Since a few days ago (I think It has been 2), I've been suspecting that my bearded dragon Spoofy might have fluid in the back of his belly area.
Now I know that this might not be true, but I am quite anxious and tend to look way too much at things that might be normal for my beardie. The reason for this is that Spoofy has a few problems that his vet and I are trying to find the source of (These problems are about his breathing though, and we are currently on stand by, since the vet has not found anything), and because of this I have started to overthink a lot of things because I am very worried that he might be seriously ill and I'm just not seeing it.
Sometimes when I touch or press on the ''bloated'' part of his belly, his beard moves a little bit (like it fills with air?), and I don't know if this is normal as well.
So here are a few pictures of his belly, any help would be greatly appreciate by this nooby beardie owner that is me!
The first picture is from about 2 days ago, the rest of the pictures are from today (He ate yesterday by the way)
This bloated thing is nothing i have contacted the vet about though, by the way.
And yeah, Spoofy has some sort of trouble with breathing sometimes. He has his mouth open a lot, and when he gets really out of breath you can hear a clicking/wheezing like noise. Sometimes he gets bubbly saliva or quite a lot of saliva in his mouth. He has done cough like exhales a few times as well, but that has only been like 3 times during the 3 years that I've had him.
His vet has done multiple xrays (they saw that he has something similar to an infection in the lungs) as well as giving us an antibiotic treatment (which did not work). At first we suspected RI, but that does not seem to be the case due to Spoofy not responding to the antibiotics.
It still could be an ri. Antibiotics would really only treat a bacterial ri. If it's viral it won't do much good. Has the vet discussed nebulizer treatment with you?
It sounds like it's not too bad based on what you described. It helps to keep the tank a bit warmer over night around 80 to keep the immune system active and hopefully the humidity down in the tank.
It still could be an ri. Antibiotics would really only treat a bacterial ri. If it's viral it won't do much good. Has the vet discussed nebulizer treatment with you?
It sounds like it's not too bad based on what you described. It helps to keep the tank a bit warmer over night around 80 to keep the immune system active and hopefully the humidity down in the tank.
The vet has not discussed a nebulizer treatment, and I think I'll call her and ask about it tomorrow.
It's not that humid where I live, except when it rains. Normally the humidity in Spoofys tank is around 25%-36%, but once it rains outside, the humidity in the tank goes up to about 40%-60% (60% is what the tanks normal humidity level should be, according to my vet).
But I'm gonna try and keep the humidity down, as well as keeping the tank warm during the night. Thank you so much for all the help and advice!
+1 I thought it looked like maybe a bellyfull-o-bugs, or maybe a little gas. Neither cause for alarm.
Roboducc":32ejpsl2 said:
Normally the humidity in Spoofys tank is around 25%-36%, but once it rains outside, the humidity in the tank goes up to about 40%-60% (60% is what the tanks normal humidity level should be, according to my vet).
:? I don't like questioning a vet (cuz I'm not one) but 60% seems high from the concensus of everything I've ever heard/read. Don't know what to think/say. Don't want to speculate either. :silent:
+1 I thought it looked like maybe a bellyfull-o-bugs, or maybe a little gas. Neither cause for alarm.
Roboducc":180vxxnk said:
Normally the humidity in Spoofys tank is around 25%-36%, but once it rains outside, the humidity in the tank goes up to about 40%-60% (60% is what the tanks normal humidity level should be, according to my vet).
:? I don't like questioning a vet (cuz I'm not one) but 60% seems high from the concensus of everything I've ever heard/read. Don't know what to think/say. Don't want to speculate either. :silent:
Yeah, It seems pretty high in my opinion as well, and I'm not really keeping it at 60% at all times due to the problems my beardie has. The vet suggested this due to his tank being pretty big though.
Yeah, It seems pretty high in my opinion as well, and I'm not really keeping it at 60% at all times due to the problems my beardie has. The vet suggested this due to his tank being pretty big though.
:?: :? I don't know what the size of the tank would have to do with humidity, unless like temperature, there were a gradient. There are likely to be some (albeit slight) differences; when temperature goes up, relative humidity goes down, and verse-vica. Don't know if that's what he was thinking or what... :dontknow: