Beardie keeps aspirating water in the bath?

[Jennieeeeeeee]

So. I’ve had Charmander for 10 years now and he has never eaten veg. He’s been offered it from 6 moths to about 3 years old daily! Then I gave up a bit and it was just a weekly thing- still zero interest.

He’s recently been to the vets as he aspirated water in the bath and contracted pneumonia from this. 3 sets of antibiotics and 1 course of Metacam later he’s still not himself. The vets have now said it may be MDB. But this doesn’t stop him wanting to only eat live food and drink in the bath- he will only drink in the bath as well, if we try a dish in his tank he’s just not interested (even with splashing it/ dropping it on his nose). BUT when he’s in the bath he just wants to shove his whole face underwater?? If I try to pick him up and just put droplets on his nose he struggles away and nose dives back into it! It’s only a very shallow bath but he somehow manages to aspirate some every time.
I’m a my wits end with what to do.

His whole take set up is fine, he is usually very lively, he just takes a turn for the worse once having a bath BUT it’s the only way to get him to drink?
I really don’t know what to do...
Please help!

 

[Claudiusx]

Hi there,

You really need to stop bathing him then. Some dragons are stubborn and just dont learn. You can try misting him or dripping water on his nose. But you need to stop the baths as they are having a seriously detrimental impact on his health.

How do his urates look? Dragons can go quite awhile without drinking water if they are getting hydration from other sources such as bugs or salad items. It's not ideal, but its suitable.

-Brandon

 

[WinFam01]

We rinse our bsfl, put a few drops of water in the bowl and put the bsfl in those drops to get water into ours.