Juvenile won't eat

[npgeorgeuw]

Have a juvenile three weeks out after deworming for hooks/pins and 8 days out after coccidia treatment. Coccidia were fairly bad. Our other dragon who was treated and cured for the same started eating the day after the coccidial treatment ended. This one will lap up from the syringe but if I withold syringe feeding she won't even look at the food and will not eat until she gets thirsty and drinks from her bath. Have tried all common feeders except Phoenix worms. Her stress marks have been gone since day two of treatment for coccidia and she's obnoxiuosly active.

Both of their cage upheavals have been pretty dramatic with new paper towels everyday and dissappearing rocks and bowls that need to get baked and or boiled every night. Now that we are one week and two weeks out with clean fecals (hooks/pins and now coccidia) we are going to reintroduce the cage furniture they had before.

Any ideas how to get them eating again when it's been over three weeks of syringe feeding?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

A lot of times this happens when they have been ill & have gotten used to syringe feeding.
Have you tried gradually reducing the amount over the course of the week to see if their natural appetite comes back on its own?
You might try that to see if that helps out. Bee pollen can help boost the appetite also.
Did you give probiotics also along with the treatment to help with appetite?

It sounds like they have improved a lot though if they are active.

Tracie

 

[npgeorgeuw]

Yeah, we've been weaning them down to one syringe feeding a day and they have been drinking from their pools so are no longer in risk of dehydration which was my bigger worry. I'm concerned about the older one as her urates are still quite liquidy but I don't know if that's just due to over-hydration since she is not eating any solid foods. I'm praying that it's not a renal issue, they're too small for bloodwork so either way that's not going to happen. Have not tried bee pollen and did probiotics over the course of both fenbendazole as well as during the treatment with toltrazuril and extended the probiotic for one week after the final treatment. She's gobbling the syringe food down with more zeal every day so I think we might be getting to a case of pampered dragon syndrome. She does show interest in the insects but then will just turn her head and close her eyes.

-Unfortunately I think this is being compounded by a readjustment to having furniture in their cages. They both have been stress marked for the last day/today and the youngest has gone back to refusing to eat again. I swear these two have more attitude than any of my three cats, talking about animals that are adverse to change...

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

They definitely do have personalities & can be very stubborn. They don't like change, I agree there. Gradually decreasing their syringed foods will eventually work, but it does take time. Are you still using the bee pollen & probiotics even after they finished their meds?
I am glad they are not dehydrated now, but the urates will tend to be runny with extra oral fluids, etc.
Oh they couldn't possibly be spoiled now could they? LOL
It sounds like you are doing everything you can, but it does take awhile sometimes for them to get back to normal.

Tracie

 

[npgeorgeuw]

Thanks for the check-in Tracie! Have a quick update:

Yesterday our youngest ate over 20-30 small dubias a day and gained 1 gram in the last two days alone so I think we are good for her, she's also started making a disaster of her greens so she's doing something in that dish.--Based on the amount of cactus pear she was wearing yesterday.

The oldest passed a large BM (yesterday was her first day with dubias in a dish for about 6-7 hours) which means she ate something. Her greens looked a little molested and her BM wasn't just tan and tiny (typical for syringe feeding 2 mLs/day of carnivore care/baby food to her--used to be 3-4mL/day but we cut back to try and get her onto feeders again). I didn't count her dubia roaches yesterday (kicking myself for that) but pretty certain she ate at least a few. We have around 100 hornworms that are about good eating size for her so we will see if she eats those as well.

-Hopefully when I come home tonight there will be less than 30 dubias in the dish and I'll probably give her one last night of syringe food and then let her take things from here. So very happy to be clear of all three parasites and to have a normal happy pair of eating and pooping dragons again.--It's scarey to see them shut down, stop eating and lose so much weight. Kind of interesting that both dragons did it at about the same time (right after they had just started to gorge themselves on feeders gaining grams every other day). Considering they are both ADV+ we are just happy to give them the best life they can have...