Forgive me if this is posted elsewhere, but I cannot find any other threads where anemia is treated with Baytril.
I got my girl Shenron from my sister in 2021. In that time, I have learned a lot. We gradually went on a diet with assistance from her vet because, as an adult BD, she was being given too many bugs. She has lost 41 grams since I first got her, and is currently 531 grams. She's still a big girl, but we're working on it.
Shenron started showing signs of illness about a month ago. She became lethargic and would not eat anything besides super worms. Her tongue and gums became extremely pale. I started using worms to trick her into eating her greens. She is on a calcium with/without D3 and vitamin regimen (vitamins once a week, calcium with and without D3 the rest of the week, not combined with vitamins.)
I took Shenron to an exotics vet this past Monday (it's Friday now). It took a while because they only have one exotics vet in their office and he was extremely booked up, but I got her in as soon as I knew something was wrong. They ran a fecal and a basic blood panel. She has some pinworms, but not a high amount. She is, however, anemic. The vet advised it may be due to an infection, but did not indicate what kind and did not seem to stress any urgency in her current situation. He said she was a "fine specimen" and well cared for, and otherwise healthy. She is approx. 9 years old.
Her vet gave her a dose of wormer but did not send me home with any. Her vet also prescribed her Baytril. He did not have the liquid, so he told me to quarter the 22mg chewable tablets, mix with a small amount of water, and administer via syringe every other day. He also suggested to feed her Kaytee baby bird hand feeding formula, as she is not currently eating much due to her lethargy. As BD's are omnivores, I reached out to a reptile specialist for a second opinion and she advised to give her Critical Care Omnivore formula instead, so I have been creating a slurry of that plus collard greens/dandelion greens + a small amount of her calcium.
The vet she is seeing does not seem super knowledgeable about BD's - he gave me a LOT of dated husbandry and care advice that I will not be following. We are re-testing her blood at the same clinic Sept 15th, but I will be taking her elsewhere for treatment if her red blood cell count is still low. In the meantime, I will be bringing her to a different exotics vet who seems to be more qualified to treating reptiles for yet another opinion and a full blood panel with organ function.
Temps and husbandry info are all on my profile, but to my understanding, she is all good there. Since her calcium and phos levels were good, the vet advised that her husbandry is not the issue. I just need to know if this treatment plan sounds solid to you guys. Has anyone else had a dragon bounce back from anemia? What was the cause and treatment plan?
I know a lot about these guys, but I am not a vet and I don't see anything online about treating anemia as an infection with Baytril, and I am scared that if this is not the correct plan, she will suffer for longer and won't recover.
I am bringing her to the other vet next week. It was the soonest we could be seen.
Money is no object. She is my everything and I will do anything it takes to get her better, even if it means opening up a line of credit and maxing a card out. I don't care. I just want to help her. Seeing her so sick and lethargic breaks my heart.
Thank you all in advance. I sincerely hope I am doing the right thing for her. I'm doing everything I possibly can, and I am being extremely careful with the advice I take. I remember how I almost ran out of money and was looking for ways to earn it on the Internet. I didn't want to invest much and was looking for a game where you can make a deposit from 2 dollars. Then I came across
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) - but I have seen regarding when I had to rehome other pets (hermit crabs*) that many possible new owners tried to talk about "but they can also live on pellets, or?" (often these were the same people who said they "don't need" the tank as they "already have one"... half the size), as they found it complicated to feed fresh veggies... likely as they don't buy them for their own meals.
