My Beardie Looks Drunk

[PKMdotCOM]

Hey look a nube. Be gentle.

We have been given two adult beardies that lived in stackables previously and are reported to be 2 years old. We had them in seperate 20 gals for a bit while a new enclosure was being made. They are in the new enclosure. Stackable 36 x 24 x 24 with Zilla Desert UVB and 50W basking. The hot side is 100-110 and cool side is 75-80. falls to 68 at night.

One dragon is fesity and fine. The other was initially dark. not eating at all, avoiding the basking area, and sleeping non-stop. The owner thought she was shedding but we can see signs of it on his skin (we were told they were both male. Have no idea).

Now he is in the new enclosure and is finally eating. Still kind of looks drunk when moving and walking and this morning was vigorously shaking its head as we approached and snapping at the air. when we moved the dish to the floor he kind of slipped off the perch and hard a hard time finding the food and sanpping everywhere but the food. It looks like he is blind or brain damaged. Seriously, like I said we became quick studies on beardies but I can find bits and peices of symptoms but nothing exact. I took a video of the behavior. It is 4 minutes but I wanted you to be able to see the whole behavior. Thanks in advance. https://youtu.be/j8sF3130NI8

 

[Seagarbage]

Hey, I skimmed through your video and saw exactly what you described; tonguing at nothing, slipping off of his perch, acting confused or overwhelmed...

It almost looks like food aggression when he is trying to grab a bite but I am by no means an expert. My highly uneducated guess is that this beardie was housed with another one for longer than he should have been and maybe got injured during that time. That's definitely not normal feeding behavior. I wouldn't be concerned if he was just missing crickets or something that was moving, but lounging at salad from 6 inches away I have never seen before.

I have a really good relationship with my vet, so I will send him an e-mail with the link to the video and see what he has to say and get back to you.

Good luck figuring this out!

 

[PKMdotCOM]

I have a really good relationship with my vet, so I will send him an e-mail with the link to the video and see what he has to say and get back to you.

Thank you. Mind you this is the first time he has eaten without a syringe or coaxing since we have had him. I am glad to see him eat but he just looks really odd and we have no idea. No rep vets in the area but we have used this forum to get us this far and appreciate the help.

He was never in the same cage as the other because the previous owner said they would fight. So two enclosures it is.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That is an odd behavior, which seems neurological to me.
Is the other male acting this way or not?
Did they both have UVB previously?
Which Zilla desert UVB are you using, is it a long tube or a compact/coil light? How close to your boy is it & it is mounted directly beside the basking light?
Are you giving calcium to him regularly as well & if so how often?
The temperatures sound fine, are you using a digital probe thermometer or a temp gun?
He may have a calcium deficiency or other nutrient deficiency possibly from previous care but definitely nothing you have done in such a short amount of time.
Please post a few more pictures of the tank setup, if you can, to show the lighting placement.
Welcome to the forum. We were ALL newbies at one point in time.

Tracie

 

[kingofnobbys]

Poor thing, something is definitely seriously wrong (not seen the video, my ADSL2+ is really bad today and simply not good enough to even try streaming), but judging from your description of his behavior / lack of coordination . Not shedding related.

Hey look a nube. Be gentle.

We have been given two adult beardies that lived in stackables previously and are reported to be 2 years old. We had them in seperate 20 gals for a bit while a new enclosure was being made. They are in the new enclosure. Stackable 36 x 24 x 24 with Zilla Desert UVB and 50W basking. The hot side is 100-110 and cool side is 75-80. falls to 68 at night. <<< 36 x 24 x 24 is a bit small for adults , better off with 48 x 24 x 24 viv in a stackable or side by side configuration.
<<< Zilla are a very poor Brand , it's my understanding Zilla are not manufacturers , only rebranders who sell mostly Chinese made clones , especially their compacts and tubes , where very poor quality quartz is used and substandard phosphors are used that result in a very poor UV spectrum including UVC and bad wavelengths of UVB which will harm any lizard exposed to them, you were not to know and the shop who sold the product were counting on that.
I recommend returning the Zilla tubes for exchange for better brand tubes (Arcadia , Exo Terra or Zoo Med) or a credit for something else , as these are not fit for purpose.
<<< 110F is very hot, I recommend a tweek towards 100F-105F, as a bearded dragon's preferred body temperature is 35oC.

One dragon is fesity and fine. The other was initially dark. not eating at all, avoiding the basking area, and sleeping non-stop. The owner thought she was shedding but we can see signs of it on his skin (we were told they were both male. Have no idea).

Now he is in the new enclosure and is finally eating. Still kind of looks drunk when moving and walking and this morning was vigorously shaking its head as we approached and snapping at the air. when we moved the dish to the floor he kind of slipped off the perch and hard a hard time finding the food and sanpping everywhere but the food. It looks like he is blind or brain damaged. Seriously, like I said we became quick studies on beardies but I can find bits and peices of symptoms but nothing exact. I took a video of the behavior. It is 4 minutes but I wanted you to be able to see the whole behavior. Thanks in advance. https://youtu.be/j8sF3130NI8

I hope you can get to the route cause of this with the assistance of a good herp vet and help and rehabilitate him.

 

[kingofnobbys]

I have a really good relationship with my vet, so I will send him an e-mail with the link to the video and see what he has to say and get back to you.

Thank you. Mind you this is the first time he has eaten without a syringe or coaxing since we have had him. I am glad to see him eat but he just looks really odd and we have no idea. No rep vets in the area but we have used this forum to get us this far and appreciate the help.

He was never in the same cage as the other because the previous owner said they would fight. So two enclosures it is.

I'm wondering if he was ever allowed out of the original 20 gallon tank / tub and so never learnt to process depth perception , even really healthy uninjuried nonhandicapped beardies have problems with depth perception .
He obviously know the food is there (finally managed to view the video after a fashion) so he can either see or smell it , he may be vision impaired (either a brain injury from an encounter with the other (dominant) beardie , or from bad a very bad UV source damaging his eyesight , this will explain his clumsiness and issues judging distance.
Or he's used to having to close his eyes incase he is bitten by the dominant in it's exuberance to feed ?
Maybe he sees the coloured food dish and can't really tell if the food is still there because it's too close in colour to the food - a change in food dish colour might help , at least he'll be able to tell food bowl from food.

 

[PKMdotCOM]

Please post a few more pictures of the tank setup, if you can, to show the lighting placement.
Welcome to the forum.

I have enclosed photos of the enclosures. I have saltwater fish so I really geek out when it comes to matching environments. Not that I am out of my element when it comes to these guys but I have tried to do as much research as possible on these homes. The were just put in here about a week ago from the aquariums. They were in the aquariums for about a month (separate and could not see each other) prior to that they were in a big hutch style enclosure. The old lights were not UVB as far as I can tell (I think they were grow bulbs). I am not sure if they were the same bulbs used in the hutch. I discovered they were the wrong bulbs after researching the symptoms on this site they have been replaced
New enclosure - Bayne (the lizard of topic) has moved much more and uses all the features. The temp under the basking (50W) is perfect 106-110 digital probe. The cool side runs 77-80. The branch (fake decoration) is used to get them within 6-8 inches of the UVB.
He is night and day as far as active in the new enclosure but still seems…well drunk is the best illustration.
I am looking for a vet who knows their reptiles as if this is stumping you folks than I better find someone who really knows their stuff.
I am curious to see what the first responder gets back from their vet.

Again, thank you all…It takes a village ? LOL