heavy breathing and puffy throat

[thereallivinglegend]

my 4 month old (9 1/2" long) female has lost her appetite (only ate 1-2 large crickets a day for the past week). i offer her greens (romaine, kale, collard, and mustard) but she never touches those anyway, with or without baby food. my reptisun 10 bulb came yesterday, so i have that instead of the 5 now (plus i always make sure she gets a couple hours of real sun a week). The problem is that she is very lazy. earlier i took her out of her viv and she was active and running around, but now i noticed that she is breathing heavily and her throat gets kinda puffy, almost like she's gagging. her eyes are bright and alert, but she keeps going back to sleep. she only ate one cricket this morning...please help!

 

[vickson420]

my 4 month old (9 1/2" long) female has lost her appetite (only ate 1-2 large crickets a day for the past week). i offer her greens (romaine, kale, collard, and mustard) but she never touches those anyway, with or without baby food. my reptisun 10 bulb came yesterday, so i have that instead of the 5 now (plus i always make sure she gets a couple hours of real sun a week). The problem is that she is very lazy. earlier i took her out of her viv and she was active and running around, but now i noticed that she is breathing heavily and her throat gets kinda puffy, almost like she's gagging. her eyes are bright and alert, but she keeps going back to sleep. she only ate one cricket this morning...please help!

Hi
I am sorry your beardie isnt feeling well.The uvb you have is it linear or is it a coil/compact?Also what are the temps and how and where are you measuring them?
As for the gaping and breathing issues.Can you tell me is it constant?Is there any mucous?It is possible she has an RI(respiratory infection) but before we jump to conclusions I would like you to answer those other questions.Also how long has her eating been off and how much was she eating before?Is she having regular bowel movements?How often?

 

[thereallivinglegend]

thanks for the quick reply. uvb is the reprisun 10 18" bulb. temps are 80-100, but she normally stays in the 80-90 zone. i take 3 temps, one on the cool side bottom, one in the middle on the warm side(about the height she basks), and one 6 inches above where she basks. the heavy breathing and gagging is not constant, she is doing it every few minutes a couple times. no mucus or bubbling around the nose, nor does she have gaping mouth. her appetite has been off for about 10 days or so. she used to eat 6-8 medium crickets when i got her a month ago, the ones i buy now are a bit larger. she has bowel movements every 1-2 days

 

[vickson420]

thanks for the quick reply. uvb is the reprisun 10 18" bulb. temps are 80-100, but she normally stays in the 80-90 zone. i take 3 temps, one on the cool side bottom, one in the middle on the warm side(about the height she basks), and one 6 inches above where she basks. the heavy breathing and gagging is not constant, she is doing it every few minutes a couple times. no mucus or bubbling around the nose, nor does she have gaping mouth. her appetite has been off for about 10 days or so. she used to eat 6-8 medium crickets when i got her a month ago, the ones i buy now are a bit larger. she has bowel movements every 1-2 days

How are you measuring those temps?Are you using a digital probe thermometer or an infared temp gun?Or are you using those stick ons or dial gauges?I am thinking the temps may be way off and that could be a major reason she is gaping.The ideal temps are a basking SURFACE temp of 95-105F and a cool end ambient temp of 75-80.If you are using a stick on therm or not measuring the surface then there is a good chance the temos are off and probably way to hot.

 

[thereallivinglegend]

2 of them are stick on thermometers, but the one at her basking spot is a dial gauge. i have two 150w heat lamps in there because her viv is 4' tall(2x2x4). should i turn one off? she seems ok right now, she is sleeping on the cool side. perhaps i will make a vet appt for her tomorrow just in case.

 

[vickson420]

2 of them are stick on thermometers, but the one at her basking spot is a dial gauge. i have two 150w heat lamps in there because her viv is 4' tall(2x2x4). should i turn one off? she seems ok right now, she is sleeping on the cool side. perhaps i will make a vet appt for her tomorrow just in case.

Wow thats alof of heat for a tank that size.All the thermometers you described are unfortunately kind of useless.They all only measure air temp and very inaccurately at that.You should get a digital probe thermometer either from the pet store or walmart.They usually run 4-12$ depending on which you choose.I use the accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer from Walmart.Its in the indoor/outdoor section back by hardware and it measures two temps one from the probe and one from the unit so you can do basking surface and cool end at the same time as well as humidity.I think it was 12$.That would be the first thing to do.Be sure to rest the probe on the surface for at least 45 minutes before reading the temp.Also she is probably very dehydrated so I would give her a bath for 20 minutes every day as well.Do you think you can get one of these tomorrow?If yes then you can turn off the one light for now but I would be wary about feeding her until you get those temps right.If after a few days of baths and after you get those temps corrected she is still acting wierd then there may be an issue with the RI but judging by the amount of heat your using I would guess its the opposite problem at the moment.

 

[thereallivinglegend]

yeah i will definitely get one tomorrow after work and give her a bath. thank you so much for all your help! now that she's safely asleep i can go eat dinner!

 

[vickson420]

Your very welcome.
Keep me posted and definately give her that bath tomorrow.

 

[thereallivinglegend]

just got back from the vet. they gave me antibiotics & a de-wormer that she has to take orally everyday for 10 days. they also told me to syringe feed her meat baby food (which i now have a variety of) since she wont eat. I had playground sand from Lowe's in her viv as a substrate, which i now apparently have to shovel out and replace with vita-sand. got the acurite today & you were right, the temps were slightly higher. the vet seems to think i should keep both 150w lights on, though she also said that they don't see tons of reptiles there. does anyone know of a good search site for a herp vet or a good vet in the Inland Empire/So Cal area? I tried ARAV website and even called but i couldnt get a hold of anyone...thanks again, i would give her a bath but i think she's still a bit traumatized from the car, vet, and syringes...

 

[vickson420]

just got back from the vet. they gave me antibiotics & a de-wormer that she has to take orally everyday for 10 days. they also told me to syringe feed her meat baby food (which i now have a variety of) since she wont eat. I had playground sand from Lowe's in her viv as a substrate, which i now apparently have to shovel out and replace with vita-sand. got the acurite today & you were right, the temps were slightly higher. the vet seems to think i should keep both 150w lights on, though she also said that they don't see tons of reptiles there. does anyone know of a good search site for a herp vet or a good vet in the Inland Empire/So Cal area? I tried ARAV website and even called but i couldnt get a hold of anyone...thanks again, i would give her a bath but i think she's still a bit traumatized from the car, vet, and syringes...

NO VITASAND!!!!That stuff is referred to as death sand around here.I am sorry to be so blunt about it but I cant stress enough how horrible that stuf is.All reptile based sands are calcium carbonate based and cary a HUGE risk of impaction as well as hypercalcemia.Please please dont use it!

 

[vickson420]

Ok now that I got that out I will move on to the rest.Ok so what antibiotics EXACTLY did she give you and also did they do a fecal before giving the meds for parasites?What was prescribed for that?It sounds unfortunately like the vet is a bit inexperienced in reptiles I just want to make sure there were no mistakes made,you can check herpvetconnection.com to see if you can find a local vet.
On to the temps no its more important to get the temps right.What were they?Did you rest the probe on the basking surface for 45minutes?

 

[thereallivinglegend]

she gave baytril liquid as antibiotics, and panacur liquid as an anti-parasite. no fecal was done. i left the sensor for 45 mins: 80 on the cool side, 85 in the middle of the viv, 94 where she basks on her heat rock under the heat lamp, & 97 on top where she basks.

 

[thereallivinglegend]

thanks for telling me about the vita-sand by the way. I had just cleaned all the old sand out and was just about to put in the vita-sand when i saw your post...

 

[vickson420]

she gave baytril liquid as antibiotics, and panacur liquid as an anti-parasite. no fecal was done. i left the sensor for 45 mins: 80 on the cool side, 85 in the middle of the viv, 94 where she basks on her heat rock under the heat lamp, & 97 on top where she basks.

Ok so here is what I think providing that 94 is the actual basking surface correct?The hot side is a tad hot and the basking SURFACE isnt hot enough.The minimum should be 95F but 100-105 is preferable to aid in digestion.I like to keep the cool end at about 75F but 80 is acceptable.Now you said heat rock?Your not using an actual plug in heat rock are you?If so unplug this is very dangerous for them as they measure temps from above.Is she pooping normally?Did she imporve after giving her the bath?Quick question how close can she get to the reptisun?I would make sure her basking area is high enough so that she is within 6-8 inches of the uvb which will also make it easier to ensure the temp gradient is correct.Is she still having issues breathing?
.

 

[thereallivinglegend]

just got back from the vet (again). today they had a lady there that personally has 3 bearded dragons & 12 other various reptiles. the heat rock was taken out yesterday. i had to rearrange her whole viv so that she cant climb up more than about 10" high as the vet was worried about her hurting herself (she was pretty weak yesterday). this puts her within about 8" of her uvb (i had to rig the light down about 2 1/2'). she hasn't pooped since Thursday. On the lighter side, she seems more alert and content after her 2nd force feeding of vegetable beef baby food/bath today. her breathing is almost normal. i asked about pro-biotics & she said we should start on those after the anti-biotics have been administered for 10 days.