Lip not healing. Eyes not opening

[FallenAngel10232]

I just adopted a bearded dragon from one of my coworkers and he's in pretty bad shape. He actually was originally bought from the petstore I work in. He had a lip problem while he was at the store. It seemed like it was irritated by the sand in his enclosure because when we moved him to the back and put him on paper towels and used betadine on his lip it healed. Then when he got put back on sand it got bad again. So anyways one of my coworkers bought him and recently decided that she couldn't take care of him anymore. When he was brought to me his lip looked terrible(she had him on sand). I put him on cage carpet and began treating the lip with triple antibiotic ointment and cleaning it every couple of days with hydrogen peroxide. When he first came to me the lip had a huge nasty looking scab on it, now it just looks bloody all the time. As for the eyes when he first came to me one eye had dried pus on the outside, the other eye was open but looked kinda milky colored. One of my coworkers suggested squeezing vitamin E capsules in his eyes twice a day. At first this seemed to be working great. The milky colored eye cleared up. A huge chunk of pus came out of the other eye and it seemed he was going to be able to open it. Tonight I went in to take care of his eyes and now he can't open either. He does have a coil UVB bulb but he doesn't go to that side of the tank much so I don't know if that could have caused it. He's still eating fine and seems healthy otherwise. Although I'm still trying to get all the dead skin off him (He had at least 3 sheds stuck to his back legs when he came to me).
If anyone has any advice for me please let me know. I feel so bad for the poor little guy. Thanks

 

[beardie parents]

I'm not an expert, but I have learned a lot on this site. I suggest doing a test, turn off the coil uvb, don't put any uvb on him until his eyes heal up. I've read that this has been suggested with any eye problems. I found a link in this site ( http://www.reptileuv.com) to a site in the uk that tests all the uvb bulbs. They give a lot of info, some I understand, some I don't. But they posted what people had told them about what happened with their reptiles, beardies, turtles and other reptiles. A lot of problems like you mentioned have happened to these reptiles.

 

[cricket119]

Sorry your guy is sick. Can you take him to a vet. Sounds like he needs one! Peroxide is not good for beardies. Hope he gets better!

 

[dobby293]

peroxide destroys BD's scales that is not good to use. The eye problems are probability from the coil. It does sound like he needs to go the vet.

 

[protiemama]

Definatey ditch the peroxide, it is very damaging to dragons. Use betadine (sp?) instead. As the others said the coil uvb will harm his eyes. Better no uvb than those. You can get a Repti-SUN at petmountain.com for waaay less than the pet store, even after you add shipping! They deliver fast, so you don't have to get out in the weather and crowds. His eyes should improve once the light is off. Good luck with him. Oh, what is his name? And pictures would be nice, we love picts.

Sandy h

 

[FallenAngel10232]

Ok so I turned off his UVB to see if that will help. I'll order him a new one in the beginning of January when I order for the rest of my reptiles. I'll stop using the peroxide, one of the books I read at work said to use it. I'm planning on taking him to the vet in January when I have money. He kinda got dumped on me when I really can't afford it, but I'm trying to do the best I can for him until then. Thanks for the advice.

 

[protiemama]

Kind of you to take him in. I hope he improves for you and doesn't need the vet. Good luck, and keep us posted. We really do care.
Merry Christmas!

Sandy H

 

[dreshany]

How do his eyes look now? Do they still have pus? You might try and rinse his eyes with a saline solution from the drug store, just check to make sure there are no extra chemicals in it. My beardie has been fighting with some health issues and when he was ill he would keep his eyes closed and only open them shortly if someone disturbed him. As he recovered he would often just use one eye to look around. I found he would keep his eyes closed more when he was dehydrated. Have you tried giving him a bath and using pedialyte or unsweetened Gatorade to keep him hydrated? I wish him a speedy recovery