Hello, i have a rescue bearded dragon who is about 2 1/2 year old and 16-17 inches long. He is in the 40 gallon breeder that i bought him in. His previous owner almost never had sufficient lighting or any of that and when i received him, his eyes were crusty with yellowish crust around his eyes. His tank set up now is: 100-110 on the hot side and 80 - 85 on the cool side. His substrate used to be sand which i thought may have been the problem due to it being in his eyes but after a while it looks as if that’s not the case. His substrate is now reptile carpet. He has a hide and water bowl and two hammocks which he basks on. His lighting is a 10.0 reptisun uvb and a 150 watt heating lamp by zoo med i believe. He is shedding right now and has been for about 3-4 weeks even through the multiple baths. Right now i’m using terramycin on his eyes and around them. He hasn’t voluntarily eatin in about 2 weeks and before that we were giving him medicine prescribed by a vet but it did not help. Any experience or help would be amazing as i have done a lot and don’t know what to do to help him fight through this. Thank you p.s. before he stopped eating he ate superworms and many safe greens, fruits, and veggies.
He went to the vet about 4 weeks ago the last time, his eyes looked almost the same. They prescribed two antibiotic type things that did not help. I bought the terramycin by myself because I just needed another thing to try and he has seemed to be a little more attentive as compared to before he would just sit there like a stone..
I have an 18 inch tube and before that he had a coil that went bad and hurt his eyes, that is what led me to get the reptisun tube. The lighting was places on the top of his mesh screen but now it is on the inside hanging from the top, he is a good 6-9 inches away from both of his lights.
Both eyes swollen like that warrants more than a casual 5 minute vet examination and shot in the dark at "some kind of infection" and send you out the door with some antibiotics.
Has a vet done any testing to determine if these are indeed infected ? what exactly ?
I think this is WELL beyond off the shelf home medications (terramycin) and raw honey at this stage. Antibiotics that have not been specifically selected to target a specific germ is likely going to do more harm than good. Terramycin is in the group .
Terramycin details
•Broad-spectrum effectiveness against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
The eyes are being pressed out the eye sockets by (fluid pressure) due to somekind of underlying health issue.
I wont hazard a guess what this could be , but I've seen similar eye socket swellings before in a bearded dragon.
One was due to an aneurism.
Another was due to tumour in the tissues and bones in area between both eyes.
Swelling of one eye or both may be associated with an infection inside the eye itself, or behind the eye in or behind the socket.
If left untreated,it can lead to retinal detachment, blindness or enucleation (removalof the eyeball).
This might be due to an increase in intraocular pressure,which is often a sign of infection, injury, or some other health problem.
I think you need to get the dragon back to a good experienced reptile vet and request xrays and bloodwork to determine
>> if this viral ? bacterial ?
>> dietary ? ie Hypervitaminosis A
>> something causing both sets of tearducts to be blocked and how to unblock these ?
>> if there is a mass (tumour) that shouldn't be there and the dragon's treatment options (wont be cheap) and prognosis ?
>> if there is an aneurism (likely expensive and very dangerous procedure) ?
I'd be removing all objects that have hard edges from the dragons tank as the dragon's sight is probably compromised with eyes so swollen (and stress on the optic nerves) and if the eyes are sour or itchy the dragon can easily whack one on something hard and edged and rupture the eye ball.
Hi there, poor thing that's really sad to see. It may well be that there is some tear duct problem or a growth in his skull. More likely to be a duct problem or some type of infection. One thing you CAN try until you find out is raw unpasteurized honey. Make sure it is unpasteurized like from a beekeeper or health store. Mix some with a bit of warm water [ not hot and don't heat the honey ] and apply it 2-3 X a day.