Greetings and help please...

[rushtk]

Hello to all the dragon owners out there. My family and I purchased Shiela on Dec. 23rd 2011 at 5 in. long, she is now 10 and 1/4 as of 2-15-2012. I have have been reading about medical problems showing up in the form of a curved tail. Here are a few pics and we would appreciate it if some of the resident experts could give us their opinion we would appreciate it. She eats like a horse and we put reptocal on the crickets and also feed them flukers high-calcium cricket diet and flukers orange cube complete cricket diet, we feed her Kale, strawberry tops, Zilla bearded dragon pellets, Healthy Herp Juvenile Dragon Food instant meal. She barley eats the other foods but will chow down on the crickets, about 15 a day sometimes 20. We do not have a vet in our county that can see reptiles so I am researching hard from the sites about health and growth. Would hate for my sons xmas gift to die from mom n dads lack of knowledge. Thanks again for your help.
Anthony

 

[rushtk]

 

[rushtk]

 

[rushtk]

Think that should cover it for examples, thanks to all!

 

[rushtk]

 

[nikipop]

Welcome! I'm sorry to say I don't have any advice for you but thought I would give you a welcome and a bump and suggest posing this info in the health section to get more replies.

 

[Zeusmybeardie]

Welcome I'm sorry cant give any advice about the curved tail but i want to say love your setup and Sheila is beautiful and what r ur temps and what UVB bulb r u using and what thermometer????

 

[thegreybush]

Hi there, very nice to meet you! My name is Mark. Your dragon looks great, btw. I wanted to give you some hope and reassurance that its much more likely that the deformation on the tip of your dragons tail was due to a trauma as a baby (a little nip while feeding with others that wasn't quite enough to tear it off but enough to cause its growth to be affected). I've never seen anything about a curved tail (displayed like yours) to be a sign of impending health problems. The only concerns that deal with a tail that I'm aware of are related to a tail becoming necrotic due to retained shed or infection. I've dealt with necrotic tail on a rescued dragon and your Sheila's tail doesn't look like that. Keep an eye on it during sheds to make sure that its all coming off properly. Your dragon looks very healthy from all angles you've provided. Best of luck!

Mark

 

[rushtk]

Thank you all for your help! Her tail and back legs r getting ready to shed again. I will keep an eye on it, this site is great! Making my 10 yr old read it since it is his dragon he should learn from u guys. Thanks again!

 

[thegreybush]

Genentic Disease
Genetic diseases are hereditary health problems bearded dragons are born with. They occur in the offspring of dragons that are closely related. Some genetic diseases involve deformed limbs, tails, and possibly extra appendages.

This is the other possibility. Its not indicative of impending illness but is a result of repeated inbreeding or some environmental factor in the development of the embryo (temperature change, trauma to the egg, etc.).

 

[rushtk]

I wish we had a vet but unfortunately I live in a county that only caters to drunk University students. I will keep an eye on her and post pics thank you again for your help!!

 

[VitaminsatoriD]

My advice would be to not use the Petco plastic temperature gauges! They give terrible inaccurate readings, I actually did an experiment three times, I'd bought two expensives gauges and put the Petco one right next to each new one, and the new ones read about 100, while the Petco one read 80! What a difference! I could have killed my Beardy if I'd raised the heat, not knowing the gauge was wrong! Just my advice, please understand! Much love to you and your Beardy.

 

[rushtk]

thank you very much! What should we purchase?

 

[Wiredk]

Whilst I don't know too terribly much about dragons yet... at least compared to the people here who seem to deserve PhD's for all they know, but I do know that you do have a beautiful dragon that seems to be well taken care of. Welcome and good luck!

 

[rushtk]

Thank you for your reply, the only thing the family is worried about is it is taking so long for her back legs and tail to shed. looks odd with the body bright and the back grey. She is eating fine and has a bath twice a week and runs around but no shed yet. We are reading and didn't realize the work and proper equipment needed. Just found out 5 minutes ago that the light that came with the kit doesn't produce enough UVB... Just hope she survives while we learn....grin... this site is great!