Home
Care Sheet
Visitor Photos
Product Selection Guides
Bearded Dragon Care Q&A
Forums
New posts
Search forums
Resources
Latest reviews
Search resources
Bearded Dragon Care Q&A
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New resources
New profile posts
Latest activity
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Help
Website Help Guides
Contact Us
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Bearded Dragon Discussions
Health
Beardie with fluid in abdomen, around liver
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
[QUOTE="Sophielius, post: 2021376, member: 100300"] Hi guys! My bearded dragon Raxtus has been having some troubles lately and I was wondering if I could ask for any advice. I'll start off by saying that Raxtus is 7 years old, tested positive for adenovirus at age 3, and has been on milk thistle ever since. A month ago (3/21/23) I took him to the vet because of some coughing I'd noticed, and the vet did some xrays and found enlarged lungs. I was sent home with meloxicam, enrofloxacin, and nebulizer mix. He lost his appetite as soon as he went on those meds, esp with the enrofloxacin. We returned two days later because he seemed to be doing so poorly, and they determined that he was constipated. I was sent home with some slippery elm to help move things along. We returned to the vet on 4/5/23 because of his appetite loss and he was constantly black-bearding. They also did a CT scan and it appeared that his heart was enlarged and he had little lung space so he was also put on pimobendan. We got a referral to NC State to meet with a cardiologist and get him an echocardiogram. We went and did that, and it turns out his heart is fine! Is it common to misread a CT scan like that? They did find excess fluid in his abdomen (I'd noticed a couple days prior, his belly feels squishy like a water balloon), esp around his liver. We have a follow-up appointment tomorrow (4/20/23) with the referral vet at NC State and he'll be getting an ultrasound. They'll also be aspirating some of the fluid to see what's up with that and try to get a sample from his liver as well. His bloodwork shows that his liver values are doing well, but they said that the values can appear normal in bloodwork but the liver is actually abnormal. Is this true? Will he need to be sedated for the ultrasound? I'm just not feeling super confident about them poking holes in my boy, I've only ever been there once and they don't quite have my trust the way my regular exotic vet does. Any recommendations? I will note that since about April 5th when he was taken off the enrofloxacin he has been doing much better. He still doesn't have an appetite for greens (but he's done this a few times before) will still eat his bugs, and is on critical care omnivore to help keep his weight/nutrition up. He's dropped about 30g (was 634g on 3/21/23, and 602g today), is it healthy to lose 5% of his body weight in a month? His activity levels seem nearly normal again (he's been moderately active his whole life). He has been incredibly regular with his pooping schedule and has been going daily with healthy white urates for a bit over a week now. Husbandry: -salads of collard, dandelion, mustard, and turnip greens daily. The toppings are mostly butternut squash but switch around to carrot or bell pepper if he needs a change of taste. -calcium dusted 2-3x/week (without d3), herptivite once a week -bug day once a week, mostly superworms (3-4 of them) that I've raised and occasionally dubia roaches depending on how my colony is doing at the moment -4'x2'x22" melamine with plenty of ventilation, on reptile carpet -Arcadia T5 34" Desert, purchased and installed about 2 weeks ago (previously a 36" T8 fixture of either a Reptisun 10.0 or Arcadia Desert) -heat lamp is a mini halogen bulb, it's about 105-110 directly under it -cage temps are 76-80 (76 in winter, up to 80 in summer) on the cool side, and 80+ on the warm side [/QUOTE]
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Bearded Dragon Discussions
Health
Beardie with fluid in abdomen, around liver
Top
Bottom