to be nothing, they are precious little things.
 

Members online

Still Needs Help

Latest resources

Latest posts

Latest profile posts

I miss you so much, Amaris 💔
What is a quick way to warm up a cold beardie? His heating element went out overnight and now he's very cold.
Pearl Girl wrote on moorelori1966's profile.
i feel so sad reading your about me 😢
Clapton is acclimating okay I think. He's quick as lightning so I'm not sure how much I should bring him out of his house yet. He's not at all interested in his salad though. I wonder if I should change what I'm giving him. Least he's eating his crickets.

Things to do:
Buy calcium powder
Material to raise surface for basking spot
Scenery decals for back of tank

Forum statistics

Threads
155,897
Messages
1,255,656
Members
75,965
Latest member
williamyoung
Top Bottom