HELP. Beardie dying,vet can't help..

[SerenEire1]

Hi, I'm so desperate for help. My male 9 mth -Jake is barely breathing at this point. He is 12 in long and has lost weight but not excessive. His temps are good, reptisun 10 lamp and heat lamp. Diet of 20+ crickets daily and greens, leaves etc. A month ago he starting shedding and eating less however one evening he appeared to have some sort of fit but we soon realised he was trying to vomit, he turned jet black underneath and we rushed him to an emergency vet, they had no clue but gave him antibiotics. The next day his colour improved and we till took him to our usual vet, he took bloods and gave us baytril oral for 10 days. This worked for maybe 4/5 days with very little food but agin he appeared to be improving. The vet said he is fighting some form of infection so continue with the baytril (oral baytril with syringe is very difficult he freaked out) on day 5 he took a cricket and was force fed some baytril but this time had another violent vomit after followed by a black very swollen beard. The vet advised to stop the baytril and bring him back. He again took him for a night to get blood for more tests, when we collected him he looked worse and brought me to tears, the vet said give him liquid food and baytril..Please help, his beard is black, he opens his eyes and moves maybe 3 times a day, he vomited a few days ago and there was a small bit of blood. I'm trying him with drops of water, chicken and veg baby food but is taking tiny amounts. I can't watch him die and I'm desperate for help. Thank you.

 

[munchkins9802]

hello can you answer some of the following questions
how long has he been on baytril (while good antibiotic for him unless they know the infection prolonged use can be hard on a beardie's system) --are you giving him any probiotic while on the antibiotics?

at 8 months should be eating about 40-50 crickets a day not only 20.
what are the temps of the cage (basking SURFACE, HOT side, Cool side?)
How are the temps taken? (dial, strip, temp gun, digital with probe?)
what is the substrate on his cage

if he has a URI he would need an antibiotic. Please private message TRACIE (Drache613) as she is very experienced with health of beardies etc.

are the crickets NO BIGGER than the space between his eyes?
i would suggest picking up critical care (green bag) for now at pet store and dripping that on his nose to see if he will eat that or feed it to him (force feed via a needleless syringe)

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Do you happen to have a copy of the blood test results? I can take a look at them to see if anything was missed.
Did he say what type of infection he thought he had possibly?
Please answer your tank set up questions so we can help trouble shoot more quickly.
Could he be impacted from something, loose substrate or too large of a feeder?

How often do you give calcium & vitamins?
How close is the Reptisun 10 tube bub & do you have any plastic or screen in between him & the light?

Tracie

 

[SerenEire1]

Hi munchkin, many thanks for your reply but I was rushing him back to the vet today and he didn't make it. He took the baytril for about 7 days but he was so stressed out by it and it made him vomit. My partner has advised me that his diet varied from 20+ crix a day to 40+ on other days but he shed so often that sometimes we put the poor appetite down to that, he grew very fast and was deep orange in colour, really beautiful. We're absolutely devastated. The vet has suggested a post Mortem as his blood work again showed the same level of infection so were no wiser but I really have to know. I'm sill shocked and upset, I can't believe he is gone. Ive been going over everything and I know we did everything right, we spent so much time making sure his environment and food was the best. I didn't give him probiotics, would that make it worse?

 

[Esther19]

I am so sorry to hear that Jake crossed over.

 

[Tomek]

I am also sorry to hear of your loss. As I was reading your post, I had tears. My beardie Tomek passed away last night. She was only 3 and I took her to the vet as well, was feeding her extra calcium and medicine. She seemed to do good one day and worse the next. She suffered before she died and I will miss her. I am sorry about your beardie as well. We get so attached to them, that it is heart breaking to see them go.

Take Care-
Lynda

 

[munchkins9802]

So sorry to hear your loss. Please if you cAn answer the set up ?'s so we can make sure u r set for the next one

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I am sorry to hear about your loss. That is very devastating for you I know.
Let us know if there is anything we can do for you.

Tracie

 

[SerenEire1]

Hi, his tank was 20 gallon, we didn't move him into the 60 gallon yet because we didnt want to stress him out too much considering he Was shedding so often. His basking area was 110 using the probes, the cooler side was 75 and the rest 75-100, my partner made sure to rearrange his initial set up and use the digital thermometer with probes to make sure it was right. The stick on gauge sometimes showed humidity at 50 and we couldnt figure out why but mainly low safe levels. His substrate was paper towels then repti carpet but he hated it and avoided walking on it so we used wheat bran from the health food store after some research we were happy with it and he seemed to like it. He was very moody when he was shedding but it took weeks to fully shed. We had him just 4 weeks and he had diahreoa and just slept for a full day so we brought him straight to the vet who put him on antibiotics for a week and kept him in, he came home like a new lizard, it was parasites and we were sure he had them since the shop. We got such a fright that time we watched him closely ever since so this is a devastating ending and I pray he wasn't in pain. He pooped regularly but always tried to get out to go outside his tank! We bathed him once a week and he started to like it after a while nd pooped in it often. The vet said he appeared to be a very healthy well looked after lizard even when we brought him in the this time around, he said he lost weight from his back but his tail was still it's large size, even he was shocked. His post Morton was earlier so I await the results. I have to now get the crickets and locusts out of the house! Thanks for any advice you can offer, not sure if I can go through that heartache again but I would love another dragon. I'd like to post a pic but i can't see the option.

 

[SerenEire1]

PS. Thanks a lot Tracie, your knowledge and advice is much appreciated to help us make sense of it and if we do decide to get a beardie again.

 

[SerenEire1]

Esther and Lynda,
Thanks for your kind words I miss him so much.
I'll make sure to update all with the results on monday.
Serena

 

[Esther19]

I'm sending big hugs and healing thoughts your way, dear.

 

[PicosParent]

I am SO very sorry to hear of your loss. How sad. I am actually about to do my own post on problems I am having with my Pico that are similar.

 

[PicosParent]

Lynda I am so very sorry to read of your loss of Tomek as well. Prayers to you too!!!

 

[SeanFred]

So Sorry to hear