help me I think my beardie is dying/merged threads

[CLucas976]

I think my husbands beardie is about to die, we've almost had him 2 yrs we've been following what instructions we were given with him and he looks like he's deteriorating. I noticed it today, he's trying to eat but being unsuccessful, he can't catch his crickets with his tongue and the tip of it is white and looks dry like chicken.

We feed him romaine lettuce and crickets with calci-dust which is what the petstore told us to feed him and they also bred him there..from all research I did this was a fine diet, now I just read that they shouldn't eat romaine regularly and I'm at a loss, my vet isn't open, I have to go to work, he's nawing on his food and he looks terrible.

My pet forum told me it looks like metabolic bone disease, another site made me believe that its related to the size crickets my husband just purchased for him and i really just don't want to see the little guy go, he's never looked sickly like this before and its breaking my heart. his poop area's skin/scales are discolored and the poop flap is insanely obvious. he seems to be moving around more after tasting his lettuce, but for the past two days he was in the same corner which is how I noticed something was wrong since he's usually active.

he gets lettuce daily, and crickets monthly. his daylight bulb is a zoomeds 100wat blue bulb and he also has a large basking bulb(red). I'm going to give him a warm bath while I have a cup of tea and a shower incase he's lacking hydration I just need to know whats going on he's not as resposive as he should be and his hind area looks terrible.

below are pictures, I'm not looking for a lecture or insults please, just what it seems is wrong.

note that the old lettuce has since been replaced, it was from yesterdays feeding.

 

[Jiffy]

Hi.
He looks very thin and dehydrated. I would get him to the vet asap. You may want to get him a bath for hydration as soon as you can.

 

[HowlinGaleDragon]

He is Severely under weight to the point he is Emaciated he needs food now and fast or he will die; do not feed Lettuce at all ever. You need to get some chicken baby food right away and get some in him he needs the protein bad.

The veggies you need to feed is Endive, Escarole, Mustard Greens, Turnip Greens, Collard Greens, Dandelion Greens, and Shredded Squash they love. He needs to get this every day for him to be healthy

Also he needs to have crickets every day I feed my adult crickets in the morning and roaches in the evening if you don't want roaches do two feedings of crickets every day.

What kind of light is over him? What are the temperatures? Sand is a big no no I would take that ASAP and get him on paper towels sand can cause impaction. I use textured tiles or reptile carpet for my adult dragons it is easy to clean and can not be ingested.

I don't want to sound rude but is the most emaciated dragon I have seen I don't know if he can pull through he also looks very dehydrated I would give him a warm bath immediately.

 

[crickest]

First, I have PM'd two of the moderators to help, because I feel completely out of my league . . .

Second, I believe your beardie has really bad MBD from the pictures. The first thing you need to do is get a UVB light on the tank because your dragon can't process calcium without the light. The best tube light in the US is a Repti-Sun 10.0. It needs to be long enough to cover the length of the aquarium and your dragon's basking spot needs to be 6 - 8 inches away from the UVB. Additionally, the blue bulb and the red bulb need to be turned off immediately and a bright white bulb (use a 100 watt household bulb - white). They need the white light to help digest their food.

I would also suggest getting squash baby food and an eye dropper. Mix a little calcium into the food and drip it on the tip of his nose. He should lick it off and you can keep dripping it on. I feed my dragon squash twice a day and he loves it. Give him as much as he can eat two or three times a day. It will also help with his hydration.

Are you bathing him? He looks really dehydrated to me. You can draw him a bath, about as warm as you would want to bathe a baby, up to his arm pits. Make sure it covers his vent area. You are going to want to hold him to make sure he doesn't drown. He may try and drink from the water, or you can carefully dribble water over his nose for him to lick off. Keep it away from his nose vents, water in there can cause a lung infection. Give him a 15 minute bath, twice a day, this will help a lot.

Going forward, there is a great list of foods you can feed your baby at http://www.beautifuldragons.com under nutrition. A lot of people on this site refer to it for staple foods (can be fed daily) and treat foods (can be fed occassionally).

Finally, you want to make sure the temps in your viv are in the correct range. I use a digital probe therm I got from walmart for 12 bucks. I placed the probe under Spark's basking spot and the display in the cool end. The basking spot temps should be 95 - 105 (although you may need to adjust them up a little to help your guy recover) - this is the raised area under the bright white light. Your cool side temps should be 75 - 85. You shouldn't ever heat the viv at night unless the temps are lower than 65 degrees, so for the summer it shouldn't be an issue.

Don't feel bad about being given poor information from the place where you got him . . . we've all been there. NO ONE here should lecture or attack you. . . we're a support community to help you help your baby. We all love our dragons, have had to deal with bad information, and in many cases, have lost our beardie because of the information about care we were given.

 

[crickest]

He is Severely under weight to the point he is Emaciated he needs food now and fast or he will die; do not feed Lettuce at all ever. You need to get some chicken baby food right away and get some in him he needs the protein bad.

The veggies you need to feed is Endive, Escarole, Mustard Greens, Turnip Greens, Collard Greens, Dandelion Greens, and Shredded Squash they love. He needs to get this every day for him to be healthy

Also he needs to have crickets every day I feed my adult crickets in the morning and roaches in the evening if you don't want roaches do two feedings of crickets every day.

I disagree with feeding him a lot of protein . . . the mods who are on the ER forum counsel against protein in these cases, so the food doesn't overwhelm his kidneys. I would stick with the squash baby food, until a mod can get in touch with you. Although replacing his lettuce with the above listed greens is a great idea, it sounds to me like he's going to need to be handfed for a while.

 

[HowlinGaleDragon]

crickest,
I have rehabbed over 20 dragons in the past year and never ever have any trouble with chicken baby food if he dose not get some protien in his system his organs will give out and his body will continue to to eat away at his muscles and what might be leftof his fat stores.

 

[CLucas976]

I just took him from his bath and despite my need for sleep before work am on my way to get him some squash baby food to feed to him..


he seems better after his bath and I thank all of you so much I can express my gratitude

 

[HowlinGaleDragon]

I still highly recomend Chicken Baby Food, even my vet has told me this many times she works strictly with Reptiles, Snakes, Birds, and Fish I Trust her word.

 

[CLucas976]

I bought both squash and chicken baby foods, he was moving all over the place after his bath, he ate probably four spoonfuls of squash from a baby spoon which, is way smaller than your average teaspoon and I'll try and give him chicken tomorrow and more squash tonight. his eyes are wide open and he seems content for now, I have him on his little wooden piecen under his lights so he can digest the cricket he had earlier and the squash.

the blue bulb produces white light and is 100 watts. the basking bulb is one I got with his original tank and belonged to a beardie prior.

he isn't retardedly unresponsive, he went right for the lettuce earlier and he chased and managed to eat one cricket..I will say that he looked awefully adorable with baby food on his face licking the squash off the spoon..


how frequently should I be hand feeding the baby food to him and apprx. how much?


I beg for your forgiveness on the condition of Balinor, like I said he is my husbands pet and I try to let him deal with the lizard, I guess I have to take over the lizard too. and I again thank you guys so much.

 

[mpinsky]

To add, make sure you can get your husband involved on what you are doing, that way he can learn from you. The spreading of education is one of the best things you can do to prevent this from happening again. All of us thank you for coming here, even though he is your husband's pet.

 

[HowlinGaleDragon]

I would give him the Squash twice a day and Chicken once a day don't force him let him eat what he wants he knows when to stop. And keep up with daily bathes twice a day if you have time another great thing for hydration is Pedalite

 

[crickest]

Additionally, the red bulb should be turned off and a UVB should be add to your viv setup. There are two ways to go for the UVB. One is the Repti-Sun 10.0 (Not Repti-Glo or reptasun - both can cause health issues with your beardie) flouresant tube and should stretch the length of the viv. The other bulb is a mecury vapor bulb called Mega-ray and it provides both UVB and heat. The Megaray is expensive but will replace two lights and lasts for a full year. I use the Repti-Sun 10.0 and my beardie is healthy and active. Getting this bulb is critical.

 

[diamc]

Boy, he does indeed look thin, it's good that you gave him a bath & it seemed to help a little. Adding Pedialyte to the bath water and also getting some diluted Pedialyte in him orally should also be done.

It also would be a good idea to go easy on the protein because if he hasn't had some in a while, it could overtax his system causing kidney & liver problems. Would be best to stick with the squash, thinned with a little Pedialyte and also adding a drop or two of some liquid calcium to it to make sure he can process that and that he is pooping normally. After you find out that he can, you can add a small amt of the chicken or turkey baby food to a larger amt of the squash, again, you should thin the mixture a little to make it easier for him to swallow.

Getting a T-Rex or Mega-ray mercury vapor bulb would also be a good idea. What size tank is he in? Also replacing the red bulb with a white bulb would be best too. As suggested, getting either a probe thermometer or a temperature so that you can check the temps is very important.

Please let us know how he is doing a little later.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I totally agree with Diane, as he is extremely thin. If you give too much protein all at once, it will stress the kidneys because he is so dehydrated. He wont be able to process the protein correctly.
At 2 years of age, I am sure that he has been going downhill for awhile, but your husband has not noticed. They can only go so long without proper food & lighting. However, they are incredibly resilient but you absolutely have to be consistent with his feedings now.
As an adult, he does need around 40-50 feeders per week, to maintain his health & bone structure along with greens & veggies offered daily even if he doesn't always eat them.
When was the last time that he went to the bathroom, do you know?

You mentioned that the end of his tongue is white? How much of the end of the tongue is white, does it look like it is coated? They normally have a whitish to greyish tip of the tongue. My concern is that he might possibly have pregout syndrome which is from chronic dehydration & subpar temperatures. Could you take a picture of the end of the tongue possibly?

Tracie

 

[CLucas976]

I know he went to the bathroom a day or two ago because my husband was telling me how weird it looks and how he stared at him while he did it.

see thats what bothers me so badly, is that we weren't starving him, I know he's been fed regularly, it just sad that we were given such false info

we were also told that he only would need crickets as a little guy and that he'd grow out of them. he's not typically sickly or inactive looking so I guess I wouldn't have been able to tell sooner.

I don't know but he looks much better now and he's moved himself off of where I had him so I think he may do fine, like I said he's had crickets this week, and *choke* romaine lettuce all week.