How long can beardies live with Liver Disease?

[ShehzainWyvern]

Hello,

I want to know experiences of people who have beardies with Liver disease/ hepatic lipidosis.

My four year old male bearded dragon Percy was diagnosed with it today and the vet said I should euthanize him even though I feel like he could still have a quality life...but how long is what I am wondering and fearing.

What did you do to manage the disease? How long did your beardie live?

So far all I know is that a low protein low fat diet is vital as well as more exercise. I was also reading a post by Tracie saying a milk thistle supplement can help ?

Please tell me your experiences. I want my little guy to hopefully heal his liver (I know the liver can and does heal in humans so I feel like it has to in reptiles too albeit slower). I haven't gotten word on how serious his liver disease is so I'd need to ask again....

 

[AHBD]

I haven't had a beardie with a liver problem but I will ask, what are your dragons symptoms, how is his appetite and can you post pics ? How did the vet come up with this diagnosis, by blood test, MRI, Etc ? All of that is helpful to what you're dealing with. Tracie is on in the night time so I'm pretty sure she'll jump on here to offer help.

 

[ShehzainWyvern]

Hello,

Absolute Mystery Illness- Vets Are Baffled | Beardie ER

Hello, First of all you can find my husbandry information here: https://www.beardeddragon.org/members/shehzainwyvern.116122/ If I'm missing any info just ask and I'll provide it! My bearded dragon Percy is a little over 4 years old. He has always been very inactive throughout his life- even...

www.beardeddragon.org

There is the thread with all the information. Be warned it's pretty long.

I've been able to get him silkworms and Milk thistle extract.

Aside from the silkworms and Black soldier fly larvae in small amounts I don't give him any protein at all. This is because I read the overfeeding of protein and fatty foods like mealworms/ superworms / pellets etc can cause liver disease. So I won't be feeding him those things any more. I even worry the Dubia roaches are too much so I stopped them as well. So he's been on this low fat low protein diet for the last couple weeks.

For vegetables I give him collard greens and yellow squash. Mostly just the collards. I'm not sure what else would be safe with his liver disease.

If anyone else knows anything please let me know.

Also haven't heard back from the vet about meds and it's been a whole week. I'm trying not to get discouraged at this point.

 

[ShehzainWyvern]

Oops I should add the diagnosis came from an ultrasound. His symptoms are all respiratory. Although I do believe his mouth is a bit more yellow than usual but it's hard to tell because I never paid much attention before...and at times he is somewhat lethargic but not to an alarming degree.

His appetite is pretty good and he eats enthusiastically.