Lay on back

[h4rdcore]

Iv been trying to figure out if this is Draco's first brumation or if he is sick. Most of the symptoms are just like the brumation articles I have read on here and on other sites. He is roughly 9-11 months old and about 16 - 18 inches long. But this one has me more stumped than anything else... Why would a bearded dragon lay on its back or side? Playing dead just to scared the bejuesus out of me? Here are some pics

 

[TASTIGER]

they cant breath when they are on their back somethings not right can u run over your set up

 

[h4rdcore]

60 watt heat light and 40 watt night heat light and i forget what the uvb light is but its one of the long ones. 20gallon tank. Water bowl and food bowl. A tree and a log to hide in. He has all the symptoms of brumation. What started it was i go out of town a lot for work and sombody forgot to turn on his day lights one day and since then he has been acting like brumation. He has never eaten much in the way of greens but has always eaten his insects. Now every couple days he will eat a few and is very lethargic. I have increased his baths to everyother day and put timers on the lights but he has been sluggish and not eating much for over a month. The picture of him on his side was very soon after he started this and i think he fell out of his tree after i placed him there thinking he needed to sun bathe. But the back one happened today. He was looking very yellow which i thought odd so i took out his old 10 gallon tank put in a towel and set him outside for some real sunlight. Had to take out the trash and came back to him on his back for no apearent reason and freaked out a little bit but he seemed fine and had gone comepletely back to his normal color with no stress marks showing on his stomache. He is my first beardy and im not all that familar with what things mean but veing on his back seemed very odd. He has also do like a crocodile and rolled over a few times in his bath water but never stayed on his back like this.

 

[TASTIGER]

you should look at the name on the UVB bulb the best one is the reptisun 10 everything else could hurt their eyes. i hope some one will come and help because iv never seen anything like this all i know is that they cant breath when they are on their back

 

[h4rdcore]

it is one of the cheaper ones i think, i will replace it when I get home, right now im in Oklahoma monitoring 2 oilrigs we have up here. Once i head back to Houston I'll upgrade, its going on about 4 months anyhow so its getting close to changing the bulb anyhow.

 

[TASTIGER]

does he shake when he lays on his back? has he showed any signs of a neurological problem?

 

[h4rdcore]

when he was only a couple months old he did a lot of shaking but that was due to lack of knowledge and the fact that the petsmart lady didnt tell me i needed a UVB light, so he didnt really grown for the first 3 months i had him. But after I got that light he grew like wild fire. Went from 5" to about 17" in 4 or 5 months, but has stopped growing since hes been all lethargic, hasnt lost any noticable weight, although i dont have a scale to test that.

 

[TASTIGER]

have you looked at MBD symptoms meby you should up his calcium intake for awile and see what happens do this after you get a reptisun10 they cant absorb calcium without proper uvb

 

[h4rdcore]

I have been worried about his calcium because he hasnt been eating much anyhow

 

[TASTIGER]

without the proper uvb he cant absorb the calcium you might want to order the bulb online i havent been able to find it in stores

 

[Fallencomrade2008]

Petco / petsmart do not carry the bulb, grab one online for sure. What kind of sand is that he is on?

 

[TASTIGER]

you might also want to get a fecal done to make sure he doesnt have any bad parasites

 

[h4rdcore]

he is on sand, "ReptoSand" is the brand i think

how much does a fecal exam cost roughly? and how do you find a reptile specific vet?

 

[TASTIGER]

look on google thats how i found my vet

 

[Jchetta]

For starters the tank in the sun is an oven