sirenique
Hatchling Member
I am going to preface my questions with a bit of background, so pardon all the talk! I was gone for two weeks on vacation in Germany, and had a responsible friend Leah pet-sit for me. As you can surmise, it is hard to explain to non-reptile pet owners that taking care of a beardie is significantly different than a cat or dog, but I left her a million written instructions on how to feed/lighting schedules/bad health signs/etc. Sure enough, I come back and Bones is wayyyyy too fat, and I can tell just by looking at him that he is extremely constipated and had not pooped that day to say the least. Upon inspection of his cage, I noticed about 7-10 crickets of varying sizes hiding under his driftwood and under some rocks in his cage. I typically feed Bones in his viv, and it's never a problem as he has a healthy appetite and I will watch him to make sure he eats them all. The crickets, since they varied in size significantly, I'm assuming reproduced in his cage while I was away because I only buy him the big cricks and there were baby cricks in there. I never worried about telling Leah to make sure all the cricks were out of his cage after feeding, because the amount I told her to feed him he should have had no problem consuming and leaving no survivors. I got all the cricks out of his cage, and have since given his cage a good cleaning (scrubbed and sterilized his basking tree, sifted the calcium sand used to fill in the areas around his climbing rocks through a fine mesh sifter, baked his driftwood to kill any hidden cricks or crick eggs). I am going to go out today and buying a new batch of calcium sand to use as slate and rock filler in his cage, as I just don't trust the old stuff no matter how finely I sifted through it.
I immediately gave Bones a warm bath and a stomach massage, and he pooped like there was no tomorrow. I could tell that 70% of it had been digested, but some of it was still in tact when he pooped it out (I felt bad, there was even a whole, in tact corn kernel in his poop which must have hurt for him to pass). I can tell that my instructions aside, Leah overfed him, and that plus finding crickets in his cage when they shouldn't be... I'm concerned. He also appears to have a very small abrasion on his lower lip -- it is not infected and he doesn't appear to be in pain (I suspect perhaps the crickets got a couple good bites on his lips). He is showing no signs of mouth rot, and has a healthy appetite.
I decided that in light of all of these issues, I am going to take him to the vet for his first checkup. I put it off until the new year so that I could afford it with my Christmas bonus, and it's certainly time. I will not be able to get him in until next week due to their schedule availability, so I am basically looking for a way to bide my time and make sure he is happy in the meantime. Bones is about 10-12 months old, and his viv setup has no humidity and a hot side of (in Fahrenheit) 105-110 and a cool side of 80-75. His diet is about 7-9 inch-long cricks a day, and as much salad and organic baby squash as he can eat (I am trying to cut back on his proteins a bit and increase his greens as he is approaching adulthood). He gets organic applesauce every now and then as a treat. He has a basking bulb on from 8am-6pm daily and a UVB 10.0 reptisun tube bulb on during the same time. He sleeps in a 70deg environment at night with no additional heat source, as he shies away from it anyways during sleepytime.
Questions I'd Like Answered Before His Vet Visit:
1) Is neosporin safe to apply to his mouth wound? The abrasion on his lip is very minimal and does not look infected... but I also don't want it to become infected in the meantime. I worry because it is by his mouth, and I'm not sure if it's ok for beardies to ingest small quantities of neosporin or not. If not, is there another antibiotic that is pet-safe to use? I have reptile styptic powder, but I don't think that's necessarily the right thing to use in this situation since the wound is not open.
2) Do you have a list of suggested questions to ask my new vet? I already plan on asking about his diet and weight, but I want to make sure I don't waste this trip.
3) I'm sure that parasite/virus checking of a stool sample is standard for a vet visit to a herp vet; what kind of testing should I have done, aside from whatever my vet standardly recommends? Yes, I am an overprotective parent 8)
4) How often should beardies have a vet checkup anyways?
5) I live in NE Ohio (Kent area) and plan on going to the Barberton Vet Clinic with my little Bones, but if any of you are from the same area and recommend another herp vet in the area more, please let me know. Caring for my animal is something I think is very important to invest in.
6) How much should a vet trip cost anyways? Bones is the first pet I have ever owned on my own; I don't want to get ripped off just because I'm new to this, but at the same time, I understand the expenses that vets incur with all the testing and the actual expertise given to me by a herpetologist.
Questions I'm Going to Ask My Vet But Your Input From Experience Is Totally Welcome!:
1) What should a healthy diet be for a dragon his age? Is my balance of greens/protein okay? Should I be including other foods in his diet as well that I did not mention?
2) What average weight should he be at over the course of the next three months? Six months? Year?
3) He is about 22" long from what I can tell (I haven't measured him in a while tho). He is currently being housed in a 40gal tank. I know that this is a minimum size for a sub-adult dragon, but I will be moving again by March or April to a new place, and was hoping to put off buying him a new viv (60gal or 80gal if possible, my boyfriend and I are also talking about making him a custom enclosure) until the move was complete. Is it ok to wait, or should I just suck it up now and buy him a new viv?
4) What is some helpful advice to give Leah next time she Bones-sits for me? Every now and then I will go out of town for a weekend, and she looks afters him. She has done great on the weekends thus far, but I can see that two weeks by herself was a long time to leave her with Bones and a minimal knowledge of beardies. She is the only person I trust to take care of my beardie and have access to my apartment, because I have seen the way she treats her own animals with love and care, and she adores Bones.
5) Again, I'm sure the vet does standard testing of stool samples. Do I need to obtain a sample the day before and store it in a baggie or something? Does the stool need to be fresh and malleable (e.g. do I need to put it in a baggie and then in a tupperware in my fridge to preserve its freshness), or can I just let it dry out in the baggie in order to do proper testing? Or does the vet collect stool samples on site?
Sorry about the length of this. It's exasperating and frustrating to come home and find my bitty Bones in mediocre shape. THANK YOU all in advance for your help and suggestions! I appreciate all the knowledge the comes from your experience!
I immediately gave Bones a warm bath and a stomach massage, and he pooped like there was no tomorrow. I could tell that 70% of it had been digested, but some of it was still in tact when he pooped it out (I felt bad, there was even a whole, in tact corn kernel in his poop which must have hurt for him to pass). I can tell that my instructions aside, Leah overfed him, and that plus finding crickets in his cage when they shouldn't be... I'm concerned. He also appears to have a very small abrasion on his lower lip -- it is not infected and he doesn't appear to be in pain (I suspect perhaps the crickets got a couple good bites on his lips). He is showing no signs of mouth rot, and has a healthy appetite.
I decided that in light of all of these issues, I am going to take him to the vet for his first checkup. I put it off until the new year so that I could afford it with my Christmas bonus, and it's certainly time. I will not be able to get him in until next week due to their schedule availability, so I am basically looking for a way to bide my time and make sure he is happy in the meantime. Bones is about 10-12 months old, and his viv setup has no humidity and a hot side of (in Fahrenheit) 105-110 and a cool side of 80-75. His diet is about 7-9 inch-long cricks a day, and as much salad and organic baby squash as he can eat (I am trying to cut back on his proteins a bit and increase his greens as he is approaching adulthood). He gets organic applesauce every now and then as a treat. He has a basking bulb on from 8am-6pm daily and a UVB 10.0 reptisun tube bulb on during the same time. He sleeps in a 70deg environment at night with no additional heat source, as he shies away from it anyways during sleepytime.
Questions I'd Like Answered Before His Vet Visit:
1) Is neosporin safe to apply to his mouth wound? The abrasion on his lip is very minimal and does not look infected... but I also don't want it to become infected in the meantime. I worry because it is by his mouth, and I'm not sure if it's ok for beardies to ingest small quantities of neosporin or not. If not, is there another antibiotic that is pet-safe to use? I have reptile styptic powder, but I don't think that's necessarily the right thing to use in this situation since the wound is not open.
2) Do you have a list of suggested questions to ask my new vet? I already plan on asking about his diet and weight, but I want to make sure I don't waste this trip.
3) I'm sure that parasite/virus checking of a stool sample is standard for a vet visit to a herp vet; what kind of testing should I have done, aside from whatever my vet standardly recommends? Yes, I am an overprotective parent 8)
4) How often should beardies have a vet checkup anyways?
5) I live in NE Ohio (Kent area) and plan on going to the Barberton Vet Clinic with my little Bones, but if any of you are from the same area and recommend another herp vet in the area more, please let me know. Caring for my animal is something I think is very important to invest in.
6) How much should a vet trip cost anyways? Bones is the first pet I have ever owned on my own; I don't want to get ripped off just because I'm new to this, but at the same time, I understand the expenses that vets incur with all the testing and the actual expertise given to me by a herpetologist.
Questions I'm Going to Ask My Vet But Your Input From Experience Is Totally Welcome!:
1) What should a healthy diet be for a dragon his age? Is my balance of greens/protein okay? Should I be including other foods in his diet as well that I did not mention?
2) What average weight should he be at over the course of the next three months? Six months? Year?
3) He is about 22" long from what I can tell (I haven't measured him in a while tho). He is currently being housed in a 40gal tank. I know that this is a minimum size for a sub-adult dragon, but I will be moving again by March or April to a new place, and was hoping to put off buying him a new viv (60gal or 80gal if possible, my boyfriend and I are also talking about making him a custom enclosure) until the move was complete. Is it ok to wait, or should I just suck it up now and buy him a new viv?
4) What is some helpful advice to give Leah next time she Bones-sits for me? Every now and then I will go out of town for a weekend, and she looks afters him. She has done great on the weekends thus far, but I can see that two weeks by herself was a long time to leave her with Bones and a minimal knowledge of beardies. She is the only person I trust to take care of my beardie and have access to my apartment, because I have seen the way she treats her own animals with love and care, and she adores Bones.
5) Again, I'm sure the vet does standard testing of stool samples. Do I need to obtain a sample the day before and store it in a baggie or something? Does the stool need to be fresh and malleable (e.g. do I need to put it in a baggie and then in a tupperware in my fridge to preserve its freshness), or can I just let it dry out in the baggie in order to do proper testing? Or does the vet collect stool samples on site?
Sorry about the length of this. It's exasperating and frustrating to come home and find my bitty Bones in mediocre shape. THANK YOU all in advance for your help and suggestions! I appreciate all the knowledge the comes from your experience!
