Droopy Bearded Dragon Rescue. Please help!

[Annalee]

I saw an ad on Craigslist for a bearded dragon who appeared to be in bad shape so I arranged to pick him up and did so today. The pictures they posted looked bad but now that I have him in person, it's awful. He smells funny, his eyes... well you have to see for yourself. He seems active and not in pain at all but... he needs help. As soon as I got back with him, I put him in a bath and he drank for 3 minutes straight... He must be very dehydrated so I will bathe him frequently for the next bit. He isn't skinny and the lady said that he has been eating well so should I stick with live feeders and greens or go with baby food and a slurry? I will be bringing him to a vet in my area as soon as I get paid but does anyone have any suggestions in the mean time? Any advise or input at all is very much appreciated. I'm at a total loss for words.




He is shedding and I can't really tell what his colors are supposed to be like but a couple places on his shed like a couple on his toes and on his tail (pictured below) look orange. They don't look like fungus but they are discolored. Any ideas on that?

 

[CountofCasualty]

His nose&head are so short. Is he a short nose, or maybe a Rankin Dragon(as I think their noses are quite a bit shorter then Beardies?)? Or maybe that's just because his eyes are so big... There is something for sure wrong with his eyes. They look infected almost. I would try to wash them out and wash them daily if you can. How long is he as well? I'd say if he's eating bugs and veg, stick with bugs and veg and then make a baby food & C/C slurry you can feed on top of that. It'll give him anything extra he needs to recover.

As for the colours, if he was kept on coloured calci-sand for a while, it can really stain them and it would take dozens of shed to even start getting rid of it. So that might be it, but that's just an idea.

 

[Esther19]

Hi Annalee,

You are a good person to take this poor guy in. I can't answer all your questions, but I do know that in this circumstance I would stick with feeding greens and squash until he produces a pooper with urates. That will show that he is ready for live feeders to be slowly introduced back into his diet. I forget how or why. I don't think the baby food is necessary unless he refuses solid food for a while. I wish I had advice for helping his poor eyes. Great that you are getting him rehydrated. That's so important.

Regards,
Esther

 

[sweetiepie9]

Poor dragon, he definitely has MBD, so extra calcium in the babyfood, which I agree with Esther, he needs to be on a soft diet for awhile until he poops well. I think he's also got tail rot underneath that old shed, so he needs a vet visit asap. Tail rot is an infection that starts in the tail, usually from old shed that has tried up & squeezed the tail, and will travel into the body pretty quickly and kill the dragon. Lonzo had tail rot, he had 2 1/2" of dead tail and it was moving, so got another 2" amputated and that saved his life.

The eyes are the first sign of MBD, you can't really reverse it, but you can stop it & maybe reverse it a bit. Extra calcium helps. I had a dragon with severe MBD, no UVB in her 16 mo of life and that's when I started her with liquid calcium, 2x/day. He would need 2 doses a day, but powder wouldn work, too. Just put it in every meal you give him, and I'd feed him twice a day, plus at least 2 baths a day, too. I've always gotten my liquids from Tracie. He'll need Acidophuliz as well as Electrolytes, Serrepeptase (anti-inflammatory & painkiller). A B-complex would help as well as bee pollen (you can get that at any health food store), as bee pollen as 98 healing properties and helps the immune system. And eventually a fecal to determine if he has parasites, but he's too weak for parasite medicine right now.

He needs lots of baths so you can soak off a lot of the gunk on him and see what he's really like. If you have stubborn sheds, then use cocoa butter (pure), you can get a stick of it at a dollar store.

I'm trying to think of what else he needs. No protein for a little while until he's been seen by the vet and you can guage what type of appetite he has. I always start with babyfood, if you have carnivore care, that will give him a bit of protein boost as well.

I know you know a lot of what I've mentioned, but that's how I started with Angel and within a month she was a different dragon. She was more severely emanciated than this little guy, so he should plump up in no time. I wouldn't give him regular dragon food for a little while, so canned pumpkin and squash to start is great.

Hope all this helps, I'm sure others will have some more info for you.
Take care
Deb

 

[Annalee]

The colors of the tail are much more severe in the pictures, I forgot to mention that. I will try to do all that as soon as I get paid. He's going to be a lot to take on... I hope my finances will allow me to help him but if not, I do have the number to a large rescue in my area who will probably be able to get me some help or take him.

 

[Annalee]

His nose&head are so short. Is he a short nose, or maybe a Rankin Dragon(as I think their noses are quite a bit shorter then Beardies?)? Or maybe that's just because his eyes are so big... There is something for sure wrong with his eyes.

I think his head is a little small and his eyes just take up most of it.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, poor little dragon ! I agree that there is MBD , that's what caused the short nose, but it is a regular beardie. The eyes may have a long standing infection....was he kept on sand ? Try flushing them with saline, but he may need antibiotics for it. He's not emaciated at all, just a bit then, so it's probably fine to feed whatever insects were being given by the owner, but just in small amounts at first. The baby food/slurry is a good idea to get extra calcium + other things that Deb mentioned. The dragon is going through an uneven shed, that's why he looks different colors. Baths will help with that. As for the tail, can you get another pic or 2 of underneath ? It may be that along with the uneven shed there is quite a bit of fecal stains....try a soft tooth brush while he's soaking and see what will come off. Hopefully that's all it is instead of fungus.

 

[AHBD]

I just thought about it, that sometimes too much vitamin A in their diet can cause swollen eyes, too. Maybe after his diet improves, and he gets some treatment his eyes can improve. He might need an antibiotic ointment, like ciprofloxacin, and artificial tears to flush them with. I hope he can be helped....hopefully he doesn't have anything more serious like kidney problems along with it. I hope he recovers !

 

[mojo505]

Bless you for taking in that little guy! I know that he has probably been through hell but he is really adorable! Good luck. We had a rescue with MBD. Her body looked just like his except the eyes. She never could use her feet due to her poor care but a year after proper conditiond she started laying eggs!! We were only blessed with 2 years of her love but she was an absolute joy.

One of the best suggestions we had was to put a little oil in the water and it really helped get the old shed off. Her improper sheds had led to circulation being cut off - thr tip of her tail broke off our first night. Several oily baths later we had a clean dragon inside and out

Good luck!

 

[Annalee]

I don't know what deity is looking after this guy but his eyes look so much better than they did this morning.





They're still large but... They look more sunken in where they should be and less droopy. I'm really not sure what's up with that but I'm glad he's having less trouble seeing.

His tail appears to be stained and after I got that oddly colored shed off, that spot was white and normal looking. It's such a clear cut spot where the discoloring stopped that I wonder if it's just where he has yet to shed the grossness off of.

I could be wrong though. His tail doesn't feel and more cold than the rest of him does and he seems to feel it when I lightly squeeze anywhere.

 

[Esther19]

Thank you, Annalee. Wonderful news.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Now that's good news, that his eyes are improving and that he doesn't have tail rot It's your loving care that's doing him so much good Keep us posted!

 

[Annalee]

I contacted our local herpetology society and they have someone who can take him this weekend. I'd love to rehabilitate him myself but with his fragile state, I don't feel comfortable with my ability to care for him with his extreme condition. I feel this will probably be the best for him. :[ I'm very attached to him though and it's going to be hard but it's for his well being.

 

[mojo505]

Kudos to you! You saved this little blessing! You took em in and gave immediate care, a chance to rest in a safe place without stress, and found it the best care possible. You gave him the gift of a chance of life.

 

[sweetiepie9]

You sure did Annalee, you did the best thing you knew how. He needs a lot of care to figure out what wrong and try to fix it. So giving him to the society will be the best thing for him. Will they keep in touch with you with updates? I hope so, I'd love to see how he's done after a few weeks.

You have a heart of gold. If it weren't for you, this little guy would have gone downhill fast. So you really did the right thing, all the way around!
Take care
Deb