]Hi all last week I noticed my beardies front foot swollen he was still eating and moving around. Fast forward to 2 days ago the swelling is still there & now he’s extremely lethargic and won’t eat. He “seems” sleepy. Please help. I won’t have funds for the vet until Jan 8th :-( Hes approximately 3 months old and was bought in October. I am currently using the Zilla reptile desert kit which came with bulbs and lighting. His day and night bulbs are 50 w only bought this week. The setup came with 25watts which we were using.
Aw, poor baby. There are a few possibilities. He may have snagged + sprained /broke it on the hammock or he may have gout. Can you post pics of the entire set up , including lights ? It's sad but those kits never have the right bulbs to provide enough uvb. You will probably have to set him up in a plastic tote to get the lights closer to him. II doubt that a 25 or 50 watt is getting him warm enough.
The hand is definitely swollen, it may be a bit infected but it's hard to tell. I agree, those
mesh hammocks while really neat, do cause a lot of issues with snagging nails, etc. Can
you see any injury on any of his nails?
This sort of thing happened to one of my dogs. She jumped off of my mom’s bed and sprained her ankle or whatever it’s called for dogs and it got infected. She had to have surgery and it’s all better now, though she does limp a bit. Her paw was swollen like your beardie’s hand, so I’m guessing some sort of sprain happened and you gotta get your beardo to a vet to see if they can give antibiotics for the infection. (Their hands are too tiny to put a compression bandage on, lol. They are pretty immobile creatures sometimes though, so I think if you get a bit of antibiotics and let le beardo rest that one foot, le beardo should be okay. Also fun fact: I also sprained my wrist once when I was 11 because I tried to make a ramp with a piece of plywood to ride my razor scooter over and instead the wheel hit the edge of the ramp and I flipped over the handlebars. My wrist still sprains itself if I move my hand the wrong way.
Oh no, I am so sorry to hear you lost your dragon so suddenly!
This was not your fault, he was very young & likely had some health problems when you
bought him. The only other thing that could have been going on would be gout, which
can cause swelling such as that. If that was the issue then his kidneys were in pretty bad
shape.
I am sorry for your loss.
Oh no, I'm so sorry ! Don't blame yourself, baby beardies can develop health problems quickly and go downhill very fast. It wasn't your fault at all, please don't beat yourself up, your heart is already broken. You were very caring and reached out for help here. My deepest sympathy to you, don't be hard on yourself.