I know this is not a beardie but any help would be appreciat

[ghr15]

I have a old water dragon almost 9 years old. She was doing great all her life except this last year she has had deteriorating health. She has not been eating properly and will not eat unless I force her. I know she has MBD because she does not eat enough. I have heard MBD can cause toe loss which my water dragon lost one of the real small toes in the front and it loosing the other small toe on the other. Considering her age the toe problem is not concerning me too much. Since I was given a lizard once missing 2 toes that lived to a ripe old age of just under 10.

So I know all the health problems she has now are associated with her not eating. The temps are good and have been the same all her life with no problems up until recently and the temps are the exactly the same as they always were. I have a tall cage where it is 100 right under the bulb and it varies in temp from there down to the bottom which will sit at about 78. So is force feeding the water dragon to stop the MBD from getting worse a good idea? I have been providing calcium on her food but she refuses to eat.

The cage has various basking spots at differnt locations so the water dragon can choose what temp she wants. So is ther something I can do to save her or is this just old age? With her age it would not be worth taking her to a vet unless the perpose of that is to have her put to sleep. So is there something I can do to save her? I know she is almost 9 and that is a long life for a water dragon but I would like to save her if I could.

But I am just wondering if the force feeding is doing more harm then good? I am not injuring her when I force feed her but it certainly is stressful for me to do that on her. There really is no stress free way to force feed a lizard.

I want to know if I am doing her a favor before I continue doing this? or should I stop and have her put to sleep?

 

[Phoenix17June2009]

This is just my opionion... and I dont know a whole lot about water dragons except they are pretty but just from a general prospective:
I would probably make an appointment with your vet, speak with him about whats going on, dont leave even the smallest of detail out, because even the simplist of thing to you could mean the world for that lizard. see what he/ she has to say. no doctor is going to tell you yes you need to put your lizard to sleep, its not their job to make that deciosion for you just like we can make it for you either. only you know how bad your baby is...
before i did anything rash i would def talk with a doctor, see if he has any ideas as to supplements you could try, maybe different foods, anything. you my friend will know when the time has come for your baby to leave this world.
just think about it... maybe some others will chip in on this but I have been working with small animals for 10 years now... i have seen some bad things happen to animals...some can with some help of course bounce back from things but the ones that can't shouldnt have to be scared of whats going to happen next...

 

[ghr15]

This is just my opionion... and I dont know a whole lot about water dragons except they are pretty but just from a general prospective:
I would probably make an appointment with your vet, speak with him about whats going on, dont leave even the smallest of detail out, because even the simplist of thing to you could mean the world for that lizard. see what he/ she has to say. no doctor is going to tell you yes you need to put your lizard to sleep, its not their job to make that deciosion for you just like we can make it for you either. only you know how bad your baby is...
before i did anything rash i would def talk with a doctor, see if he has any ideas as to supplements you could try, maybe different foods, anything. you my friend will know when the time has come for your baby to leave this world.
just think about it... maybe some others will chip in on this but I have been working with small animals for 10 years now... i have seen some bad things happen to animals...some can with some help of course bounce back from things but the ones that can't shouldnt have to be scared of whats going to happen next...

The thing is I am on a limited budget I cannot afford it. I would of had money had this happened at another time. The water dragon did not slowly get this way. This all happened with my water dragon reducing her appetite. I thought nothing of it since they do that. Since I don't know what do do I am just force feeding my water dragon with food covered in calcium and vitamin d. A vet charges 50 bucks just to walk in the door. I mean that is 50 bucks and they have not even looked at you're animal yet. The vet is only next door but we are looking at allot of money.

I know this since I know someone who had a 10 year old iguna that had a tumor in the tail. It could have been as simple as the vet removing part of the tail but he was telling me how they wanted 500 bucks to do it. That is thebissue when I don't have money. I have had stuff like dental work and stiuff where I waited to have it fixxed because I did not have the money.

The reason I do not have money actually kind of sucks. I had a fraudulent charge on my credit card for 830 bucks. For some reason the credit card is fighting me on this and it's not looking good for me to get that money back. I would love to take her to a vet and say money is no object I really would but sadly for me the cost is a problem.

Unless I call and ask some vets and they choose to give me some free advice.

 

[Phoenix17June2009]

I completely undertand that... unfortunatly I'm in a similar boat to you... someone stole my identity and opened 10 credit cards in my name... i like you am still fighting with one because tehy say i signed for something when i didnt but enough about that... i liked your idea about just calling over there... peopel do that all the time. ask for advice... they will give it to you i'm sure. you could even just talk to a nurse maybe not even the doctor... in my area we as pet nurses have to know pretty much what the doctor knows or we wont be working there, so maybe ask the receptionist if you could either speak with the doctor/ doctors nurse or have someone call you back because you need advice on a water dragon. the one thing i like about being there is my check ups are almost free but not everyone has that luxery... i'm sorry about all that has happened to you... maybe it will clear up soon. *crosses fingers* anyways, if all else fails, just look at your pet, try to imagine what he wants, i know its hard, but you have had him long enough so you know about how he feels by looking at him, so i would think if you want to keep trying the force feeding for a bit longer then go for it but if hes not better in a few weeks and starts going further down hill then i think...well... you know where i stand.... i hope i have helped you in atleast some way
Jordan

 

[ghr15]

I completely undertand that... unfortunatly I'm in a similar boat to you... someone stole my identity and opened 10 credit cards in my name... i like you am still fighting with one because tehy say i signed for something when i didnt but enough about that... i liked your idea about just calling over there... peopel do that all the time. ask for advice... they will give it to you i'm sure. you could even just talk to a nurse maybe not even the doctor... in my area we as pet nurses have to know pretty much what the doctor knows or we wont be working there, so maybe ask the receptionist if you could either speak with the doctor/ doctors nurse or have someone call you back because you need advice on a water dragon. the one thing i like about being there is my check ups are almost free but not everyone has that luxery... i'm sorry about all that has happened to you... maybe it will clear up soon. *crosses fingers* anyways, if all else fails, just look at your pet, try to imagine what he wants, i know its hard, but you have had him long enough so you know about how he feels by looking at him, so i would think if you want to keep trying the force feeding for a bit longer then go for it but if hes not better in a few weeks and starts going further down hill then i think...well... you know where i stand.... i hope i have helped you in atleast some way
Jordan

Well I will call and ask and certainly if she gets worse yes I will have her put down. I am sure what the animal would want is for me to try and if it's not working end her suffering. But I could have the animal get better if I make her eat. Maybee she will start to recover from the MBD and want to eat. The MBD is not really the cause of the problem it's a symptom. If you don't eat you don't do well.

I really am just wondering if my animal is simply too old and just simply cannot live any longer. I don't want to give up on her just yet though. IF upon trying nothing works then I will take the animal to the vet and have her put down. Though I knew at my water dragons age she could go at any time. When they get past 8 you just don't know how much longer they have. Since my water dragon was doing great until she reached the age of 8. After that she just has not done so good.

 

[Phoenix17June2009]

if thats what you think you should do then do it, your heart is definatly in the right, and i really hope it all works out!!! keep me informed woudl ya?

 

[ghr15]

Sure with her condition she will either take a good turn or a turn for the worst. Hopefully she survives. I am looking at different things I can possibly do. I right now put allot of calcium on her food. I am also using some vitamin e of the toe that has died to help it come off.

I should know in a few days if this is working. But if she gets worse even with me doing that then I will do what I dont want to. She does not seem to be suffering at all. She basks she swims around she does also move around though a bit less then when she was healthy. She pretty much acts normal she just seems to not want to eat.

 

[ghr15]

Just thought I would update that the dried toes did fall off and the whole toe was not dry just half of it was. So that fell off and I noticed my water dragon climbing around like she had not done in a while. I picked her up today to force feed her again and she seemed allot stronger and actually took some of the food from me willingly.

So looks like it's a sort of double edged sword she won't eat because she is not felling well but is starting to get more ill from not eating. So it looks like now that my lizard maybe does have a few years left in her. So it has gone from looking grim to it looking like there is some hope.

 

[Phoenix17June2009]

oh i hope so!!! this has made my morning!!!

 

[ghr15]

oh i hope so!!! this has made my morning!!!

Well she is doing a bit better she is filling out and is now eating without being forced. It also looks like some of the nails are starting to grow again. Her color has returned to bright green. She is starting to fill out in the belly. She is still bony round the tail but I bet that will be the last part to fill out. So it looks like she is going to live.

 

[Phoenix17June2009]

aww i'm so excited. i thought about her this weekend while i was out of town.i'm so glad to hear it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That is great news that she is improving. Yes, the base of the tail will be the very last area to fill out. AT least she is eating & seems to be getting much better now.

Tracie

 

[ghr15]

My water dragon today even ate kale that is her least favorite thing to eat and she now is not only hungry but insanely hungry. If I try to pick her up to take care of her toe issues I have to feed her first. Because if I don't she keeps seeing my fingers as food and treis to eat them. She has actually beed that was since I got her trying to eat my fingers if I pick her up when hungry. So her appitite is back to normal snd some nails really are growing back. She has a slamader thing going almost because she is missing the 2 toes that salalmders are missing. But that is ok she is not any less of a pet. If most of her nails don't grow back that is fine too since I can then hold her and not worry about being scratched. She still has enough of them left to climb. She is only missing one nail on the left back foot. On both the front feet she only has 2 nails a foot. But they seem to be more then enough for her to climb like she did before.

Moslt likely should have tried foce feeding her earlier. But at least I now I know that the problem was all diet bassed and nothing more serious. Oh and I forgot to mention she stopped rubbing her face into the bottom of the cage. She was not wearing her snout the cage is made of bars. So it was starting to wear groves in the top of her head. I would put plants down and she would still do it. I think that was out of frustration of not being able to climb. I thought the groves may scar but one has already healed you can see there is no scar and the other grove is scabbed over and filled in.

Oh and she also had a bit of mouth rot that I have gotten under control. I simply used batadyne and some polysporin since it was more on the inside of the top lip. That has gone away you can see how the brown rotten spots are starting to heal up now. Starting to think that maybee all this was mouth rot in the first place.

But I could not see the mouth problems since it never occurred to me to make my water dragon open her mouth so I could take a look. So I guess now that her mouth is healing she is now willing to eat. I even today caught her eating some of the bearded dragon pellets I put in a bowl in case she was hungry.

I was thinking of getting some frozen pinky mice since I have heard it's a good way to get them to gain weight. Is that true? She is doing better I don't want to do something that may undo the progress I have made with her. I am also keeping up with the betadyne and polysporin until it is fully healed.

Oh and I sued something to help with the feet some of you may be surprised with. I used T tree oil. I rub T tree oil into her feet especially around the problem toes and nails. I figured it would work since that stuff cured my toe nail fungus. So I thought if it had a vast improvement on my feet maybe it will for her as well. So I put that on it then some mineral oil. Don't worry it's not the toxic stuff some may think of. This stuff is actually sold as a laxative meant for you to drink it. Polysporin was also good for the wounds on her head. Would not even be surprised if that why the wounds on the head are not leaving a scar.