Respiratory infection treatment.

[Tony3619]

My bearded dragon has heavy breathing and a clicking sound.

It looks like a respiratory infection

I have been prescribed metacam to see if it helps. Does metacam do anything other than offer pain relief?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Actually, metacam wont really do anything for a respiratory infection. It can help with pain, inflammation, etc, but
isn't going to do much for a respiratory infection. Does he seem to have any mucous in or around his mouth or nose?
For now, you can try to increase his basking temperatures a degree or two. How old is he? Also, if you can keep him
a little warmer overnight, usually a range of 75-80 is good to help boost his immune system.
We can also review your tank setup if you would like, to be sure everything is all good.

Let us know how he is doing.
Tracie

 

[Tony3619]

Hey,

Thank you for the reply!

I haven't noticed anything around his mouth. He seems to be much better in the morning and the closer it gets to night time the worse his breathing gets. It's alot heavier and his mouth is slightly open with an occasional popping sound.

I'm assuming the metacam was prescribed to see if he gets better by himself without using antibiotics? I have upped the temperature.

Below are the vivarium setup....

Temperature - 29c cold end/ 40c hot end (100w bulb)
Uvb lighting is a 900mm tube T8
Night time I use no heating so the temp will sit around 17-19c
Humidity sits between 20-30%
Diet is salad one day and locust the next


Hope this helps

Cheers

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

You are very welcome. How is your boy today? That's good to hear he seems to be feeling a little better. It does seem that they
tend to breathe worse at night for some reason, probably humidity changes, from night to day, etc.
That is perfectly fine to see if his immune system can kick any infection. Increasing the temperatures for basking should help out
& using a ceramic heat emitter overnight will boost his system.
Let us know how he is doing!

Tracie