My beardie is leaning on one side and has lost his balance

[Syrinxus]

I have owned this bearded dragon for 4 days now and I am new to owning them in general. He was doing fine the first couple days; he was eating, sun bathing and drinking water. It is a baby, I'd say a few weeks old but no more then a few months but I'm not entirely sure.
Yesterday when I got home he was tilted on his side and was stumbling when he walked. He would try to climb on things and would just roll off. His balance is completely shot. He's not eating now but I have gotten him to drink some water. I do have a vet appointment in the morning to make sure that he doesn't have an ear infection.
I called the place in which I purchased them and they are blaming my UVB light or they think he has a calcium deficiency. Now I don't believe the calcium is the issue as I have been using the calcium dust and he was eating perfectly fine before yesterday. I understand that I need to get a bar light for the UVB as right now I only have the coil light which I know is not ideal.
I want to know opinions, could UVB effect him this badly in just 4 days? Or any possibly causes outside of of an ear infection. I've been doing a lot of research since yesterday and it seems like so many things can cause this issue.

Thank you so much for your time.

 

[Brittmar]

Hi there! I'm sorry to hear that your little one isn't doing so great. Could you please give us a rundown of the conditions in his enclosure (temps, how close he is to the UVB, etc.). That might give us a better idea of what may be going on. Someone with more knowledge should be along soon to give you some feedback

In the meantime, I would try getting him to eat some stage 1 baby food from a dropper or syringe. If you put a small drop on his snout, he should lick it off since beardies hate for their noses to be dirty. Something chicken flavored would add protein and veggies are also good. I recently went through a similar situation with my baby Tolkein and baby food (green beans have been her favorite) kept something in her belly until she got her appetite back. You can mix a bit of the calcium powder into the baby food so that he'll be able to get more calcium that way. His lack of appetite could also be from the stress of relocating.

If you've only had him for a few days, that's not long enough for your UVB light to have that much of an impact on him. If he had a calcium deficiency, that's something he likely would have came to you with since it takes a while to set in. However, definitely check into getting a tube UVB bulb and it would help to mount it inside his enclosure. You can purchase cheap fluorescent fixtures from Walmart or Home Depot for around $11 and you're going to want to use some velcro or some other attachment to affix the fixture to your enclosure. I'm using Scotch Fasteners and they're working perfectly. Also, if you get a fixture with a piece of plastic covering the light, you're going to want to remove that since the UVB cannot penetrate the plastic. Reptisun 10.0 UVB tube lights are recommended most often and you're going to want to get the light within 6 to 8 inches of your baby for it to be most effective.

 

[Syrinxus]

Tank temperature is about 100 degrees with 30% moisture. The UVB light currently sits outside of the tank but he can get within 5 inches of it if not less. Not sure the temperature for the cool side. I have the carpet like flooring that came with the Zilla tank that I bought. The tank is a 20 gal long. Is there any other information needed?

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. Poor little guy . I'd take him to the vet and see if he has adenovirus. If he does then he probably won't live very long.

 

[Brittmar]

Tank temperature is about 100 degrees with 30% moisture. The UVB light currently sits outside of the tank but he can get within 5 inches of it if not less. Not sure the temperature for the cool side. I have the carpet like flooring that came with the Zilla tank that I bought. The tank is a 20 gal long. Is there any other information needed?

About the temperature, how are you measuring it?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

How is he doing today? That is too bad he is leaning so far to one side. Those symptoms do sound a lot like Adeno virus, or severe calcium issues, or maybe even dehydration.
Are you using a digital probe or a temp gun to measure the temperatures?
Let us know how he is doing.

Tracie