Sophielius
Member
- Beardie name(s)
- Raxtus
Hi all,
I'm feeling a bit stumped about my beardie's health, his vets seem to be as well and I wanted to see if anyone had any input. My beardie Raxtus (ADV positive) has had a decreased appetite since the beginning of the year. We took him to the vet, and they found edema. We've added another liver supplement to his regimen (he's now on two). He's hard to get interested in eating on his own. He's on herbivore emeraid (he'll only take about 2-3mL a day but doesn't seem to hate it) and whatever dandelion greens I can shove in his mouth. He hasn't shown interest in eating more than a couple of smaller roaches on his weekly bug day. His bloodwork has returned normal, as has an ultrasound (except for noting the edema and its compressing effects on his blood vessels). A couple years ago, imaging showed some speckling on his kidneys for what that's worth.
Another somewhat recent (about 4months) symptom is skinny urates. They're the normal length and he's hydrated as far as I can tell with the skin pinch test, but they're about half the width as they used to be. My concern is perhaps some emergent kidney issues. The next step the vet will likely recommend is a biopsy.
What could be causing this unexplained edema? Could it all just be his ADV progressing over time? If anyone has any thoughts or similar experiences, please let me know.
(Husbandry consists of a 4x2x2 cage, Arcadia UVB tube 34", one of those bright Jungledawn bars, a basking zone (~100F), hides on both warm (~90F) and cool (~80F) sides of cage, substrate is mostly a mix of topsoil and sifted play sand)
I'm feeling a bit stumped about my beardie's health, his vets seem to be as well and I wanted to see if anyone had any input. My beardie Raxtus (ADV positive) has had a decreased appetite since the beginning of the year. We took him to the vet, and they found edema. We've added another liver supplement to his regimen (he's now on two). He's hard to get interested in eating on his own. He's on herbivore emeraid (he'll only take about 2-3mL a day but doesn't seem to hate it) and whatever dandelion greens I can shove in his mouth. He hasn't shown interest in eating more than a couple of smaller roaches on his weekly bug day. His bloodwork has returned normal, as has an ultrasound (except for noting the edema and its compressing effects on his blood vessels). A couple years ago, imaging showed some speckling on his kidneys for what that's worth.
Another somewhat recent (about 4months) symptom is skinny urates. They're the normal length and he's hydrated as far as I can tell with the skin pinch test, but they're about half the width as they used to be. My concern is perhaps some emergent kidney issues. The next step the vet will likely recommend is a biopsy.
What could be causing this unexplained edema? Could it all just be his ADV progressing over time? If anyone has any thoughts or similar experiences, please let me know.
(Husbandry consists of a 4x2x2 cage, Arcadia UVB tube 34", one of those bright Jungledawn bars, a basking zone (~100F), hides on both warm (~90F) and cool (~80F) sides of cage, substrate is mostly a mix of topsoil and sifted play sand)