Possible URI not sure what’s going on

[Cdkinney]

Hi everyone I have had to post here a few times lately and every time something seems to get better for a while, something new happens. I had my beardie on antibiotics for a few weeks after I brought her into the vet. She is anemic and is very weak as well. One day she turned bright yellow with sunken eyes and a black beard, but was eventually fine. She has been breathing out of her mouth the past few days and making all sorts of noises. Today I was able to pull some skin out of her nostrils but she went back to being yellow with sunken eyes for the first time in over a month. I have her temps set to 80 on the cool side and 97 on the basking spot. Her humidity is higher than it should be so I ordered a dehumidifier. There’s no mucus in her mouth or nose that I can see. Would it be bad to give her the antibiotics I have left from before or will it be more detrimental to her health?

 

[melodylynn25]

So she has sunken eyes, pale skin, and black beard? Is her tail and shoulders black as well? What about lethargic? Is she getting the right amount of exposure she should to her uvb and heat lights? Has she been pooping and/or eating?

 

[Cdkinney]

Shoulders and tail are not black. Her body is usually a light brown and it’s bright yellow right now with a dark black beard. She’s been super lethargic ever since March when this first happened and hasn’t been eating bugs pretty much at all, only a few times. I feed her baby food through a syringe lately. Her heat is fine, and I have a T8 UVB bulb mounted in her cage. I have a reflector that’s supposed to arrive Wednesday. She eats plenty of baby food and has been pooping normally she seemed to be almost back to normal lately other than still being lethargic and not eating bugs but now that I got the skin out of her nose she turned back to yellow. The pieces were about a centimeter each and I thought it would help after she has been breathing so much through her mouth

 

[KarrieRee]

How old is the UVB? If the bulb is 6 months or older it needs to be replaced! Is she hydrated? How is she getting water ? The UVB w/ no reflector needs to be 4-6 inches from her directly over head w/ no reflector --- in the mean time you can take her outside for direct sunlight if your temps are 65+ degrees --- you can have her on your for as long as you want - if you put her in a plastic tote NO Glass and place her in direct sunlight/ partial shade for 15 minutes --- the totes heat up so no longer - you dont want to burn her up -- that will equal out to about 4 hrs of UVB --- your humidity is what in the tank? If its 70 or over the humidifier will be fine - we dont usually get concerned if its under that -does she have any mucous from the mouth nose or bubbles in the mouth ? Do you hear any wheezing? Please post a pic of her https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ click on XIMG at the to of the message box then click on the pic it should post
Karrie

 

[Cdkinney]

Uvb is pretty much brand new I replace them every 3-4 months. I’ve been dropping some water in her mouth but she generally won’t drink on her own so if I feed her baby food I’ll also try to mix some water in with that so she’s getting fluid. The humidity is around 60% but she has no mucous that I can see. Last night she was breathing heavy out of her mouth and did not want to move she just felt limp

 

[KarrieRee]

She needs to stay hydrated --- how about a bath? Will she drink out of the bath water? Try getting her outside in the sunlight and see if that will spark her -- you can make the baby food real soupy so she gets water that way --- watch her poops if the urate is real chalky looking or looks dried out shes dehydrated---60 % during the day or at nite --- what is it getting to over nite ?
Karrie

 

[Cdkinney]

Thank you for trying to help me out but I checked on her this morning and she has died. I appreciate all the tips

 

[KarrieRee]

Oh my goodness --- I am so sorry ---- that is such a shock when it was unexpected -- how long was she this way? That is terrible ---- words are so hard to say for me when people post that the dragon has died --- sometimes it is not a surprise if we had been going back and forth for a while w/ the dragon being ill but the all of a sudden is sometimes hard to take ---- again I am sorry ---
Karrie

 

[Cdkinney]

Thank you I appreciate it, the biggest shock was that she seemed to have gotten so much better in the past month and then yesterday it all came back so quickly and the next morning she is gone. She was never in perfect health since I got her so I tried my best to get her better and as long as she didn't suffer that's what matters most. Best beardie I ever had and she will be greatly missed

 

[KarrieRee]

I know the pain of losing them - I had one that I was so new at having one I am sure my negligence was what killed her --- but have since learned soooooo much from this website - that I vowed not to do that again- the most recent one lost was a rehome/ rescue -- by the time I got her she was too far gone from saving --- the person I had gotten her from starved her to death - I tried my hardest but her organs shut down on her from being starved for so long - I only had her for a few weeks - I really cried when I lost her cuz she had been done so wrong--- she was so small I could nt even tell how old she really was -- the person told me she was 1 then said 6 months :dontknow: so I had gotten her off of FB's reptile group --- the pic she had posted of her was nothing what she looked like when I got her --- I still to this day see that little face looking at the camera of what she posted
Karrie