Conjunctivitis

[Nickonz]

A few weeks back we noticed that one of my Beardies eyes, Jango was pretty much glued shut. It was like the human equivalent to conjunctivitis. We took him to the vet and that is exactly what she told us, that he had conjunctivitis. We were given Chlorsig eye ointment and were told to put it in his eye twice a day and rub off the excess. We did that for a week and it started clearing up, with a bit of dis-colouration around his eye. Then about a week later we noticed a blister on the same side as his sore eye and a whole lot of dis-coloured spots on top of his head towards his nostrils. So I took him back to the vet and we were given diluted Betadine solution to rub on it. We did that and we made sure that we rubbed the excess off again to stop moisture. After a couple of weeks there has not been a lot of progress with him. He is still very alert and he is in perfect health otherwise. Where we are from, we don't have a lot of people owning Beardies so we are going to take a photo of his eye to send to our vet and she is going to post it on a veterinarian forum site for us. I will see if I can also post the same photos on here as well.

So if you get any advice that you could get for that problem would be much appreciated and we will do the same for you.

You can see here that his eye is a bit enflamed. This was taken 7/7/11 so it is much better than before.

 

[Nickonz]

I can't remember the make of UVB bulb and I'm not home at the moment to check. But it is a coil UVB bulb whih we were sold by the pet shop where we got him. I have been looking everywhere for the reptisun10.0 but being from New Zealand, we don't have many pet stores that specialize in reptiles. I have just bought the fittings for a reptisun tube aswell. Also, what is reptile one like? Would I get away with using 2 tubes that are 5% UVB or would it be better to use just 1 bulb at 10%?

I would say the closest he can get to the bulb would be around 150mm.

His eye is clearing up, just taking a real long time. I am trying to find other people where I live to talk to as well that own beardies

 

[Gail]

There is a good chance the coil UVB is the problem. Can you find a arcadia 12% UVB bulb? It might be more available then a reptisun.

 

[Nickonz]

Yea we have come to that conclusion as well. It is a Lucky Reptile coil UVB. Now I have ordered the Exo-Terra Repti Glo. I know a lot of people out there say that it's really bad. But what exactly is bad about it? I have spoken to several breeders in New Zealand and the majority of them told me that they use the Repti Glo with no problems what so ever. When the bulbs arrive I will be putting them above the mesh roof so it will loose a bit of the UV. It will also be about 20cm away from Jango.

Cheers

 

[randommonks]

Yea we have come to that conclusion as well. It is a Lucky Reptile coil UVB. Now I have ordered the Exo-Terra Repti Glo. I know a lot of people out there say that it's really bad. But what exactly is bad about it? I have spoken to several breeders in New Zealand and the majority of them told me that they use the Repti Glo with no problems what so ever. When the bulbs arrive I will be putting them above the mesh roof so it will loose a bit of the UV. It will also be about 20cm away from Jango.

Cheers

From what I gather, there was a problem with poor glass quality a couple years ago. I do believe that they have resolved this issue. I've been using the ReptiGlo 10.0 for 2 months now with a very healthy beardie. It's more of a personal choice, but the ReptiSun seems to be the UV bulb with the least amount of reported problems. I have heard several other people that use the ReptiGlo with no problems.

As far as putting it on mesh, what I do is crack the top of my tank's sliding lid and balance the UV fixture on the edge of the tank, so there is no mesh between the UV and the basking spot. I also have a reflector on the back of the fixture, so it also adds to the amount of UV my beardie gets.

 

[Nickonz]

Cool, thanks for clearing that up!

If I were to buy 2 bulbs that had 5% UV, would that be the same as 1 10% UV bulb? Or would it make no difference at all?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

You could get 2 Reptisun 5 tube bulbs which would be a good amount of UVB yes.
How are his eyes looking? Are they clearing up pretty well?
The Reptiglo 10 bulbs when used properly do not usually cause problems if they are not too close. The problem lies with the wavelength of the UVB. It is not the correct wavelength conducive to D3 synthesis. Over time, a lot of dragons have succumb to metabolic bone disease. I have talked with quite a few people who have had problems with them & with their dragons developing metabolic bone disease.

I hope your dragon is much better.
Tracie

 

[Nickonz]

Hi,

Thanks Tracie!

The problem is we can't get the ReptiSun anywhere. There seem to be no suppliers in New Zealand.

His eye is looking a lot better but it is still inflamed.

Another thing I have noticed with him is that he has had quite a temper over the last couple of days and he is really dark and he also hasn't pooped for quite a while. I can't remember when he last did. He hasn't really eaten a lot either but over the last few days he has eaten a lot more.

Could this possibly be constipation or anything?

 

[libinoz]

Hi Nickonz! I am from Australia and thought perhaps you might try The Herp Shop in Melbourne, Australia for the Arcadia D3 12% fluro tubes. I am fairly certain they also sell the Reptisun tubes. No idea on shipping over to NZ though! Good luck!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Oh yes if you are in New Zealand, you should be able to get the Arcadia D3 12% bulb, they are a little stronger than the Reptisun 10 tube bulbs.
He could be a little constipated, yes. How dark is he & is his beard dark?
How long was he under the coil for?
He could have a slight calcium deficiency which could be causing some problems for him right now.


Tracie

 

[Nickonz]

Yes, with the Repti-Sun it was going to cost us about $300US to bring in just two bulbs.

We went to our local zoo to talk to one of the reptile keepers and one of our main questions was about lighting. The zoo uses the Repti Glo so that is what we decided to buy. We have spoken to several reptile experts and they have all said that its just silly brand wars. Sure Repti Glo could have had some problems a few years ago.

As for constipation, we asked her what the best way to go about getting things ...moving again. We were told to soak his bottom half in a container that's situated on a lean so it's deeper at one end than the other and leave him in there under a UV/heat light for a couple of hours. We plan to try it out later this evening-fingers crossed!

He is quite dark all over but his beard stays relatively normal. He has however just suddenly shed his head so this could possibly explain the temper.

He is under the light for most of the day and we try to bring him outside to soak in some sun rays as much as possible and he loves running around the lounge. He has always been very active outside of his cage.

I wouldn't have thought it was a calcium deficiency as we put calcium supplement on his food almost every day. In fact my partner suggested earlier that it may be the powder clogging him up.

 

[Nickonz]

Just an update on the soaking trick.

We soaked Jango last night in the container for about an hour or so. We put him back in his viv and a few minutes later things seemed to be moving again. We recommend this trick, as long as you do have a heat light on and some where for them to perch on as the water does get quite cold. We just took a bit of water out and put in more warm water.