Hey everyone, I know this is super long. I would really appreciate if people can read this and give me any feedback.
I have two bearded dragons, Bitsy and Balerion. They are both around 7-8 months old. I got them at a reptile expo in February when they were around 3-4 months old.
Bitsy got sick around 2.5 months ago. She wasn't eating well, growing, shedding etc. I knew something was wrong because Balerion was developing just fine.
I went to a vet and he found a small growth type thing on her face. Vet thought it might be puss and an infecton and we started oral antibiotics. That didn't help.
Her arms and fingers started to swell up too. We then did an x-ray and blood work and started her on injection antibiotics.
X-ray came back clear other than seeing the swelling on her face and arms. Blood work came back showing that her kidneys weren't breaking down the uric acid and it was staying in her body causing all the swelling.
I did everything the vet said to do and it kept getting worse.
Recently her body started to get crooked. She didn't shed or grow at all.
She is perky and alert though. She does have a hard time moving around and did fall on her back a couple of times and couldn't get up.
I went to the vet again today and he said she's most likely in pain. He said she's tolerating it well for now which is why she's still perky, but that could change at any time. He said its getting worse and another bump is forming on her face. Her legs are swollen now too. Its also why shes crooked. It's most likely kidney disease.
So now my options are to put her down, keep her until she goes on her own (which I wouldn't want to do if she's in pain), or go ahead with getting treatment. The vet doesn't recommend this. He feels she's so young and can't grow and doesn't feel like treatment would do her any good.
Does anyone have experience with this? Before I make a decision, I would love some feedback from people who know bearded dragons well or from anyone who's been through this. I guess I would like to feel like I've done as much research as I can before deciding such a big thing.
Thank you so much for reading this.
I have two bearded dragons, Bitsy and Balerion. They are both around 7-8 months old. I got them at a reptile expo in February when they were around 3-4 months old.
Bitsy got sick around 2.5 months ago. She wasn't eating well, growing, shedding etc. I knew something was wrong because Balerion was developing just fine.
I went to a vet and he found a small growth type thing on her face. Vet thought it might be puss and an infecton and we started oral antibiotics. That didn't help.
Her arms and fingers started to swell up too. We then did an x-ray and blood work and started her on injection antibiotics.
X-ray came back clear other than seeing the swelling on her face and arms. Blood work came back showing that her kidneys weren't breaking down the uric acid and it was staying in her body causing all the swelling.
I did everything the vet said to do and it kept getting worse.
Recently her body started to get crooked. She didn't shed or grow at all.
She is perky and alert though. She does have a hard time moving around and did fall on her back a couple of times and couldn't get up.
I went to the vet again today and he said she's most likely in pain. He said she's tolerating it well for now which is why she's still perky, but that could change at any time. He said its getting worse and another bump is forming on her face. Her legs are swollen now too. Its also why shes crooked. It's most likely kidney disease.
So now my options are to put her down, keep her until she goes on her own (which I wouldn't want to do if she's in pain), or go ahead with getting treatment. The vet doesn't recommend this. He feels she's so young and can't grow and doesn't feel like treatment would do her any good.
Does anyone have experience with this? Before I make a decision, I would love some feedback from people who know bearded dragons well or from anyone who's been through this. I guess I would like to feel like I've done as much research as I can before deciding such a big thing.
Thank you so much for reading this.