CricketChirp
Member
Hello all,
First off, thank you for taking the time to read and hopefully reply to my problem, I appreciate any advice/thoughts any of you may have on this issue.
I am the proud and happy owner of a 3 year old male Bearded Dragon, purchased from the breeder Dachiu. Over the past 5 weeks, he has started to show signs of small twitches or spasms on his mid to lower back, his belly and at the very base of his tail. At first, these symptoms were very small and infrequent and I thought that it was simply muscle fatigue. He is extremely active and will run around his enclosure, exploring everything. After the second week the twitching became more noticeable and I started to worry that he may have MBD and upped his calcium. This did not appear to help. I then changed his UVB bulb (it is a 10.0). This also did not help.
I researched any vitamin deficiency that could possibly cause these symptoms and discovered that Vitamin B1 could also cause muscle twitching. I purchased this vitamin and began dusting his food with this as well as his normal multivitamin and the increased calcium. This also had no effect. At this point, (at about the 3rd week) the twitching was very apparent and occurred after any large movement (for example, he would run from one end of the cage to the other and when he paused, the muscles would start twitching).
I then took him to the vet, realizing that I had reached the end of what I could do to help him. The vet was completely stumped. She told me that he appeared perfectly healthy, that he showed no symptoms of MBD (his jaws are like a rock). She prescribed a high dose liquid calcium (just in case) and also gave me Bene-Bac, a gel containing beneficial micro-organisms (similar to the bacteria found in yogurt to help digestion). I have been faithfully administering these products as per instructions over the past week but there has been no change.
Other than this bizarre twitching he appears perfectly healthy. He has not lost any weight, he continues to behave normally and he does not appear to notice the twitching. He has been fighting me a bit with the medication and still eats pretty well, although he is starting to go off his food now. He does not appear to be impacted and continues to poop everyday/every other day. This is the first time he has been ill since I first purchased him.
I feed him as great a variety of foods as I can. This includes -but is not limited too- butternut/acorn/yellow squash, kale, carrots, green beans, papaya, mango, apples, blueberries, silkworms, waxworms, butterworms, hornworms, gut-loaded crickets, spinach, kiwi, cantaloupe, mustard greens, dandelion greens, pellets. Typically, he has two small meals a day. One is greens/pellets, the other is fruit or bugs. I will alternate so that he only eats bugs two/three times a week. The same with fruit. The second meal is always dusted with calcium/multivitamin.
His basking zones are 107 to 72, no humidity, plenty of space to move around. UVB bulb is new and the most powerful one I can buy. He has a towel for substrate that is cleaned every 3 days (hand washed with baby soap). Fearing a possible toxin issue I replaced the towel with a new one 3 weeks ago. This also had no effect)
The vet has not given up and is continuing to do research. I am hoping that someone out there has experienced this problem, or something similar and may be able to offer some insight. ANY thoughts you have are appreciated, even ones that are a little far fetched. I love this dragon very much and I am very worried about him.
First off, thank you for taking the time to read and hopefully reply to my problem, I appreciate any advice/thoughts any of you may have on this issue.
I am the proud and happy owner of a 3 year old male Bearded Dragon, purchased from the breeder Dachiu. Over the past 5 weeks, he has started to show signs of small twitches or spasms on his mid to lower back, his belly and at the very base of his tail. At first, these symptoms were very small and infrequent and I thought that it was simply muscle fatigue. He is extremely active and will run around his enclosure, exploring everything. After the second week the twitching became more noticeable and I started to worry that he may have MBD and upped his calcium. This did not appear to help. I then changed his UVB bulb (it is a 10.0). This also did not help.
I researched any vitamin deficiency that could possibly cause these symptoms and discovered that Vitamin B1 could also cause muscle twitching. I purchased this vitamin and began dusting his food with this as well as his normal multivitamin and the increased calcium. This also had no effect. At this point, (at about the 3rd week) the twitching was very apparent and occurred after any large movement (for example, he would run from one end of the cage to the other and when he paused, the muscles would start twitching).
I then took him to the vet, realizing that I had reached the end of what I could do to help him. The vet was completely stumped. She told me that he appeared perfectly healthy, that he showed no symptoms of MBD (his jaws are like a rock). She prescribed a high dose liquid calcium (just in case) and also gave me Bene-Bac, a gel containing beneficial micro-organisms (similar to the bacteria found in yogurt to help digestion). I have been faithfully administering these products as per instructions over the past week but there has been no change.
Other than this bizarre twitching he appears perfectly healthy. He has not lost any weight, he continues to behave normally and he does not appear to notice the twitching. He has been fighting me a bit with the medication and still eats pretty well, although he is starting to go off his food now. He does not appear to be impacted and continues to poop everyday/every other day. This is the first time he has been ill since I first purchased him.
I feed him as great a variety of foods as I can. This includes -but is not limited too- butternut/acorn/yellow squash, kale, carrots, green beans, papaya, mango, apples, blueberries, silkworms, waxworms, butterworms, hornworms, gut-loaded crickets, spinach, kiwi, cantaloupe, mustard greens, dandelion greens, pellets. Typically, he has two small meals a day. One is greens/pellets, the other is fruit or bugs. I will alternate so that he only eats bugs two/three times a week. The same with fruit. The second meal is always dusted with calcium/multivitamin.
His basking zones are 107 to 72, no humidity, plenty of space to move around. UVB bulb is new and the most powerful one I can buy. He has a towel for substrate that is cleaned every 3 days (hand washed with baby soap). Fearing a possible toxin issue I replaced the towel with a new one 3 weeks ago. This also had no effect)
The vet has not given up and is continuing to do research. I am hoping that someone out there has experienced this problem, or something similar and may be able to offer some insight. ANY thoughts you have are appreciated, even ones that are a little far fetched. I love this dragon very much and I am very worried about him.