Baycox overdose-HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

[corrieor]

I medicated my little guy two days in a row with Baycox.

I thought it seemed like a lot, and know I should have double checked my syringe size-especially having a medical background, but with a lot of other stress in my life lately, I screwed up.

Instead of .05 cc of Baycox (toltrazuril), I gave him .5 cc.

I am beside myself in tears right now.

He was upset the first day I gave it to him, but ate OK. Yesterday second dose), his appetite was diminished-he didn't eat his Phoenix Worms and ate very few greens.

Today he was lethargic all day and only ate two crickets. His bowels were right on time-but very stinky.

I gave him a 20 min bath yesterday and another today.

WHAT DO I DO???????

Frantically searching Google right now.

Help!

 

[Esther19]

The only thing that comes to mind is to push oral fluids.
How is his color? Is he blackbearding at all?

 

[corrieor]

Yes-he's been blackbearding when awake, goes away when he's sleeping and when he's been held for awhile. He blackbearded all day after his first dose but it calmed down by the end of the night. Yesterday and today, he was dark all day.

I've been doing a ton of research and it says that the overdose threshold for Baycox is tenfold which is what he got-well, probably a bit less because I rounded down his weight when figuring out the dosage amount and there was quite a bit of spillage. Everything says it's really hard to overdose, but all of this information is for mammals or birds.

He's asleep on my chest right now and will wake up if I rouse him (much to his annoyance) and his beard has lightened to its normal color. Starts to darken a bit when he's woken up.

I feel so stupid!!! I passed all of my medical math tests at 100% in nursing school. If I were actually a nurse now, I would probably quit after this mistake. Stupid stupid stupid stupid...

 

[Esther19]

Okay, let's work the problem. I wish I was a lot smarter about this than I am.

Do you think there is any medicine left in his gut, or has he absorbed enough by now to have reached the od level? In other words, should he have some mineral oil and a warm bath to help evacuate the bowel, or wouldn't that help?

I would give oral fluids. If he won't lick up plain water, add a bit of unsweetened juice. Also continue the bene-bac now and for a few weeks. We don't want to add a fungus to his problem.

What does an overdose of antibiotic do to the body? I'm clueless. At this point I would do the same or similar things that one would do if another animal, or even a human, had overdosed on the same thing.

I hope someone who has real answers will come on soon.

I wish there was something I could say to make you feel better. You're not stupid. You made a mistake. Unfortunately, we humans are not perfect. I'm sure he will be fine. And for the rest of your life, you will be super vigilant about checking dosages.

Hang in there,
Esther

 

[corrieor]

Thank you for your kind words. I don't know anyone who can even begin to relate to me being so upset over possibly hurting a lizard. I've been trying not to act stressed because I don't want my daughter to worry.

I really don't think there's any left in his gut-he pooped a normal sized poo this morning then had a small amount of watery poop in his bath and again down the front of my shirt (I thought I had left this behind years ago when my daughter potty trained).

I looked for the half life of the med but couldn't find any information. Looked to see how it's metabolized (hepatic, renal, etc) and couldn't find any information on that, either. If I knew that information, then I could look up signs of failure in any of those systems.

Gave him a dropper full of water. He wasn't amused by being woken up to have a dropper put into the side of his mouth.

He's set up in his travel tank with the heat emitter for extra warmth right next to my bed. I'll just pretend it's 10 1/2 years ago and I have a newborn again.

This is one of the few times I'm actually glad to be unemployed. I can't imagine calling in sick to work tomorrow, "Um, yeah, I won't be in because I overdosed my lizard and I need to keep an eye on him."

Thanks again,
Corrie

 

[Esther19]

You will find that you're not alone here...we are all beardie-crazy. We understand exactly what you're going through. I wonder if I have dragons because my kids are growing up, and I need something to mother.

Good idea to keep his temps up overnight, but not above 80.

There is a moderator on here named Tracie (drache_613) who is very experienced in all things beardie.
She comes on later. Hopefully she will see this and be able to help you out.

Try to get some sleep, dear. I'm sure you'll see some improvement in the morning.
Esther

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Oh I am sorry to hear that happened! Don't beat yourself up, accidents do happen.
You could try using some activated charcoal, if you can find some at the drug store & administer small amounts of it, daily to help flush out toxins.
I would continue to give extra oral fluids too. You can keep his tank around 80 over night also, to expedite the metabolic rate so his system will burn off the meds faster. He wont need anymore medication for now though.
Try to get a little bit of food into him to help settle his tummy.

Let us know how he is doing.

Tracie

 

[corrieor]

Thank you.

He woke up perky today, but is still black bearding.

I gave him some peaches that I cooked and put in the Magic Bullet and added Bene-Bac to (after cooling). He slurped some up then refused and ran around shaking his head, rubbing it against anything he could find to get the remaining off of his nose. I then gave him some water via syringe-had to put it in the side of his mouth. Checked on him a few minutes later and he had thrown it all up along with cricket parts from yesterday I'm going to go get some organic apples soon and make some applesauce and try that with less acidophilus.

Hopefully he digested the rest of the crickets from yesterday.

I tried to get his mouth open to give him more water but he puffed up his beard and got really upset so I decided to leave him alone until later. He's currently on my chest wrapped in a cloth napkin (in case of diarrhea or more vomit) looking at me suspiciously.

I'll try to find some activated charcoal. I live in a small town with one pharmacy and a Bimart. They both open around 9-10 so I'll head out and look. I had some around my house for awhile but can't find it-must have thrown it away. If worse comes to worst, I'll drive into Bend and get some-he's worth the 60 mile round trip even with gas prices so high. We do have an exotic pet vet in Bend if it gets to the point where he needs fluids pushed, but being an unemployed single mom, I really can't afford it.

I hate this. It's been a really tough year and this is just the icing on the cake.

Thanks again for your support in input.

Corrie

 

[corrieor]

He just slurped up aprox 1 cc of peach concoction. I added more to the teaspoon or so that I mixed with acidophilus with. Hopefully he keeps this down. He was happy to slurp it, but wasn't happy to have it anywhere else on his face. He ran around and rubbed his face on the side of the tank so now there's peach sauce smeared everywhere. Of course, I just steam cleaned the tank...

 

[AHBD]

Sorry to hear about this scare ! Especially double worry when funds are low as well. I do think that the fact that he's alert and drinking [ from the syringe ] on his own is a good sign. Keep up extra fluids via syringe, and also, you might try squash baby food rather than peaches. Fruit, because of high sugar content aren't really good for beardies, veggies are much better with low sugar contant. But again, it sounds like he is handling this fairly well so far. Hopefully he'll hold things down.

 

[corrieor]

Yes, squash is on the shopping list for this afternoon. I'll just cook some up for dinner and puree a bit of it-I've never bought baby food-even when my daughter was a baby, I just did it this way. Figure why start now... I did the peach because it's sweet and was hoping that would make him more likely to take it. Just "force" fed him more water. Half of it dribbled all over him, but I saw him swallow a few times. He gets so mad and I feel so bad when I have to do this-puffs up. I only saw him puff up a handful of times prior to this and now he's done it multiple times over the past few days. He's going to need lots of love after he gets through this (because he WILL get through this).

I'll weigh him this evening and see if he's lost any weight.

Got him to slurp up another cc of peach. This is hopeful. No more throwing up.

Corrie

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

How is he doing today, is he holding down all of his fluids & slurries I hope?
Please keep us posted on him. He will pull through but he definitely wont feel good for a few days though. It sounds like you are doing a great job of keeping him hydrated right now, too.
I hope he is feeling better real soon!

Tracie

 

[corrieor]

After this morning's regurgitation, he's held everything else down. We had a small amount of watery poo this afternoon. The poo was formed, but very watery, and the urates were soft. Was probably from the small amount of peaches he ate this morning.

He's so mad at me-especially when I have to give him water and force his mouth open. I feel horrible. I'm just glad he has the energy to fight back!

Gave him around 5 cc of squash with some acidophilus mixed in this evening and an equal amount of water. He also got a long bath. After he's basked for awhile, I'm going to wrap him up and let him fall asleep on my chest. He's definitely lethargic, and almost fell off of my shoulder when I bent over this evening-he always grips on tight when I move. Poor guy

Going to try to keep the temps in his cage above 70 tonight so he can continue flushing this crud out of his system.

 

[corrieor]

OK... Real quick before I pass out for the night. I've been researching some more and discovered that Baycox is metabolized by the liver and excreted by the kidneys. Is there anything I can give him to help detox the liver specifically and/or help with kidney function? I'm sure his poor little system is totally taxed.

Thanks in advance. I'm still so worried...

 

[corrieor]

Update:

He seems to have pulled through the worst of it. Now he won't eat. I think he's really stressed by me having to force water into him (after I had to force medication into him). He's taking a couple ccs of pureed squash from the syringe and seems to perk up when he realizes he's going to be fed-like he would when he was going to get a cricket or Phoenix Worm. He still won't look at his crickets or Phoenix Worms and only showed a slight interest in his greens. I tried to cut back the on the squash yesterday so he doesn't get used to being fed yummy food via syringe, hoping he'd get hungry enough to eat his Phoenix Worms, but no luck. His beard is still dark while he's awake but lightens when he sleeps or when he's held for awhile. I guess I'm just going to have to give extra love for awhile. He's only lost a couple grams, but he's looking kind of skinny-his fat stores by his tail have visibly diminished.

If he's still not eating insects in a couple days, should I puree some chicken and mix it with the squash? I have chicken breasts I can boil or I can use white meat chicken canned in water. On one hand, I don't want him to get spoiled too much by the hand feeding (we already have this issue with crickets-he won't eat them unless they run in front of him or we drop them in front of him with tongs); but I do want him to have the probiotics which means he needs the slurries.

He's pooping-small amount but proportionate to what he's eating. It's formed, but watery and the urates are softer than they were before this. He also looks like one of his feet is going to shed. He usually does his legs (except for the top half of his rear right leg), his head, his tail, then his body and top half of his rear right leg.

Sigh...most of my friends think I'm crazy for worrying so much about him. I'm glad there are other people around who understand.

Corrie