Not Eating, Showing no interest in life at all

[SkeptiBee]

Hermes has not really shown much improvement since this thread: viewtopic.php?f=45&t=194678

Recent changes are:
- Further Decrease in appetite
- Stays in hide 100% of the time
- Has slight motor control problems
- Skin sensitivity
- Dark stress colors and spots all the time

Over the past two weeks his desire to eat has been utterly nil. Every now and then I'll hand offer him some collard greens and he will focus on it, sometimes lick it, and other times take it and eat. But it's only maybe a few small pieces of greens he will consume before ignoring all further offers of food. Even his live feeders. Also, when he goes to grab the food, he has a wobble and sometimes misses all together even if it's hovering literally in front of his nose. I can tell he's focused on it: his eyes look forward and pupils constrict like they usually do when he's interested and aware of the item.

He still will not seek out his basking spot on his own; I have to manually put him there and he will only stay maybe ten minutes tops before crawling down and going back into his hide. I give him very shallow baths now, but those usually knock him out energy wise. The last few I gave him, he literally collapsed onto my chest afterward and wanted to sleep. His weight is going down, a lot of skin is now hanging looser on his frame... it's like I'm watching him slowly die and it's breaking my heart.

Tests done:
Calcium levels
X-Ray Click to view result (01) (02)
Blood Work (Click to view results)

Medication Received:
.06u Metcam - 1 week
.25cc - 5 doses Pancur (just in case he had worms that weren't showing up in his fecals that all returned negative)
.2cc Batril - 2 weeks

Basking Temp: 98-101F (cool is 76-80)
UVB: ReptiSun 10 (purchased in July)

None of the medications effected him in the long term. He showed very mild perking initially, but then reverted back to his former state. I'm at a loss of what is going on. His temps and environment have not changed but he continues to sink further in health. I've taken him outdoors to see if the added sunlight will do anything but he shows no alertness; no stiff tail or even looking around him. He just collapses against me. I don't know what to do at this point. Nor does my vet. The last we spoke, she mentioned I could get him an MRI since his motor control seems questionable, but I'm not so sure I can afford that and even if it came back positive, there isn't much I can do treatment wise. At this rate, she's reached the end of possible treatment and could only tell me I had to decide if his quality of life would be good enough to keep him going or if putting him to sleep was better.

 

[Killzone3265]

i know you must've gone over this hundreds of times, but do you think he could be forcing himself to brumate?

 

[SkeptiBee]

Seems odd to brumate during the summer though. I've never really heard of an animal forcing hibernation before since, with reptiles, it's generally triggered by the shifting temperatures. My room he's in is pretty constant as is his tank.

I can't entirely dismiss this considering the last house he was in was extremely hot in temp (I bought him from a guy I work with) and mine is not. But one would think the temp of his cage would be enough to keep him steady. Notwithstanding, for the first few months, he was doing amazing. Eating, extremely active... so this is such a shift for me to observe. I guess I can just allow him to continue to sleep but the other things I see do worry me. :/

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. Sorry he's not feeling good. Have you tried giving him stage one baby food? You can feed him squash, chicken, turkey sweet potatoes and put his vitamins with a little water.

 

[SkeptiBee]

I have, yes. He will eat only tiny amounts before backing up and running away or flicking it off his nose. He's a very fussy boy. :/

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Are you positive that your dragon is a male & not a female?
I noticed that the total protein is a little elevated & so is the calcium.
Just an observation, but the uric acid & the AST look good so it shouldn't be anything having to do with the kidneys or liver.

Does he still have the twitching?
Which liquid calcium did you switch him to & how often were you giving it?
How close is the Reptisun 10 tube & is there any glass or plastic or screen in between him & the light?
It could be malabsorption of calcium possibly but with that high of calcium levels, I am not sure. The bones appear to look dense according to the x-ray. Perhaps an ultrasound could reveal anything else.

Tracie

 

[SkeptiBee]

Definitely male. He has large femoral pores and very distinct two lumps on his tail.

His sensitivity is off and on. Some days its worse than others for no apparent reason. So those days he really doesn't like to handled for long. I try to be cautious when picking him up but he squirms a lot (I can't pick him up with his back facing me other wise he scrambles in my hands to spin around to face me). I think the dosage for the calcium is .3ccs x 3 a week. Initially we did this for every day for a month. This was before we did blood work to find out where he stood calcium wise. Unfortunately I don't remember the name, I can look through my receipts though if you still want a name.

The UVB is mounted on the inside of the tank, roughly 7" from his basking spot. No barriers on it, just the lamp and bulb. I covered his hide a little more with a thicker blanket to prevent light from getting in his hide but there is a large enough hole so if he wants to exit he can. Yesterday when I got home from work, he was coiled up with his head buried in his bedding, snoozing away. So I left him alone. I figure if he wants to sleep, I'll just let him sleep. Food and water are still available to him if he gets the urge to come out and I'll still offer to give him live food a few times a week. Now that I think on it, his massive eating spree he underwent before he started napping a lot seemed more like he was prepping himself for this.

The vet just called about ten minutes ago and I told her what's up. She said to just monitor him and maybe check his weight every now and then to make sure he's okay. If he suddenly takes a turn for the worse, we'll go from there.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

How is he doing, still sleeping away?
He may be wanting to brumate though so you can let him brumate but definitely check on him frequently to be sure he is still looking good.
They do tend to eat quite a bit in preparation for brumation. Did he eat primarily protein & not any greens?

Tracie

 

[SkeptiBee]

Yes, he's still sleeping. He'll open his eyes up every now and then when he hears me come into the room, but very quickly shuts them and is out again. I've been leaving food and water just in case he wakes up and needs it. But the most I see is him re-adjusting in his darkened hide. He was sliding off his blanket the one day and the next I saw him, he had circled around like a dog would and propped himself on the blanket again.

He did eat a lot of protein before winding down but he was also eating his greens. Probably not as much though. He was snubbing a lot of his usual favorites (mangos or raspberries) in favor of sticking with straight collard or mustard greens with the occasional nibble of squash.

I'd feel a little bad hauling him out of his hide now that I'm just letting nature take her course. Wouldn't waking him up just prolong the brumation even more? I feel like I've already done enough hauling him to the vet so often and giving him baths when he totally didn't need those.