Advice for our new adoptee

[Embee]

Hello all,

Been awhile since I've been on this board! We adopted a beardie today from some people we know, and were surprised to find when we went to pick him up that he is a bit of a rescue. Was hoping to get some advice as to how to care for our new dear boy.

Spike is roughly about 4 years old, and from the looks of it, typical story: got off to a rocky start and never quite grew to his full glory. He's 18 inches, but to be sure: 10-11 inches of that is tail. He's a bit skinny, but not horribly thin, and his tail base looks sturdy so something to be thankful for there. His proportions are definitely "off" i.e., his head is too big for his body, just has that funky out of proportion look that beardies get when they don't get enough feeders early on. I got so used to seeing this guy for a few hours that when we got home and saw Cloudy basking away, he looked enormous!

The main concern at present is his right eye. It's closed most of the time, and when he does care to open it, it's fairly well clouded. According to the people we adopted him from (who adopted him a couple of years back), it's been like this for some time. He was under a Repti-Glo 8.0, so not the worst, but not the best either. His other eye looks perfect, so my guess is that this is something that happened some time ago, before they had him, so I'm not sure that there is anything I can do at this point. Suggestions?

He's in a 55 gallon which for his size should be fine. Because I'm leery of all MVBs right now, I'm ordering him a ReptiSun 10.0 tube, so that should be here in a few days. My guess is that it might be best just to suspend the UVB lighting until we get the ReptiSun, or if you think there is hope for the eye, perhaps longer? His tank set up needs a good cleaning, and the basking bulb needs to come down in wattage, so that's easy enough. Was glad to hear that they were giving him [more or less] regular baths.

One more question is his femoral pores, they protrude quite a lot -- very different from Cloudy's which are definitely present but less pronounced. Anything to be concerned about there?

Upside: he is alert, active and exploring his new home, and the eye that is open? Is gorgeous (copper color, amazing)! When we picked him up he was all black beard, but after an hour long car ride with my son doting on him, the beard has been put away for now. His coloring, overall, looks very good.

Many thanks for advice and suggestions!

Best,
Em

 

[Beardednoob]

Hello all,

Been awhile since I've been on this board! We adopted a beardie today from some people we know, and were surprised to find when we went to pick him up that he is a bit of a rescue. Was hoping to get some advice as to how to care for our new dear boy.

Spike is roughly about 4 years old, and from the looks of it, typical story: got off to a rocky start and never quite grew to his full glory. He's 18 inches, but to be sure: 10-11 inches of that is tail. He's a bit skinny, but not horribly thin, and his tail base looks sturdy so something to be thankful for there. His proportions are definitely "off" i.e., his head is too big for his body, just has that funky out of proportion look that beardies get when they don't get enough feeders early on. I got so used to seeing this guy for a few hours that when we got home and saw Cloudy basking away, he looked enormous! When I see this I think of lack of proteins when young and or insufficient UV

The main concern at present is his right eye. It's closed most of the time, and when he does care to open it, it's fairly well clouded. According to the people we adopted him from (who adopted him a couple of years back), it's been like this for some time. He was under a Repti-Glo 8.0, so not the worst, but not the best either. His other eye looks perfect, so my guess is that this is something that happened some time ago, before they had him, so I'm not sure that there is anything I can do at this point. Suggestions? May be from his old UV source, the ReptiGlo has been causing some eye issues. This far along I am unsure if it can ever be normal per say. You can try contact safe eye drops or a saline solution, drop 1-2 drops in the eye a day to relieve any discomfort it may be in.

He's in a 55 gallon which for his size should be fine. Because I'm leery of all MVBs right now, I'm ordering him a ReptiSun 10.0 tube, so that should be here in a few days. My guess is that it might be best just to suspend the UVB lighting until we get the ReptiSun, or if you think there is hope for the eye, perhaps longer? His tank set up needs a good cleaning, and the basking bulb needs to come down in wattage, so that's easy enough. Was glad to hear that they were giving him [more or less] regular baths. Under good or actual UV (sun rays) he should be fine, I would leave the UV off for no more then 5 days, if you decide on this route.

One more question is his femoral pores, they protrude quite a lot -- very different from Cloudy's which are definitely present but less pronounced. Anything to be concerned about there?Could be due to his lack of weight.

Upside: he is alert, active and exploring his new home, and the eye that is open? Is gorgeous (copper color, amazing)! When we picked him up he was all black beard, but after an hour long car ride with my son doting on him, the beard has been put away for now. His coloring, overall, looks very good.Would love some pictures :wink:

Many thanks for advice and suggestions!

Best,
Em

Best of luck to you and your new dragon, I sincerely hope everything works out the best possible way.

 

[MissT]

Sometimes femoral pores get 'stuck' - Huffs protruded a lot when we rescued him. Regular baths helped to soften and clear them - I bathed him daily until they looked normal. But then, as Michael said, it could just be his weight.

Reptiglo 8.0 were discontinued about 3 years ago so im curious as to how long that light was in there!

Was he on any loose substrate? That can cause eye problems. Just do what Michael said and that should help it out.... do you have a photo of the eye that you could post here?

Good luck with getting him healthy!

T

 

[Embee]

Thanks so much for the feedback! Everything that's been offered is right in line with my own instincts, but this being our first rescue, thought it better to get some general thoughts and experiences. It's been awhile since we nursed Cloudy out of a bad lighting situation (compact :roll: ), and he has done so well... this little guy obviously didn't share the same fate, but he's seems a happy little guy, and we're anxious to do whatever we can for him.

I too was surprised when I saw the ReptiGlo 8.0! :shock: I know there were some here and about for awhile, and the owner did replace it herself at one time, but that means that it could be up to a year or more old. *sigh* I'm leaving it off for now, and when I get the ReptiSun 10.0 later in the week, I'll connect it right up. My feeling is the eye has been long gone for awhile, and being that the other is seemingly ok, the ReptiGlo 8.0 wasn't the light that did the damage (guessing something early on with the original owner). I'm going to keep the eye clean, just the same and see what happens. I'm anxious to get a sense of his appetite and so on, see if I can get some weight on him... don't suppose at this age there is chance for growth but here's hoping. He's been eating sups and crx (fruit, squash and romaine [which we'll remedy with mustards and collards of course]), and I'm also going to order him some phoenix worms, and see if it doesn't give him a lift.

No loose substrate with current owner, but who knows before that. He was on carpet (and now here on carpet/tile). Gave everything a huge cleaning, including the carpet and we're setting up his enclosure right now. They hadn't been gauging temps or humidity and had a 150w bulb in 55 gallon (eek), so making sure he's hydrated. I switched out the 150w basking to a 65w spot, and a 30w mini flood for the cool side -- much lighter and brighter than they're set up... I have a thing about cheery enclosures!! The temps are looking good so far.

He is a dear little thing. Will post pics at my earliest convenience!

Thanks again, and anything else you can think of to do... I'm all ears (uh, eyes).

Best,
Em

 

[Beardednoob]

Instead of reptiworms cause he is larger and those worms would be a handful at a time to feed him. You may look into butterworms. :wink:

 

[Embee]

Oooh, great idea... they have a good deal of calcium content as well, and of course, are bigger. This guy is little, but his head size suggests that he could manage butters just fine... and that they are a bit higher in fat/calorie content, well, he could BOTH right now, I'm sure!

Thanks for the suggestion.



Em

 

[Embee]

ReptiSun on the way! Butters (and fresh supers) on the way!

Getting ready to make him a nice breakfast of mustard greens and fruit. Will cleanse his eye with some saline a bit later, and then perhaps later after that, a nice bath. I'm thinking having been in a 55 gallon under a 150w basking bulb, he could be dehydrated...

Still working on getting the temp gradient correct. I have a 60w on him right now, and can't quite get it high enough (upper eighties). I want to raise the basking area a touch, but also would like it a bit brighter in there -- so going to try a 75w later, and see how that does. I've also installed a supplement bulb on the cool side which seems to be working very well (78-80 degrees). This boy hasn't had proper lighting for the duration. Hoping it will at least make his eye more comfortable, if not heal it a bit. We'll see.

Will keep ya'll posted!

Best,
Em

 

[Embee]

Well, he wasn't much interested in the veggies/fruit, but did eat a little applesauce. He seemed so listless though and I was worried, so I tried some supers, and he was happy about that. Fed him 7-8 with vitamins (they were giving him only calcium, so I figured he could use some vites). He pooped earlier today, and it was pretty runny, greenish, a tinge of urate but mostly straight watery substance there. It didn't smell particularly bad, but I'm going to keep an eye on it, because it didn't look text book. If he's eating well, but not gaining, well then... we know what that's about. Was glad his appetite was hardy, although he does have a bit of a difficult time reaching for the worms -- the one eye being damaged, his depth perception is not the best, but as tough beardies do, he managed.

Has been basking most of the day, black beard on and off, but seems comfortable enough. He's such a wisp of a thing! I went to pick up Cloudy earlier, I thought, "Jeez, you're a heavy one." He gave me the stink eye of course.

Mostly, just trying to leave Spike to his basking, not handle him too much while he gets used to his new environment. We did give him a bath after the poop -- messy, and I wanted to make sure he was hydrated. Tried to give him oral H2O but he wasn't interested.

Okay, that's the update for now. I'd say things are looking okay for now... I think it's just an upgraded husbandry/TLC/wait and see operation with this guy...

Em

 

[Beardednoob]

You can try Repta Aid to help put back vital nutrients and help with hydration. About 12$ for a pack of it, just mix with water and feed through the provided syringe. :wink:
I would love to see pictures of him when he gets more comfortable with his surroundings.

 

[Embee]

My time is short today, but had to log on and give an update...

We're seeing MUCH LESS of the black beard today, and... (drum roll please) MUCH MORE of the closed/clouded eye! He's even cocking his head to that side, as if he's seeing a bit out of it, or trying to. Maybe there is hope for that eye yet?!.



Took some pics yesterday. Will try to get them loaded up later today.

Okay, back to the million things I need to accomplish today!

Best,
Em

 

[Beardednoob]

That is great, I hope his eye recovers at the very least with some vision. I sincerely hope for the best. :wink:

 

[Embee]

Thanks, Michael!

Well... as promised, pics of our dear boy:

In the viv (good eye side) -- black beard all day yesterday, but not so much today!

Top view -- little boy for 3-4 years old, eh?

My name is Spike, and my head is too big for my body. *sigh* (I noticed he prefers to have it resting on something most of the time)

Poor right eye, but open quite a bit today, so we'll see.

Have noticed today that the tip of his mouth does not close all the way, and so, as is typical, the tip of his tongue looks a bit funky/dried out. I know others have had this issue with a MBD beardie. Other than that, he seems to get very excited about feeders, but I'm careful not to overdo because I don't think he's used to having too much in one sitting. We'll take it gradually, of course.

Will make updates as there is something to report!

So appreciate all the help and support.

Best,
Em

 

[Beardednoob]

Have you received/ordered butterworms yet?
I think he looks better then the picture I had of him in my head. He has a good tail base.

 

[Embee]

Butter received today. Planning to feed in the am.

His tail base IS good, and that was very encouraging, despite the other issues. I'm hoping that the new diet and husbandry will help with the low weight, and who knows, he might even grow into his head someday? He is definitely weak, doesn't like to have to hold up that head for long at all--top heavy little dude. Hope that even if he doesn't grow in length, that putting weight on will help balance him out a bit. He definitely looks out of proportion...

His bad eye has been open more and more, and I even noticed him attempting to track with it today, so I think he has at least a little sight there... but to see him try and grab the worms, well, it's clear he's not seeing very well at all from that side.

ReptiSuns should be here in a day or two, but thankfully, we've had lovely weather this week, and he's gotten some good real UV time each day, and we'll continue with that.

Thanks again!

Em

 

[Beardednoob]

This is great. I love positive progress. Please keep us updated. I think about this guy each day and it is good to hear about him. :wink: