Possible respiratory infection

[Phoenix17June2009]

Good morning everyone,
Well I talked to Cheryl last night and we believe my male beardie phoenix is showing signs of a respiratory infection. Humidity is 35 (from what i read a while back humidity between 30-40 is acceptable correct?) he is under a powersun MVB, yes i know many of you disagree with that choice but it has worked best for him. his temp right under the light is 106, where he usually relaxes is a little down from that area and it stays between 100-102, usually 101.7 give or take a few degrees here and there, and the cool side is about 82 inside his "bedroom" and right outside is closer to the 85 mark. I dont keep water in the enclosure at all for a few reasons, one that will of course raise humidity, but two he will play in it and i will have a huge mess when i get home from work lol. He is eating like a horse! He actually eats his greens now so he gets greens 4 days a week and then the other three some form of live food. the live food contains his calcium, do D3. his substrate is tile, and his viv is the crossfire one so its 4x4x2 i believe? If more informaiton is needed about his environment let me know but that's all i can think of.
So last night i got home from work, let my dogs out, made dinner, and while my dinner cooks i feed and or bathe my lizards. Juuji is about in her full brumation so she really doesnt want anything to do with me. i do force her to suffer a bath once a week though so i did her first to allow her time to go back to sleep or bask or do whatever she wanted to do. After i finished i went to Phoenix, at first no signs, he was happy to see me like he is every day, i filled his bath time, patted him dry, put him some supers in his bowl, washed my hands and went to finish/eat my dinner. usually after i eat the beardies are allowed outside viv time. i allow each about 20 ish minutes, some times longer if htey are super energetic. since juuji wanted nothing to do with me, i picked phoenix up and took him to the living room with me. it was there he began that crazy noise.... at first i thought he was hissing at the dog, he never has before, but i thought that was the case. the dog left the room and about 10 mins later he does it again, at this point i text Cheryl and she is thinking respiratory infection.... so i ordered some baytril from her last night, upped the temps by about 5 degrees, and have read to limit baths, so after last night i will wait on baths, but i will offer water via syringe... now when i upped the temps phoenix hid from them so i dropped them back to normal spot... after that he basked like he is supposed to...
so, my question is, what happened between tues day and wednesday to make this come on so quickly. on tuesday he didnt make a peep, wasnt acting odd, nothing! Then yesterday i get home and hes coughing and sort of sneezing.... what did i do??? i always pat them dry after bath time and they always have ample time to bask to ensure they get warm enough before lights out... i just feel horrible for him. the signs seem to come in spells, sometimes he wont have any issues for about 20 minutes and then bam they are back. I am a small animal tech so i took my stethoscope and listed to his chest and it sounds a little congested
my next question is until the baytril gets here what can i do for him? he hides with his temps up, so like i say i put them back down, my che actually died last night so i will get a new one after work to keep temps up at night, i know no bath time, anything else i can do for him???

thanks!
Jordan

 

[vampy]

It sounds like you're doing everything you can already. I'd agree with you leaving the daytime temps as they are, and when you get the CHE, try and get it so his nighttime temps stay around 80. You can try getting him to sleep with his head slightly lower than the rest of his body to let any mucous in there drain out, but he may not want to stay in that position.

And it certainly doesn't sound like it was caused by anything you did wrong! He may have tried to have a drink in the bath and had some water go down the wrong way.

 

[Fellowdt23]

I disagree you always raise day temps to get rid of an RI.

You say your basking temps are 102 but just under the light is 106 is there anyway of increasing this slightly?

Sometimes doing something as little as raising the temps is enough

Trust me i know after suffering for 6 months of constant RI my basking spot is 110 but he mainly sits where its around 105. But it gives the dragon the choice of whats best for him and every so often he will go and blast himself at the higher temps.

Also keep no water in tank

Ive just noticed you say he hides when temps are up, i would still try and up them a little during the day makes all the difference especially during treatment and for a couple of weeks after.

My temps are always up now and things couldnt be better as when they get an RI once theres a good chance it will return so raised temps help this.

Good luck just make sure temps arent to cold as that maybe why it happened in the first place so if your ever unsure have them raised.

 

[vampy]

I'd agree with raising of daytime temps if he'd tolerate them, but if he's just hiding, his hiding spots are in the 80's, which is way lower than his normal basking temp. The goal is to keep his area as warm and dry as possible, but if he's just moving away from the extra warmth, I'd think it would be better that he just gets as much heat as he will tolerate.

 

[Fellowdt23]

I just think a basking temp of 102 is too low. But it makes me wonder how you are measuring this temp? Because if hes hiding when you raise it then your temps are probably higher than you originally thought to begin with

And is it the surface temp your measuring?