ArteMiloFlo
Member
- Beardie name(s)
- Mercury
Hi! So, I have a little rankin's called Mercury, I know he's not a beardie, but I'm at my wits end and need some advice. But I apologise if this is the wrong place, it's my first time posting on a forum.
He's currently 13 months old. I'm hoping to raise awareness and also look for some advice regarding neurological issues and crypto, whether, in people's experience, they can coincide? (And maybe get some reassurance or tips on how to help him further)
In January he was taken to the vet because he had a sperm plug and the base of his tail was swollen, his hemipenes were flushed and he was given anti-inflammatories. We ran a faecal sample as a part of a general health check and it came back positive for coccidia a few days later. I'm no stranger to parasites, so I moved him out of the reptile room to another room upstairs into quarantine and began strict quarantine procedures. He was started on the appropriate medicine for 10 days at a frequency of every day. I dropped off a fresh sample two or three weeks after he finished the medicine and that came back coccidia negative, but he had a low amount of cryptosporidium oocysts in his faeces; something that hadn't been present the first time. But he was a "poor doer" at 23 grams at 9 months old, so I knew it'd probably been a false negative.
The vet wasn't sure if his sudden and recurrent development of parasites was down to atadenovirus or something else, and we discussed Mercury's next options. It was to try a fairly new and experimental medicine, or euthanasia. I'm lucky to be able to facilitate a quarantined room for Mercury (now downstairs, as opposed to being a few doors down the hall) away from my other reptiles and follow strict procedures, so I gave him a week on the new medicine and he responded to it within a few days, it was a honestly rather miraculous recovery. He started eating, pooping, and a month later I weighed him and he was 33 grams, and soon after had a full body shed (I'd had him since he was 3 months old and he'd never shed). So the vet told me that'd essentially ruled out atadenovirus because he "likely wouldn't have recovered" if it was. Satisfied, I continued to give him the parofor for the crypto and he continued to respond, hitting 45 grams at 12 months old.
That was until this month. I weighed him, and he was down 3 grams, I wasn't overly concerned but kept a close eye on his eating to see if he'd just slowed down or if it was something to be concerned about. He didn't eat for a week so I booked him in with the vet, who ran a faecal test, gave his stomach an ultrasound (because the vet said it was distended - he was slightly impacted but I was reassured two baths a day would help), and gave him a general health check up. The faecal result was still positive for crypto but in lower numbers than the last one, but it was also positive for pinworm (we've started him on eradia (10 days) and bovex (once a month) as well as parofor (daily). He's been having two baths a day and I even crushed some blueberries to make a blueberry juice as a natural laxative, but there's been no movement. So I'll be booking him in again on Monday to get him reassessed and have a possible enema.
He's still fighting and recovering, he's just having little hiccups along the way.
So I guess I was wondering if anyone here also knows about neurological conditions in Rankin's or beardies? Because more recently he's been twitching when stressed, but when I say twitching, I mean really jerky movements and robotic looking actions, I'm really rather concerned, but there's nothing I can do until I get him to our herp vet on Monday and I was just hoping for some reassurance or tips.
As of just now he has managed to poop a little, and had eaten a bowl of 10 mealworms (he used to be on 2nd+3rd hoppers, but since being on the parofor he flat out refuses locusts of any size, and the only thing he'll eat are mealworms - not ideal, I know. But right now any eating is better than nothing)
Thanks in advance, Z
He's currently 13 months old. I'm hoping to raise awareness and also look for some advice regarding neurological issues and crypto, whether, in people's experience, they can coincide? (And maybe get some reassurance or tips on how to help him further)
In January he was taken to the vet because he had a sperm plug and the base of his tail was swollen, his hemipenes were flushed and he was given anti-inflammatories. We ran a faecal sample as a part of a general health check and it came back positive for coccidia a few days later. I'm no stranger to parasites, so I moved him out of the reptile room to another room upstairs into quarantine and began strict quarantine procedures. He was started on the appropriate medicine for 10 days at a frequency of every day. I dropped off a fresh sample two or three weeks after he finished the medicine and that came back coccidia negative, but he had a low amount of cryptosporidium oocysts in his faeces; something that hadn't been present the first time. But he was a "poor doer" at 23 grams at 9 months old, so I knew it'd probably been a false negative.
The vet wasn't sure if his sudden and recurrent development of parasites was down to atadenovirus or something else, and we discussed Mercury's next options. It was to try a fairly new and experimental medicine, or euthanasia. I'm lucky to be able to facilitate a quarantined room for Mercury (now downstairs, as opposed to being a few doors down the hall) away from my other reptiles and follow strict procedures, so I gave him a week on the new medicine and he responded to it within a few days, it was a honestly rather miraculous recovery. He started eating, pooping, and a month later I weighed him and he was 33 grams, and soon after had a full body shed (I'd had him since he was 3 months old and he'd never shed). So the vet told me that'd essentially ruled out atadenovirus because he "likely wouldn't have recovered" if it was. Satisfied, I continued to give him the parofor for the crypto and he continued to respond, hitting 45 grams at 12 months old.
That was until this month. I weighed him, and he was down 3 grams, I wasn't overly concerned but kept a close eye on his eating to see if he'd just slowed down or if it was something to be concerned about. He didn't eat for a week so I booked him in with the vet, who ran a faecal test, gave his stomach an ultrasound (because the vet said it was distended - he was slightly impacted but I was reassured two baths a day would help), and gave him a general health check up. The faecal result was still positive for crypto but in lower numbers than the last one, but it was also positive for pinworm (we've started him on eradia (10 days) and bovex (once a month) as well as parofor (daily). He's been having two baths a day and I even crushed some blueberries to make a blueberry juice as a natural laxative, but there's been no movement. So I'll be booking him in again on Monday to get him reassessed and have a possible enema.
He's still fighting and recovering, he's just having little hiccups along the way.
So I guess I was wondering if anyone here also knows about neurological conditions in Rankin's or beardies? Because more recently he's been twitching when stressed, but when I say twitching, I mean really jerky movements and robotic looking actions, I'm really rather concerned, but there's nothing I can do until I get him to our herp vet on Monday and I was just hoping for some reassurance or tips.
As of just now he has managed to poop a little, and had eaten a bowl of 10 mealworms (he used to be on 2nd+3rd hoppers, but since being on the parofor he flat out refuses locusts of any size, and the only thing he'll eat are mealworms - not ideal, I know. But right now any eating is better than nothing)
Thanks in advance, Z