Okay here's the deal: Forget the vet for right now, he definitely has MBD, no doubt at all, the lights you were given were not adequate nor are any of them a
UVB light (and even if they were, they must be replaced every 6 months or every 12 months depending on what type they are). So he's most likely NEVER had UVB or UVA light at all, and this is what caused the severe MBD that he has. You can tell by the bony structure of his jaw and skull, and it's the reason he cannot walk, is so lethargic, and has no appetite/can't lift his head or eat on his own, it's the cause of the tremors, twitching, and any unsteady walking or falling/flipping over he might do. HE WILL NOT GET ANY BETTER UNTIL YOU GET HIM AN EITHER AN ADEQUATE, LONG UVB TUBE AND MATCHING LENGTH TUBE FIXTURE (and get it mounted correctly inside his large tank and within the correct, close distance to his Main Basking Spot), OR YOU GET HIM A MERCURY VAPOR BULB (MVB), WHICH IS AN ALL-IN-ONE BULB THAT ACTS AS BOTH A
UVB BULB AND A HEAT/BASKING BULB, AND SCREWS INTO A DOME FIXTURE YOU ALREADY HAVE.
Honestly, an MVB bulb is not adequate for that large a tank, and a MegaRay MVB (the only real adequate MVB bulb there is, Powersun is ok, but not great) costs just as much alone as buying a long UVB tube and matching length tube fixture will cost on Amazon.com. With a 75 gallon tank you need a long UVB tube with a long fixture that has a METAL REFLECTOR inside it, that sits right behind the UVB tube, so that the
UVB light is reflected throughout the large tank. An MVB isn't going to be good enough for a 75 gallon tank.
THROW AWAY THE RED LIGHT!!!!! It is supposed to be just a nighttime heat light, it serves no other purpose, but Bearded Dragons see in full color, better than we do, and having ANY colored bulbs only serves to hurt their eyes, confuse night and day for them, confuse and mask live food, etc. AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, THE AUSTRALIAN DESERT IS VERY COOL AT NIGHT, AND PITCH BLACK. BEARDED DRAGONS SLEEP BEST WITH THEIR TANKS PITCH BLACK AND CONSIDERABLY COOLER THAN THEIR DAYTIME TEMPERATURES. So as long as his tank does not drop below 65 degrees at night, which it most likely doesn't, your home would have to be 60 degrees or below at night for his tank to drop below 65, then he needs absolutely NO NIGHTTIME HEAT SOURCE AT ALL, HE'LL SLEEP MUCH, MUCH BETTER WITH HIS TANK PITCH BLACK AND MUCH COOLER AT NIGHT. So please, get that damn red light out of there and throw it in the garbage, and never ever buy any type of colored bulb for him or any other bearded dragon ever again, not red, blue, yellow green, black, purple, "moonlight", etc. NO COLORED BULBS!!!
He should only need 2 different lights, for a 75 gallon tank probably 3 total, which include a long, 24" or 36" 10.0 T5 UVB Tube inside a matching length tube fixture with a METAL REFLECTOR INSIDE THE FIXTURE AND BEHIND THE TUBE, and then a main, BRIGHT WHITE Basking bulb that will be on the Hot Side of the tank and directly over his Main Basking Spot and right alongside the 24" or 36" 10.0 T5 UVB Tube. Those are the 2 main lights that he needs. For a 75 gallon tank you will probably also need to add a secondary, lower wattage BRIGHT WHITE Basking Bulb over the Cool Side of the tank, just to get the Cool Side Ambient (air) Temperature up between 75-80 degrees, and to add light to the Cool Side of the tank.
He doesn't need to go to a vet right now, #1) He's going to eventually die if he doesn't get under an adequate, long 10.0 T5 UVB tube and adequate bright white basking bulbs that will get the tank within the correct temperature zones, so spending money on a vet right now is not your main priority. If you were to actually take him to a Reptile Vet, they are going to tell you he has severe MBD and needs a proper UVB Tube and he needs to have his tank be in the proper temperature zones. So you already know this, and you need to spend any money on getting him a UVB tube and fixture immediately, and #2) He doesn't need the stress of going to a vet. And unless you find an experienced, Certified Reptile Vet, which is hard to find and expensive, then some "exotics" vet will only say that he probably has parasites and put him on antibiotics, antiparasitics, etc. and he definitely cannot take any medications right now, he can't even digest his food properly or absorb any nutrition right now! Medications would kill him for sure. So don't worry about a vet right now, we know for sure that if he doesn't get under proper
UVB light and in proper temperature zones he's going to die of malnutrition, dehydration, etc. So you need to concentrate on these things first...
Let me try to explain
UVB light to you as basically as I can, so you'll understand what's going on with him. Bearded Dragons are from the Australian Desert, that's it, the only place they naturally live. So obviously they are naturally from an environment with lots of hours of very intense, bright sunlight and the heat it produces, and then very cool dark nights. If you were dealing with a tropical reptile of some sort, or a species of reptile that spends most of it's day inside caves or burrowed underneath stuff then UVB and UVA light would not be such a big issue, nor would having very precise and accurate temperature zones inside his tank. But that's obviously not the case. Captive or pet Bearded Dragons all need at least 14 hours every single day of their lives under a proper/adequate wavelength and strength of
UVB light as well as a bright white basking light that puts their tank temperatures within 3 distinct temperature zones. In their natural environment Bearded Dragons spend all day basking under bright, unobstructed sunlight, then they eat live insects and vegetation, then they bask again, and so on. That's what they do all day long. So your job as a Bearded Dragon owner is to replicate natural sunlight as closely as you can for him for 14 hours each day, and to create 3 distinct temperature zones within his tank that mimic the 3 temperature zones they seek out and find out in the Australian Desert: A Basking Spot Surface Temperature, a Hot Side Ambient (air) Temperature, and a Cool Side Ambient (air) Temperature.
So here are what the 3 artificial temperature zones you need to create inside his tank match up to in his natural, desert environment:
BASKING SPOT SURFACE TEMPERATURE: (between 100-105 degrees) This is recreating a beardie laying on top of a high rock out in the bright, intense, hot, direct Australian Desert Sunlight.
HOT SIDE AMBIENT (AIR) TEMPERATURE: (between 88-93 degrees) This is recreating the normal, typical air temperature out in the Australian Desert for him when he's not up on a high rock trying to directly bask, but just walking or running around through the desert, hunting for food or just traveling.
COOL SIDE AMBIENT (AIR) TEMPERATURE: (between 75-80 degrees) This is recreating him finding shade to go underneath in the desert, either under a rock, in a cave, under a large shrub, etc. in order for him to cool down whenever he wants to.
So you need to break his tank into 2 halves, one side is the Cool side, and the other side is the Hot Side. The Cool Side only serves as a place for him to go and cool down, and it's temperature range needs to stay between 75-80 degrees, and it's important that it not go much higher than 80 degrees because the Cool Side needs to stay considerably cooler than the Hot Side at all times. The Hot Side of the tank is the side that contains his Main Basking Spot/Platform. The Hot Side Ambient (air) Temperature, which is the air temperature of the Hot Side of the tank that surround his Main Basking Spot/Platform, needs to stay between 88-93 degrees. His Main Basking Spot/Platform serves 2 purposes, it needs to provide him with a surface that is directly under the main, higher wattage, bright white basking bulb that will provide him with a very bright, intense temperature that he can go after he eats to properly digest his food, and that is between 100-105 degrees at all times, and it also provides him with a higher platform that is directly under and closer to the UVB tube, and puts him within a close enough distance that he will get direct and intense UVB/UVA light that will be effective to help him digest his food, absorb nutrition, and actually use it.
So over the Hot Side of the tank you'll have a single, high wattage, bright white Basking Bulb, which can be either a reptile-specific bright white basking bulb, like a ZooMed Intense Basking Spot bulb, or it can be what most of us use, a regular, household, Halogen Indoor Flood Bulb, like the kind you buy at Lowes, Tractor Supply, Home Depot, etc., and these are much cheaper than a reptile-specific basking bulb that you buy at a pet shop. For a 75 gallon tank I'd say you're going to need a 150 watt Halogen Indoor Flood bulb or reptile basking bulb in order to get his Main Basking spot between 100-105, and the Hot Side Ambient between 88-93. Normally a 100 watt gets a 40 gallon breeder tank to the correct ranges, so a 150 watt should be perfect for a 75 gallon tank. So this 150 watt, bright white Basking Bulb will be positioned in one of the fixtures you already have, either a dome fixture or a clamp lamp, and will be over the Hot Side of the tank and directly over his Main Basking Spot/Platform, and right alongside the UVB tube. You may need a second, much lower wattage bright white basking bulb to put over the Cool Side, but you won't know that until you set up the 150 watt over the Hot Side along with the long UVB tube, let them both on for a good 2 hours, then measure all 3 temperature ranges and see where the Cool Side Ambient Temperature is. The single , 150 watt main Basking Bulb over the Hot Side may well be enough to get the Cool Side Ambient Temperature between 75-80 degrees, you just won't know until you get it set up and then check it. Either way, I believe you have 2 fixtures that are either Dome fixtures or Clamp Lamps already, so you can use one of them for the Main Basking Bulb (150 watt) that will be over the Hot Side, and then if you need to add a secondary, lower wattage basking bulb over the Cool Side you can use the other fixture you already have. ALL HALOGEN, INDOOR FLOOD BULBS ARE BRIGHT WHITE, SO NO PROBLEM THERE, BUT IF YOU BUY A 150 WATT REPTILE BASKING BULB, PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT ALL BASKING BULBS ARE ALWAYS BRIGHT WHITE, NO COLORS!!!! AND ALSO NEVER BUY ANY BULBS AT ALL THAT ARE COIL/SPIRAL/TWISTY BULBS, THEY CAUSE SEVERE EYE DAMAGE!!!!
I don't know what the other bulb you have is, like I said throw the red bulb in the garbage, and whatever the other bulb that you have is, unless it is a bright white basking bulb that is a high enough wattage to get the Basking Spot Surface Temperature between 100-105 degrees and the Hot Side Ambient (air) Temperature between 88-93 degrees, it's not going to do you any good. A 150 watt Halogen Indoor Flood bulb should only cost you between $5-$10 at either Lowes, Tractor Supply, or Home Depot. I don't think Walmart has any 150 watt Indoor Flood bulbs, they are now unfortunately going to almost all LED lights and only carry very few Halogen Indoor Flood bulbs now, and they are low wattage ones, which may work for you Cool Side secondary basking bulb if you end up needing one. 3 DAYS AGO I SAW 2 PACKS OF HALOGEN INDOOR FLOOD BULBS, THE GOOD PAR38 KIND, AT TRACTOR SUPPLY UP BY THE REGISTER, AND THE 2-PACKS WERE ONLY $5!!! They were only 90 watt bulbs in a big bin, but I'm sure they have all wattages available of the PAR38 Halogen Indoor Flood bulbs if you go in the lightbulb aisle, so I'd check out your local Tractor Supply first, because the next best place price-wise is Lowes, they have all wattages of Halogen Indoor Flood bulbs, either GE, Phillips, and I think a generic brand, which is fine, for under $10 a bulb. You could even try a 125 watt first, but I'm guessing for a 75 gallon tank you'll need a 150 watt.
So besides buying him an adequate 150 watt, bright white Basking Bulb, since you already have 2 fixtures for his basking bulb(s), the only other things you need to buy are a DIGITAL PROBE THERMOMETER, this is not optional, and of course your first priority is buying him an adequate UVB tube and fixture. The cheapest place to buy all 3 of these things is by far going to be Amazon.com, where they put together a package deal when you buy both a UVB tube and the matching fixture, and you also usually get free, quick shipping. I have recently been ordering my 22" Reptisun 10.0 T5 High-Output UVB tubes on Amazon.com for $23 a piece, which to give you frame of reference is less than half of what it would cost in a pet store, if you can even find a 10.0 T5HO tube in a pet store. AND AMAZON SELLS DIGITAL PROBE THERMOMETERS FOR AROUND $4 A PIECE, WHERE AT PETCO OR PETSMART THEY COST $10. I don't know if you already have a Digital Probe Thermometer or not, I'm guessing you don't since the person that you got him from didn't seem to care about anything, and if he gave you a thermometer at all it is probably some kind of stick-on thermometer, which is not adequate and will not work.
The reason you cannot use any type of stick-on thermometer for a bearded dragon, whether it be one of those round, gauge type of thermometers that are "supposed" to be for reptiles, or any type of stick-on aquarium thermometers or strip is twofold. First of all, most stick-on thermometers are very inaccurate and when tested are off by between 10-20 degrees, which for a bearded dragon is dangerous and will cause serious health issues. The second reason you cannot use any type of stick-on thermometer for a bearded dragon is because there is no way for you to measure his Basking Spot Surface Temperature with a stick-on thermometer, as they can only measure ambient (air) temperatures! YOU MUST HAVE EITHER A DIGITAL THERMOMETER THAT HAS A PROBE ATTACHED TO A WIRE, THAT YOU CAN SET RIGHT ON HIS BASKING SPOT SURFACE WHERE HE LAYS TO BASK TO TAKE THE SURFACE TEMPERATURE, OR YOU CAN ALSO USE A TEMPERATURE GUN IF YOU HAVE ONE, THAT CAN TAKE SURFACE TEMPERATURES THROUGH INFRARED TECHNOLOGY BY AIMING THE GUN AT THE BASKING SPOT SURFACE AND HIT THE TRIGGER. THESE ARE YOUR TWO OPTIONS. As I said luckily the Digital Probe Thermometers are pretty cheap, they cost $10 at any Petco, but if you're going to order his UVB tube and fixture on Amazon to save a fortune, you might as well just order the Digital Probe Thermometer on Amazon for $4 too. *******Just search on Amazon.com for "Reptile Digital Probe Thermometer" and a bunch will pop up.******
Okay, lets talk UVB tubes. HE IS NOT GOING TO GET ANY BETTER BUT RATHER PROGRESSIVELY WORSE IF HE DOESN'T GET UNDER AN ADEQUATE UVB TUBE ASAP! My guess is that he hasn't had ANY UVB/UVA light for a long, long time. He did at some point have adequate UVB, probably during his first year and then sporadically throughout his 10 year life, because he did originally grow and he didn't die, but his current condition of being weak, lethargic, having no appetite, not acknowledging you, having tremors, etc. is ALL due to him not having any UVB/UVA light in his last year or more. I'd be very surprised if he's able to fully move his back legs much at all, and his front legs are probably going to eventually fold up together and underneath him, if they haven't already. If he doesn't soon get an appropriate UVB tube he's not going to live much longer, usually they start having seizure-like behavior and completely stop eating anything, and since bearded dragons get their
hydration from their live insects and their fresh greens/veggies, dragons with severe MBD that are not given appropriate daily UVB/UVA light typically die of dehydration and malnutrition.
Since bearded dragons are desert reptiles they are built to live in very bright, hot environments that give them hours and hours of intense UVB and UVA light daily. What
UVB light does for a bearded dragon is it makes their bodies able to produce their own Vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 in-turn is what enables a bearded dragon to be able to absorb and then process/use the nutrition they take in from both their food and from any supplemental powders they are given, including Calcium, Vitamin B1 (Thiamine), and then just basic nutrition like calories, fat, protein, carbs, etc. So as a result of not getting adequate
UVB light daily, a bearded dragon develops a lot of nutritional deficiencies and the diseases these deficiencies cause, the major one effecting bearded dragons being Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD). MBD obviously weakens the density of all of their bones, making bone fractures and injuries very common, but a lack of calcium causes a host of other serious health issues that have to do with their muscles and nerves.
So when a dragon doesn't get adequate daily
UVB light, their bodies stop absorbing any calcium (and other vitamins and minerals) from anything they eat including food sources and vitamin supplements, they just excrete any calcium they eat in their urates/feces because without
UVB light they cannot absorb it at all. So then their body starts to steal the calcium from their bones in order to use it for all of the body processes that require calcium, like nerve impulses and muscle contractions. This is why their bone density dissipates to nothing. Once that source of calcium is gone and their body has no where to steal anymore calcium from, that's when they start having nerve and muscle twitches and tremors, very weak muscles and an inability to move their extremities, inability to hold themselves up or to walk, or even hold their heads up, a deficit in their vision and depth perception, etc. And this is going to continue until they finally just die from malnutrition or dehydration. And you have to remember that Calcium is only one of the nutritional components that they are not absorbing or processing, so their entire bodies start shutting down. Even basic functions of life like their hearts beating or their lungs inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide are negatively effected by a lack of UVB and calcium absorption. SO UNTIL HE GETS AN APPROPRIATE UVB TUBE HE IS GOING TO GET WORSE AND WORSE.
*********As I already mentioned, for a large tank like you have, a 75 gallon tank, you definitely need a long tube
UVB light. Even if you have a bearded dragon in a very small tank, most all compact (regular lightbulb shaped) UVB lights are only 13 watts and totally inadequate for bearded dragons, so in a huge tank like you have a compact
UVB light is pointless and is no better than having no
UVB light. So you definitely need to buy a long UVB tube, BUT THE LONG UVB TUBE YOU BUY DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THE LENGTH OF YOUR TANK, THAT'S NOT TRUE, IT ONLY NEEDS TO BE LONG ENOUGH TO COVER THE HOT SIDE OF THE TANK AS LONG AS THE FIXTURE YOU BUY HAS A METAL REFLECTOR BEHIND WHERE THE UVB TUBE SITS, THIS WILL CAUSE THE
UVB LIGHT TO BE REFLECTED ALL THROUGHOUT THE TANK, AND AS LONG AS YOU PLACE THE UVB TUBE ON THE HOT SIDE OF THE TANK AND DIRECTLY OVER HIS MAIN BASKING SPOT/PLATFORM, RIGHT ALONGSIDE THE 150 WATT BRIGHT WHITE BASKING BULB, THIS WILL BE MORE THAN ADEQUATE FOR HIM...So I would recommend you buy at least a 24" UVB tube and fixture with a metal reflector, a 36" would be better though. On Amazon you may be able to buy a 36" UVB tube and fixture for not much more at all than the 24", so that's why I recommend you buy your UVB tube and fixture on Amazon.
There are two strengths of UVB tubes: T8 (weaker) and T5 (stronger). For a 75 gallon tank and a beardie with severe MBD, you absolutely need a T5 UVB tube. Besides, a T5 UVB tube only needs to be replaced once every 12 months and only has to be within 11" of his Main Basking Spot/Platform, and it can sit on top of a mesh lid (if necessary) as long as it's still within 11" of his Main Basking Spot/Platform, T5 UVB tubes are strong enough to penetrate the mesh lid and still deliver effective
UVB light to him if within 11" of him while he's basking....T8 UVB tubes must be replaced every 6 months (UVB TUBES STOP EMITTING
UVB LIGHT LONG BEFORE THE TUBE ACTUALLY BURNS OUT OR STOPS LIGHTING UP), and T8 UVB tubes cannot sit on top of mesh lids, they must be mounted inside the tank and underneath the mesh lid, and also must be within 6" of his Main Basking Spot/Platform. And just for the general well-being and health of a dragon with serious MBD, he needs the strength of a T5 UVB tube.
There are two brands of UVB tubes that are adequate for bearded dragons in both wavelength and strength, and also do not emit any harmful rays: Reptisun 10.0 and Arcadia. (NEVER BUY A REPTISUN 5.0 UVB TUBE, ONLY 10.0 AS THE 5.0 TUBES ARE MADE FOR TROPICAL REPTILES!)
******So you want either a 22" or a 34" Reptisun 10.0 T5 High-Output UVB tube, or a 24" or 36" Arcadia 12% or 14% T5 UVB tube. Those are the two choices. The Reptisun 10.0 is generally the cheaper of the two. (*****FYI: THE REPTISUN 10.0 T5HO UVB TUBES COME IN SIZES THAT ARE 2" SHORTER THAN THE STANDARD SIZES, BUT THEY STILL FIT IN THE STANDARD SIZE TUBE FIXTURES. SO FOR EXAMPLE, IF YOU BUY A 22" REPTISUN 10.0 T5HO UVB TUBE, YOU NEED TO BUY A 24" FIXTURE FOR IT, IF YOU BUY A 34" TUBE YOU NEED A 36" FIXTURE, ETC.)
So you'll probably be looking at a 22" or 34" Reptisun 10.0 T5HO UVB tube. If you go only Amazon.com and go to the searchbar and type in ["22" Reptisun 10.0 T5HO UVB tube"] you'll get a bunch of different retailers selling these uvb tubes at different prices and different shipping rates, as I already told you I just bought a 22" Reptisun 10.0 T5HO UVB tube for $23 with free shipping. Once you select the lowest price retailer, it's page then pops up for the UVB tube at their price, and if you scroll down the page at some point you'll see package deals they put together for you that include both the 22" Reptisun 10.0 T5HO UVB tube and then different 24" tube fixtures for different prices, which are all good. There are really not differences between the fixtures EXCEPT YOU NEED A FIXTURE THAT HAS A METAL REFLECTOR IN IT BEHIND WHERE THE UVB TUBE SITS. So that's the only thing you need to look for. You can also buy a separate, slip-on 22" metal reflector if you search for it, it may be cheaper to buy the cheapest 24" tube fixture they have and then just buy a 22" slip-on fixture, I don't know, you'll have to look at it both ways. AND REMEMBER TO SEARCH FOR THE "REPTILE DIGITAL PROBE THERMOMETER" because that's a must as well, and for $4 on Amazon it's a no-brainer.
I know you're young and you have no money, but you're going to have to come up with a way to buy him the UVB tube and fixture, a 125 or 150 watt bright white halogen indoor flood bulb, and a digital probe thermometer ASAP. Really, the UVB tube and fixture is the most urgent thing, though if he doesn't soon get under proper
UVB light and bright white basking light and in proper temperature ranges pretty directly, he's not going to make it.
