I am posting here about our loss. Today we buried our Bearded Dragon. We got him 20 Aug 2017 and he was about 8 weeks old at that time. Today, 1 Oct 2017, he has passed. (I say he, but he was not even old enough to know if he was a he or she).
I am posting here because I am looking for answers but also want to share what happened as it was so quick. He died about 30 minutes from me first spotting something was wrong. It was not even enough time to get to the emergency Vet. I feel posting this might make others aware that this can happen. I am posting in Health as, this lead to my loved Bernie dying.
We noted over the last 24 hours, his reluctance to eat. He ate but did not seem keen on it.
He seemed fairly active and mobile. This morning, I noted he was staring am me. Not really keen to move. He was holding his head up and looking about, but not really moving about.
I started to pay attention. All looked ok, but something felt wrong.
I decided to take a look. I opened the door and put my hand in and he opened his mouth wider than I have ever seen before. Then his arms were flailing everywhere and his back bent like a horse shoe. He was rock solid in this contorted horse shoe shape. I suspect a seizure ?
I immediately took him out for inspection. After 5 minutes or so, he loosed up and cuddled into the warmth of my hand. I then noted one eye was open, one closed. Then after a while it seemed he could not hold his head up. Shortly after, his back legs and tail had tremors. Then he seemed to stop breathing. After a minute or so I could see noticeable breaths again. then he stopped after a while again. then he opened his mouth extra wide again and then collapsed.
I rushed him to the emergency vet. She felt a very shallow heart beat but no breathing. Then he died. It seemed to be all over before it began. From looking at me to dead.
Being this young, I can't think the stokes would be a calcium issue, wouldn't that take time to develop ?
As we have a second Lawson, I want to be sure that there is nothing going wrong here.
The vet was not an exotic specialist so the best they could do is confirm death and confirm that there was nothing in his throat or airway. He had not choked. I have returned home, completely cleaned out the vivarium. Just in case.
I have sprayed herp antibacterial spray and cleaned everything.
The Vivarium is 24c in the coldest spots and 40c in the hottest. the water changed daily.
Current diet is small crickets and every few feeds in calcium dust. We have a UVA/B lamp on about 10 hours, heat lamp on during the day and ceramic at night.
We had recently tried introducing cauliflower and Bok Choy. The Lawson that died, would not touch it. The other one greedily ate it all up.
Floor substrate is fake grass. They have two hides and a large rock to climb on (They are purpose made and have been did infected every 7 days).
there is a fake climbing vine (disinfected) and other bits and pieces.
We clean the excrement when we see it.
There are no things super high to fall from. They also have a hammock in one corner.
They both started to shed skin about 2 weeks ago so we have been giving them warm baths (paddles) to help with that.
We took them both out for a handle, 30 mins a day. they usually scamper about.
We try not to have anything on the carpet that they should not eat.
I am sure we are not doing anything wrong.
I did note that the surviving one had been picking on the one that died, a little recently. running up and trying to bite it. Also constantly trying to get on top of it. they were both about the same age and from the same genetic pool.
I have not seen him have any seizure up until today. It seems to me that this was a major one.
Sadly, it was my little girls birthday present and now she is heart broken.
I am posting here because I am looking for answers but also want to share what happened as it was so quick. He died about 30 minutes from me first spotting something was wrong. It was not even enough time to get to the emergency Vet. I feel posting this might make others aware that this can happen. I am posting in Health as, this lead to my loved Bernie dying.
We noted over the last 24 hours, his reluctance to eat. He ate but did not seem keen on it.
He seemed fairly active and mobile. This morning, I noted he was staring am me. Not really keen to move. He was holding his head up and looking about, but not really moving about.
I started to pay attention. All looked ok, but something felt wrong.
I decided to take a look. I opened the door and put my hand in and he opened his mouth wider than I have ever seen before. Then his arms were flailing everywhere and his back bent like a horse shoe. He was rock solid in this contorted horse shoe shape. I suspect a seizure ?
I immediately took him out for inspection. After 5 minutes or so, he loosed up and cuddled into the warmth of my hand. I then noted one eye was open, one closed. Then after a while it seemed he could not hold his head up. Shortly after, his back legs and tail had tremors. Then he seemed to stop breathing. After a minute or so I could see noticeable breaths again. then he stopped after a while again. then he opened his mouth extra wide again and then collapsed.
I rushed him to the emergency vet. She felt a very shallow heart beat but no breathing. Then he died. It seemed to be all over before it began. From looking at me to dead.
Being this young, I can't think the stokes would be a calcium issue, wouldn't that take time to develop ?
As we have a second Lawson, I want to be sure that there is nothing going wrong here.
The vet was not an exotic specialist so the best they could do is confirm death and confirm that there was nothing in his throat or airway. He had not choked. I have returned home, completely cleaned out the vivarium. Just in case.
I have sprayed herp antibacterial spray and cleaned everything.
The Vivarium is 24c in the coldest spots and 40c in the hottest. the water changed daily.
Current diet is small crickets and every few feeds in calcium dust. We have a UVA/B lamp on about 10 hours, heat lamp on during the day and ceramic at night.
We had recently tried introducing cauliflower and Bok Choy. The Lawson that died, would not touch it. The other one greedily ate it all up.
Floor substrate is fake grass. They have two hides and a large rock to climb on (They are purpose made and have been did infected every 7 days).
there is a fake climbing vine (disinfected) and other bits and pieces.
We clean the excrement when we see it.
There are no things super high to fall from. They also have a hammock in one corner.
They both started to shed skin about 2 weeks ago so we have been giving them warm baths (paddles) to help with that.
We took them both out for a handle, 30 mins a day. they usually scamper about.
We try not to have anything on the carpet that they should not eat.
I am sure we are not doing anything wrong.
I did note that the surviving one had been picking on the one that died, a little recently. running up and trying to bite it. Also constantly trying to get on top of it. they were both about the same age and from the same genetic pool.
I have not seen him have any seizure up until today. It seems to me that this was a major one.
Sadly, it was my little girls birthday present and now she is heart broken.
That would have been some type of seizure, possibly from low blood calcium but I don't think it would kill a beardie so quickly. I dont know if Rankin's get the dreaded atadenovirus like the larger pogona vitticeps [ central b.d.'s ] but that's one possibility. Or maybe Bernie ate something that was too big to pass....be careful of hard veggies, anything hard should be grated for small dragons.
