Gaping badly, help! Visited vet, need help with medication.

[Menolly]

It's about midnight and my he woke himself up like that after sleeping for a few hours. I had posted in the health thread about a respiratory infection because he has been gaping and I just saw a tiny amount if clear discharge from a nostril. He is now breathing a little heavily and sleeping. As I said in the previous thread I would take him to the bet in a heart beat its just been in the teens and I don't want to make him more sick but at this point I don't see any other option unless someone could give me advice.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I am sorry that he is having breathing trouble.
Are you keeping his tank around 80 overnight? I figured that you already were though but thought I would ask.
If he is having that much trouble breathing, he will need a good broad spectrum agent for any respiratory issue he has. The gaping though is not good though.
I would get a fecal done also to see if he has worms/parasites which could be taxing his system.
I hope he feels better soon.

Tracie

 

[Menolly]

So vet visit in the morning, I'm not going to get his normal vet or one that knows a lot about bearded dragons. I've been looking around and it seems like the normal choice of medicine is Baytril? Full spectrum would include what? Gaping not good, don't sugarcoat it for me, what am I looking at?
Thank you Tracie.

 

[Drache613]

Hello Jane,

Baytril or Tylosine are both good for respiratory issues.
If he is gaping, it could be respiratory related & it could also be lung worms too which wreak havoc on the lungs. If they can't detect any respiratory issues by listening or by x-ray, maybe an ultrasound would pick up on maybe an enlarged liver, etc that could be causing discomfort.

Let us know how he is doing.

Tracie

 

[Menolly]

He's been sleeping peacefully since midnight. Will have more of an update later. Are the medications typically given by shot or orally?

 

[Menolly]

Ok we went to the bet and she said his lungs sound okay and his mouth looks okay. However because of his gaping she gave me Baytril (11.4mg/ml) and she flavored it with cherry syrup. She measured him at 910 gram. However when I measured him he came out to about 630 grams. She would like me to give him .5ml daily for 10 days, but I seemed like a lot to me. Is it a lot or is that the correct dosage?

 

[AHBD]

Jane, the vet miscalculated because the weight is wrong. I'm sure your dragon is not 900 grams, so at the 600 gram range you would use about 0.3ml. If you want to double check with Tracie, that's always a good thing. I'm glad he's not in seeming distress anymore....hopefully !

 

[Menolly]

Other than gaping, he keeps glaring at me because I am out in the room so he wants to be out with me. :roll:
Thank you for your response, I'll double check but that sounds more like the dosage that he's had in the past on Baytril. I looked at it going I know he's a but pudgy because he's spoiled but damn he's not that pudgy.