Questions

[jacody]

Good to hear.. I wasn't so sure after your post last night.. hopefully this vet will be able to tell you a bit more as to why he was acting like that.. good luck w/ the new vet.. sounds like you have a fighter on your hands!! :wink:

 

[Dan28]

I hope so. I think he might have an eye infection and eventually with some food and medicine he will get better. Thanks for all the support with this whole ordeal. He seems better after I fed him. I really appreciate your concern with him and ill keep updating whenever something happens if you want.

 

[jacody]

that would be great.. let me know what the new vet says..

 

[Dan28]

Hello, sorry I took so long to reply. I went to the new vet a couple days ago and she said he might have parasites. My BD had something in his eye and when it was cleaned out, he started opening his eyes again. The eye with something in it looks kinda puffy because he cant close it all the way and he has the same thing in his eye again. I think he is gonna make it because he is running around again like before. He is also gotten to like the force fed baby food. I just have to hold it up to him with a spoon, its great. All the baby food I could find has 50% vitamin A, but when I asked my vet about it she said vitamin A toxicity doesn't happen unless you inject it into them. She also said that my dragon was dehydrated because the basking spots were around 100-110. She recommended mid 90s. Also whenever my bearded dragon eats food, be it baby food or the greens, his whole underside turns black. Not totally black, but lines like stress marks. This is like 30 minutes after eating anything. I'm a first time owner so any advice or comments are really appreciated. Thanks.

 

[jacody]

Not sure why he'd have the stress marks after eating.. maybe someone else can post as to why.. glad to hear he's getting better and that you were able to take him to a different vet, did they test his poop to see what sort of parasites or put him on any meds? Great sign his activity level has picked up again, that def. is an indicator he's responding to the care/treatment you're providing.. keep us posted on his recovery and keep up w/ the hard work making him 100%..

 

[Dan28]

Thanks, I'm excited for hen he can eat on his own again. Once he poops I gotta collect it and bring it to them. Would you know if it possible to see the parasites under a microscope or do they test it some other way? I ask because I'm friends with my biology teacher and he says if we can, he could show me how to do it. It saves me the two hour car ride to get to the vet and 60$. I am also worried about vitamin A toxicity. All the baby food has a bunch of it in it and I don't know if that is what causes the stress marks.

 

[jacody]

There are sites that teach you how to analyze the poop under a microscope, but not sure what kind they use, sure a person w/ a biology background would have something very similar.. also I believe beardeddragon.co has kits that are around $20- that you send in to them w/ the sample and they will do the fecal check for you. Not sure of the vitamin A toxicity, but my vet has me use calcium w/ no D3 for a majority of dusting on my live food as long as my UVB is current.. he has had cases come in w/ problems related to too much vitmain D.. now I know a lot of people will beg to differ and say that's not right.. I use calcium w/ the D3 on occasion, but mostly w/o.. do the baby foods you use have sugar in them, hard to find ones that don't, have you tried pureeing your own w/ no sugar added, I'm not a vet and don't pretend to be, but maybe the sugar in the food affects him so the stress marks appear?? Ask around or post a new thread in health to inquire about the Vitamin A, I know someone would be willing to clear that up for you..

 

[jacody]

There are sites that teach you how to analyze the poop under a microscope, but not sure what kind they use, sure a person w/ a biology background would have something very similar.. also I believe beardeddragon.co has kits that are around $20- that you send in to them w/ the sample and they will do the fecal check for you. Not sure of the vitamin A toxicity, but my vet has me use calcium w/ no D3 for a majority of dusting on my live food as long as my UVB is current.. he has had cases come in w/ problems related to too much vitamin D.. now I know a lot of people will beg to differ and say that's not right.. I use calcium w/ the D3 on occasion, but mostly w/o.. do the baby foods you use have sugar in them, hard to find ones that don't, have you tried pureeing your own w/ no sugar added, I'm not a vet and don't pretend to be, but maybe the sugar in the food affects him so the stress marks appear?? Ask around or post a new thread in health to inquire about the Vitamin A, I know someone would be willing to clear that up for you..

 

[Mustashio]

Your story sounds very familiar, as this is exactly what happened to my Mustashio when we first brought him home...from PetSmart...at around the same age and weight. He was eating like crazy and then within 2 weeks of being home he started falling around and acting dizzy and drunk like. Here is a link to the videos of him doing his "dizzy dance".

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=166383

I took him to a trusted herp vet and found out he had mega parasites in his poop! (Likely from the pet store...in fact, they reimbursed me for the $150 in vet bills I had to pay in the first month!)

Vet gave him panacur for the parasites and that made him not eat much at all. Ended up having to syringe feed him for awhile with some Criticare food the vet gave me. Here is a pic of when he was little and we had to syringe feed him.



It looks so vicious and I hated doing it, but I do credit this site and board for all their help in saving his life! Here is a picture of my porker today! He is now happy healthy 18month old adult dragon who weighs 532g and is about 17in long (with a tail nip)! He has, however, taken an unauthorized hiatus from his vegis for the last 8 months! Stubborn dragon!



Keep us updated on your little guy! The people on this site are literally dragon savers and I trust them with my Mustashios life! Don't know what I wouldve done without this board!!

Jill

 

[Mustashio]

Also, the parasite test is a simple poop test and takes only 15-20minutes. My vet charges $34 for just a fecal, and you don't need the dragon, only the poop!!

 

[Dan28]

The baby food does have a lot of sugar, that might be it. In a weird way though, I hope it is parasites so it can finally be treated and get it over with. Mustashio, you gave me a lot of hope because its the same situation it all worked out for you. The next step is to get him to poo then test it. Did your bearded dragon poop much when force feeding? Mine has only pooped once in the five days I've been doing that. Also, what did you say to petsmart to get reimbursement, as I know they will probably say its been more than two weeks. I know what you mean about the people on this site, they help me as much as they helped my dragon when I was freaking out and didn't know what to do. All great and very friendly people here.

 

[jacody]

When I got my 1st dragon, Omni she went for an exam and fecal and the vet told me he had never in his career seen as high a count of the coccidia running through her little body plus the pinworms, he wrote a letter for me which I never had to use, but the "specialized" store did pay me for the $100 cost of the beardie and the initial meds she had. The owner of the store was not nice about the whole thing and I wasn't very assertive so my husband called him which prob. made things worse, but I never set foot in his store again and for 2 years (and still) I told everyone I knew never to go there for pets or live food.. Anyway, what I mean to say is you may have a trouble w/ the larger chain stores, but maybe if you go in and talk to a "manager" you may be able to work something out w/ him, it doesn't hurt to try. The beardie I have now came from Petsmart and aside from very low levels of coccidia/pinworms when I 1st got him Crixus is now a very healthy pet.. keep up the care you're giving your pet..

 

[Mustashio]

Yes, I agree with jacody. When we started having problems we were just outside of the 14 day guarantee that PetSmart has. Clearly it was something that he had prior to our taking him home, and the PetSmart people were really cool about it, and even said they would get the other babies in that viv tested as well. They were really cool about it. I talked to the manager and he said all I had to do was get copies of the vet bill and the records from the vet and get it back to the store. I didn't have to do anything else. It did take a little while to get the check because it had to go through corporate, but it was otherwise pretty smooth!

As for pooping issues, if he isnt eating a lot he wont poop as much. You could try giving pure plain canned pumpkin. Like the stuff you use to make pie at the grocery store. Plain though...no spices. That stuff worked for my dragon many times when he gets a little bound up and he loves it!! Usually only took a day or so. And it is really good for them too! I wish they'd sell it in a smaller can though! You can also give more frequent baths. Tashi only seems to go poop in the bath, (blessing or curse? Not sure which yet!) so sometimes that helps with going poop too. Also gently stroking his belly from beard to vent underwater sometimes gets the motion going too! And they usually like that! If he does poop in the water, you can still use it for a fecal test (presuming it is formed and not diarrhea). Just scoop the poop and urates out as soon as you can and bring it to the vet. They can still test it, just let them know that it was in water. I think they like to have a pretty fresh sample, like within 6 hours or so? Not sure exactly how long, but you should have time to get it to them. I put my little "goodie bag" in a plastic baggie or a small cup and bring the prize to the vet! It cracks me up how we can spend so much time worrying and talking about our beardie's poop! Just like having a newborn human baby!! :lol:

Good luck and keep us updated!

 

[Dan28]

Thanks for all the advice you two. I tried doing the same thing with petsmart but they said I couldn't get reinbursed at all. They said once my dragon had gotten sick, I needed to bring him in to the store and they would've refunded it. Its a little frustrating, but I wasn't expecting much help from them. He just pooped and I bagged it in a little container my vet gave me. My vet said that if I refrigerated it, the sample would be fine so I think ill bring it in tomorrow morning. I just fed my bearded dragon and he is all black again. Do you two think that baby food expires? I always have it in the fridge, but that might be what is making him sick. Ill start a new thread asking about vitamin A just in case it might be that. Ill keep updating on his situation but I think hes not near death like he was earlier in the thread so hes hopefully gonna be ok.

 

[jacody]

Could it be that it's cold when he eats it?? I don't know, just trying to figure out why eating would do that??