Lennythedragon
Member
Hello everyone! My name is Ashley, and my husband Jimmy and I are new to the bearded dragon community! We just recently adopted a 4 year old bearded dragon named Lenny. Here is the story of how we came to adopt this sweet lizard...
We had been considering buying a bearded dragon for about 5 months, and with Christmas around the corner I thought it would be the perfect Christmas gift for my husband. So, on Christmas eve he opens his gifts to see he has gotten a 20 gallon tank and some other necessities for a bearded dragon. We are both so excited and go to PetSmart to see if we connect with any of the bearded dragons there. We find one in particular that we felt loved to be around us so we decided to buy her and take her home. We had done research on the internet but not too extensively. We took some of what the pet store associate told us and took our new dragon home to get settled in. As we had her we continued to research information on how to raise a bearded dragon and found that some of what the pet store associate had told us was wrong. So, we fixed all the problems that the misinformation had caused and our little dragon seemed to be doing fine. Around February 2nd of this year she started to have twitches in her tail and hind legs. We were alarmed took her to the vet. She was going to the bathroom regularly and eating normally and the vet said she seemed to be perfectly fine and a healthy dragon. We got home, she started to have paralysis in her hind legs, immediately we thought impaction. Called the vet, he recommended pedialyte mixed with warm water for her bath. We were bathing her three times a day for 20 minutes each bath and massaging the tummy for 10 minutes of bath time. With no improvement of her hind legs we took her back to the vet who could only do an x ray on her because she was too small to get a blood sample and we had not collected enough stool yet for the parasite test. The vet could not see anything wrong with her skeleton but wanted to send it off to another Herp vet for a second opinion. She gave us a liquid calcium supplement to be given twice daily which we started that same day. We continued the baths for impaction and the calcium supplement and she was still eating small crickets. Then, the next day we see that she has pooped! We were relieved because we thought that was the end of the impaction, but we continued the daily bath just to be on the safe side. She was still not using her back legs so we thought maybe she was still a little impacted so we continued the baths and calcium supplements. The vet called to let us know that the other vet thought that there was a diffuse decrease in bone density and that we should continue the calcium supplements and get another uvb light. This was on February 12th. We continued the supplements, had two uvb lights over her viv, and was continuing baths (Reptisun 10.0 uvb). Along with the twitching, she also would fall over on her back while trying to turn around and could not flip herself back over. I walked in on her on her back one day when i went to check on her ran over to her and flipped her back over and she just stood there looking at me and started walking around and seemed fine so we just monitored her. On Valentines day we go to check on her to find her flipped over in her cage on her back, we flipped her back over as quick as we could but she was gaping for air and not responsive. We called every vet hospital in the area, the closest one that could see a reptile was 2 hours away and they said she wouldn't make the trip in her condition. So, we swaddled her in a blanket gave her water pet on her, and rubbed her tummy some just hoping for the best and hoping she would make it until the morning so we could take her to the vet that would be open. She died around 1AM on the 15th.
We were heartbroken that she had died, and we wanted to honor her by giving another bearded dragon a good home. A friend of ours has an animal rescue and had an adult bearded dragon named Lenny. We decided to bring Lenny home with us and give him a good home. He was in bad conditions such as: little calcium in a 3 year period, not enough vegetables being fed, sand as substrate, coil uvb bulb, and no hiding spot. But, we are going to fix him up with all new items and we would appreciate any advice on raising an older bearded dragon, how to help them get used to you and their environment.
Thank you!
Ashley Cooper
We had been considering buying a bearded dragon for about 5 months, and with Christmas around the corner I thought it would be the perfect Christmas gift for my husband. So, on Christmas eve he opens his gifts to see he has gotten a 20 gallon tank and some other necessities for a bearded dragon. We are both so excited and go to PetSmart to see if we connect with any of the bearded dragons there. We find one in particular that we felt loved to be around us so we decided to buy her and take her home. We had done research on the internet but not too extensively. We took some of what the pet store associate told us and took our new dragon home to get settled in. As we had her we continued to research information on how to raise a bearded dragon and found that some of what the pet store associate had told us was wrong. So, we fixed all the problems that the misinformation had caused and our little dragon seemed to be doing fine. Around February 2nd of this year she started to have twitches in her tail and hind legs. We were alarmed took her to the vet. She was going to the bathroom regularly and eating normally and the vet said she seemed to be perfectly fine and a healthy dragon. We got home, she started to have paralysis in her hind legs, immediately we thought impaction. Called the vet, he recommended pedialyte mixed with warm water for her bath. We were bathing her three times a day for 20 minutes each bath and massaging the tummy for 10 minutes of bath time. With no improvement of her hind legs we took her back to the vet who could only do an x ray on her because she was too small to get a blood sample and we had not collected enough stool yet for the parasite test. The vet could not see anything wrong with her skeleton but wanted to send it off to another Herp vet for a second opinion. She gave us a liquid calcium supplement to be given twice daily which we started that same day. We continued the baths for impaction and the calcium supplement and she was still eating small crickets. Then, the next day we see that she has pooped! We were relieved because we thought that was the end of the impaction, but we continued the daily bath just to be on the safe side. She was still not using her back legs so we thought maybe she was still a little impacted so we continued the baths and calcium supplements. The vet called to let us know that the other vet thought that there was a diffuse decrease in bone density and that we should continue the calcium supplements and get another uvb light. This was on February 12th. We continued the supplements, had two uvb lights over her viv, and was continuing baths (Reptisun 10.0 uvb). Along with the twitching, she also would fall over on her back while trying to turn around and could not flip herself back over. I walked in on her on her back one day when i went to check on her ran over to her and flipped her back over and she just stood there looking at me and started walking around and seemed fine so we just monitored her. On Valentines day we go to check on her to find her flipped over in her cage on her back, we flipped her back over as quick as we could but she was gaping for air and not responsive. We called every vet hospital in the area, the closest one that could see a reptile was 2 hours away and they said she wouldn't make the trip in her condition. So, we swaddled her in a blanket gave her water pet on her, and rubbed her tummy some just hoping for the best and hoping she would make it until the morning so we could take her to the vet that would be open. She died around 1AM on the 15th.
We were heartbroken that she had died, and we wanted to honor her by giving another bearded dragon a good home. A friend of ours has an animal rescue and had an adult bearded dragon named Lenny. We decided to bring Lenny home with us and give him a good home. He was in bad conditions such as: little calcium in a 3 year period, not enough vegetables being fed, sand as substrate, coil uvb bulb, and no hiding spot. But, we are going to fix him up with all new items and we would appreciate any advice on raising an older bearded dragon, how to help them get used to you and their environment.
Thank you!
Ashley Cooper
. So, today we went to the pet store and bought Lenny some new tank decor, new reptile carpet for his substrate, new branches for climbing, a big log for a hiding spot, and some nice rocks to lay out on. Today, he had his first taste of collard greens and gobbled them up, and had some crickets dusted with calcium with d3 phosphorus free (flukers brand) the first taste of calcium he has had in awhile! He will have a new home tonight to get used to, but I think he is going to end up a lot happier!
