XtinaBeardieMom
Juvie Member
I'm typing through floods of tears & blurry vision, so forgive me in advance for any errors.
10 weeks ago I brought home 2 rescue girls, Lotus & Monster. They were both rescued from the same owner who hadn't been feeding them & they were pretty underweight. At the time, they were guesstimated at 18-24 months old. Monster started at 16" length weighing about 250g. When she passed away today she was at 16" and 325g. I will answer all the set up/diet questions below, as I know they'll be asked... but let me just say that she was a very loved and spoiled dragon.
Today I got home from work to find my baby girl had died (not really a baby, just my baby)... for seamingly no reason. She was just laying on the warm side of her tank, just on her tummy no weird positioning or hiding. I have no idea what happened to my girl. She had displayed no signs of being sick. No black bearing or dark colors or stress marks, no drop in appetite, no lethargy, nothing. She has always been the happiest most active dragon, up until I found her today. I had even recently had her tested for Adenovirus, which was negative. The only issue she ever had was high coccidia counts, but I had just treated both my girls for that about 2 weeks ago. Lotus's fecal came back clear yesterday... I had just been waiting on Monster to give me a sample to test as well, never got that far. The only thing that was notable leading up to this was that Monster had a super runny poop 2 days ago, which was very strange for her. I had planned to take her to the vet in a few days anyway for a check-up, and she had no alarming symptoms or behavior so I didn't think runny poop was an emergency.
I suppose it's also worth noting that we moved their tanks the night before she died. We were having a hard time keeping the temps from getting too high in the enclosed room they were originally in, so we moved them into a more open area. She was doing a little bit of glass dancing/scratching after we first moved them, but after a few hours she was basking on her branch & happy as usual. She seemed 100% fine when I left this morning for work. When I found her dead, she had obviously eaten a bit from her salad bowl and there was a quarter sized spot of runny poo on her blankie.
Tank: 75gal 4'x2'x2' glass enclosure w/screen top (not housed with Lotus, she has her own tank)
Substrate: Paper towel
Light: 160w Powersun MVB on top of screen (on 13 hours daily 8am-9pm)
Distance from light: Able to get within 10-12 inches
Temps (measured w/infrared temp gun): Hot side 90-95 degrees, basking surface 100-105 degrees, cool side 80-85 degrees
Diet: Rotation of collard, turnip, & mustard greens with a rotation of butternut, acorn, and spaghetti squash. I would usually mix a little bit of a "side green" into the the staple greens, like arugula, cilantro, or bok choy. They would also get a few beardie bites and a few small pieces of blueberry or strawberry. They get dubias every three days, and they've had some wax worm treats a few times.
Supplements: Calcium w/out D3 twice per week, calcium with D3 once per week, multivitamin once or twice per week. I would usually give them a few drops of probiotic with each live feeding too.
Outside/natural sunlight time: 15-20mins every 1-2 days
Hydration: 20-25min soak in 100-105 degree water every other day. She would never would take oral fluids, but she seemed well hydrated from the soaks either way
Can anyone offer me any possibilities at all as to what on earth may have happened to my little girl??? I tried so hard to do everything right. These were the most spoiled little dragons on earth. Now my worst nightmare has come true and I have no clue why. I'm absolutely terrified that I'll randomly find my other girl dead out of nowhere too. My vet is going to do a necropsy for free tomorrow, but if he can't figure out what happened just by looking then I probably won't be willing to pay the extra $400 for X-rays and blood work to look into it further, as I'm taking my surviving dragon Lotus in to have X-rays and blood work just in case. I've already spoken to my friend Cheryl at Rio Reptiles/BeardedDragon.co and she's just as baffled as I am. I'm waiting to hear back from Tracie as well. Any help, suggestions, ideas, etc. would be greatly appreciated (honestly I think I've ruled our the obvious things like impaction, lightening bugs, etc.)
I can't believe how much this hurts. I can't stop crying, I feel so sick. This is definitely one of the lowest points in my life. Even though she was "just a reptile," losing her has been just as painful if not more painful than the humans I've lost in my life. I'm in absolute shock that this happened to me out of NOWHERE when I tried so hard to make everything perfect. I am pretty incapacitated right now, I can't eat, I have a ton of very important projects I need to be focusing on at work, and I don't even know how I'm going to get out of bed in the morning. Please help me, I need to know why in order to find some closure... it just hurts so bad. I've had this nightmare so many times, I just keep hoping I'll wake up from this one too.
RIP Monster (? - 6/12/12) I love you so much, my baby girl
10 weeks ago I brought home 2 rescue girls, Lotus & Monster. They were both rescued from the same owner who hadn't been feeding them & they were pretty underweight. At the time, they were guesstimated at 18-24 months old. Monster started at 16" length weighing about 250g. When she passed away today she was at 16" and 325g. I will answer all the set up/diet questions below, as I know they'll be asked... but let me just say that she was a very loved and spoiled dragon.
Today I got home from work to find my baby girl had died (not really a baby, just my baby)... for seamingly no reason. She was just laying on the warm side of her tank, just on her tummy no weird positioning or hiding. I have no idea what happened to my girl. She had displayed no signs of being sick. No black bearing or dark colors or stress marks, no drop in appetite, no lethargy, nothing. She has always been the happiest most active dragon, up until I found her today. I had even recently had her tested for Adenovirus, which was negative. The only issue she ever had was high coccidia counts, but I had just treated both my girls for that about 2 weeks ago. Lotus's fecal came back clear yesterday... I had just been waiting on Monster to give me a sample to test as well, never got that far. The only thing that was notable leading up to this was that Monster had a super runny poop 2 days ago, which was very strange for her. I had planned to take her to the vet in a few days anyway for a check-up, and she had no alarming symptoms or behavior so I didn't think runny poop was an emergency.
I suppose it's also worth noting that we moved their tanks the night before she died. We were having a hard time keeping the temps from getting too high in the enclosed room they were originally in, so we moved them into a more open area. She was doing a little bit of glass dancing/scratching after we first moved them, but after a few hours she was basking on her branch & happy as usual. She seemed 100% fine when I left this morning for work. When I found her dead, she had obviously eaten a bit from her salad bowl and there was a quarter sized spot of runny poo on her blankie.
Tank: 75gal 4'x2'x2' glass enclosure w/screen top (not housed with Lotus, she has her own tank)
Substrate: Paper towel
Light: 160w Powersun MVB on top of screen (on 13 hours daily 8am-9pm)
Distance from light: Able to get within 10-12 inches
Temps (measured w/infrared temp gun): Hot side 90-95 degrees, basking surface 100-105 degrees, cool side 80-85 degrees
Diet: Rotation of collard, turnip, & mustard greens with a rotation of butternut, acorn, and spaghetti squash. I would usually mix a little bit of a "side green" into the the staple greens, like arugula, cilantro, or bok choy. They would also get a few beardie bites and a few small pieces of blueberry or strawberry. They get dubias every three days, and they've had some wax worm treats a few times.
Supplements: Calcium w/out D3 twice per week, calcium with D3 once per week, multivitamin once or twice per week. I would usually give them a few drops of probiotic with each live feeding too.
Outside/natural sunlight time: 15-20mins every 1-2 days
Hydration: 20-25min soak in 100-105 degree water every other day. She would never would take oral fluids, but she seemed well hydrated from the soaks either way
Can anyone offer me any possibilities at all as to what on earth may have happened to my little girl??? I tried so hard to do everything right. These were the most spoiled little dragons on earth. Now my worst nightmare has come true and I have no clue why. I'm absolutely terrified that I'll randomly find my other girl dead out of nowhere too. My vet is going to do a necropsy for free tomorrow, but if he can't figure out what happened just by looking then I probably won't be willing to pay the extra $400 for X-rays and blood work to look into it further, as I'm taking my surviving dragon Lotus in to have X-rays and blood work just in case. I've already spoken to my friend Cheryl at Rio Reptiles/BeardedDragon.co and she's just as baffled as I am. I'm waiting to hear back from Tracie as well. Any help, suggestions, ideas, etc. would be greatly appreciated (honestly I think I've ruled our the obvious things like impaction, lightening bugs, etc.)
I can't believe how much this hurts. I can't stop crying, I feel so sick. This is definitely one of the lowest points in my life. Even though she was "just a reptile," losing her has been just as painful if not more painful than the humans I've lost in my life. I'm in absolute shock that this happened to me out of NOWHERE when I tried so hard to make everything perfect. I am pretty incapacitated right now, I can't eat, I have a ton of very important projects I need to be focusing on at work, and I don't even know how I'm going to get out of bed in the morning. Please help me, I need to know why in order to find some closure... it just hurts so bad. I've had this nightmare so many times, I just keep hoping I'll wake up from this one too.
RIP Monster (? - 6/12/12) I love you so much, my baby girl