Neck twitching? See video...

[Fury1212]

http://youtu.be/3BD6f4NnGU4
Do you see the quick twitch in her neck at the beginning and the very end of the video? What is this from?? I have a call into the vet...

 

[Dreamless]

Are you giving enough calcium and UVB exposure? Hopefully it's not MBD but it could be an early start to tremors possibly. Does it happen anywhere else? Are there other symptoms? How is your beardie eating? What's the set up and temperatures? Please do let me know.

 

[Fury1212]

When we got her we used this board to set everything up. We have the reptisun 10.0 in her tank, temps are 102 in basking and 72 on cool side using a dual temp gauge. She is on a tile floor in a 40gallon tank. She recently was treated for strongyloid parasites. Last fecal came back clean however she has not started eating on her own yet...its been over a month now since her clean sample. Vet gave me critical care to use until she eats on her own. She stays in her cave all day every day until we get her out. Then she will look around for 10m or so and go find a place to hid and sleep. She will not bask at all unless we physically put her there. We are getting very worried about her.

Last summer she had parasites as well and displayed many of these same symptoms except for the neck twitching. Possibly she is a summer brumator? She will be 3 in November. She is 546g and is 18 inches long.

Here's another video:

http://youtu.be/1rUgwBkqnec

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....I didn't see a thing at all, there is nothing at all unusual happening. I know you want to be sure to spot signs of illness in advance, but nothing happened there. I would cancel the vet + get your dragon some treats with the extra cash !

 

[AHBD]

Oooops, I wrote my reply before you posted the 2nd video, sorry ! The first video showed nothing. I think that's just a small spasm, similar to when we get an eye twitch. I think she's fine though By the wayk, 584 at 18 is very large.....she will be fine with no food if she wants to sleep.....they go for months without food during brumation. She is not hungry, she's doing what comes natural so there's no need to force the Critical Care. Just watch to see if the spasms continue, but I think they are temporary.

 

[Fury1212]

Thank you thank you!! She is very large?? She is 546 (Actually I just looked, she 548grams), not 584 like you typed but still pretty close in numbers! This makes me feel so much better. She is such a picky eater and a brat at times! We have been struggling with her eating since day one.

Well, the vet called, hes worried about her calcium and that she still isn't eating. She quit eating in August, lost 6g by September, treated in Sept for parasites and still isn't eating. He wants to do bloodwork and see what her calcium looks like. We will have to drop her off!

 

[AHBD]

Oooops, now I owe 2 apologies ! Please don't let her know that I thought she was so chubby ! :lol: But again, I think she's going to be fine....usually the trembling associated with low calcium is in their feet + toes. I doubt that's her problem and actually blood tests can register different during different times of the day. She is probably just very well fed and her body has all that it " needs " as they prepare in the wild to brumate, thus the lack of appetite.

 

[Fury1212]

HAHA! Its our secret! I hope you are right, I have no idea how much this would cost at a vet!

 

[AHBD]

I think blood tests will be pretty expensive, you can ask ahead of time if you really want to get an idea. If she is low on calcium, you can just get some liquid calcium to add to the Critical care formula.

 

[Fury1212]

Can I use the calcium I used to dust her crickets with and add that too the Critical Care?

 

[Taterbug]

Just curious, did you say it's summer where you are?
What was her diet before she stopped eating?

 

[Fury1212]

No, it was summer when she quit eating. Its 65-70 during the day now. She ate hormworms and Dubias plus greens.

 

[Taterbug]

No, it was summer when she quit eating. Its 65-70 during the day now. She ate hormworms and Dubias plus greens.

What about calcium? How old is your bulb? I'm not sure how typical it is to start sleeping on August.

If you have a good vet that you trust and have a good dialog with you could ask about the options and what they would do. If they suspect a calcium deficiency, what's the treatment? I'm not sure what dose they would give - or if it's all the same. If something else, what then? Etc.

Blood work is one of the more informative diagnostics vets have but even then sometimes it doesn't give answers, especially if it's just seasonal and there are various tests that may or may not be run. It's also expensive, I think my vet charges about $150 for a blood panel, I'm not sure if that included calcium, phosphorus etc or just the basic panel. It's been a couple years.

 

[Fury1212]

Our vet told me with her eating her greens I didn't have to add calcium anymore last year so I was not giving her calcium. We have a great relationship with the vet so I certainly will ask those questions! The bulb is about probably coming up on 6 mos old. Ugh....I don't know what to do with her!!

 

[Taterbug]

What greens do you feed? And how many feeders per week? It might be worth trying the liquid calcium.