Beardie is making a coughing/choking noise

[izzyLizzy]

A few weeks ago I adopted a 4 year-old beardie named Izzy. Her owner surrendered her to a pet store, and while I was shopping for a new heat bulb for my chameleon, I somehow ended up with Izzy. I couldn't leave her. She is blind in one eye, and I was told she was born without part of her tail. This was all I knew about her when I got her. They didn't tell me much else. So over the course of these few weeks I finally found food that she likes (besides crickets).

Anyway, she seemed pretty normal until this morning. She was making these hacking noises and I honestly thought it was my friend's kid hiding in the closet until I realized it was Izzy. I bathed her and she had a very runny bowel movement, though it didn't smell unusual. She has no discharge in or around her nose or eyes, she doesn't appear to be struggling to breathe, but she occasionally gapes her mouth a little (which I assumed was normal as she does it quite often while basking). I tried hand feeding her, since it's hard for her to eat on her own being half blind, and she only ate a few pieces of greens. The temp in her cage is at almost 90°F. It was a bit chilly this morning so I turned the heat on and swapped her heating bulb to a 100w one, the other one is 75w. I took out a piece of the repti-carpet so that the glass on the bottom is also warm. She spent most of the day in that one spot. I noticed the humidity at 70, so I've been trying to get it down but have only managed to 60 so far.

I'm sorry I've written so much, I'm just trying to give as much information as possible. I tried to look for similar posts, but I haven't completely figured out how to navigate around the site.

If anyone has gone through something similar or can help in any way I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[QCBeardedDragonHelp]

Make sure your bathing her at least once a week and maybe even more. Also make sure the temperatures in the tank are accurate and consistent ( High 70's to low 80's on the cool side and high 90's to a 110 maximum on the warm side, Fahrenheit). This helps with digestion, and make sure its not compaction. If you're using a loose base substrate like sand then there is a chance of it. If it is, then soak her in the bath and rub her underside gently for a bit in the warm water. Just to be safe, take her to the vet incase its a chest infection or something like that.

Hope she feels better soon and I hope this helped.

 

[izzyLizzy]

Thanks for the response.

I hadn't been bathing her as often, but I will start doing that every other or couple of days. I do spray her greens so they have a little extra water.

Her temp hasn't always been that high, but I have been trying to keep it between those two since yesterday. I left a ceramic lamp on for the night time. She ate two crickets last night and did that hacking noise again. But then she also drank lots of water.

I have that repti-carpet stuff as substrate. I tried the alfalfa bedding in a small spot and that's when the coughing noise started, so I took those out just in case.

So far, this morning she's been quiet and eating.

 

[izzyLizzy]

Not that anyone is following up with this, but I have an update on Izzy.

Took her to the vet and they gave her antibiotics and albuterol for the cough/wheeze. She is doing much better, but we're still keeping an eye on her. The vet said she might have been allergic to the alfalfa pellets. Who knows

 

[CooperDragon]

I'd thought the cough went away as of your last post. I'm glad to hear the antibiotics seem to have cleared it up. Perhaps there was a low grade URI that they were able to knock out. Is her appetite back to normal after taking the medications? I know those can be rough on them sometimes.

 

[izzyLizzy]

Actually she's been eating a lot more than when we first got her and hasn't been hand fed like usual. Although the vet said not to worry about her not eating for a while as they can go days or weeks without eating, plus she was a chubby beardie.

Thanks for responding.

 

[CooperDragon]

Good! Sounds like she's rebounding well =)