11 month old don’t understand how she got sick so fast

[Jenjen725]

Sorry for a long post..
So Saturday morning I noticed pickle looked like she was gaping oddly. I watched her close and she gasped for air so freaked out and called her vet. They had me rush her right in. Pickle was just about 11 months, 40 gal breeder Arcadia 12% uvb basking was about 108 hot 85 cool about 75 with a hide. Not too big on her greens still but she would eat a few bite of it everyday. Dubia, BSFL and she did love her supers and I did spoil her with them maybe too much. So we got her to the vet she said she didn’t see any signs of respiratory issues and did an X-ray. When she came back out she said she had a breathing episode and her heart rate dropped from 100 to 50, they had her on oxygen and she was barley stable for about 2 hours. X-rays showed nothing wrong respiratory or gut wise they did say her heart looked a little enlarged but not anything to be concerned about. IStat blood work showed a low red cell count of 12 so she said internal bleeding (again nothing on X-ray) or in rare cases leukemia?! So after oxygen and not knowing what was wrong she lost brain function and we had to send her over the rainbow bridge. It’s killing me that she’s gone and I don’t even know why. She went through a small brumation late nov in and out for about 2 weeks and has been up active eating and doing good I’m just at a loss. I should have did an autopsy so I could know but I felt bad and checked no. She was my first dragon and also was super sick with coccidia last April and we got through it I thought I was gonna have her for years. Anyone else go through something similar? What are the chances she had leukemia? She was a bad buy from petsmart so didn’t come from the best place either. I want to make sure I didn’t do anything wrong or at least be able to learn from it bc I’d do anything for my babies

 

[Badwolfe]

Whilst rare in dragons leukemia isn't unheard of. From what you've said in your post your husbandry sounds ok. The tests showed she wasn't impacted and that her respitory system was fine. I'm pretty sure if any other problems apart from the red blood cell count had shown up the vet would have mentioned it to you.

I think, horrible as it is, you just got unlucky and that she has succumbed to an illness that had nothing to do with her care. I know when things like this happen you go through all the 'what ifs' and question yourself over whether it was your fault but in the case of leukemia there was nothing you could have done to cause it and nothing you could have done differently to save her from it.

Don't let this put you off getting another Bearded Dragon in the future because this situation is something that is highly unlikely to occur again

 

[Jenjen725]

Whilst rare in dragons leukemia isn't unheard of. From what you've said in your post your husbandry sounds ok. The tests showed she wasn't inpacted and that her respitory system was fine. I'm pretty sure if any other problems apart from the red blood cell count had shown up the vet would have mentioned it to you.

I think, horrible as it is, you just got unlucky and that she has succumbed to an illness that had nothing to do with her care. I know when things like this happen you go through all the 'what ifs' and question yourself over whether it was your fault but in the case of leukemia there was nothing you could have done to cause it and nothing you could have done differently to save her from it.

Don't let this put you off getting another Bearded Dragon in the future because this situation is something that is highly unlikely to occur again

Thank you so much. I keep going through everything in my mind trying to figure it out. It most definitely scares me from getting another one bc I just want to give the best to my babies and would never want to see that again, it was terrifying. Staring at this empty tank in my bedroom is killing me though. The vet said it was nothing we did either but still I always second guess everything.