Baby beardie cricket injury

[saratxgibson]

We could use some help with a tiny little beardie, Smaug, that we bought on 4/10/16 (so just 6 days ago). She weighs 7 grams and isn't yet as long as my hand from tip to tip. I bought her from the pet store and as we were completing the purchase, we noticed that she had a foot that didn't look quite right. It was grayish and thick in appearance while the rest of her body has an orange tone over her creamy color. The salesman said she just wasn't shedding well and to give her 20 minute soaking baths with shed-ease. Tried this over and over, but kept noticing that she had tiny blood spots on it her foot. At home we've noticed that she holds this foot up when she has stopped motion. When she moves again, she will generally still use it.

The pet store had been allowing her to be in a cage with excess crickets so we continued this practice for the first few days. We've learned that this might be the cause of her initial problem and definitely is the cause of the further problems - (in addition to stress and not eating) we can see that a cricket ate a part of her toe. What should we be doing to help her with her foot? Wondering if there might be another problem that caused the discoloration. Right now, we are continuing the baths every 24 hours and applying neosporin.

Thank you to anyone responding.

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. She a cutie . You can put some raw unpasteurized honey on it. That should help it heal faster.

 

[saratxgibson]

Thank you for your response. I really appreciate it. Do you think she will lose her toe or foot? She tries not to put pressure on it and doesn't like for me to touch it.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

She shouldn't lose her toe. I couldn't tell from the picture but it didn't appear to be infected?
The honey is very helpful so just be sure there are not any crickets in her tank so they are not attracted to the honey.
Does she have a good appetite right now? She is very pretty & tiny, too.

Tracie

 

[saratxgibson]

It's hard for me to know if she has a good appetite. I am having trouble finding clear information on how much she should be eating for her size. We give her crickets and she's eating one or two a day and isn't eating produce on her own right now. I give her only one cricket at a time, and try another if she eats the first one. I usually find myself having to chase the first one around to remove it. I've heard they can eat 25 crickets in a day and if that's true, she might be starving. Today she is sleeping on her basking log while a cricket runs around on the ground. I don't know if she's even seeing it. Thoughts? I hope I can help her to grow up big and strong.

 

[DaisyDragon123]

Get some probiotics. Petco may have benebac probiotics in their small animal section. I have found it there before.

Mix a small amount of probiotics with baby food chicken and squash and put a drop on her nose. Get some generic pedialite and mix half with water and drop on her nose to drink.

She should be eating more and not sleeping all day. If this continues she is probably sick and you may need to have a vet look at her and check for parasites and look at her foot.

 

[saratxgibson]

Thank you. I'll go by the store today and get on this. As soon as I posted my earlier reply, I went to catch a cricket that had been in her tank for about 15 minutes. In the process, I injured the cricket but it managed to crawl a little - then my little beardie hopped down and ate the cricket up! I ran into the kitchen for some zucchini bits and she ate three of them - each piece was about the size of a lentil. She's been awake the rest of the morning, but what should she be doing? Do they play? I don't have anything to base her activity levels against? When I hold her or bring her out, she is pretty active - even leaping at times (this really scares me) as she wants to be on my torso or hand or vice-versa. If she follows her normal program, she'll probably eat another cricket later on today.

Another thought. She really seems to like when I leave her night time lamp on in addition to her daytime lamp even though it raises ambiant temps to 100. This concerns me bc I don't think there's a cool end for her, but it also cheers me bc she's more active. I had turned the night time lamp on right before I sat down to write that post this morning. I'm sorry that I'm asking so many questions. There's a lot to learn. Is there a good book I should be reading?

 

[DaisyDragon123]

Glad she has perked up. There are good caresheets and articles on the homepage of this forum. Just go by those.


https://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/

 

[AHBD]

Beardies will often go for a slow moving cricket. When I was raising babies I would put the crickets in a jar or oatmeal container with a pinch of calcium powder, shake them until theyr'e dizzy and dump them in. Do that with a few crix at a time and she may go right for them....they look like " easy prey".

 

[saratxgibson]

I'm super thankful for wealth of information you all are posting for me. I've read all of the care sheets and know I'll need to come back and do that again. There's a lot to learn, but I'll enjoy it even more as I see my little sweetie growing. After all of my reading, I'm sure that my wall thermometer isn't adequate and doubt it's accuracy. Does anyone care to suggest the brand of the probe or infrared thermometer that they know to be accurate and a good value? I would guess that having an installed thermometer isn't as important as getting an accurate reading frequently, therefore, I'm leaning towards the IR gun as I don't know what to do with the wire of the probe style. Perhaps I should leave this thread and start or join one regarding newbies. Too many questions on my part in this department?

 

[DaisyDragon123]

My infrared gun is a Nubee, ordered off Amazon.

 

[saratxgibson]

DaisyDragon123 - the benebac, is it the gel? The powder? Can it be the one that says Benebac plus and it comes in tubes and doesn't show the reptiles on it but instead shows the cat, dog, and rabbit?

 

[DaisyDragon123]

From my understanding people used the Benebac with the rabbit, etc., on it for exotics before they came out with Benebac Plus FOS for exotics. You can use the gel or powder. The older version should be okay.

 

[saratxgibson]

Thanks, everyone, for your help. I've followed your directions, and though Smaug lost weight and went down to 5 grams one day, she is back up to 8 now. She at 7 crickets yesterday and 9 so far today - that's a lot for her! I'm really glad. The raw unpasteurized honey was hard to come by though, so I just got it last night. She's got it on her foot right now and I noticed that it has gone from a creamy color in the jar to a glistening shimmer on her foot as she sits beneath the light. Are the heat lamps going to melt the honey to a point that it will burn her tiny foot? She's already had so many problems that I just can't see putting her through anything else.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That is great she is doing so much better now!
I am glad she has gained some weight back, also, she must be eating pretty well.
The foot should not get burned, but if you are concerned then you can apply it later in the day right before bedtime.
Is the foot/toe looking better?

Tracie