New to this site/new to beardies

[LizardKat]

Hello everyone! I have always admired the beauty of bearded dragons and just rescued a very ill female today. I pick her up on Sunday and am reading all of the available information. I already have her home set up and will read over the information regarding beardie illnesses. She was taken to the vet today by the current owner because of a huge, open hole in her side. The owner has been treating it with antibacterial ointment but her condition did not improve. I have a reptile vet for my iguana and box turtles and I trust this vet 100% I am in the process of reading all of the information regarding illnesses and infections in regard to beardies. I am a little apprehensive because my female iguana is very affectionate and she spends a good portion of the evening on my shoulders. I do not want to infect my other reptiles with the infection/bacteria so I am trying to learn about how to isolate the beardie but still provide her with TLC>

We seem to have a mini-zoo here at the house and two of the guest rooms are reserved for my reptile friends. Our 3 and a half foot female iguana roams freely around a section of the house in addition to a three toed box turtle and a Northern box turtle (13 years old) Our clan also consists of a pretty female Rottweiler and our male Great Dan-Swiss Mountain dog. The three fish tanks contain an assortment of fish, primarily ones that were abandoned and needed a home. All of the pets are rescued and they have adjusted to the assortment of personalities, dining habits and bathing rituals! LOl!

I really did not intend on taking any more pets but I received a call today regarding the beardie and I know we can provide her with a loving, "forever" home. I am starting to suspect that the local animal shelter has us on speed dial.. especially when exotics or pets "with attitude" find their way to their door! :lol:

Thanks in advance to all of the kind hearted folks who help newbie "beardie" owners to learn the ropes!
Kat

 

[herpfreak]

Hi Kat! Welcome to BD.org!

Sounds like you have a happy household full of spoiled kids. Here on the forum, we call ourselves "beardie slaves". You are definitely a beardie slave in the making!

You are doing such a great thing rescuing a beardie in need. Best of luck with the new one!

Oh, I should mention; we LOVE pictures! If you have pictures of your beardie and the rest of your clan and you'd like to share, I'd love to see!

~~
Maya

 

[LizardKat]

Hi there Maya and friends,
Thanks for the nice email response! :lol: :lol:

I pick up the little beardie on Sunday and will post pictures of her in this area. I'll also post some pictures of the other clan members.

Thanks again for the warm welcome!
Kat

 

[Valex]

Welcome to the site! I am glad to hear you are going the road of rescuing.

I know it has already been said, but we LOVE pictures. We can't wait to see your new little one.

 

[LizardKat]

Hello I called the current owner and I will be picking up "Tazzie" the five year old female beardie tomorrow. As soon as I can figure out how to post a picture (I read the guide on the website..) I'll post some of the beardie and my other pets. Due to her medical condition, I do not want to stress her out but I'll take a few photos in natural lighting.

Thanks for responding to my posts.
Kat and the clan

 

[zebraflavencs]

Kat and Clan, do keep us a breast of Tazzie and her condition. Since this is the first dragon, here are some recommendations for her housing and light needs.

Viv size: Minimum for an adult dragon is a 40 gal breeder. Although in the future you may wish to construct a custom viv of 4'x2'x2'.

For substrate, you will most likely want her on something easy to clean, such as paper towels, non adhesive shelf liner or sealed textured tile, like slate.
Here is a wonderful list of healthy foods to choose from, for her diet:
http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html
Your Iggie will love most of these as well
She will need mostly the greens, with 45-50 protein insects a week, a few each day.

She will need some calcium:
http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-supplements/105551/rep-cal-ultrafine-powder-calcium-with-vitamin-d3.html
A pinch 2-3 times a week on salad and prey insects.
Vitamins:
http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-supplements/105550/rep-cal-herptivite-multivitamin.html
A pinch 1-2 times a week on her salad and on prey insects.

Also, she will need a UVb light like this:
http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-fluorescent-bulbs/504983/zoo-med-reptisun-10.0-uvb-bulb.html
This needs to be within 4-8" from the dragon.

Basking light- Any house hold flood light will do fine, in a 40breeder, a 40w will do nicely.

This is how the lights should look on top of the viv:
Space___ O___Space =flood
----------------------------- Reptisun 10.0



Her temps will need to be : Basking-100-105*F; air 85-95*F, cool side 75-85*F ; over night, no less than 65*F.

Depending on what the vet advises, you may also wish to offer her baths to keep her hydrated.
Water up to her shoulders, temp 90-100*F, 15-20 minutes.

That is basically the set up she will need.
Hope this helps you out !
Janie.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Hello and Welcome!!!

 

[LizardKat]

Hello to both of you! Janie, the info really helped and luckily I was able to have all of the necessary items befor I brought her home today. I have done iguana and box turtle rescue for years so I had a some extra items that worked well in the new beardie house.

The rescued beardie is very weak and has a huge (dime sized) infected area on her back. She also is partially paralyzed (back left leg) so I am wondering about metabolic bone disease. She has an appt with my reptile vet at 10:30 am tomorrow so I will let you know what I find out. I will be posting some pix in the "ER" area of this site.

Thanks again Janie for all of the info./Semper Fi to you Lance.

 

[herpfreak]

Aww, poor baby. Luckily she has you.

Is she deformed at all? Any bone curving? Curled toes, walking on the backs of her hands, underbite?

Here's a thread I put together with some pictures of my beardie's MBD. I did a rescue too.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=106655&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Keep us posted! Hope all goes well at the vets!

 

[LizardKat]

Hello! Thank you for the information on mbd. I have rescued iguanas with mbd and it is heartbreaking!

I just posted some pictures of Tazzie on the ER discussion board. She does not appear to have any interest in walking and is very "floppy" in her back limbs. Her front fingers are very rubbery and her fingers fold under her hand (like a little fist) if she attempts to walk.. She really is skin and bones and I am wondering if her lack of movement is due to general weakness/deprivation.

This is my first beardie although I have had reptiles (igs, box turtles) for many years. Here are some pictures of Tazzie. She looks so sad and sick.

I loved looking at the pictures of your beardie! I can tell that he(she?) is very loved>

 

[herpfreak]

Poor girl! Definitely looks like MBD. I wonder what could have caused the injury. :?

Best of luck to you both!!

~~
Maya

 

[zebraflavencs]

Wow that is a substantial injury ! And that does indeed appear to be MVB.
What did the Vet recommend ?
If any tests were done, may we have the results please ?
I am going to direct one of the Mods to this thread.
Janie.

 

[LizardKat]

Hi Janie and Maya,
The vet was very thorough and weighed her, listened to her heart ands lungs and evaluated Tazzie's overall condition. When she opened her mouth, she detected that the end section of her tongue is necrotic (dead tissue) Tazzie's heart and lungs were clear and sounded normal (great news!)

The vet decided that Tazzie needed immediate intervention so she did a subcutaneous vitamin shot and also injected her with antibiotics. Tazzie will be getting the antibiotic shots every three days for a month.

The vet did indicate MBD and said that Tazzie's mouth is slightly deformed because of her condition.

I will keep you posted as to her progress.
Kat :wink:

 

[herpfreak]

That's great! Sounds like your vet knows her stuff. I prefer injections to oral meds for my animals; in my experience, injections work much better and more quickly than oral meds.

Is your vet giving Tazzie calcium as well as vitamins? If not, I highly recommend liquid calcium; I find it works much better than dusting feeders.

 

[LizardKat]

Hi Maya,
I'll check into the liquid calcium, I have been mixing powdered calcium into her food. I have been hand feeding her (see my posts in the ER forum of this website)

Thanks for the info on the calcium.
Kat and Tazzie