beardie coughing or cant breathe!!

[Pleaides]

hey all
ok relating to another thread of mine here, the last post http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=90273&hilit=since then hes been to the vet only to find out hes got worm eggs again and quite severe coccidia!
ahhhh!
the last vet i took him to stated there was no need to treat the coccidia however my new vet (who are proper reptile specialists) has stated it shoulda been treated straight away, anyway to the point, he had his second dose of baycox for his coccidia today at 1700, its now 2000 and he seems to be having some sort of breathing thing going on, he puffs his beard out a bit then makes this coughing sound, it sort of looks like he wants to be sick, he has only done this a few times but its quite alarming, he has also been opening his mouth a teeny bit, not like he does when hes gaping though, i have called the emergency vet and said that i think it could be cos he has maybe an RI, his meds are making him feel unwell (which is a very good chance they are anyway) or the meds we gave him tonight have gone into his lung, the vets said if i suspect its in his lung i should take him down immediately, however i am a tad hesitant and think maybe im being a bit overprotective, i said ill call them back if i decide to take him down now, im not sure what to do, can anyone at all give me some insight to what this may be?
is it worth the major vet trip?
will he be okay?
im so so worried, i dont want him dying in the night or anything, he has been eating livefood a little bit every day still but now wont touch his greens. hes also been getting calcium still and probiotics.
any help!

 

[Pleaides]

no advice or thoughts or plain opinions whatsoever?
anything will be appreciated im just stumped and dont know what to do.
pleeeaaase....

 

[ArdorAndZeal1]

hmm -- I have nothing really special to offer here.

There is some good info on RIs on this site already.

But I would raise the temperature of the tank on the cool end. and make sure the humidity is low, low, low...

 

[Pleaides]

ok so we took him to the vets the following day and it turns out we may have got some in his lungs
i feel so completely and utterly terrible i have cornsnakes and i know their entrance to their lungs are right by their tongues so i should have known that beardies are the same, anyway the vet has said were gonna delay any more treatment for his coccidia for 2 weeks so his body can absorb the liquid out of his lungs then give him his 3rd and hopefully final dose of baycox, the vet has said its good he only was making those sounds that night only and not since then so it was just a little that went down, he said that because he has already had 2 doses that stands us in a very good chance of the coccidia already near enough being destroyed so he should be okay to now delay treatment thenthe vet himself is going to administer the final dose, i cannot stand doing it anymore. i feel so bad!!!
so hopefully this final dose will kill off the rest of the coccidia then we can deal with his worm eggs.
damn its one thing after the other but if the previous vet has treated him a few months ago with coccidia which he was diagnosed with back then i would never be in this situation now nor would my boy have had to experience all this now, the vet also has said if i had left him any longer the coccidia would have killed him its that bad!
damn vets! i should have had a second opinion straight away.
anyway thanx for listening i needed to rant abit.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Sorry I missed your post.
So he did aspirate some of the Baycox into his lungs? That does happen. One thing you can do is to put him to bed, but after he is asleep put him on a slight slight decline to allow any other fluids that he could have aspirated to drain down & out while he is sleeping. Just a very very slight decline not much.
Also, as suggested, do keep it a bit warmer in there to help his immune system get boosted. Are you using any probiotics as well?
When you give him meds, how are you doing it? Are you going in from the side or going straight back? What most likely happened was that some liquid got into the glottis area which is at the back of the throat. When giving meds, make sure you go to the side of the mouth so it hits the front of the tongue so they can swallow instead of trying to get it to the back of the throat.
I am sorry you have had so much trouble with coccidia & the wrong treatments to begin with.
I agree, I don't think you should do anymore treatments for a few weeks to let his system normalize & his lungs to clear out. Maybe his levels will drop on their own & he wont need anymore meds for coccidia.
Is he eating well?

Tracie

 

[Pleaides]

oh thanx so much tracie for replying, i was in such a muddle!
ok that night he propped himself upright against the back of his basking rock but then laid down in the corner in his hide flat hes been doing that since its happened, only last night he actually slept on his baskng rock so his head was a bit higher than his body. when you say slight decline im assuming its his head slightly higher than his body? or face downwards a bit?
im giving him calcium on his salad which hes eating a little of it but hes not eating much livefood at all, he will only eat wax worms every now and then so im giving him a little probiotics on his salad and bathing him in the probiotics also, how often should i bath him in them?i had to confirm with the vet if i could even bath him cos i thought maybe if i hydrated him too much he wont absorb the fluid in his lungs.
yes im keeping his heat emitter on at night but he does sleep up the other end of it but its about 80f i believe.is that ok?
giving him his meds the first time my sisters boyfriend held him while i gently opened his mouth i couldnt actually say where i got it as its such a fight to do all this but he was fine afterwards even looked a bit brighter and ate well too and basked which he hadnt been doing, the second time was a major fight, i held him while my boyfriend squirted it in, he said he squirted it on his tongue. but i never knew where his entrance to his lungs were, i know with my snakes so i should have known that beardies were similar, the vet has now shown me exactly where it is, he showed me at the base of his tongue on Mischief's slight left there was the entrance. so on their tongue is right? well the vet is now going to be giving him his final dose because i simply cannot risk it happening again im such a guilty beardie mummy!
the vet goes away on a course to florida so i got to wait 3 1/2 weeks to get him his final dose will that length of time be ok? because the vet originally said it will be just over 2 weeks cos hes got a course so maybe he worked it out wrong, he did state hes very glad hes had 2 doses and not just the one cos that stands us in very good stead that the coccidia may already have been destroyed or at least nearly gone, what my main concern is could it remultiply? i dont want him suffering again with it?
thanx again tracie for your reply!

 

[Pleaides]

bumping up, need tracie to help with the tilting when hes asleep? or if anyone else can help pls?