We bought our beloved bearded dragon, Spike, one of those fancy (very expensive!), wooden tanks with the light fixtures built in and sliding doors. After a couple of weeks, we noticed that he wasn't doing well. He wouldn't eat nor bask. All he wanted to do was be in his cave. I went online and did some research and concluded that he was getting too much UVB (the tank is not very tall) and that he was suffering from UVB poisoning. Also, this tank had a really bad plastic odor from the lining on the inside being heated up by the basking light. So, we put him back in his 40-gallon glass tank, and he seemed to bounce back. After awhile though, he started acting the same way. Then, we added some new dirt to it. Right after that, he turned black and started to glass surf a lot. I just kept thinking, "Oh, he'll get over it, and he will eat when he gets hungry enough." I did not even think that I should take him to a vet. A few days later, I had to take him and his glass tank to my mom's (an hour away) for her to take care of him while we went on a 10-day vacation. I called a few days later to see how he was doing, and she told me that he had thrown up. I just cringed, because it is never good when a lizard throws up. Once again, I went online to research why a bearded dragon might throw up. The first information that came up was that he probably ate too much. This made sense because we loaded up his worm bowl before we left so that my mom wouldn't have to deal with feeding him worms (she is deathly afraid of them!). So, I thought that he probably got hungry enough and pigged out on worms. A few days later . . . he died! We are devastated!! He was trying to tell me that he was sick, and I completely ignored all of his signs. I will never forgive myself. It is my fault that he died. I still cry every day. I never realized how attached I was to him. He snuggled with me every night and then fell asleep on me. I miss him SO much!!! :-(
I believe that all of these relocations caused him so much stress that it lowered his immune system so much that the parasites living in his guts took over and killed him. I should have taken him to the vet at the first sign of distress way back when he was in that new tank.
That is always horribly devastating.
