Respiratory Infection? Sick beardie needs help

[HylianHealeys]

My 7-year-old female has been showing unusual symptoms lately. She seemed to be shallowly brumating for a couple months, and she seems to have come out of it. But now she has sticky saliva, lethargic attitude, and gapes with a choking sound (like she's hawking a loogie). But her nostrils and eyes are clear, and she eats fine. Especially roaches, my goodness.

I just feel like something's off, but the vet is expensive and I want to know what's going on and what I can do to support her immune system. She has had a respiratory infection before.

 

[kingofnobbys]

One of the obligations of keeping a beardie is providing proper vetinary support if it gets sick or sustains an injury. This involves finding money to take it to the vet if this appears necessary.

Reptiles are very good at hiding the fact that ill until the illness is very serious.

If you beardie appears as sick as you say, it's already very ill. If you value your pet's life and quality of life and health, you have no option but to find the money and take it to a vet who can prescribe a suitable treatment regime and supply you with the drugs needed to help your beardie.

 

[HylianHealeys]

Thank you, but that is not the advice I'm looking for. I have taken Deliora to the vet before and I'm willing to do so again. While I am "scraping up the money," the information I need is whether or not the symptoms sound like a respiratory infection vs. another illness, such as an oral infection. I also want to know what I can do better in my husbandry so she doesn't get sick again. Here's the stats for her habitat conditions:
- 1 roommate, an adult female she's been with for the past several years with no incident. Deliora is the dominant dragon, and deals with her roommate's occasional bids for dominance as they come, with no change in the status quo.
- Temps: between 85 and 95 degrees. Basking spot: 85-90.
- Humidity: low. Between 20%-30%.
- Diet: varied. Organic collard greens are a staple, served with other foods like carrot, carrot greens, canteloupe, cilantro, and andelion greens. Multivitamin supplement added at least 1x weekly. Protein source: calcium-dusted roaches and superworms, occasionally a hornworm treat.
- Hide: yes, a cork bark log.
- Personality: sedentary, reluctant to move unless uncomfortable.
- Last brumation: ~2-3 weeks ago

Insights pertaining to why she could be sick and what I could be doing better on this front are welcome.

 

[CooperDragon]

The excess mucous sounds like it could be an infection but I'm not sure what kind. It's usually a RI or an oral infection. If you open her mouth can you see any signs of irritation along her teeth/gums that would indicate an oral problem? It's a good sign that her appetite is up. That also tells me that the issue may not be with her mouth because if it was irritating her, then I don't think she'd eat as readily. That's just a guess though. Having a vet take a culture of her mouth may reveal a fungal or bacterial infection which can be treated. In the meantime, I would offer her some extra hydration and if the weather allows, plenty of natural sunlight. That may be enough for her to fight it off on her own, but it's hard to say for sure. As for the enclosure, what are you using for UVB light? I suggest bumping the basking spot temperature a little bit so it reaches about 100 or so, maybe a few degrees more. What are the overnight temps? You may want to use a ceramic heat emitter for a little while to get the overnight temps (at least in part of the enclosure) up to around 80 to take some of the stress off of her system that may come with dropping nighttime temps. Humidity and diet look good to me. That's all I can think of at the moment. I hope she turns out to be OK.

 

[HylianHealeys]

Thanks for the helpful input, CooperDragon! I sure hope we can figure out what's going on, because her roommate is healthy as a horse (just laid her third clutch of the season). You'd think that if something's wrong, it would affect both...

I looked at her gums last night and observed that they are yellow and white. I'm not familiar with what is normal for bearded dragon gums, so I have no idea if that's good or bad. Her saliva doesn't seem to be abnormally thick - about as sticky as human saliva, from what I can tell. Just a lot of it.

Sorry for not mentioning it earlier, but yes, I'm using a Reptisun 10.0 UVA/UVB which got replaced recently. It's placed inside the tank so nothing's blocking the rays, and the dragons are within 10" of the lights most of the time.

I'll replace the basking bulb with a higher wattage and see if that helps basking temps. But overnight temps stay at ~85 degrees most nights. My apartment does not have a good cooling system, so in the summer low temps are never a problem.

 

[CooperDragon]

OK sounds good. If you put in the new stronger basking light, you can try hooking it up to a lamp dimmer so if it's too much, you can cut power a little bit and get it right where you need it to be.