A normally active beardy very lethargic

[katluka]

Yesterday we noticed that our male bearded dragon - Constantine - was not his self. He normally is a fiesty little thing, rather active, with a good appetite for his crickets and vegetables.

However yesterday we notice that he had drapped himself over his basking point, and was not moving all that much. He was not interested in having any food - vegetables, crickets or the dandelion we tried to give to him - which is very rare for him. Taking him out of his tank we notice that he was weaken (like I said normally quite fiesty) and moved a lot slower when on the ground.

This morning his condition seemed a bit worse. We managed to give him some water to re-hydrate his - as he had spent the whole night under his lamp.

He is approximately one year old - but we have only had him for 2 months. His weight is 150g. Length nose to tail is approx 30cm.

His tank is 40h x 40d x60l cm. Basking temperature 35 degree C. Cool end 27 degree C. We rearranged his tank on Saturday, and included a new plastic plant, which was washed before is was put in, and it doesn't seem to be melted or pieces missing.

Normal food is 10-15 med crikets and 3/4 a cup bok choy with beardy pellets per day. Crickets are dusted with calicum and vitamins.

UV lamp is less then 2 months old. And he passed poop yesterday, but nothing yet today.

Our female beardy - Augustina - also a year old but a lot bigger and kept in a separate tank seems fine.

We are taking him to the vet this morning, but has anyone seen anything like this before?

 

[katluka]

I just got back from the reptile vet and had to get the little guy admitted. The vet said she could feel a pea-sized lump in his abdomen, which feels as though its in his intestines. So potentially he ate something which he wasn't supposed to whilst on one of his afternoon scampers on the floor.

He is going to have an x-ray, blood test, antibiotics and maybe low dose painkillers. We should hear back from the vet in the next hour. *fingers crossed that everything will be okay*

 

[mickeysmomma]

Awww...good luck with him. Glad you took him to the vet. Keep us posted!

What is his substrate?

 

[katluka]

Thanks MickeysMomma. We keep him on newspaper. We chose to do it that way so we could monitor his faeces and minimize the chance of impaction - it also makes it easier to clean. We are planning on moving him onto sand when he is a bit bigger. Our other lizard is on sand and loves the burrowing, she has also toilet trained herself - only going when she is sitting outside on our patio - so cleaning is not a problem.

I just heard back from the vet and unfortunately its not good. The object could not be picked up on a x-ray, so they performed an ultrasound. Turns out it was a fluid filled cyst. He also has fluid in his abdomen, which they aspirated off and found both gram negative and gram positive bacteria in. So it looks like he has a gut perforation. The bacterial infection has also moved to the blood - but looks to only be the gram negatives. So he is going to stay in-care at the vet and be on three different strong antibiotics, and fluid to keep him hydrated. It's not 100% if he will make it, but we are trying to be hopefully.

However the vet would like to take him into surgery, to see if they can find the perforation in his bowel. He isn't strong enough to survive that yet. But we shall cross that bridge when we come to that.

They aren't sure what caused it. And it is likely that whatever it was happened a few days before the symptoms showed.

But he is a little fighter, so hopefully he will get through this. :roll:

 

[beardie parents]

I'm sorry, that sounds bad. I hope he gets better.

 

[katluka]

It's been a week since Constantine's surgery, and I'm very please to say that the little guy has beaten the odds and has pulled through okay.

During the exploratory surgery they found a piece of tissue (~ pea sized) which wasn't attached to anything in his abdomen. Under the microscope they could see that it contained a significant amount of bacteria. It's been sent away to have pathology testing on it to ensure that its not a tumor. So from the looks of it the problem was that he had a cyst in his abdomen (which was probably there when we bought him) which somehow ruptured.

They also noticed that he was starting to form a fatty liver, which means he has to cut down on the number of crickets that he consumes.

At the moment we are still tube feeding him (just so he gets enough nutrients to heal properly) and his is on two types of antibiotics and an anti-yeast. Today is his first day without painkillers, so he seems a little quieter then what he has been.

So except from the 4cm scar on his belly, Constantine is expected to make a full recovery!

 

[beardie parents]

Thanks for that update! We are really glad to hear he's doing soo well.