thecatinator
Member
Here is a long post about our bearded dragon, Phil (it's a girl). We're running out of options and wanted to see what you guys think...
Gender: Female
Age: 2 years
Weight: 308 grams
Tank: 18" x 36" x 12"
UVB: Zoo Med Repti Sun 10.0 UVB
Substrate: Paper Towels
Ceramic Heat Lamp
2 Basking Lamps
Lights on from 6am to 8pm
Temperatures between 85-105 during the day
Temperatures between 80-85 during the night
Humidity bewteen 30-50%
Meet Phil
For the last 2 months she has been very ill. However, her medical story starts long before that.
We adopted Phil last year on October 15th, 2017. She is on the small side and was somehow incredibly stinky. We gave her her first bath and tended to her with the love and care she deserves. She was a picky eater and wouldn't eat her veggies (even with bee pollen) but did enjoy the occasional blueberry. As such, she primarily ate bugs (with plenty of calcium), some combination of Dubia Roaches, Super Worms, Black Soldier Fly Larvae, and Hornworms.
This continued until March 14th, 2018. We took her to the vet and she broke her jaw there. An abscess in her mouth ruptured so she was on calcium supplements and syringe fed. Her blood tests came back fine but her cultures came back with bacteria so she was put on antibiotics. Luckily, her jaw healed and the bacteria infection was conquered as well!
Phil at the Vet
Phil feeling better and going outside!
Around late April, Phil started slowing down and went into brumation. This is when things really started going downhill. During her brumation, we offered her salad and bugs but she barely ate throughout it. For awhile, we believed this was normal. Eventually, she stopped eating completely and we continued to periodically syringe feed her Critical Care. She lost a lot of weight and would only poop once a month or so. The vet recommended for us to push her out of brumation in July by extending the duration her lights are on, bathing her everyday, and feeding her everyday.
So I began to do this. Another vet visit in August determined that she has thickened veins around her heart, she was positive for multiple different bacteria cultures, and had a respiratory infection. On top of this, Phil broke her jaw again after chomping down on the syringe. As such, the vet prescribed the following:
Injections:
2mL Reptile Fluid + Baytril (Baytril every other day) - .13mL
Meloxicam
Oral:
Enalapril (heart medication) - .07mL
Calcium - .13mL
Diet:
Critical Care Fine Ground
Reptacare
2-3mL a day
Daily:
10-15 minute warm soak
Poops while feeding her
Our sick little dragon
Some progress was made and she started gaining weight (from 288g - 308g). She even began to poop regularly and was awake throughout the day. Unfortunately, this started happening just last Saturday on 9/8/2018.
Video of her stargazing and attempting to do the running motion.
https://imgur.com/UdhZ9ID
I can no longer leave her unattended because this has happened a few times:
I added Vitamin B12 injections and am continuing to syringe feed her. Unfortunately she's not really eating anymore and I can only get her to eat .5mL or so a day. She freaks out and runs around even in her sleep. Now she is doing this constantly and only has a few hours a day where she's not suddenly running around and stargazing for no reason.
I took her to the vet and the vet stated this might be Atadenovirus or she might've had a stroke and suggested euthanasia. What do you guys think? Is there anything else we should try before considering euthanasia?
Edit: At the most recent trip to the vet, the vet said that her upper jaw is still infected with bacteria. Another vet I took Phil to suggested a different antibiotic since this bacteria might be resistant to Baytril but I wanted to wait till I took her to her main vet only a few days later.
Edit: Uploaded a video of one of her minor "spasms". She'll do this for a minute or so every few minutes and she'll do this to the point of flipping over onto her back.
https://imgur.com/PDJCvzn
Gender: Female
Age: 2 years
Weight: 308 grams
Tank: 18" x 36" x 12"
UVB: Zoo Med Repti Sun 10.0 UVB
Substrate: Paper Towels
Ceramic Heat Lamp
2 Basking Lamps
Lights on from 6am to 8pm
Temperatures between 85-105 during the day
Temperatures between 80-85 during the night
Humidity bewteen 30-50%
Meet Phil
For the last 2 months she has been very ill. However, her medical story starts long before that.
We adopted Phil last year on October 15th, 2017. She is on the small side and was somehow incredibly stinky. We gave her her first bath and tended to her with the love and care she deserves. She was a picky eater and wouldn't eat her veggies (even with bee pollen) but did enjoy the occasional blueberry. As such, she primarily ate bugs (with plenty of calcium), some combination of Dubia Roaches, Super Worms, Black Soldier Fly Larvae, and Hornworms.
This continued until March 14th, 2018. We took her to the vet and she broke her jaw there. An abscess in her mouth ruptured so she was on calcium supplements and syringe fed. Her blood tests came back fine but her cultures came back with bacteria so she was put on antibiotics. Luckily, her jaw healed and the bacteria infection was conquered as well!
Phil at the Vet
Phil feeling better and going outside!
Around late April, Phil started slowing down and went into brumation. This is when things really started going downhill. During her brumation, we offered her salad and bugs but she barely ate throughout it. For awhile, we believed this was normal. Eventually, she stopped eating completely and we continued to periodically syringe feed her Critical Care. She lost a lot of weight and would only poop once a month or so. The vet recommended for us to push her out of brumation in July by extending the duration her lights are on, bathing her everyday, and feeding her everyday.
So I began to do this. Another vet visit in August determined that she has thickened veins around her heart, she was positive for multiple different bacteria cultures, and had a respiratory infection. On top of this, Phil broke her jaw again after chomping down on the syringe. As such, the vet prescribed the following:
Injections:
2mL Reptile Fluid + Baytril (Baytril every other day) - .13mL
Meloxicam
Oral:
Enalapril (heart medication) - .07mL
Calcium - .13mL
Diet:
Critical Care Fine Ground
Reptacare
2-3mL a day
Daily:
10-15 minute warm soak
Poops while feeding her
Our sick little dragon
Some progress was made and she started gaining weight (from 288g - 308g). She even began to poop regularly and was awake throughout the day. Unfortunately, this started happening just last Saturday on 9/8/2018.
Video of her stargazing and attempting to do the running motion.
https://imgur.com/UdhZ9ID
I can no longer leave her unattended because this has happened a few times:
I added Vitamin B12 injections and am continuing to syringe feed her. Unfortunately she's not really eating anymore and I can only get her to eat .5mL or so a day. She freaks out and runs around even in her sleep. Now she is doing this constantly and only has a few hours a day where she's not suddenly running around and stargazing for no reason.
I took her to the vet and the vet stated this might be Atadenovirus or she might've had a stroke and suggested euthanasia. What do you guys think? Is there anything else we should try before considering euthanasia?
Edit: At the most recent trip to the vet, the vet said that her upper jaw is still infected with bacteria. Another vet I took Phil to suggested a different antibiotic since this bacteria might be resistant to Baytril but I wanted to wait till I took her to her main vet only a few days later.
Edit: Uploaded a video of one of her minor "spasms". She'll do this for a minute or so every few minutes and she'll do this to the point of flipping over onto her back.
https://imgur.com/PDJCvzn