respiratory infection?

[gravy]

I think my beardie might have a respiratory infection. He periodically opens his mouth and breathes heavily. I'm taking him to the vet on Monday. I can't seem to get my humidity down. I've tried removing the water dish and placing it away from the basking light but it is still just too humid. How can I get it to go down! It is dangerously high, it's at 59%.

 

[kyleena29]

Is the enclosure near a fish tank or plants? Did you take the water dish out of the enclosure? Do you see any mucous in or around his nostrils or mouth?

 

[kingofnobbys]

I think my beardie might have a respiratory infection. He periodically opens his mouth and breathes heavily. I'm taking him to the vet on Monday. I can't seem to get my humidity down. I've tried removing the water dish and placing it away from the basking light but it is still just too humid. How can I get it to go down! It is dangerously high, it's at 59%.

60% relative humidity is not DANGEROUSLY high for a bearded dragon. My gang regularly have 65%-70% relative rehumidity in their tanks despite the house being climate controlled in summer and in winter (reverse cycle).
F.I. tonight (8:30pm) the relative humidity in the house is 47%.
Being close to the ocean (in my case we are only about 3 km as the seagulls fly from the Tasman Sea / pacific Ocean), yes we get seagulls in the yard occasionally , we rarely see relative humidities under 40% in summer (we had very hot dry winds blowing in from the interior last week during the most recent heatwave and the humidity still never went below 30% - which is very low humidity here).

I know of people who live on the tropical far north coast of Queensland (Cairns) have wet (monsoon) season humidities in the 80s and have no problems with RIs for their beardies.

A large part of the natural range of central bearded dragons has relative humidities in the range 40 - 50% on average year round. See http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/climate_averages/relative-humidity/index.jsp?maptype=1&period=an , and as high a 80% relative humidity in winter.

But if you are convinced the relative humidity is too high, one of these https://www.amazon.com/Improved-Eva-dry-E-333-Renewable-Dehumidifier/dp/B000H0XFCS/ref=lp_267557011_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1487928972&sr=1-1 will reduce the humidity in the tank pretty effectively.

My beardies have never had a RI.

No water dishes in any of my beardies' tanks (used to have water dishes by Rex and Puff were using their water dishes as toilets so out came the water dishes and they never went back in).

 

[CooperDragon]

I agree. They live in areas with humidity up around 60%. I'd say 40-60% is a good average range. If it doesn't feel humid to me in the house I don't worry too much about humidity.