Dragon Sick Again, Need Help Troubleshooting

[LMS72]

Hi,
A couple weeks ago I posted about my girl Althea. My vet medicated her for a bacterial infection resulting from a gut load of hexamita. She finished her 10 days of antibiotic on 12/19 and then 2 days ago, I noticed she wasn't herself again. The texture of her poop changed again from smoothe to pieces of undigested crickets and it had a weird smell. She was sluggish again and not interested in food. She is eating, but not her usual amount. I took a sample to the vet today and now she has worms. I just gave her a dose of the medication profender, on her back. So my concern is this...I have had her for 4.5 months now and since I got her she has been treated for coccidia, flagellates, a bacterial infection and now worms. Am I doing something wrong? She's about 9 months old (ish).

I have her in a 40 gallon breeder cage with a basking spot temp of about 95-105, depending on where she sits. Half of her cage has the reptile carpet, the part where she poops currently has papertowels for easy clean up. I'm working on getting her some ceramic tile for that area, but with the holidays I just haven't had time. She's been eating 40 - 50 adult crickets a day (dusted with vitamins and calcium) and 50-75 repti worms a day (dusted with a probiotic). I buy my crickets from Ghanns. Her basking lamp is a zoo med 110 watt UVA daylight basking spot lamp and she has a reptisun 10.0 UVB lamp on her as well. At night, she has a ceramic heater to keep the temp from getting too chilly in her cage near her bed.

Is there something I am not doing, or doing incorrectly? I hate that she keeps getting sick. Is this normal? She is my first beardie, so I'm learning as I go.

Also, she has really no interest in veggies yet. I've given her romaine, carrots, red pepper, kale and she really isn't into it. I read that around 8 months you should start giving them more veggies and less bugs, but she is totally not into it yet. Anything that they love, that I should try? Any ideas how to get her to love her veggies? I am thinking that once she starts with the veggies, she will have less parasite issues.

Thanks
Lisa

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....it sounds like your dragon eats quite a lot ! Their appetite does slow down some at times as they get older, especialy if the weather is colder. Many dragons carry some parasites, you just have to be concerned if the levels are high. Sounds as if she's generally healthy. Can you post a pic, or do you have a length + weight ?

 

[Kalyn876]

Romaine isn't a very good option for salad, you could try collard greens, turnip greens, mustand greens, dandelion greens.

www.beautifuldragons.com has a great color coded nutrition section, most of us go by it.

I hope she perks up soon for you!


Kalyn

 

[LMS72]

She's about 225 grams as of a few weeks ago for her weight. I haven't measured her for awhile. Last I measured her at 14 inches total length, that was about a month ago. I'm sure she's grown a couple more inches since. I'll try to put up a recent picture of her. She's grown about 20x bigger than she was when I got her. Its not just the food though with her. Her whole persona changes when she doesn't feel well. She looks sad/depressed. When I hold her she perks up. She loves to be cuddled. When she's in her cage the last couple days she just looks like she doesn't feel good.

Thanks for the food advice Kalyn! I'm going to get her some other veggies tomorrow and see how she does.

 

[Kalyn876]

Are you giving a probiotic of some sort?
If not it may be beneficial to her especially since shes been treated for a lot of parasites.

You could try bene-bac, SOY yohgurt or (acidophiliz+, made specifically for lizards but hard to find) I order my acidophiliz from www.bug-de-lite.com my guys love the taste of it!

This may help pick up her appetite and make her feel better overall

EDIT** After I typed all this I noticed you wrote you dust with probiotic? what kind/brand? or did you mean multivitamin?

Thanks for clearing up my confusion.

Kalyn

 

[LMS72]

My vet gave me a probiotic for her when she started taking the antibiotic a couple weeks ago. Its one for cats and dogs but he said it would be ok for her. I am not at home right now, so I will reply later with the brand. When I finish the one she's taking, I will get her the one you mentioned for lizards. I noticed when she started taking it, her poop was much less stinky I would definitely like to keep giving one to her.

 

[LMS72]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Here's a recent pic of my girl

 

[LMS72]

Are you giving a probiotic of some sort?
If not it may be beneficial to her especially since shes been treated for a lot of parasites.

You could try bene-bac, SOY yohgurt or (acidophiliz+, made specifically for lizards but hard to find) I order my acidophiliz from http://www.bug-de-lite.com my guys love the taste of it!

This may help pick up her appetite and make her feel better overall

EDIT** After I typed all this I noticed you wrote you dust with probiotic? what kind/brand? or did you mean multivitamin?

Thanks for clearing up my confusion.

Kalyn

how do you administer the liquid probiotic?

 

[Kalyn876]

Tyrus only gets it once in a while, so for him I use a needless syringe, hes trained to lick drops off the syringe.

My 11yrs old Hoodoo gets it twice a week, i add it to his salad because he always eats more salad when acidophliz is on it.

Hope this helps!

Kalyn