12 Week Old Beardie Seriously Ill!

[RaychelNicole.]

I have a 12 week old bearded dragon who is displaying some very concerning symptoms. Some of them make me think of MBD, but he seems to have gotten whatever he has very fast, and he gets RepCal+D3 and has a few week old ReptiSun 10.0 tube light over his cage as well as a white heat bulb.
I see him leaning with his head tilted to the side, he is sometimes off balance, has very jerky movements when he tries to walk, and usually just ends up running is circles before having what I can only describe as a seizure. Jerking his head up and rolling over and over, and flailing around. He has not been eating on his own, but I have been trying to feed him a mixture of babyfood, water, pedialyte, Repcal+D3, Herptivite, and Zilla Jump-start for the past week. He is however pretty underweight inspite of this. I also give him daily baths and today I added some pedialyte into the water for him.
I know the best thing would be to get him into the vet's office, but I called twice today, and they refuse to see him until October 17th, and I don't think he can go on 10 more days like this. I told them how he was underweight, and convulsing/seizuring, but they said there was nothing they could do until the 17th, but reccomend us to the Emergency Vet, who will only see dogs and cats.
Please if anyone has any thoughts on what this could be, or what I can do to help my baby, I could really use some help! Also, if anyone knows of any good reptile vets in the Severn, Maryland area, please let me know. I do not know of any that have doctors who know beardies besides Greater Annapolis Veterinary Hospital, and I can't wait 10 days to go to them.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Well, that could also be a viral or bacterial infection. What is your humidity in the tank?
How do you measure the temps in your tank & what are your temps? What sized tank is he in?
How often are you giving the calcium with D3?
How do his eyes look, bright or sunken in?

Tracie

 

[RaychelNicole.]

Hi,
I am not sure of the exact humidity; I know it's pretty low. There is a small and very shallow water dish on the cool side of the tank that does provide some humidity, and he is able to drink/soak on his own if he wants. I measure the temps with a temp-gun. The cool side temps are 82, hot side are 109.5, and right now he is sitting on the floor where the temp is 87.5. His head is up, but tilted to his right side. He is only in a 15 gallon tank, which I know is too small. I am going to move him into my spare 40 gallon breeder, and section some of it off so he is not overwhelmed by so much space.
When he was eating on his own, I'd give him the Repcal+D3 everyday he ate (sometimes he'd skip a day), and he got some pheonix worms along with his other feeders a few days a week. Right now his eyes look bright, and he seems pretty alert, but he does not always have his eyes open, and he does not have much fat pad on top of his eyes anymore.
I'm not sure how he would have gotten an infection if that's what it is, unless he got it from the petstore. Neither of my older dragons are sick, but they have never been in the same room. He has been in quarentine since the time I brought him home, which has proven to be a good idea.

 

[K9KidsLove]

Hi...Sorry your baby isn't feeling well.
Check Herpvetconnection.com for a reptile vet in your area.
Good luck
Patsy

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Ok good you are using a temp gun.
Sometimes too low of humidity can cause balance issues. Can you get a hygrometer to see what the humidity is? Perhaps you could move the water dish over towards the warm end so it will evaporate moisture into the tank more.
Are you giving vitamins weekly as well?
The pads on top of his head are indicative of fat & water stores, so we do need to get them filled in.

Let me know how he is doing.

Tracie

 

[rarebit_vision]

hi ..........i noticed you are in maryland there is a great reptile vet in westminster md who could prob see you beardie right away it is the vet i take foxy to and i really like him here is the info


feathers scales and tales
dr. thomas ryan
410-876-0244

hope this helps and i hope your beardie gets better

 

[RaychelNicole.]

K9KidsLove: Hi, thank you for the website, I will check there and see if I can find another good vet.

Drache613: Yes, I have a hygrometer that I use for my snakes. I can use that one to check the humidity in his enclosure. I will move the water dish over onto the warm side of the tank and put the hygrometer in there tomorrow when he wakes up. Yes, I was giving him Herptivite multi-vitamin 3 or 4 times a week, and now I put it in the Baby food mix to try and make sure he is still getting his vitamins. I'm not too sure about how to fill up his fat pads again, because he is not really eating, even when I use the syringe and babyfood mixture. Today he wouldn't really lick too much off his nose, so I got the very tip of the syringe in the side of his mouth and got him to take a little more that way, but I am not sure how much I should be giving at one sitting. I don't want to give too much because of his size, and because he hasn't been eating very well. When I went up to turn off his lights, he was still sitting on the bottom of his enclosure, and his eyes were both open, but his head was still tilted to the side.

rarebit_vision: Thank you for the name of your vet's office. I will definetly try to find out exactly where he is and see if I can give him a call tomorrow and maybe get an appointment for my baby.