i need serious help...for my beardie

[brutusthebearded]

ok i am at a loss and need help bad. My vet i went to was very bad and did not help and wont work with me. This is my last resort for help or i feel that my beardie is going to waste away and die. I took her to the vet and was positive for coccidia for 2 times and every day i was deep cleaning the cage with bleach solution. i took everything porous out of her cage and have been switching out clean shelf liner substrate and sterilite container basking spot. I cant get that special cleaner off the internet because my bank will not let me order from certain sites. idk if that is the problem or not that its just not killing the coccidia or not. also she when she was on the sulfa drug she would not eat but she would be more active and poop. I finally found a place in my area that sold bene bac and started giving that to her and now she will eat but is lethargic and not pooping. My vet did not do a coccidia count and just threw the meds at me to give her. so could i possibly be medicating for the wrong thing? i now know it was just a vet tech that looked at the sample and just saw coccidia then the vet came in and gave me the meds. Also all she will eat is wax worms and is like scared of crickets. she is only about 14 inches long and was thinking super worms would be better but i have heard that they have to be 16 inches. idk what to do anymore and find this site much more helpful than a so called "herp vet" that is in my area. please help me out here.

 

[Esther19]

I'm sorry your beardie is not well. I'm going to need more info before I can begin to help.
What caused you to take your dragon to the vet for a fecal exam?
How old is your dragon? How long have you had her?
What medicine was she taking? Is she still on it? Are you continuing the bene-bac?
Please describe her home: tank size, lighting (please be specific with size, shape, and wattage of bulbs), etc.
What are the temps in the tank and how are you measuring them?
Is she eating at all? Pooping? Are you using any supplements on her food? If so, what and how often?

Pictures of your girl and her home would be very helpful. here is a link for posting them:
http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=167225

I know this sounds like a lot of work, but we need the info to help you help your girl.

 

[brutusthebearded]

I got her about 6 months ago from someone were she was in a ten gallon tank and not fed properly and was always in unsanitary conditions. I got her and i did not no much about beardies but i got all my info and tried to get everything perfect. Her poop has always had a little smell and i didnt think much of it, she ate like crazy and pooped like 2 times a day. when i knew somthing was really wrong was when she became very lethargic after she would eat and then she would go for like 3 to 4 days with out pooping and then finaly a masive horible stinky one would come out. Thats when i took a sample in and they said she had coccidia. gave me meds which is called sulfatrim and showed me how to administer it. then left me with that and told me to come back with another sample in 2 weeks. after two weeks still positive. Oh and she is just over a year old... Her set up right now is very simple because i took out all the porous caves, rocks, ect. She is in the 40 gallon breeder a 100 watt zoomed basking bulb (round), reptisun 10 mounted inside the cage, also i have a clear halogen 60 watt bulb (round) at the other end of the tank. right now substrate is shelf liner and a small sterolite container for basking although she will not get on it. she just lays next to it. I stopped the meds because she didnt eat for a long time and i am still doing the bene bac and now she will eat worms like crazy but wont poop and is lethargic. She did not move (that i know of) from the same spot all day yusterday, today she got up and ran around a little after i fed her. Temps are 105 on the basking spot reading it with a digital probe thermometer and around 85 on the other side. I am not using supplements right now because i am scared that the dust is infected with coccidia since i used to use tongs that i fed her with to scoop the calcium and multivitamin out with. I have been being extremely careful trying to clean and not cross contaminate anything. Idk what to do anymore or what im doing wrong or whats wrong with her. when i was using them i was doing calcium 5 days a week and multivitamin 2 days. Also she is like scared or crickets not and wants nothing to do with them. so i had to go to wax worms and today superworms and tricked her into some collard greens because the bene bac would stick the greens to worm. what do i dooo? please help if you can

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....first off, try not to get too worried, it doesn't mean she is going to waste away, she may recover very well . So is she losing weight visibly ? Do you know her length + weight ? It's typical for some dragons to prefer worms to crickets and even act like the crickets irritate them. Ask your vet for the coccidia count, if they don't know it then I sure wouldn't go back there. If you want to try a med. that seems to work on coccidia in just a few days, go to beardeddragon.co, Cheryl + Jessica can send you some toltrazuril, and I believe they carry the disinfectant that you need. If you don't have the money right away, just keep feeding + caring for her as usual and give extra water to help her go poo. By the way, it's normal for beardies over a year old to poo only every few days, even once a week. So that doesn't mean she's sick at all. If you want to help her go more often, try some canned pumpkin or give her some butternut squash, also be sure she's well hydrated. If she's still a decent size + eating at least some worms and greens, she's probably going to be fine.

 

[brutusthebearded]

she is the vet said .7 lbs idk why lbs because i always see weight in grams for beardies... and yes she is no good and not going back to her. another question i have is how many super worms should i feed her? And also she is still not pooping and i just read that super worms can cause impaction so is this not a good combonation? She is probably about 14 inches too and i have read that only superworms if they are 16 inches... but she wont eat anything but the worms.And wont eat salad by itself if i just put it in her cage or even hand feeding for that matter. Thanks

 

[AHBD]

Medium superworms are O.K., just 5-6 at a time, if you have the large ones they can be cut in half. Try silkworms, hornworms and Phoenix worms too, they are softer. But to help her poo, have you tried the canned pumpkin ? Or try baby food squash, prunes and applesauce, and put a few drops of olive oil in. You can also add a little bit of extra water to the baby food . The more hydrated she is, the more easily she will have a bowel movement.Then give her a warm soak every day and drip water on her nose to get her to drink.

 

[brutusthebearded]

i tryed the pumpkin today, wanted nothing to do with it. She is super skiddish, i tong fed her 2 wax worms and a super and then i even put the worms in the greens and pumpkin but she would just dodge everything and eat the worm. then i tried to put some pumpkin on her nose so she would lick it off and she just backed up real fast and then wanted absolutly nothing to do with food. I put another super in front of her and she just looked away, i did the same with another wax worm and she wouldnt look at that either. She had a nice long bath today like 20 mins and she seemed a lot better but wouldnt eat much. When i was tong feeding the worms at first she would just stare at the tongs and lick them even if nothing was on them. Now she will probably see them as a bad thing since i tried the pumpkin thing. Also she seems to be digging at the corners of her tank because the liner is all scratched up. Idk if that is anything but its kinda weird. Idk about the whole egg thing if it could be that making her act weird or even if she would get them at only a year old.

 

[MsWanda10166]

I see 3 things that make me think it might be eggs. Digging to get out of her tank, her not pooing, and not wanting to eat. It could also be brumation, or coccidia still. A lay bin is not expensive or hard to set up you can get the directions in the breeding section of this forum. As for coccidia, almost any vet can test for it, not just herp vets. Dogs and cats get coccidia too. For a fecal, because a herp vet is 3 hours away from my house, I take a little sample of poo in a zip lock to the local vet. They can catch pin worms and coccidia, and those are the two most common things wrong with dragons.
I have herd that bleach does not really get rid of coccidia. What I have read has said that you have to use steam. Good Luck

 

[Tonja]

I don't understand sulfa drugs for coccidia? Sulfa drugs are very harsh even for a human. I would get some non dairy yougurt that is full of probiotics to help put the good gut flora back into her tummy and intestines. Sulpha drugs would kill off the good gut flora. Sulfatrim is two drugs in one, Sulfadimethoxine and trimethoprim unless another name for it is albon which is a normal course of drug therapy for coccidia. Either way its very harsh on their systems and probiotics would help your dragon.

 

[brutusthebearded]

I am using bene bac and it seemed to make her want to eat but now that she ate and is off the meds she wont poop. on the meds she will poop but not eat. i couldn't get her to eat anything today, she wont eat any greens, baby food, pumpkin, soy yogurt, nothing. I guess those few worms was a false sign of hope. Baths are not helping. wont even lick stuff off her nose or if i put it right on her mouth, she just tries wiping it off and does wipe it off on the glass. it looked like she had lip stick on with the prune baby food. idk what to do... i ordered the tranzuril and sanitizing stuff from BD.co. its like im going around in circles. either be lethargic and not eat but poop or be lethargic eat about a decent amount for 2 days then be lethargic and not poop. i do not get this.

 

[Tonja]

have you tried feeding her with a syringe..mine went off their food after meds for worms and I syringe fed them,.just gently pull the lower lip down put in the syringe and move it gently to the front of the mouth and it will open be ready though to squirt the food in

 

[brutusthebearded]

i have not tried it because she is not cooperating anymore after all this. I walk in the room and she back up to a corner of her tank. The only way i will be able to syringe feed her is holding her head and opening her mouth and im sure thats not a help with being not stressed. by the way i got her to poop today and drove 2 hrs to a vet that would do a count. the total count, after like 3 weeks of the sulfa trim and disinfecting everything over and over again, was 820 per slide and 3 to 15 per field. The vet said he would not recomend the sulfatrim again since she wouldnt eat on it... and he also told me the Baycox liquid 5% Toltrazuril Coccidiocide would not do the trick because the count is to high. He wants me to bring her 2 hrs to him to see her and then prescribe a different med. Will that stuff not work or does he just want to me to give her another harsh drug again?

 

[Tonja]

Geico had a higher count and was on droncit and albon. He went off his food totally so tried the toltrazuril and after 3 doses I waited a week and took in a sample and his counts were back down to normal

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

How is your dragon doing, any improvements?
Have you started the tolturazil so & if so has it begun working?
The benebac is great for helping restore the system after medications. Are you giving it daily?

Are you keeping him at around 80 overnight to help boost the immune system?
What do you use to measure the temperatures with?
The supers really shouldn't be fed until they are 16 inches. You can feed phoenix worms, crickets or roaches right now for her. Will she eat any greens?

Tracie

 

[brutusthebearded]

I did start it and havent seen any improvements yet. Ive been cleaning the cage and everything every day with bd.co's cleaner. Cheryl at bd.co thought she might be trying to brumate since she just turned a year old. The signs are all there but i just went back in my posts to see when she started being lethargic like this and it was may 3rd. I seriously have no idea what is going on. She just wants to lay around and try to sleep durring the day and burrow under any paper i put down for substrate. But once i get home from work and bathe her she is more alert but then by 6 or 7 she will be laying in a corner with eyes open but just laying there. so she is realy only active for a few hours at most. She is a little more interested in food more than other days but will not eat greens of any kind. i read temps with a probe digital thermometer. i dont have a ceramic emitter so i havent been able to keep the temps