Confusing cause of death

[CurlyShark]

My bearded dragon died Monday and I'm trying to figure out what happened to her. Forgive this being long; I don't know what information would be relevant, so I'm adding everything I can think of.

She was 2 years and 3 months old (hatched May 2021.) She was a craiglist rescue, from a home where she was kept on sand, with only a basking light and no UVB, and she reeked of cigarette smoke and it took multiple baths to get what I assume was the sticky tar off her. I've had her since June 2022.

Despite her rough start, she's had no health problems other than pinworms which I treated right away after getting her. The only other times I'd brought her to the vet was in February of this year to check for eggs as she'd been acting as though she may have been gravid. She wasn't, and my vet gave her a clean bill of health. (Exam, clear fecal, normal x-ray.) The other time was July 4th when she ate a wild bug that didn't agree with her and I had to take her to the hospital as my vet was closed. She recovered from that within a few hours. (No tests were done at that time, but she'd puked up the bug and the vet said it didn't appear to be a toxic bug. She was given carafate for her belly upset.)

Forward to last Wednesday Aug 16. The day began as usual, she was looking and acting perfectly normal. Every morning I take her outside for sun and exercise for about 2 hours. (I do not, and have never used pesticides or anything on my yard. There is also no way she ingested anything as I'd been watching her the whole time, and the vets don't think it was poisoning.)

My neighbor's huge dog started barking, which set off my chihuahuas, which then suddenly my dragon fired up and blackbearded. Of course I assumed she'd been startled. I picked her up, she was acting normal, just a little bothered. She ate her "breakfast" while I held her and we finished our time outside.

Over the hours though, her black beard and fired-up look never faded, but she was still otherwise acting normal. Everything I read said not to worry if she's acting normal, and just see how she is in the morning. But the morning found her still black and fired up, only she also was looking bloated and out of it. My regular vet isn't opened on Thursdays, so I opted to take her to the only exotics hospital we have here. (I haven't had the best experience with them, but there is nowhere else.)

They did an x-ray that showed her heart enlarged, but was otherwise completely normal. They took some blood and a fecal to send away to their lab, but did not do the blood analysis they can do inhouse for some reason. Despite my dragon looking quite poorly, the vet didn't seem overly concerned. She gave me a prescription for meloxicam and told me they would contact me on Monday when the results should be in.

Next day found her even worse. Thankfully my main vet would be opened, so we brought her down as soon as they did. My vet agreed it looked cardiac from the x-ray, was shocked to see she'd gained over 50g of fluid edema, so she gave her an injection of furosemide (Lasix) and some B vitamins, as well as a prescription for oral furosemide. She was really upset and confused the hospital didn't do any inhouse blood analysis. She said she couldn't take any more blood though.

Forward to Monday with no improvement, the hospital said they did get the results, but that the vet who treated my dragon would have to be the one to give them to me, and she was not working that day and I'd have to wait for Tuesday! My husband managed to persuade them to send the results to our regular vet instead.

Meanwhile my girl faded and passed away about 2:10pm.

I brought her to my vet when they opened, and the hospital did get the results over. But my vet is stumped. It appears my girl died from hyperglycemia, but nothing makes sense as to WHY she'd have a glucose level so high. I never feed her fruits or anything sugary, and my vet said the level was higher than that kind of diabetes would be anyway. However, she said none of the usual causes of extremely high glucose seemed to apply to her. Her kidneys are fine, liver's fine, no sign of infection, gout, etc.. Just the really high glucose level, edema, and the enlarged heart.
I asked about a necropsy and she didn't think it would yield much info, so I didn't have one done.

Now on top of being devastated over losing my girl, I'm confused and angry and really needing to know what happened to her. So I was hoping maybe someone here could maybe shed some light on this, either from knowledge or experience. I'm including the x-ray and lab results, as well as photos to show you her progression and how extreme the change was. I also have a photo of the normal x-ray from February I can post later if that would be helpful.
I know nothing can bring her back, but solving this mystery would help for peace and closure.

My dragons are my life and mean the world to me. I literally spend every waking hour with them and I can promise you my girl was completely normal before the dogs spooked her on Wednesday.

Everyone was in agreement this isn't a husbandry issue, but for the sake of keeping to form here's her info:

Housing: 24x48x18 wooden vivarium, housed alone
(I have four other dragons; all are housed separately and not in view of each other. They all have their own bowls/tongs/etc. All are regularly checked by my vet and have clean bills of health.)

Substrate: Washable pet liner

Lighting: 60w incandescent basking bulb, 36" T5 Reptisun 5.0 HO (2.5 months old, levels checked with UVB meter) mounted inside the enclosure, gets 2 hours unfitered sun daily (We're in Florida)

Temps: 98f basking, 87f hot side, 83f cool side (temp gun)
Nighttime usual 74f (ambient house temp)
35-40% humidity

Diet: Greens (turnip/mustard), Repashy Beardie Buffet mixed with baby food (squash/greenbean/pumpkin), BSFL, occasional superworms/hornworms

Thanks for reading all this and any help anyone might be able to give.

 

[KarrieRee]

My bearded dragon died Monday and I'm trying to figure out what happened to her. Forgive this being long; I don't know what information would be relevant, so I'm adding everything I can think of.

She was 2 years and 3 months old (hatched May 2021.) She was a craiglist rescue, from a home where she was kept on sand, with only a basking light and no UVB, and she reeked of cigarette smoke and it took multiple baths to get what I assume was the sticky tar off her. I've had her since June 2022.

Despite her rough start, she's had no health problems other than pinworms which I treated right away after getting her. The only other times I'd brought her to the vet was in February of this year to check for eggs as she'd been acting as though she may have been gravid. She wasn't, and my vet gave her a clean bill of health. (Exam, clear fecal, normal x-ray.) The other time was July 4th when she ate a wild bug that didn't agree with her and I had to take her to the hospital as my vet was closed. She recovered from that within a few hours. (No tests were done at that time, but she'd puked up the bug and the vet said it didn't appear to be a toxic bug. She was given carafate for her belly upset.)

Forward to last Wednesday Aug 16. The day began as usual, she was looking and acting perfectly normal. Every morning I take her outside for sun and exercise for about 2 hours. (I do not, and have never used pesticides or anything on my yard. There is also no way she ingested anything as I'd been watching her the whole time, and the vets don't think it was poisoning.)

My neighbor's huge dog started barking, which set off my chihuahuas, which then suddenly my dragon fired up and blackbearded. Of course I assumed she'd been startled. I picked her up, she was acting normal, just a little bothered. She ate her "breakfast" while I held her and we finished our time outside.

Over the hours though, her black beard and fired-up look never faded, but she was still otherwise acting normal. Everything I read said not to worry if she's acting normal, and just see how she is in the morning. But the morning found her still black and fired up, only she also was looking bloated and out of it. My regular vet isn't opened on Thursdays, so I opted to take her to the only exotics hospital we have here. (I haven't had the best experience with them, but there is nowhere else.)

They did an x-ray that showed her heart enlarged, but was otherwise completely normal. They took some blood and a fecal to send away to their lab, but did not do the blood analysis they can do inhouse for some reason. Despite my dragon looking quite poorly, the vet didn't seem overly concerned. She gave me a prescription for meloxicam and told me they would contact me on Monday when the results should be in.

Next day found her even worse. Thankfully my main vet would be opened, so we brought her down as soon as they did. My vet agreed it looked cardiac from the x-ray, was shocked to see she'd gained over 50g of fluid edema, so she gave her an injection of furosemide (Lasix) and some B vitamins, as well as a prescription for oral furosemide. She was really upset and confused the hospital didn't do any inhouse blood analysis. She said she couldn't take any more blood though.

Forward to Monday with no improvement, the hospital said they did get the results, but that the vet who treated my dragon would have to be the one to give them to me, and she was not working that day and I'd have to wait for Tuesday! My husband managed to persuade them to send the results to our regular vet instead.

Meanwhile my girl faded and passed away about 2:10pm.

I brought her to my vet when they opened, and the hospital did get the results over. But my vet is stumped. It appears my girl died from hyperglycemia, but nothing makes sense as to WHY she'd have a glucose level so high. I never feed her fruits or anything sugary, and my vet said the level was higher than that kind of diabetes would be anyway. However, she said none of the usual causes of extremely high glucose seemed to apply to her. Her kidneys are fine, liver's fine, no sign of infection, gout, etc.. Just the really high glucose level, edema, and the enlarged heart.
I asked about a necropsy and she didn't think it would yield much info, so I didn't have one done.

Now on top of being devastated over losing my girl, I'm confused and angry and really needing to know what happened to her. So I was hoping maybe someone here could maybe shed some light on this, either from knowledge or experience. I'm including the x-ray and lab results, as well as photos to show you her progression and how extreme the change was. I also have a photo of the normal x-ray from February I can post later if that would be helpful.
I know nothing can bring her back, but solving this mystery would help for peace and closure.

My dragons are my life and mean the world to me. I literally spend every waking hour with them and I can promise you my girl was completely normal before the dogs spooked her on Wednesday.

Everyone was in agreement this isn't a husbandry issue, but for the sake of keeping to form here's her info:

Housing: 24x48x18 wooden vivarium, housed alone
(I have four other dragons; all are housed separately and not in view of each other. They all have their own bowls/tongs/etc. All are regularly checked by my vet and have clean bills of health.)

Substrate: Washable pet liner

Lighting: 60w incandescent basking bulb, 36" T5 Reptisun 5.0 HO (2.5 months old, levels checked with UVB meter) mounted inside the enclosure, gets 2 hours unfitered sun daily (We're in Florida)

Temps: 98f basking, 87f hot side, 83f cool side (temp gun)
Nighttime usual 74f (ambient house temp)
35-40% humidity

Diet: Greens (turnip/mustard), Repashy Beardie Buffet mixed with baby food (squash/greenbean/pumpkin), BSFL, occasional superworms/hornworms

Thanks for reading all this and any help anyone might be able to give.

I am so sorry to hear about your baby --- it is so hard to see them go down hill so fast and not knowing exactly what caused it
Well my first thought was the fecal being done and mistake being made when done- we always recommend NO enemas --- but Tracie needs to look at the test results you posted - as far as the lighting the UVB should be a 10.0 bulb -- the 5.0's are not as strong and the distance and placement are different from the 10.0 bulb - they are not strong enough to go on the screen and need to be inside the tank - going forward and w/ the other dragons if your using 5.0 bulb please change them out to the 10.0 bulb they are for reptiles and the 5.0 bulbs for aquariums- I am hoping Tracie can shed some light on the why she passed ---

 

[CurlyShark]

I am so sorry to hear about your baby --- it is so hard to see them go down hill so fast and not knowing exactly what caused it
Well my first thought was the fecal being done and mistake being made when done- we always recommend NO enemas --- but Tracie needs to look at the test results you posted - as far as the lighting the UVB should be a 10.0 bulb -- the 5.0's are not as strong and the distance and placement are different from the 10.0 bulb - they are not strong enough to go on the screen and need to be inside the tank - going forward and w/ the other dragons if your using 5.0 bulb please change them out to the 10.0 bulb they are for reptiles and the 5.0 bulbs for aquariums- I am hoping Tracie can shed some light on the why she passed ---

They didn’t need to do an enema.. She pooped on her own on the exam table after the vet examined her abdomen so they were able to use that.

For the lighting, I was informed because my enclosure is only 18” tall rather than the 24” typical, the 10.0 would be too strong. I do have the Solarmeter UVB measure and the levels are fine. I check them monthly to be safe.

 

[PastelBeardie2]

I am not a beardie medical expert, but thought of something. My first beardie died young, too. When he was necropsied, his liver was huge. Both the vet (who is a reptile nerd, LOL) and a few other people told me that some places producing beardies are just mass producing them for the market, and they are running into problems like enlarged organs from inbreeding. He also said that since Australia does not allow them to be exported, they lack diversity in the gene pool, so when people breed them for colors, etc., that further narrows the gene pool.

You said her heart was enlarged. That could have been the cause, along with stress placed on a heart that would probably not have lasted much longer.

That's my 2 cents. Again, I'm no expert, just a beardie owner making a guess based on what I've been told.

 

[xp29]

I'm so sorry for your loss. Both beardies I lost in the past was very quickly and unexpectedly so I know how bad that hurts.
As far as the bloating, was she swelled up like that before the dogs spooked her? The reason I ask is because beardies can purposely inflate themselves at will. In the wild they will get into a crevice and inflate themselves to keep predators from pulling them out. They will also do it in water for buoyancy. So that may have been a false symptom.
Another thing that can cause it is high levels of Coccidia, the fecal should indicate that if it was a factor.

 

[CurlyShark]

I am not a beardie medical expert, but thought of something. My first beardie died young, too. When he was necropsied, his liver was huge. Both the vet (who is a reptile nerd, LOL) and a few other people told me that some places producing beardies are just mass producing them for the market, and they are running into problems like enlarged organs from inbreeding. He also said that since Australia does not allow them to be exported, they lack diversity in the gene pool, so when people breed them for colors, etc., that further narrows the gene pool.

You said her heart was enlarged. That could have been the cause, along with stress placed on a heart that would probably not have lasted much longer.

That's my 2 cents. Again, I'm no expert, just a beardie owner making a guess based on what I've been told.

I know the shop where her original owner bought her, and yes they are questionable breeders. They have multiple complaints about how poorly they keep their breeding stock. My main vet had suggested it might be defect from that. She just can't figure out what started what and how. She does think the high glucose affected her heart, but just can't figure out how her glucose got that high since her other organs seemed okay from the labs and x-rays.

It's so sad though cos she'd really been doing so well since I got her. She had the coolest personality and the kindest eyes. She was really special

 

[CurlyShark]

I'm so sorry for your loss. Both beardies I lost in the past was very quickly and unexpectedly so I know how bad that hurts.
As far as the bloating, was she swelled up like that before the dogs spooked her? The reason I ask is because beardies can purposely inflate themselves at will. In the wild they will get into a crevice and inflate themselves to keep predators from pulling them out. They will also do it in water for buoyancy. So that may have been a false symptom.
Another thing that can cause it is high levels of Coccidia, the fecal should indicate that if it was a factor.

The bloating started the following day. Her belly felt taut and her beard grew twice its size. That with her acting a bit off is why I opted to take her right to the hospital instead of waiting the next day for my regular vet to open.
She'd gained over 50 grams of fluid in less than 2 days.

The first thought my vet had was some kind of parasite, but her fecal came out clear. Then we got the bloodwork showing the high glucose and that confused everything.

 

[xp29]

Bless her heart. I know with you she was way more than "the lizard" maybe it was something that stemmed for her inadequate care before you got her. I know your sad, but try to take some comfort knowing you gave her the love she deserved during the time she had with you.

 

[Lyrebird.Rainwing]

I am no beardie expert so I can't day for certain what could have caused this but I do know that they were probably very loved. R.I.P, Hawthorn welcomes them into beardie heaven with open arms

 

[noella5088]

I'm so sorry for your loss. What caught my attention was the high glucose level and I have read somewhere online that there's a stomach cancer- GNT.

Bearded dragons with GNT have general signs of illness that include reduced appetite, weight loss, vomiting, lethargy, anemia, bleeding from the cloaca (melena), blood seen in poop, and high blood glucose. In humans, dogs and cats, high blood glucose indicates diabetes.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1354/vp.09-VP-0019-K-FL

 

[CurlyShark]

I'm so sorry for your loss. What caught my attention was the high glucose level and I have read somewhere online that there's a stomach cancer- GNT.

Bearded dragons with GNT have general signs of illness that include reduced appetite, weight loss, vomiting, lethargy, anemia, bleeding from the cloaca (melena), blood seen in poop, and high blood glucose. In humans, dogs and cats, high blood glucose indicates diabetes.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1354/vp.09-VP-0019-K-FL

The vet from the hospital phoned me yesterday afternoon and that's what she suggested might have been wrong with my girl. My main vet had mentioned it too, but was confused by the lack of other symptoms (no weight loss, lack of appetite, fatigue, poop issues, etc.) She seemed to go from perfectly healthy to seriously ill within 24 hours, and then dead a couple days after that.

I had a boy die from intestinal cancer last year; he went obviously downhill over the course of a month, and in retrospect I noticed his appetite had gone way down a month prior to that, but just chalked it up to spring fever since he was really active and wanting to mate. But with my girl, there have been no signs.

But maybe like humans, some cancers are a lot more aggressive? Just seemed so fast.

 

[noella5088]

The vet from the hospital phoned me yesterday afternoon and that's what she suggested might have been wrong with my girl. My main vet had mentioned it too, but was confused by the lack of other symptoms (no weight loss, lack of appetite, fatigue, poop issues, etc.) She seemed to go from perfectly healthy to seriously ill within 24 hours, and then dead a couple days after that.

I had a boy die from intestinal cancer last year; he went obviously downhill over the course of a month, and in retrospect I noticed his appetite had gone way down a month prior to that, but just chalked it up to spring fever since he was really active and wanting to mate. But with my girl, there have been no signs.

But maybe like humans, some cancers are a lot more aggressive? Just seemed so fast.

I'm so sorry about your boy. It's never easy to lose two bearded dragons to GNT and Intestinal Cancer. You want to do every thing to help them.

 

[Hazel_Basil10]

My bearded dragon died Monday and I'm trying to figure out what happened to her. Forgive this being long; I don't know what information would be relevant, so I'm adding everything I can think of.

She was 2 years and 3 months old (hatched May 2021.) She was a craiglist rescue, from a home where she was kept on sand, with only a basking light and no UVB, and she reeked of cigarette smoke and it took multiple baths to get what I assume was the sticky tar off her. I've had her since June 2022.

Despite her rough start, she's had no health problems other than pinworms which I treated right away after getting her. The only other times I'd brought her to the vet was in February of this year to check for eggs as she'd been acting as though she may have been gravid. She wasn't, and my vet gave her a clean bill of health. (Exam, clear fecal, normal x-ray.) The other time was July 4th when she ate a wild bug that didn't agree with her and I had to take her to the hospital as my vet was closed. She recovered from that within a few hours. (No tests were done at that time, but she'd puked up the bug and the vet said it didn't appear to be a toxic bug. She was given carafate for her belly upset.)

Forward to last Wednesday Aug 16. The day began as usual, she was looking and acting perfectly normal. Every morning I take her outside for sun and exercise for about 2 hours. (I do not, and have never used pesticides or anything on my yard. There is also no way she ingested anything as I'd been watching her the whole time, and the vets don't think it was poisoning.)

My neighbor's huge dog started barking, which set off my chihuahuas, which then suddenly my dragon fired up and blackbearded. Of course I assumed she'd been startled. I picked her up, she was acting normal, just a little bothered. She ate her "breakfast" while I held her and we finished our time outside.

Over the hours though, her black beard and fired-up look never faded, but she was still otherwise acting normal. Everything I read said not to worry if she's acting normal, and just see how she is in the morning. But the morning found her still black and fired up, only she also was looking bloated and out of it. My regular vet isn't opened on Thursdays, so I opted to take her to the only exotics hospital we have here. (I haven't had the best experience with them, but there is nowhere else.)

They did an x-ray that showed her heart enlarged, but was otherwise completely normal. They took some blood and a fecal to send away to their lab, but did not do the blood analysis they can do inhouse for some reason. Despite my dragon looking quite poorly, the vet didn't seem overly concerned. She gave me a prescription for meloxicam and told me they would contact me on Monday when the results should be in.

Next day found her even worse. Thankfully my main vet would be opened, so we brought her down as soon as they did. My vet agreed it looked cardiac from the x-ray, was shocked to see she'd gained over 50g of fluid edema, so she gave her an injection of furosemide (Lasix) and some B vitamins, as well as a prescription for oral furosemide. She was really upset and confused the hospital didn't do any inhouse blood analysis. She said she couldn't take any more blood though.

Forward to Monday with no improvement, the hospital said they did get the results, but that the vet who treated my dragon would have to be the one to give them to me, and she was not working that day and I'd have to wait for Tuesday! My husband managed to persuade them to send the results to our regular vet instead.

Meanwhile my girl faded and passed away about 2:10pm.

I brought her to my vet when they opened, and the hospital did get the results over. But my vet is stumped. It appears my girl died from hyperglycemia, but nothing makes sense as to WHY she'd have a glucose level so high. I never feed her fruits or anything sugary, and my vet said the level was higher than that kind of diabetes would be anyway. However, she said none of the usual causes of extremely high glucose seemed to apply to her. Her kidneys are fine, liver's fine, no sign of infection, gout, etc.. Just the really high glucose level, edema, and the enlarged heart.
I asked about a necropsy and she didn't think it would yield much info, so I didn't have one done.

Now on top of being devastated over losing my girl, I'm confused and angry and really needing to know what happened to her. So I was hoping maybe someone here could maybe shed some light on this, either from knowledge or experience. I'm including the x-ray and lab results, as well as photos to show you her progression and how extreme the change was. I also have a photo of the normal x-ray from February I can post later if that would be helpful.
I know nothing can bring her back, but solving this mystery would help for peace and closure.

My dragons are my life and mean the world to me. I literally spend every waking hour with them and I can promise you my girl was completely normal before the dogs spooked her on Wednesday.

Everyone was in agreement this isn't a husbandry issue, but for the sake of keeping to form here's her info:

Housing: 24x48x18 wooden vivarium, housed alone
(I have four other dragons; all are housed separately and not in view of each other. They all have their own bowls/tongs/etc. All are regularly checked by my vet and have clean bills of health.)

Substrate: Washable pet liner

Lighting: 60w incandescent basking bulb, 36" T5 Reptisun 5.0 HO (2.5 months old, levels checked with UVB meter) mounted inside the enclosure, gets 2 hours unfitered sun daily (We're in Florida)

Temps: 98f basking, 87f hot side, 83f cool side (temp gun)
Nighttime usual 74f (ambient house temp)
35-40% humidity

Diet: Greens (turnip/mustard), Repashy Beardie Buffet mixed with baby food (squash/greenbean/pumpkin), BSFL, occasional superworms/hornworms

Thanks for reading all this and any help anyone might be able to give.

I had a rescue who also died young aswell. I lost mind to Parasites it Is so hard to see your pets that you love go so fast.