My beardie Larry is very sick. He's between 6 and 8 years old not sure as I am the 4th or so owner. He has never been very healthy and was in poor condition when I got him. He has always been underweight, very sluggish, and not a good eater. My vet told me when I got him that he seemed to be chronically ill due to the condition of his scales and his curved spine. I love Larry to death, he's a trooper, and I've struggled with trying to get his weight up as he just won't eat that much. A few days ago he took a turn for the worst. When I woke up I noticed that his eyes were sunken in, as were other parts of his head and his beard was really flat and black. He refuses to eat anything and started having diarrhea. He is extremely skinny and just doesn't look well at all.
I became extremely alarmed by these signs and took him to the vet immediately. She told me that he was very dehydrated and gave him a fluid injection and recommended that we begin to syringe feed him as he refuses to eat. We received a liquid calcium remedy and a powdered food to mix with water so he stays hydrated. I believe it's called critical care. I've been bathing him twice daily to try to get him re hydrated, and he sits on his log all day and basks. Most of the time he appears to be asleep. He has not been active at all. When I got him home from the vet he had more diarrhea that was a mostly clear liquid and later threw up superworms that he had eaten a few days ago. This is when I became even more worried. Later that night, he had a more solid poop that I planned to take in to the vet for a fecal, until I learned that it needed to be very fresh.
The vet isn't open until Monday so I won't know if he has any parasites until then but I suspect at this point that he definitely does. His eyes scare me the most and I hate to think that he's in a lot of pain and discomfort. He refuses to eat anything and force feeding him breaks my heart because I'm sure it's stressful for him. I wish there was something I could do for him. It's been two days since the vet and he pooped about 3 times today but a significantly less amount of liquid so I'm hoping he'll retain more of what I'm feeding him. I ordered acidophiliz to try to replace the good bacteria that I'm sure he lost from throwing up, but that won't come till at least Monday also. I'm so worried about my little guy and I'm really not sure at this point if hes going to make it, because he seems to be doing the same as he was when I took him to the vet. I was really hoping to see an improvement by now. Does anyone know how long it should take to see some sort of improvement? What I mean is, I've been giving him all the fluids I can and his eyes are still looking terrible. So I wonder if all the fluids somehow aren't getting to him?
At this point it's a waiting game. I can't do anything until Monday and he still seems the same besides not expelling as much liquid when he poops. If anyone can offer any advice or has had a similar experience I would appreciate more than anything to hear your advice.
He's in a 55 gallon tank with a repti sun 100w mercury vapor bulb. I'm not sure of the temps as my thermometer just started going wacky on me.
Before he got sick his diet included crickets, superworms, silkworms on occassion, all kinds of veggies, and fruit(he loves berries)
Please Help!
I became extremely alarmed by these signs and took him to the vet immediately. She told me that he was very dehydrated and gave him a fluid injection and recommended that we begin to syringe feed him as he refuses to eat. We received a liquid calcium remedy and a powdered food to mix with water so he stays hydrated. I believe it's called critical care. I've been bathing him twice daily to try to get him re hydrated, and he sits on his log all day and basks. Most of the time he appears to be asleep. He has not been active at all. When I got him home from the vet he had more diarrhea that was a mostly clear liquid and later threw up superworms that he had eaten a few days ago. This is when I became even more worried. Later that night, he had a more solid poop that I planned to take in to the vet for a fecal, until I learned that it needed to be very fresh.
The vet isn't open until Monday so I won't know if he has any parasites until then but I suspect at this point that he definitely does. His eyes scare me the most and I hate to think that he's in a lot of pain and discomfort. He refuses to eat anything and force feeding him breaks my heart because I'm sure it's stressful for him. I wish there was something I could do for him. It's been two days since the vet and he pooped about 3 times today but a significantly less amount of liquid so I'm hoping he'll retain more of what I'm feeding him. I ordered acidophiliz to try to replace the good bacteria that I'm sure he lost from throwing up, but that won't come till at least Monday also. I'm so worried about my little guy and I'm really not sure at this point if hes going to make it, because he seems to be doing the same as he was when I took him to the vet. I was really hoping to see an improvement by now. Does anyone know how long it should take to see some sort of improvement? What I mean is, I've been giving him all the fluids I can and his eyes are still looking terrible. So I wonder if all the fluids somehow aren't getting to him?
At this point it's a waiting game. I can't do anything until Monday and he still seems the same besides not expelling as much liquid when he poops. If anyone can offer any advice or has had a similar experience I would appreciate more than anything to hear your advice.
He's in a 55 gallon tank with a repti sun 100w mercury vapor bulb. I'm not sure of the temps as my thermometer just started going wacky on me.
Before he got sick his diet included crickets, superworms, silkworms on occassion, all kinds of veggies, and fruit(he loves berries)
Please Help!