Please help with sick beardie

[whatamom]

My daughter's beardie Pete, almost 4 years old, lately has been pooping a lot (several times per day whereas he used to only poop about once every 7-10 days), and his beard is black but not inflated. He is very lethargic and keeps his eyes closed a lot. When he does moves, it is very slow and laborious. If it weren't for the continual pooping and the black beard we would think he was doing his partial brumation (we are in central Illinois) - in the past over the winter months he just sleeps more; and eats, moves and poops less.

We had an issue with the UVB light (which was the 10.0 that is recommended here) in that it quit working -- we noticed it about the same time we noticed he was acting this way. We think it was only a few days at most without the UVB light, but just aren't sure - have we been absent-minded for long enough that it has been months???? You go take care of them every day assuming the lights are working as usual, but I guess we didn't SPECIFICALLY note that it WAS working. We went to the local pet store but they didn't have the 10.0 that is recommended, so we got x-terra 50 - it said for bearded dragons on the box. Another mistake we made - we failed to remove the plastic sliding cover to give him the bare bulb until yesterday. We did leave the UVB light on all night as he appeared to move to stay under it when we moved it, and appeared to be sleeping even though the UVB light was on.

We also seemed to have had an issue with the heating lamp in that the top of his basking spot wasn't getting as hot as usual (we have since lowered it to get the top basking spot to 110). He climbed up this morning to the basking part, but my daughter says she thinks he isn't breathing right now.

She has been misting water on him frequently assuming he is dehydrated from the pooping.

We are trying putting probiotics on his lips in hopes he licks them off since the pooping is off.

Thoughts, suggestions?

Thanks much.

 

[whatamom]

PS My daughter is frantic - questions like "How long will he keep breathing?" "Maybe he's dead..." (How WILL we know if he is dead by the way?)
Also, he is breathing still.
Also, occasionally his sides "shudder"... related to the more frequent pooping?

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

Hi there,
My 1st move would be to take the dragon and a poop sample to a vet. ASAP.
We can spend 2 days going over what could be wrong and have it come up to be nothing.
Stop the misting. Its not really doing anything but raising the humidity.
If your dragon is dehydrated soak them in warm water for about 15 min at a time.

 

[whatamom]

We're leaving in 10 minutes for a vet. Called him , he seemed knowledgeable about BDs.
We'll take a poop sample, too, thank you.

 

[AHBD]

Sorry about your sick beardie....something making him really sick. Did you mean that the plastic shield had been left on the light fixture all along ? That would itself cause serious problems if he wasn't getting any UVB. As for bathing, when the dragon is this ill, you must be very careful,support it's head while in the water....which should be lukewarm no more than about 1.5 inches, and gently drip water on his nose if he doesn't drink on his own. He can easily drown in that condition. Then pat him dry quickly and put him back in the heat ASAP. The vet will probably give fluids, too. I hope he makes it !

 

[boxerLvr]

Hows your beardie doing and what did the vet say?