Extremely sick baby, suspected parasites

[Vodevil]

(YES A VET APPOINTMENT IS BOOKED!)

My baby girl has been doing very poorly over the past few weeks. She is 3.5 months old and I have had her since early December and she was doing very well for the first month or so. When her behavior and appetite began to change she was finishing a full body shed and starting a head/mouth shed so it didn't raise too many red flags at first, but now the head shed is long over and she is extremely lethargic/down a couple grams and not eating at all on her own. During this time I began giving her some baby food and slushies of collards, calcium, squash, ect. Her temperatures/UVB are perfect and she is definitely not impacted as she continued to poo after she stopped eating until there was no poo left to excrete. She still passes urates with bits of poop/waste though and there is sometimes red (fresh) blood in them. She has also (very recently) started to have head tremors where her head starts to vibrate for 30 seconds or so then stops completely. The first time I noticed this was after a bath so I am going to cut back on the baths until I know what's going on.

After corresponding with the breeder I got her from we suspect parasites, possibly from an infected batch of crickets from Petsmart. I was able to find out who supplies my local Petsmart's crickets in North Vancouver, BC and we found this thread on reptilescanada about them from a few months back when we googled them (Cherry Creek Cricket Farm, this is the 2nd result that comes up when you google them)... http://www.reptilescanada.com/showthread.php/73696-BUYERS-BEWARE .... Needless to say I AM FREAKING OUT and no longer buying any crickets or feeders from them, regardless if this issue is related to hers or not.

I have started force feeding her small butter and wax worms along with her slushies since she will not eat at all on her own. It's not her favorite thing in the world but the technique is gentle and she does eat the worms on her own once the end of them is in her mouth. I have started small and am slowly moving her up to more food so I don't overload her system. She is looking and acting a bit better since I have started this and is up a gram, but it's only been a few days.

So pretty much I am looking for any suggestions as to what she may have and how to keep her comfortable until our vet appointment on Friday. I hope she does a proper poop by then so that they have a proper fecal sample to test. When it comes to treating parasites, which medications are most commonly used, and is there a particular type or brand that is better/easier on the systems of young dragons that I should specifically ask about?

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. Sorry your baby is having issues. The tremors are usually a sign of metabolic bone disease do to lack of calcium and proper amount of uvb. Can you give a rundown of the set up? It'd also be helpful to post pictures.

 

[Vodevil]

Hey, thanks for the reply.
Yes, I saw that when I searched tremors but I am quite certain calcium deficiency/UVB/MBD is not the issue here. It almost seems as though it's her little body trying to fight off an infection, like how people get the chills when they have the flu... I have tried to get video of it but by the time I grab my phone it's stopped and over.

She is in a 60-ish gallon enclosure, hottest basking spot is 110 with lots of areas ranging down from there, the cool side stays around 75 and it doesn't drop below 70 at night. I have a digital infrared thermometer to take the temps and I use the Exo-Terra Sunray metal halide bulb and fixture. It is UVB/a basking light in one. I use Repashy calcium plus to dust her feeders and swap that out for Reptivite multi-vitamin 1-2 times a week. She gets a very varied diet: gutloaded crickets (she hasn't had crickets in a while though), wax worms, butter worms, collards, squash, bok choi greens, endive, ect, and I have my first order of phoenix worms arriving next week.

I've attached photos of her and the setup, all were taken about 5 minutes ago.

 

[destiny1998]

Thanks for answering. She looks very dehydrated in the second to the last. She pretty thin. Beardies do not shake unless they have a calcium deficiency. Your uvb might not be putting off the proper amount of uvb. I know the exotarra brand has issues. The best and most recommended brands on here are the reptisun 10.0 tube or the Arcadia brands. Hopefully the vet can help. She's a pretty girl

 

[Vodevil]

Hi. Yes, she is VERY thin from refusing to eat and down 6 grams which is why she is being force fed. I agree that she looks dehydrated but she drinks a lot of water and has a lot of liquids with her slushies.

I respect your opinion about thinking it is a calcium/UVB problem but I am pretty positive it is not. Everything that is happening is pointing towards some sort of parasitic infection. She went from being completely healthy to this in 2 weeks. I know exo-terra doesn't have the best reputation for some of their stuff but the Sunray is a very good bulb with high, if not the highest, UVB output, you just don't hear about it much on these forums because it costs over $300 and many places don't even carry it because of it's price and the fact that it is quite new.

 

[CooperDragon]

I hope the vet is able to determine the problem and help her bounce back from this. Your setup sounds very good to me and I agree that the Sunray is a good bulb. Did her last few poops smell unusually bad or were they broken up or watery? I'd offer her drops of water on her nose several times a day to help keep her hydrated. You may also want to offer a probiotic such as bene-bac or acidophiliz+ to help settle her stomach a bit and perhaps get her appetite back.

 

[Vodevil]

Hey Cooper, thanks, me too. I really thought she was just being picky because of her mouth and head shedding but things just kept going downhill
Her recent poops are mainly runny white urate with bits of disgested food/mush from her slurries at the end, smelly yes but not horribly so. I expect they'd be stinky with real poop in there. She hasn't had a real brown poop in awhile though, at least a week. Before all this started she would go like clockwork around noon every day. I started force feeding live feeders Sunday afternoon so I expect her to do a real poop soon, hopefully in time for the vet, I started slow with small amounts and am working my way up so I'm sure her little body and whatever nasty thing that's making her sick are absorbing up everything they can. She has gained about a gram or two of the weight she lost back so far and has been such a sweet little trooper with the assisted feedings.

She is drinking lots of water but I'll kick up the frequency of the offerings incase she wants more, she is 'bottle trained'.
Do I ask the vet about those probiotics or can I get them at a pharmacy ?

 

[DaisyDragon123]

I wonder if she is getting too much Vitamin A from the Rephashy Calcium Plus you are dusting your feeders with and the Reptivite that you dust with on the days you don't dust with RCP. It sounds like you are dusting your crickets every day with a multivitamin. You can have a vitamin overdose by dusting too often with a multivitam. Might want to research this. You seem so positive that the tremors are not MBD. Check into vitamin toxicity.

 

[Vodevil]

Hmm... There is no vitamin A in the reptivite and I believe the Repashy brand has lower levels of vitamins than RepCal but I will definitely take some pictures of the analysis charts and go over everything with the vet tomorrow to see if anything funny sticks out.

Is she too little to have blood work done? She is only about 20 grams right now.

 

[CooperDragon]

Yeah at 20g she's probably too little for bloodwork to be done unfortunately.

 

[Vodevil]

That's what I thought.
I have never been to this vet before so if he suggests it I'll let him know I'm not comfortable with it when she is this little.

Found this really interesting and helpful article about how a lack of thiamene/vitamin b1 causes tremors - it's called hypothiaminisis and is often mistaken for MBD - beardies should be getting the most of that vitamin from greens and veggies. She has never been big on eating her greens so it's very likely this could be one of her issues, will discuss with the vet and get her on thiamene supplements if he agrees with this theory along with whatever other treatment he prescribes. Also ordered some bene-bac online incase the vet doesn't carry it, hopefully it gets here sooner than later.


http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Hypothiaminisis.html

 

[CooperDragon]

A lot of the multivitamins contain Thiamine. I know Repashy Supervite and RepCal Herptivite do.

 

[Vodevil]

True but maybe it hasn't been enough to sustain her when she is sick and not eating many greens... But of course I really have no idea, I just found the article and thought it was interesting and thought I'd share - I am desperate for an explanation to why she is so sick


Appointment is just a few hours away so hopefully by the time I post again I'll have some solid answers and solutions to her issues.

 

[CooperDragon]

That's possible. If she isn't eating the vitamins, then they won't do any good. I hope you get good news at the vet. Sending good thoughts your way. Please keep us posted.

 

[Vodevil]

The baby and I just got home from the vet. They gave her some vitamin injections and the small amount of fecal she passed that they were able to test came back positive for parasites at higher levels than normal so she will be starting Panacur today for 5 days, 0.1ML per day. Once the 5 days is up I am supposed to take her off of it for 2 weeks then start it up again for another 5 days. They also gave me some a/d urgent care which I will start feeding her along with her slushies and bugs. She has been a trooper with the assisted feedings so I will continue that indefinitely until she starts eating again on her own. The vet expects her to start acting better within a few days so I realllly hope that's the case. I also placed an order online a few days ago for some bene-bac reptile probiotic so hopefully that will arrive soon and help her out.