OrlyBloomerzBaby
Hatchling Member
I recently got my Beardie back from a friend that was supposed to be watching and taking care of him for me whilst I was studying abroad and to much of my dismay he completely neglected my poor baby. 
He also decided that Spyke (my beardie) didn't need all of the "stuff" he came with so he parted out his viv. I've been dealing with that through the proper channels. 
I've had him back for a week now and he is still incredibly emaciated. His poor head is all shrunk in and I can see the bones around the base of his tail. I've been talking with a friend of mine whom is a vet tech and she was briefing me on how to slowly re-acclimate him and bring him back to a healthy status. He's been looking good and doing better until today. It recently started to get very cold outside and hits about 68-70 in my house at night. So I'm not sure if he's acting this way because of brumation or if he's just taken a turn for the worse.
When I woke up this morning I noticed that his beard was black. Solid black from the tip of his mouth down into his chest. Normally this means that he is upset about something so I picked him up to see what was going on and discovered that he had pooped and instead of moving away from it, he stayed in it. It was also not one of his normal poops. As of late his poop has been a dark green thickish consistency with the hard white lump. This one though was a light brown almost caramelly- translucent color and it was very thin and oily. I cleaned that up and gave him a bath but through the entire bath his beard stayed solid black and he kept his eyes half shut not really looking at me or anything. Normally during his baths he will drink some of the water but this time he didn't even open flick his tongue. Once finished bathing I offered him some greens which he also refused. He wasn't even slightly interested in them. So them I tried some of the baby food which he is normally ravenous with and can't get enough of. This time he just completely ignored it. Didn't even look at it. All the while beard stick solid black. So I put some water in his dish in his viv and set him by it. When I returned approx. 30 mins later he was in the dish and most of the water was gone but he looked half dead and his beard was still black. Out of concern I picked him up and check to make sure he was still breathing and all. He was extremely cold but still semi-alert and breathing. I tried the food again to no avail and set him back in on his basking log and came to the internet to look for answers as I do not have the funds to go to the vet as I would much like to.
Info:
-Spyke is 8 years old (I've had him since he was a few weeks old. He will be 9 in January). And I'm pretty certain that he is the result of inbreeding. (He has knobs in his tail that act as joints.)
-His diet has consisted of baby food(chicken) and collard greens until his strength returns.
I've noticed that he is having trouble aiming for the loose food and I'm not sure if that is because he's weak or if he's going blind.
-I've been giving him baths every day for about 20 minutes. (He seems to enjoy them)
This is his set up at the moment until I can get my stuff back and/or afford to buy new stuff.
-He is in an old snake terrarium. I believe it's 100 gal. I may be wrong.
-His substrate is tile.
-He has two basking logs that give him different heights to lay on to bask.
-His heat source is a 75 watt heat bulb in a fluker's ceramic clamp light.
-He has no UVA or UVB at the moment as the one I bought online arrived at my house in pieces. So I'm dealing with that too.
-The temps on the warm side have been mid 90s and the cold has been low 80s and drops to about mid 70s-high 60s at night. I do not have his normal ceramic night heater at the moment. Working on getting that as well.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
As I've writing this he seems to be perking up a bit. He slid off his log and climbed back onto it instead of just lying where he fell. He also seems more alert but is still not interested in the greens I left him. His beard is also now more of a grey than black.
He also decided that Spyke (my beardie) didn't need all of the "stuff" he came with so he parted out his viv. I've been dealing with that through the proper channels. I've had him back for a week now and he is still incredibly emaciated. His poor head is all shrunk in and I can see the bones around the base of his tail. I've been talking with a friend of mine whom is a vet tech and she was briefing me on how to slowly re-acclimate him and bring him back to a healthy status. He's been looking good and doing better until today. It recently started to get very cold outside and hits about 68-70 in my house at night. So I'm not sure if he's acting this way because of brumation or if he's just taken a turn for the worse.
When I woke up this morning I noticed that his beard was black. Solid black from the tip of his mouth down into his chest. Normally this means that he is upset about something so I picked him up to see what was going on and discovered that he had pooped and instead of moving away from it, he stayed in it. It was also not one of his normal poops. As of late his poop has been a dark green thickish consistency with the hard white lump. This one though was a light brown almost caramelly- translucent color and it was very thin and oily. I cleaned that up and gave him a bath but through the entire bath his beard stayed solid black and he kept his eyes half shut not really looking at me or anything. Normally during his baths he will drink some of the water but this time he didn't even open flick his tongue. Once finished bathing I offered him some greens which he also refused. He wasn't even slightly interested in them. So them I tried some of the baby food which he is normally ravenous with and can't get enough of. This time he just completely ignored it. Didn't even look at it. All the while beard stick solid black. So I put some water in his dish in his viv and set him by it. When I returned approx. 30 mins later he was in the dish and most of the water was gone but he looked half dead and his beard was still black. Out of concern I picked him up and check to make sure he was still breathing and all. He was extremely cold but still semi-alert and breathing. I tried the food again to no avail and set him back in on his basking log and came to the internet to look for answers as I do not have the funds to go to the vet as I would much like to.
Info:
-Spyke is 8 years old (I've had him since he was a few weeks old. He will be 9 in January). And I'm pretty certain that he is the result of inbreeding. (He has knobs in his tail that act as joints.)
-His diet has consisted of baby food(chicken) and collard greens until his strength returns.
I've noticed that he is having trouble aiming for the loose food and I'm not sure if that is because he's weak or if he's going blind.
-I've been giving him baths every day for about 20 minutes. (He seems to enjoy them)
This is his set up at the moment until I can get my stuff back and/or afford to buy new stuff.
-He is in an old snake terrarium. I believe it's 100 gal. I may be wrong.
-His substrate is tile.
-He has two basking logs that give him different heights to lay on to bask.
-His heat source is a 75 watt heat bulb in a fluker's ceramic clamp light.
-He has no UVA or UVB at the moment as the one I bought online arrived at my house in pieces. So I'm dealing with that too.
-The temps on the warm side have been mid 90s and the cold has been low 80s and drops to about mid 70s-high 60s at night. I do not have his normal ceramic night heater at the moment. Working on getting that as well.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
As I've writing this he seems to be perking up a bit. He slid off his log and climbed back onto it instead of just lying where he fell. He also seems more alert but is still not interested in the greens I left him. His beard is also now more of a grey than black.
