Life or Death EMERGENCY! Please help

[bill0405]

I made a post earlier about my poor beardie, but im starting a new thread because the title may draw more attention. My beardie is in dangerous health and I dont know what else to do. She was fine for 7 months, and all of a sudden about 7 days ago she stopped eating. After 6 days of not eating I took her to the vet to get a fecal done, and they found no parasites. They gave me a prescription for her, and said to give it once every 10 days, and if shes not eating, to feed her through a syringe into her mouth. Lighting and heat are perfect, but she is losing weight quickly, and she is now twitching and barely able to support her own weight. I suspected it may be a calcium deficiency since I dusted the crickets about only 2 times a week, but after giving her more calcium and taking her outside into the sun, she seems to be getting even worse. She is twitching her legs, and cant even walk herself anymore. We feed her greens and crickets, and she's never had any problems until now. Can anyone help and let me know what I may be able to do to get her better? My wife and I are very worried.

 

[spurlee01]

well, what kind of uvb light are you using. It sounds like she might have mbd and the uvb light should be a reptisum 10.0 flourescent tube. You might need to get it on some liquid calcium.

 

[Jiffy]

Sorry your beardie is not doing well. You may want to see if you can get a moderator to move this to the er forum for you, where it can get more attention.
Good luck, hope your beardie will be ok.

 

[bill0405]

It is a reptisun 10 bulb. ive done lots of research on what beardies require (mostly from this forum) so I dont think any of our caretaking should be the problem. Is it possible bulbs can be defective? We replaced our 6 month old bulb a couple weeks ago, and shortly after is when she got sick.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,
Can you post a picture of your tank setup for us?
How old is she?
Is there a screen between the light & your dragon, & how far away is the light from her?
Yes, it is possible a bulb could be defective, but it is impossible to know without testing it via UVB meter.
What type of calcium do you use? What types of foods do you feed on a regular basis?
What are the temps in the tank, & how do you measure them?

Did they take any blood or do an x-ray or anything while she was at the vets?

Tracie

 

[bill0405]

She is 7 months old. There is a screen on the top, and the light is about 12 inches above her head when shes on her log. We feed her crickets and romaine lettuce every day (except past week since shes not eating) and we dust the crickets with reptocal calcium dust.I measure her temps with a digital thermometer and the temps are spot on. they didnt take any blood or xray when she was at vet because she wasnt in as bad of a condition as she is now. They just took a fecal. Here is a pic of the setup. The tank is 40gal. She is not in there at the moment because my wife took her outside to get some sun

 

[Valex]

I'm not sure if this is relavent, but a mesh screen blocks out 50% of the UVB rays. She also needs to be able to get within 8-9 inches of the UVB.

I hope your beardie starts feeling better soon.. :|

 

[bill0405]

We just went to the pet store and picked up some liquid calcium to feed her. we fed her a couple drops through syringe, fed her the food the vet gave us through the syringe, and now we're sunbathing with her in the actual sun she seems to be a little more awake now. Sad part is we live right by ohare airport, and planes are flying like 1000 feet above our house and it scares the hell out of stubbles.

 

[pscaulkins]

Your uvb light is to high like Valex said. You need to either raise her basking platform or lower the light. Also, I don't see any heat light. The Reptsun 10 is only a uvb light so your beardie needs a heat light to brighten the tank up and heat the basking area for digestion.

 

[bill0405]

We have two heat lamps on on the side of the cage by the log which brings the heat to 105 on a digital thermometer, and a ceramic heat light for at night time to keep the temps in the mid 70's.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Bill, stubbles can take as low as the upper 50's mid 60's over night. So you don't really need that Che for now, reserve it for the winter.
When you take her out, do you have a harness on her just incase she dashes away from you when a plane is overhead ? I was wondering, as well, if you have seen this web site. It offers healthy foods for your girl, to help her back to health.
http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

You can order Phoenix worms, they come jam packed with calcium, and for now I would substitute the crix for those.

You will need to raise her up and remove the screen between her and the Repti-sun. So for the mean time, do you have say a 20l you can place her in ? On a towel, so she won't injure herself while her bones are reabsorbing the calcium with the UVB. This way the R-sun can beam on her directly, and she can get all the uvb her body so needs now.

Hope all this helps out !
Janie.
Oh here is a link for those pws :
http://www.mulberryfarms.com/

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

So what type of basking light do you use during the day?
He will not be active without any bright white light during the day. It is very hard on their eyes to be under a UVB light without bright light to protect the eyes. A halogen is very good for a basking light or a household lightbulb works well also.
The screen will filter out alot of the usable UVB emissions, so can you perhaps lay that across the top of the screen width wise so he can get better UVB exposure? Then, you can rest a basking light on top of the screen right beside the UVB on one end of the tank for him.

How is he doing today?

Tracie

 

[bill0405]

The light to the right of the tank in the picture above is the basking light. I believe it is a halogen bulb and it keeps her nice and warm. We also took the screen off the top of the cage and now it will not be filtering any uvb light. Yesterday we had her outside a nice chunk of the day in the natural sun, and I gave her some liquid calcium. She still didnt seem to get much energy. She still doesnt seem like she's doing well I noticed something yesterday that may help with a diagnosis. It seems her anus is beginning to protrude by a lot. itss maybe sticking out 1/4 inch. Is it possible she might have eggs stuck in her? I know shes a bit young, but perhaps its possible?

 

[zebraflavencs]

Bill that is a prolapse. She needs to be seen by a vet quickly. To keep the prolapse damp you can use any female vaginal wetting gel, and a nice cool bath of 1 tsp sugar disolved in water will bring that back inside her.

Has she been straining while pooing lately ? She's much too young to be trying to pass eggs.

Hope this helps out!
Janie.

 

[bill0405]

She hasnt been straining to poo because there really isnt much poo in there. She is also very weak so im not sure if she is even trying. I am at work at the moment, but i called home and have someone getting that bath ready for her. They said the pink thing wasnt sticking out anymore, but i had them put her in the bath anyway. What exactally is a prolapse? Would this be the reason she isnt eating and losing strength?