ShehzainWyvern
Member
- Beardie name(s)
- Perseus "Percy"
Hello,
First of all you can find my husbandry information here:
www.beardeddragon.org
If I'm missing any info just ask and I'll provide it!
My bearded dragon Percy is a little over 4 years old. He has always been very inactive throughout his life- even when given plenty of space to roam and taken outside of the enclosure - he barely made use of the space he does have. That is until his recent mystery illness that has at least two vets (one a reptile specialist) very confused. This is going to be very long so bear with me.
I noticed him gaping while resting on me when I held him back in May, but I didn't see this as a cause for alarm. I figured I was a bit warm and he was just thermoregulating. He didn't do this in his enclosure either, aside from under his basking spot....until July. This is when he started breathing very heavily and would black beard and gasp. I knew I had to take him in at that point. I could also feel him straining his abdominal muscles when holding him as he breathed.
His symptoms are extremely bizarre to say the least. The gasping and black bearding on its own suggests a respiratory infection, but it's usually combined with frantic running across the cage or digging/ glass dancing in the corners, trying to climb up. Ever since this illness began he's been more active than he's ever been in his life (aside from a hatchling). He even jumps at times!
The vet- who is my main vet but isn't a herp specialist, yet does have decent experience...she's the only one in the area as my previous one retired- initially told me his x-rays were very difficult to interpret. Among the theories were respiratory infection, cardiac disease or failure, or something else. Going with the RI theory she prescribed Baytril 2.27%, at 0.2 mL every 24 hours. He was on the full dose of this from 7/30/2022 until 8/8. His last dose was 0.1 mL on August 9th.
Generally while on the Baytril it seemed like his symptoms got a lot worse. He would black beard not just after every time being medicated but also after eating and pooping. This was always combined with black bearding and gasping. During the last few days he's also been doing a weird cough...his body tenses up and he suddenly opens his mouth with a gasp to let out a little noise like a squeak. It's very alarming... He does it at random, usually during the gasping episodes. Of course every time he gets into his overactive mode (usually after eating or pooping) he's prone to doing this.
On the 9th he went back to the vet. Since his condition was worsening she did a blood draw and he also lost a lot of weight- 455 grams down to 435. So now he's on Omnivore Critical Care. He was also dehydrated - I'm not surprised because he was having up to three runny urates a day! I tried to give him as much water by mouth as I could but he just doesn't ever drink on his own so I use a syringe to give it to him. This also seems to stress him out a lot and he'll eventually try to run away and black beard too.
All the while my vet has been consulting with a herp vet an hour and a half away. Who was also confused by the X-rays. To make everything worse, his blood work came back normal so there were zero answers.
This leads us to now. On Friday I took Percy in yet again. She said the only thing she can really do is take another x-ray. She wanted to see if there was any change in the lung area. She had a theory that the black bearding and gasping is actually due to pain from a digestive issue. Also since beardies don't have a diaphragm if their stomach takes up more room it could cause him to gasp. Sure enough the x-ray showed his GI tract was taking up more space than it previously had. So she's thinking he has some kind of partial impaction that is causing him pain and bloating. That or it's cancer...
The worst thing about this is that there's no way of knowing for sure without exploratory surgery. The vet said he'd need to go to a clinic that's a five hour round trip away...it would be super expensive and if it's cancer I'd just have spent thousands of dollars to get a dismal outcome.
I'm totally at a loss. I'm heartbroken.
I've already grieved and prepared myself for his death as a few days ago he was so black that it went all the way up to his neck and shoulder pads, his entire tail tip, pale yellow all over the rest of his body and gasping frantically. He looked exactly like my previous beardie did when he went comatose and we had him euthanized...that's another story but he died of a bacterial infection despite showing essentially no symptoms of illness and ate enthusiastically all the way up to the day before he passed.
What should I do? I'm worried I'm just putting Percy through needless torture and causing him more suffering as the vets can't get a proper diagnosis. I've also spent $850 on all of these issues so far. As much as I wish I could spend thousands on his care, I can't afford it....when I got him I was a bit better off financially, this recession has really hurt my pocketbook. I'm very much living paycheck to paycheck atm....
Please help. :'(
Also I'm not sure if I can get a copy of his x-rays or not if anyone can look at them?
First of all you can find my husbandry information here:
ShehzainWyvern
www.beardeddragon.org
If I'm missing any info just ask and I'll provide it!
My bearded dragon Percy is a little over 4 years old. He has always been very inactive throughout his life- even when given plenty of space to roam and taken outside of the enclosure - he barely made use of the space he does have. That is until his recent mystery illness that has at least two vets (one a reptile specialist) very confused. This is going to be very long so bear with me.
I noticed him gaping while resting on me when I held him back in May, but I didn't see this as a cause for alarm. I figured I was a bit warm and he was just thermoregulating. He didn't do this in his enclosure either, aside from under his basking spot....until July. This is when he started breathing very heavily and would black beard and gasp. I knew I had to take him in at that point. I could also feel him straining his abdominal muscles when holding him as he breathed.
His symptoms are extremely bizarre to say the least. The gasping and black bearding on its own suggests a respiratory infection, but it's usually combined with frantic running across the cage or digging/ glass dancing in the corners, trying to climb up. Ever since this illness began he's been more active than he's ever been in his life (aside from a hatchling). He even jumps at times!
The vet- who is my main vet but isn't a herp specialist, yet does have decent experience...she's the only one in the area as my previous one retired- initially told me his x-rays were very difficult to interpret. Among the theories were respiratory infection, cardiac disease or failure, or something else. Going with the RI theory she prescribed Baytril 2.27%, at 0.2 mL every 24 hours. He was on the full dose of this from 7/30/2022 until 8/8. His last dose was 0.1 mL on August 9th.
Generally while on the Baytril it seemed like his symptoms got a lot worse. He would black beard not just after every time being medicated but also after eating and pooping. This was always combined with black bearding and gasping. During the last few days he's also been doing a weird cough...his body tenses up and he suddenly opens his mouth with a gasp to let out a little noise like a squeak. It's very alarming... He does it at random, usually during the gasping episodes. Of course every time he gets into his overactive mode (usually after eating or pooping) he's prone to doing this.
On the 9th he went back to the vet. Since his condition was worsening she did a blood draw and he also lost a lot of weight- 455 grams down to 435. So now he's on Omnivore Critical Care. He was also dehydrated - I'm not surprised because he was having up to three runny urates a day! I tried to give him as much water by mouth as I could but he just doesn't ever drink on his own so I use a syringe to give it to him. This also seems to stress him out a lot and he'll eventually try to run away and black beard too.
All the while my vet has been consulting with a herp vet an hour and a half away. Who was also confused by the X-rays. To make everything worse, his blood work came back normal so there were zero answers.
This leads us to now. On Friday I took Percy in yet again. She said the only thing she can really do is take another x-ray. She wanted to see if there was any change in the lung area. She had a theory that the black bearding and gasping is actually due to pain from a digestive issue. Also since beardies don't have a diaphragm if their stomach takes up more room it could cause him to gasp. Sure enough the x-ray showed his GI tract was taking up more space than it previously had. So she's thinking he has some kind of partial impaction that is causing him pain and bloating. That or it's cancer...
The worst thing about this is that there's no way of knowing for sure without exploratory surgery. The vet said he'd need to go to a clinic that's a five hour round trip away...it would be super expensive and if it's cancer I'd just have spent thousands of dollars to get a dismal outcome.
I'm totally at a loss. I'm heartbroken.
I've already grieved and prepared myself for his death as a few days ago he was so black that it went all the way up to his neck and shoulder pads, his entire tail tip, pale yellow all over the rest of his body and gasping frantically. He looked exactly like my previous beardie did when he went comatose and we had him euthanized...that's another story but he died of a bacterial infection despite showing essentially no symptoms of illness and ate enthusiastically all the way up to the day before he passed.
What should I do? I'm worried I'm just putting Percy through needless torture and causing him more suffering as the vets can't get a proper diagnosis. I've also spent $850 on all of these issues so far. As much as I wish I could spend thousands on his care, I can't afford it....when I got him I was a bit better off financially, this recession has really hurt my pocketbook. I'm very much living paycheck to paycheck atm....
Please help. :'(
Also I'm not sure if I can get a copy of his x-rays or not if anyone can look at them?
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I also tried gently poking his sides and legs, he'd just give me the evil eye...
I do think he's a bit better but he's far from out of the woods. That and I don't plan on getting another beardie for a while after he does go.... definitely not from PetSmart, I'd probably wait for the right breeder or even a rescue with a good prognosis.
