Beardie desperately trying to brumate, lingering RI

[felinevintage]

I posted previously about my newly adopted beardie having a stubborn URI. He was on antibiotics for 4 weeks but didn't seem to improve much. In the last week or so I've been nebulising with F10 and I think that's made a vast improvement. But I am also worried it's just because he is desperately trying to go down and the lack of activity means he just doesn't need to use his lungs as much.

I've been trying to keep him up, I pop him on his basking spot, handle him, twice daily nebulising etc but the last couple of days he is just not in the mood for my nonsense. Taking every opportunity to go into his favourite dark spots to sleep and I'm just not sure what to do. There's lingering infection and if he goes down that's incredibly risky right? But nothing I am doing is keeping him up. Including having his temps a little higher during the day and overnight heat from a DHP to keep temps up.

As new beardie mum I am finding this a bit stressful, I just want the best for him. Should I just make sure he does one last poop and let him do his thing as keeping him up is obviously stressing him?

 

[KarrieRee]

I posted previously about my newly adopted beardie having a stubborn URI. He was on antibiotics for 4 weeks but didn't seem to improve much. In the last week or so I've been nebulising with F10 and I think that's made a vast improvement. But I am also worried it's just because he is desperately trying to go down and the lack of activity means he just doesn't need to use his lungs as much.

I've been trying to keep him up, I pop him on his basking spot, handle him, twice daily nebulising etc but the last couple of days he is just not in the mood for my nonsense. Taking every opportunity to go into his favourite dark spots to sleep and I'm just not sure what to do. There's lingering infection and if he goes down that's incredibly risky right? But nothing I am doing is keeping him up. Including having his temps a little higher during the day and overnight heat from a DHP to keep temps up.

As new beardie mum I am finding this a bit stressful, I just want the best for him. Should I just make sure he does one last poop and let him do his thing as keeping him up is obviously stressing him?

Your nebulizing w/ F10? Is this from the vet? Or is this a disinfectant that you clean your tank w/ ? I am sorry I have never heard of nebulizing w/ F 10 --- I am flagging your post to our vet tech shes on late at nite as well as someone else that maybe able to help

 

[felinevintage]

Your nebulizing w/ F10? Is this from the vet? Or is this a disinfectant that you clean your tank w/ ? I am sorry I have never heard of nebulizing w/ F 10 --- I am flagging your post to our vet tech shes on late at nite as well as someone else that maybe able to help

Yes nebulising with it, I'm in the UK and it's a very common early intervention and adjunct treatment with antibiotics in a variety of species.

Thank you for flagging.

 

[CooperDragon]

I think you're probably doing the right thing with keeping the temps up a bit (especially at night). Doesn't need to be a lot. 25 or 26c should be plenty. I think that waking him up more frequently than usual (during brumation) is probably a good idea too, given the illness.

I have heard of nebulizing using F10. I read a paper out of Australia that showed it to be effective against infections and when sprayed on the skin in high(er than normal) concentration, it has been effective against yellow fungus. It's not a typical approach (in the US anyway), but I think that if you're seeing positive results, then it may very well be a good option for treatment as long as you're working with guidance from a trained vet.

Once the infection is deemed to be under control and treatment stops, I'd probably keep him active for a bit in order to monitor and let his system recover before letting him go into a full brumation. This is just my amateur guess/opinion based off of reading though.

 

[felinevintage]

I think you're probably doing the right thing with keeping the temps up a bit (especially at night). Doesn't need to be a lot. 25 or 26c should be plenty. I think that waking him up more frequently than usual (during brumation) is probably a good idea too, given the illness.

I have heard of nebulizing using F10. I read a paper out of Australia that showed it to be effective against infections and when sprayed on the skin in high(er than normal) concentration, it has been effective against yellow fungus. It's not a typical approach (in the US anyway), but I think that if you're seeing positive results, then it may very well be a good option for treatment as long as you're working with guidance from a trained vet.

Once the infection is deemed to be under control and treatment stops, I'd probably keep him active for a bit in order to monitor and let his system recover before letting him go into a full brumation. This is just my amateur guess/opinion based off of reading though.

Yeah, vet guidance and from a friend who has worked with a rescue. I honestly can't get over the change since we started so I'm still second guessing its efficacy but I think we got the infection cleared but he couldn't shift the phlegm. But the last couple of days there's barely any coughing, just short bouts and some puffing and mouth breathing/gaping (which he's doing now, staring at me intensely, having had his afternoon nebuliser about 1.5 hours ago. He's actually staying up longer today, he's usually gone back to bed by now! The manufacturers themselves offer guidance etc on doing it.

And yep, we're at about 25 overnight at the moment.

My gut and research has said to keep him up, even minimally, until he stops coughing and mouth breathing entirely but you know, being new and worried you start to question yourself. Especially when your funny little sentient potato seems a bit grumpy about the whole thing.

 

[CooperDragon]

Lol sentient potato. It's really encouraging that the treatment seems to be working. It sounds like you're on the right track to me. The second guessing and anxiety don't really go away even with experience, but you'll have some more tools to use based on the experience and it becomes (a bit) easier to read their behavior over time. It's kind of along the lines of "that's odd, but he seems OK/happy/content" or "Huh, that doesn't seem right and something seems to be bugging him, I'll check that out further". Hopefully he's heading out of trouble and will bounce back quickly. Please do keep us posted.