jazmatazxo
Member
Hiya so sorry for the essay in advance but I really need some.help, I'm new here so grateful to have found this forum, I have been reading and reading for days but wanted to make my own post as nothing quite fits. My happy -ususally boy is Basil, he is 4 and never had any health issues as far as I'm aware. Set up is good, I'll state as I know everyone asks, Arcadia 12% UV strip bulb which was replaced less than 3m ago, and 100watt basking bulb, hot end reaches between 37-41c depending on time of day and cold end averages around 26c, however I do not have a hygrometer so unsure of humidity. He was on kitchen roll as substrate but I've taken it out as I'm paranoid that could be a reason he got sick, I'm not sure what to replace it with yet. Had tiles before and found tiny red bugs when taking them out one day to clean, freaked out and lizard friendly antibaced everything immediately and chucked the tiles away. His fav salad is peashoots and he has these daily along with fruit here and there but I always check if giving him something new online that it's okay, he has live bugs every other day, mainly morioworms (,super worms) and waxworms for treats.
Basil (I believe) had a seizure on Thursday morning. He was lethargic Wednesday, but I was at work so didn't see if he was any different the rest of the time. When I got home from work I realised he hadn't eaten any worms or salad, his dish was still full. He ate salad Tuesday and worms and salad Monday, also had a bath and pooped on Monday as normal. When I woke up his light had been on for approx 30 mins. He was walking in circles kinda jerkily so I went to watch him, as I did he went jet black and opened his mouth wide and threw his head back arching his back and was twitching and thrashing about for what felt like a whole minute but was probably around 20 seconds max. As soon as he's stopped I opened his Viv to get him out and he tried to run away but he couldn't use his front or back legs properly and was kinda wiggling his body to move. He looked quite hunched up and his limbs were all tight to his body like constricted like he couldn't stretch them out. I wanted to leave him alone as he looked in pain so I called the vet and started googling.. I was concerned for MBD as this is main cause of seizures in beardies and demanded the reptile specialist see him right away as I feared he would die if he did not get treated. They fit us in for 3 hours time. He didn't appear to have any more seizures but he did have some back legs muscle spasms which the vet witnessed. They decided to keep him in for tests. They did full x-ray which did not indicate that MBD was present. They did blood tests and sent off poop sample test as he pooped for them in examination, gave him morphine and calcium injection as well as some other things and told me they would have blood results back next day. The bloods concluded he had no deficiencies so ruled out MBD, the only abnormality was a low white blood cell count and he was a lil bit underweight, but he's never been a greedy dragon. By this time (over 24hours later) he had full use of his arms and legs back but was not moving around much, apart from when they bathed him and he tried to escape (he hates them so much). She was happy for me to collect him and prescribed meds for me to administer at home (twice daily bath in reptoboost, once daily oral pain killer and antiinflammatory, once daily oral calcium/vitamin supplement and once every 3 days antibiotic injection) she said low white blood count indicates infection but they don't know if it's viral or bacterial.. I shed out over £400 for this vet trip and they can't even tell me the type of infection he has or what caused the seizure, they suggested either pain or some neurological problems.. so I'm.a bit p*ssed off, though the specialist vet was very nice. We came home Friday night and he's much better but I'm concerned, he is clamping his jaw tightly so I can't open it to administer his oral meds, I have tried every trick on YouTube and Google, the eye thing, pulling the side beard/lip area to get it in the side first, squeezing 3cm along from.his nose on mouth crease, even pulling his beard skin which the vet showed me but I felt horrible trying as I can feel.how much he is clamping shut, he tries to get away and I don't want to cause him more unnecessary stress. So we have so far missed 2 days worth of pain relief and supplement and he hasn't eaten or drunk either. Tried tempting him with chicken and squash baby food and also sweet apple baby food and he isn't the slightest interested. He is much more alert, he will stand up and move around his Viv a little so seems more comfortable, but hard to tell if he is. Still in pain. If he's.not then I feel the painkillers isn't worth the stress I'm.causing him by trying to open his mouth. He also isn't swollen anywhere so the anti inflammatory seems not too important either. And I'm assuming the vet just prescribed the supplement to boost his recovery as the bloods didn't show that he was deficient. Is it worth keep trying to get these oral meds in? I have to do the first injection tomorrow and I'm terrified but I know this is the most important one and the vet showed me how to do it on his upper arm under a scale, he didn't flinch when she showed me, but he was dosed up then and more still, where as now he is moving around way more so I'm worried it will hurt him or he will flinch, I hate needles so I'm trying not to project my fear. I have read I could inject the oral meds into a waxworm however he won't even eat them. I'm.hoping he will just get hungry soon, but realistically it's nearly been a week already. Will his appetite return? He is awake most of the day which is a good sign, but he closes his eyes most of the time when I get him out to hold and I never know if this means he's comfortable or annoyed/tolerating the handling. He's hated his baths and seems tired after from trying to climb out. He's also started today putting his head into the corner of his Viv at the cold end and closing his eyes, so I'm not sure if he's trying to go to sleep?
Please can anyone give me any advice? I'm so worried and really stressed. We are also moving house tomorrow and this couldn't have come at a worse time as i know this will cause him extra stress. I literally don't know what to do and I'm so skint now after the vet bill. And moving costs, if the vets take him back it's approx £100 per 24 hours for their care and I just can't. Going to call them for advice tomorrow re oral meds but hoping someone here will have had some similar experiences to share.
Thanks in advance.
How can I attach photos?
Basil (I believe) had a seizure on Thursday morning. He was lethargic Wednesday, but I was at work so didn't see if he was any different the rest of the time. When I got home from work I realised he hadn't eaten any worms or salad, his dish was still full. He ate salad Tuesday and worms and salad Monday, also had a bath and pooped on Monday as normal. When I woke up his light had been on for approx 30 mins. He was walking in circles kinda jerkily so I went to watch him, as I did he went jet black and opened his mouth wide and threw his head back arching his back and was twitching and thrashing about for what felt like a whole minute but was probably around 20 seconds max. As soon as he's stopped I opened his Viv to get him out and he tried to run away but he couldn't use his front or back legs properly and was kinda wiggling his body to move. He looked quite hunched up and his limbs were all tight to his body like constricted like he couldn't stretch them out. I wanted to leave him alone as he looked in pain so I called the vet and started googling.. I was concerned for MBD as this is main cause of seizures in beardies and demanded the reptile specialist see him right away as I feared he would die if he did not get treated. They fit us in for 3 hours time. He didn't appear to have any more seizures but he did have some back legs muscle spasms which the vet witnessed. They decided to keep him in for tests. They did full x-ray which did not indicate that MBD was present. They did blood tests and sent off poop sample test as he pooped for them in examination, gave him morphine and calcium injection as well as some other things and told me they would have blood results back next day. The bloods concluded he had no deficiencies so ruled out MBD, the only abnormality was a low white blood cell count and he was a lil bit underweight, but he's never been a greedy dragon. By this time (over 24hours later) he had full use of his arms and legs back but was not moving around much, apart from when they bathed him and he tried to escape (he hates them so much). She was happy for me to collect him and prescribed meds for me to administer at home (twice daily bath in reptoboost, once daily oral pain killer and antiinflammatory, once daily oral calcium/vitamin supplement and once every 3 days antibiotic injection) she said low white blood count indicates infection but they don't know if it's viral or bacterial.. I shed out over £400 for this vet trip and they can't even tell me the type of infection he has or what caused the seizure, they suggested either pain or some neurological problems.. so I'm.a bit p*ssed off, though the specialist vet was very nice. We came home Friday night and he's much better but I'm concerned, he is clamping his jaw tightly so I can't open it to administer his oral meds, I have tried every trick on YouTube and Google, the eye thing, pulling the side beard/lip area to get it in the side first, squeezing 3cm along from.his nose on mouth crease, even pulling his beard skin which the vet showed me but I felt horrible trying as I can feel.how much he is clamping shut, he tries to get away and I don't want to cause him more unnecessary stress. So we have so far missed 2 days worth of pain relief and supplement and he hasn't eaten or drunk either. Tried tempting him with chicken and squash baby food and also sweet apple baby food and he isn't the slightest interested. He is much more alert, he will stand up and move around his Viv a little so seems more comfortable, but hard to tell if he is. Still in pain. If he's.not then I feel the painkillers isn't worth the stress I'm.causing him by trying to open his mouth. He also isn't swollen anywhere so the anti inflammatory seems not too important either. And I'm assuming the vet just prescribed the supplement to boost his recovery as the bloods didn't show that he was deficient. Is it worth keep trying to get these oral meds in? I have to do the first injection tomorrow and I'm terrified but I know this is the most important one and the vet showed me how to do it on his upper arm under a scale, he didn't flinch when she showed me, but he was dosed up then and more still, where as now he is moving around way more so I'm worried it will hurt him or he will flinch, I hate needles so I'm trying not to project my fear. I have read I could inject the oral meds into a waxworm however he won't even eat them. I'm.hoping he will just get hungry soon, but realistically it's nearly been a week already. Will his appetite return? He is awake most of the day which is a good sign, but he closes his eyes most of the time when I get him out to hold and I never know if this means he's comfortable or annoyed/tolerating the handling. He's hated his baths and seems tired after from trying to climb out. He's also started today putting his head into the corner of his Viv at the cold end and closing his eyes, so I'm not sure if he's trying to go to sleep?
Please can anyone give me any advice? I'm so worried and really stressed. We are also moving house tomorrow and this couldn't have come at a worse time as i know this will cause him extra stress. I literally don't know what to do and I'm so skint now after the vet bill. And moving costs, if the vets take him back it's approx £100 per 24 hours for their care and I just can't. Going to call them for advice tomorrow re oral meds but hoping someone here will have had some similar experiences to share.
Thanks in advance.
How can I attach photos?