Droopy eye, wheezing, cranky?

[Zinnia]

Hello! This is Wagner:

He's usually a very friendly, lazy guy. He lives in a 40W tank with newspaper as a substrate, and has a regular diet of mixed greens (usually mustard greens, bok choi, or red leaf lettuce) and yellow squash. And, of course, crickets! His basking spot stays 95 - 100 degrees, cool side is about 75, and the substrate in the tank is newspaper. There was slate tile in there for a long time, but bugs and poo kept getting underneath. He doesn't drink a lot of water (refuses to take from a dropper, a dish, or in the bath - I usually give his veggies a good spritz), but that's not unusual for him.

Anyway, last week, I noticed that he was a little crankier than usual. Which is to say, cranky at all - he's generally always chill. But he was a little gray, and even black-bearded once when I went to feed him. Yesterday, I noticed that one of his eyes seems to be drooping a little. Today, when I went to get a better look (and had to chase him around the tank, because he was not in the mood for letting me get a good look at his eyeball), I heard him wheezing from the run. He doesn't seem to have any trouble breathing any other time, and there doesn't seem to be a change in his activity level.

I let the UVB light slip a little, but that's been replaced as of today. Other than that, there haven't been any changes. I did get a new beardie fairly recently, but they're kept in separate tanks.

Any thoughts on how to help him improve or at least maintain would be enormously helpful. I'm having foot surgery on Monday and will not be able to get him to the vet for two weeks or so, and I'm freaking out a little bit. Thoughts?

Thank you!

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, Wagner is a nice looking grey dragon ! How old is he ? Can he or has he seen the other dragon ? I think what might be happening is that he senses the other dragon and his hormones are kicking in. Black beard + preoccupied with the desire to possibly mate or fight.

As for a droopy eye, he may be slightly dehydrated, but not necessarily.....are his poos good, with a decent soft urate [ the white part ] ? But in general I don't think there's anything serious going on .

 

[Zinnia]

Thanks for your reply! He's about six, and he's actually been going to the bathroom more regularly than usual, and it looks fine.

It is a little girl dragon, so it may well be that he's decided it's time for romance.

Any thoughts on the wheezing/squeaking? Is it possible that he's just out of shape? I have no idea what that would sound like, now that I think about it.

 

[AHBD]

Yes, being a bit older and having the sudden excitement + agitation of seeing a new dragon could cause it. He doesn't have any trouble breathing otherwise or make those noises at other times ? It would be best to keep him from seeing the new dragon at all, it would add to his stress....sad to say because we would all like for our beardies to be " friends " but it usually doesn't work out that way.

 

[Zinnia]

No, he doesn't seem to have trouble breathing any other times.

Morrigan has a history of not interacting well with other dragons, so they definitely haven't been interacting! I'll try to extend that to not even seeing one another, too.

Thank you very much! He's usually pretty predictable, so this threw me off some. I feel better!