Nessiedrakosmom
Member
Finally able to get back on here! What a heart warming story and I'm thankful experienced owners like yourself are able to rescue beardies from those types of situations. I thought I had done plenty of research into how to care for him. The things I had read in the beginning all said that the UVB compact was just fine. I do believe it was the recent move I had, his first winter, and getting another beardie is what sent him into this deficiency because he was just fine with that compact and my gutloading/supplementing being subpar for quite a while.
As I think about it now, during summer his cage was right by a window and he was able to get rays that way as well. Since I moved I'm now in a basement which has very little sunlight. Especially with winter having shorter days.
Unfortunately it's my mistake and poor sense of judgement that made Drako get sick, but I have high hopes for him, hes a fighter. Luckily my vet is wonderful and calls me every once and a while for updates on him so I'm very lucky and grateful I was able to find adequate help for Drako. I'm seeing very slow improvement in him so far.
He used to be a very active dragon that dove for his greens when I put the bowl down, and ate every last piece. Now I have to entice him into it by shaking pieces and getting him to eat from my hand. He will not eat crickets from my hand anymore because they're not jumping around and such. He usually stays right under his basking perch, and doesn't get very active. His poops were on a schedule of after about an hour of his lights being on hed go to the farthest corner from his perch to do his business. Now it seems like he goes as far as he feels comfortable. When he first got sick he wouldn't move at all, and end up laying in it. Which meant lots of baths and a very clean tank on the bright side!
When he's out for medicine or to be fed crickets he takes a couple steps, which again on the bright side there is a noticeable amount of movement in his back legs, but its only a few steps before he lays down. Before I started supplementing at home, you could see he would try to move his back legs and they would shake and seem very stiff and eventually hed just drag them and use his front legs. Again only a couple steps.
Im looking for his energy levels to improve soon. Hopefully he can be back to being rambunctious and wanting to explore here in the near future, whether that be with a wobbly gait or normal. Im really hoping that he can return to normal and feel healthy again here soon.
I've honestly gotten a lot of scorn and scoffs when people discover how much time and money I have spent on my little guy. Which honestly its been a lot, but for a solid two weeks I cried whenever he didn't eat, or if I saw his head down on his log instead of up and alert. I read every day about anything and everything I could to figure what was wrong. I tried day in and day out to try to get him to feel better without the vet because honestly, I didn't have the money. But when I came home from work because of a bad feeling and saw his back toes twitching even though he wasn't moving his legs, I lost it and called easily more than 10 different vets to try to find one that would number one take exotics and number two take him in that day. Those poor people who answered the phones dealt with me being very distraught as i kept getting farther and farther away from home as they all had different suggestions and then it was a nasty cycle of "we cant but they might be able to" then "i already tried them". Thank god when i was finally about to give up as I was now calling places 2 hours away from home in 6 degree weather, and still no luck, a friend of mine found one that NOBODY had suggested once the entire hour I was looking, and it was only 30 minutes away. And they would see him that day. They were the nicest people I had talked to that entire time. And I will be continuing to go there because thwy are that dang amazing.
I wouldn't give up Drako for anything, and even with so many people saying it wasn't worth it to take a lizard to the vet and spend so much money, I ignored every single one of them. Cause even I didn't think I would love him as much as I do. He's my little man, I lose sleep at night some nights because I worry if hes warm enough, and i get up to check his temps middle of the night because I love him so dang much lol. Never understood how much a beardie could mean to someone until I got my lil dude. Hes not even little anymore hes just my baby
Haha.
Even my other girl Thorn that I took in from someone who didn't want her because shes mean. I love her too. Even though she bobs when I simply walk by her viv, or tries to attack my hand if i reach in to grab her bowl to give fresh greens. Or when she pushes my hands away when i just try to give her loves lol. The very tip of her nose looks a little snubbed because shes run herself into the glass to try to attack people when they walk by... shes crazy but Its something about these beardies man. They take a big ole chunk of your heart with them.
Emotional time over now and question time.
Any sort of physical therapy I could help him through other than water therapy? I have been doing that, but unfortunately I live in a very loud and noisy household upstairs, and thats the only bathtub. Plus its too cold down here for him to be in water for an extended period of time, so his baths are normally short lived. My vet suggested moving his legs within normal range of motion and do about 10 "reps". I have also been doing that though normally Drako hates it.
Any other suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you for reading!
As I think about it now, during summer his cage was right by a window and he was able to get rays that way as well. Since I moved I'm now in a basement which has very little sunlight. Especially with winter having shorter days.
Unfortunately it's my mistake and poor sense of judgement that made Drako get sick, but I have high hopes for him, hes a fighter. Luckily my vet is wonderful and calls me every once and a while for updates on him so I'm very lucky and grateful I was able to find adequate help for Drako. I'm seeing very slow improvement in him so far.
He used to be a very active dragon that dove for his greens when I put the bowl down, and ate every last piece. Now I have to entice him into it by shaking pieces and getting him to eat from my hand. He will not eat crickets from my hand anymore because they're not jumping around and such. He usually stays right under his basking perch, and doesn't get very active. His poops were on a schedule of after about an hour of his lights being on hed go to the farthest corner from his perch to do his business. Now it seems like he goes as far as he feels comfortable. When he first got sick he wouldn't move at all, and end up laying in it. Which meant lots of baths and a very clean tank on the bright side!
When he's out for medicine or to be fed crickets he takes a couple steps, which again on the bright side there is a noticeable amount of movement in his back legs, but its only a few steps before he lays down. Before I started supplementing at home, you could see he would try to move his back legs and they would shake and seem very stiff and eventually hed just drag them and use his front legs. Again only a couple steps.
Im looking for his energy levels to improve soon. Hopefully he can be back to being rambunctious and wanting to explore here in the near future, whether that be with a wobbly gait or normal. Im really hoping that he can return to normal and feel healthy again here soon.
I've honestly gotten a lot of scorn and scoffs when people discover how much time and money I have spent on my little guy. Which honestly its been a lot, but for a solid two weeks I cried whenever he didn't eat, or if I saw his head down on his log instead of up and alert. I read every day about anything and everything I could to figure what was wrong. I tried day in and day out to try to get him to feel better without the vet because honestly, I didn't have the money. But when I came home from work because of a bad feeling and saw his back toes twitching even though he wasn't moving his legs, I lost it and called easily more than 10 different vets to try to find one that would number one take exotics and number two take him in that day. Those poor people who answered the phones dealt with me being very distraught as i kept getting farther and farther away from home as they all had different suggestions and then it was a nasty cycle of "we cant but they might be able to" then "i already tried them". Thank god when i was finally about to give up as I was now calling places 2 hours away from home in 6 degree weather, and still no luck, a friend of mine found one that NOBODY had suggested once the entire hour I was looking, and it was only 30 minutes away. And they would see him that day. They were the nicest people I had talked to that entire time. And I will be continuing to go there because thwy are that dang amazing.
I wouldn't give up Drako for anything, and even with so many people saying it wasn't worth it to take a lizard to the vet and spend so much money, I ignored every single one of them. Cause even I didn't think I would love him as much as I do. He's my little man, I lose sleep at night some nights because I worry if hes warm enough, and i get up to check his temps middle of the night because I love him so dang much lol. Never understood how much a beardie could mean to someone until I got my lil dude. Hes not even little anymore hes just my baby
Haha.
Even my other girl Thorn that I took in from someone who didn't want her because shes mean. I love her too. Even though she bobs when I simply walk by her viv, or tries to attack my hand if i reach in to grab her bowl to give fresh greens. Or when she pushes my hands away when i just try to give her loves lol. The very tip of her nose looks a little snubbed because shes run herself into the glass to try to attack people when they walk by... shes crazy but Its something about these beardies man. They take a big ole chunk of your heart with them.
Emotional time over now and question time.
Any sort of physical therapy I could help him through other than water therapy? I have been doing that, but unfortunately I live in a very loud and noisy household upstairs, and thats the only bathtub. Plus its too cold down here for him to be in water for an extended period of time, so his baths are normally short lived. My vet suggested moving his legs within normal range of motion and do about 10 "reps". I have also been doing that though normally Drako hates it.
Any other suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you for reading!
