Our beardie is really sick

[Sriley]

Poor little buddy, my heart really goes out to him and to you. There may be some type of abscess or cyst under the skin but it definitely needs to be seen by an experienced reptile vet. The swelling in back of his head went down though ?

Thank you.

No the swelling on top of his head is still there. It may have gone down a little but it’s hard to tell because he lost some weight so it kind of looks a little different. He won’t eat other then what supplement we can get him to eat by syringe.

When we first noticed the swelling we also noticed his lip was droopy a little but thought it had something to do with the swelling. It seemed to start getting better at one point but then got worse. We are still giving him the Baytral and pain meds but they don’t seem to be helping. I will attach some pics of the progression of his lip

 

[KarrieRee]

www.arav.org a website to find a reptile vet in your area --- if you live in a small town type in a bigger cities zip code

 

[Sriley]

www.arav.org a website to find a reptile vet in your area --- if you live in a small town type in a bigger cities zip code

Thank you for the link. Not sure why but that site comes up with nothing with in 500 miles and I live in the Los Angeles Ca/ Orange County Ca area. On the border between the 2 actually.

We took him to a Vet that is supposed to be a reptile Vet but had a bad experience with them. Charged us a ton of money and took almost 3 weeks for lab results and then emailed them to us to decipher and said we could set up another appointment if we wanted to discuss the results. There was some other stuff as well but regardless I have an appointment for Tuesday with a reptile vet that supposedly has a lot of experience with Beardies. I’m just hoping he makes it to Tuesday. I’m going to try to get them to see us tomorrow but they are very busy.

I appreciate the response

 

[KarrieRee]

Thank you for the link. Not sure why but that site comes up with nothing with in 500 miles and I live in the Los Angeles Ca/ Orange County Ca area. On the border between the 2 actually.

We took him to a Vet that is supposed to be a reptile Vet but had a bad experience with them. Charged us a ton of money and took almost 3 weeks for lab results and then emailed them to us to decipher and said we could set up another appointment if we wanted to discuss the results. There was some other stuff as well but regardless I have an appointment for Tuesday with a reptile vet that supposedly has a lot of experience with Beardies. I’m just hoping he makes it to Tuesday. I’m going to try to get them to see us tomorrow but they are very busy.

I appreciate the response

Wow something should have come up I am shocked

 

[Sriley]

Wow something should have come up I am shocked

It may be something I am doing wrong. I was trying it on my iPhone so I am going to try on my computer when I get hoe.

 

[KarrieRee]

It may be something I am doing wrong. I was trying it on my iPhone so I am going to try on my computer when I get hoe.

do not use the country or zip code----- city and state only -- when I try and copy and paste the page that comes up for CA its not doing it - its going back to all states and countries -- there is a list of vets you would need to find one closest to you -- I do not know why its not working like it should --

https://arav.site-ym.com/search/custom.asp?id=3661

I just typed in the city and state NO zip along w/ miles

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

How is your dragon doing this evening?
I am so sorry you are having a hard time getting into a good vet for an appointment,
this seems to be happening a lot now. That is too bad you didn't have a good appointment
with the one you initially took him too.
Is he basking any at all right now? Be sure to keep him warmer overnight to keep his system
boosted. Keep us posted on him, we are all pulling for him!

Tracie

 

[Sriley]

Hello,

How is your dragon doing this evening?
I am so sorry you are having a hard time getting into a good vet for an appointment,
this seems to be happening a lot now. That is too bad you didn't have a good appointment
with the one you initially took him too.
Is he basking any at all right now? Be sure to keep him warmer overnight to keep his system
boosted. Keep us posted on him, we are all pulling for him!

Tracie

Thank you. He is not doing very good at all. He stays in his hide almost the entire time. He doesn’t move except when we take him out and put him in his basking spot before we try to feed and medicate him. Then with in 30 min or so of being put back under his lamp he crawls back to his hide. He doesn’t even really fight us any more but he takes a long time to swallow what we syringe into his mouth. He seems to have lost a lot of weight but we don’t have a scale so I don’t know how much but I have attached a picture from the day after he got Sick and a current picture from today and it is noticeable. It’s been a little over a month and a half now. I am honestly shocked how strong he is to have made it this long.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Goodness, poor thing! I am so sorry he isn't doing well. I see the swelling is still on top of his head. Are you considering getting him
back in for another vet vist?
I don't think the Baytril is doing much for him. He may not really have an infection but it is possible he is getting too much antibiotic in
him right now.
Try to encourage him to bask right now, otherwise he isn't going to stay warm enough to digest. If needed, you might need to remove
his hide for awhile so he can get some light. He is too ill to brumate right now.
Please let us know how he is doing. I hope you are able to get him back to health.

Tracie

 

[Sriley]

So I have an update about Mushu. It doesn’t look good for him but the Vet thinks there is a small chance from what she saw. I am posting all the info in case someone else some day is in a similar situation and may come across this Thread and maybe it will help them. So I apologize for it being long.

I want to start by saying that the info given to me in this thread on this forum was all really great info and confirmed by this Vet. With out you all teaching me about the UVB light and temperatures and his enclosure and just all the different suggestions and stuff you have shared with me I don’t think I would of had the info she asked for and that would of made it more difficult today. So I thank you all. Mushu thanks you as well.

She determined it is probably not an aneurysm because of location and the fact the swelling is now moving down his face. So good news it’s not an anurism but bad news about the swelling moving down his face.

He doesn’t have mouth rot. Inside his mouth is healthy other then the swelling which is part of the original lump on the head issue.

They think it is some sort of growth / tissue mass and infection. The previous test results ruled out cancer which is good but it could still be a tumor and with its location it could end up being bad.

They could do a biopsy but that means putting him to sleep and she doesn’t think he would wake up and the results wouldn’t change the game plan for him so it’s an unnecessary risk.

She poked it with a tiny needle and said best case it will be full of cottage cheese type infection and blood. Worst case it would be full of just blood. The stuff that came out was a little of both blood and cottage cheese looking stuff. So not all hope is lost but still doesn’t look good.

We stoped giving him the oral antibiotics and started giving him a shot every 3 days for a month. The injection (Ceftazedime) is supposed to be a more aggressive antibiotic but it shouldn’t upset his stomach the way the other stuff did. The needles are already loaded with a months worth of the medicine and we have to keep them frozen.
The shots are to be given in his little arm rotating left arm one time right arm the next. Not through the scales but under them.

Also we now give him an oral medicine for inflammation and pain. (Meloxicam)

We are still giving him the food supplement and the Tramadol. When this all started he weighed 0.5kg. Today he weighed in at 0.48kg so not a huge weight loss but it looks like he has lost more then that

No vitamins or calcium for now

Straight Non diluted non flavor pedialyte in place of water. Flavored is ok as long as it is sugar free

For food we need to be a little more aggressive and get it in more towards the back of his mouth because of the swelling it’s harder for him to swallow but He won’t choke

Need to keep the tank a few degrees warmer during the day and after lights out we need to keep it almost as hot as the day time temps. No lights at night And keep the light cycle a few hours longer on the day time cycle.

He isn’t impacted and doesn’t have any signs of the bone disease.

They gave him his first shot today and I know it is wishful thinking but when we got him home and put him in his enclosure he sat there for a min and then crawled up to bask For a while then walked around his enclosure 2 or 3 times and his color had all come back. No black or grey tones anywhere at all and his beard was orange again. He was alert and seemed strong. He was like that for a good 2-3 hours and then he laid down to sleep but outside of his hide.

Anyway that was way longer then I thought it would be but like I said if some day someone is able to use any of this info to help their beardie it would make me very happy.

More updates to come. Hopefully the good type of updates

 

[AHBD]

It's a little bit on the positive side , at least you have a little more idea on which direction to take.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Poor Mushu, he sure has some great strength dealing with all of these issues! There have been a lot of cases in the last
few years from face & head issues, from tumors or aneurisms.
The direction you are going sounds good right now. I think continuing supportive care, nutritional support, etc is invaluable.
They are very resilient & often surprise you at how well they hold up & can recover.
Are they going to culture the fluid that they aspirated from the area to determine what type of infection is present?

We are all pulling for him & hope you can see some improvement with him soon!

Tracie

 

[Sriley]

It's a little bit on the positive side , at least you have a little more idea on which direction to ta

Hello,

Poor Mushu, he sure has some great strength dealing with all of these issues! There have been a lot of cases in the last
few years from face & head issues, from tumors or aneurisms.
The direction you are going sounds good right now. I think continuing supportive care, nutritional support, etc is invaluable.
They are very resilient & often surprise you at how well they hold up & can recover.
Are they going to culture the fluid that they aspirated from the area to determine what type of infection is present?

We are all pulling for him & hope you can see some improvement with him soon!

Tracie

They told me the only thing they really could do is a biopsy of the growth and that would mean putting him to sleep. At the moment she didn’t believe he was strong enough for that and would probably not wake up and even if they did a biopsy the plan for him would be the same. She wants to go ahead with the shots and anti flam medicine for a month and try to get him Eating better and stronger and see how it looks in a month. This vet was very good at showing me how to syringe feed him and give him the shots and explaining what we needed to do so I have my fingers crossed.

Today we gave him his second shot in his other arm and it was nerve racking at first but it went well. Just like after the first shot he became more active and Got all his natural color back and has started to bask again. Plus since the first shot he has been more receptive to food and water (pediyalite) which gives me hope. He has actually eaten and drank the full amount prescribed and yesterday he finally pooped again. Lol I never thought getting a lizard to poop would make me so happy! My wife didn’t know to keep his poop which is my fault and honestly if you didn’t know why would you keep it but still happy about all of these things.

 

[AHBD]

That's good, b.d. poo can be a cause for rejoicing. Hopefully there can be a resolution for this problem.

 

[Sriley]

So today the humidity in his enclosure dropped to 10. It has been very windy outside all day. Can that cause the humidity to drop in the enclosure?