4 Weeks Without Eating- Vet No Help

[Mirrorakay]

Four weeks ago my beardie went off his food. Zeke has always had a habit of eating well for a few weeks and then ignoring food for a few days before going back to eating. Unfortunately this is turning a real concern. In the last four weeks Zeke has eaten maybe 20 live feeders and a few bites of salad. That's it. He also spends about five days out of the week camped out in his cave, sleeping. His head and tail are dull. Zeke's scales have been that was for about two or three months with no sign of actually shedding off.

The first week I mostly left him alone. The second week I tried messing with his temps, adding a fourth bath into the week, and mixing up his food. The third week I caved and took him to the vet. Zeke was prescribed something to stimulate his appetite and raised the humidity in his enclosure to 40%; neither made a difference. We are now on week four and I'm completely lost as to what is going on.

I'll run down my care.
Age: 2 years
Basking Spot: 100-103 F
Warm Side: Around 90 F
Cool Side: 75-80 F
Night Temps: 68 F
Salads (different mix offered daily): Mustard greens, collards, endive, turnip greens, butternut squash, okra, mango, and papaya.
Live feeders (between 35 and 50 a week based on size): Hornworms, butterworms, superworms, waxworms (rarely).
Weight: 1.1 lbs -- I don't have a weight from before he stopped eating, but I don't notice any weight loss.
Last Shed: October -- I don't know why he isn't shedding the dull scales
Vet checked the last poo Zeke had and there were no parasites.
Baths: 3-4 time a week, 15-20 minutes at a time
UVB: Repti-Sun 10.0 ~4.5 months old
Supplements: Calcium w/ D3 and Multivitamin. He gets the calcium 4x per week and the Muti 2x per week.

I called my vet today to let them know Zeke was sleeping more than before I brought him in and their only suggestion was to feed Zeke a pinkie. I'm not even sure how that makes sense and I'm not inclined to take his advice.

One thing I'm wondering is if Zeke could be going into brumation, even if it is the wrong time of year. About 4-5 weeks ago we had air conditioning installed and got rid of our swamp cooler. Our house is now averaging cooler temps (I fought to get Zeke's temps right the first few days) so I'm not sure if that could have done it. Last year Zeke went into brumation in November and came out late February.

Please, ANY help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

 

[Mirrorakay]

I forgot to mention that Zeke went off his live feeders about a week before he went of his salads.

 

[BeardieGrandma]

If you did a fecal and he's clear of parasites then he very well could be brumating. Mine went into semi-brumation last summer and woke up all randy in December. Be sure to keep him hydrated with a bath couple times a week while he's not eating.

Get your cool side up to mid80s.
um yeah, pinkie is not going to cure him. (what are they thinking)
Try some babyfood as well if you want to get some nourishment in him. He might be bored with worms. Mine ate supers and crickets and abruptly stopped both for 8 months. In the meantime I fed her dubias and babyfood and now she eats them all again. I swore off crickets but broke down after several months of trying to get her to eat and bought some on a whim. She ate them like crazy.

She put me through this same not eating snoozing all day bs for 5 months. I worried about her constantly, kept weighing her (she lost about 30 grams - and she was fattypants so that was ok) -i wasnt making sure there wasnt 'dramatic' weight loss.

This year she didnt brumate over summer (so far anyway) - but she settled down considerably after 3 months of spring fever. Mine is 2 yrs old.

good luck w/your dragon

 

[Mirrorakay]

My main concern is that he came out of brumation in February and it seems mighty early to be brumating again. However, I know our house cooled down thanks to the air conditioning and my parents have been keeping the blinds closed in the room he is in.

I'll up the cool side.

I figured as much.

I thought that Zeke might be bored of worms which is why I got crickets for him. He ignored them completely. Instead of watching them with interest, he closed his eyes everytime one came by him. I may pick up some baby food since he is still licking things off his lips if I give him stuff that way.

 

[BeardieGrandma]

Yeah it is a little early for him to want to brumate again.

Its a process of elimination I think. You mentioned your UVB is 4.5 mos old, maybe get a new one and see if that helps as well?
When mine was doing all this not eating thing giving her babyfood made me feel better than benefit her I think LOL, but it's good to get something in him. Can you get him outside for some natural sunlight?

 

[Mirrorakay]

Thing is, when Zeke started this, the UVB wasn't even four months old yet.

I've been taking Zeke out for about a half hour three times a week. It seems to wake him up when I take him out, but a few times he has fallen asleep on me.

 

[Mirrorakay]

Well, I warmed up the cool side of tank; it now hovers between 83-85 F depending upon how warm the house is. As of now Zeke is pretty persistently sleeping. He only wakes up if I bathe him and insists on going right back to sleep afterwards. When he is awake, he is groggy, but alert. For now I'm just going to go with assumption that he is brumating. I am going to weigh him frequently to watch for noticable weight loss, which is the best thing I think I can do given the situation.