RIP Sweet Pogo; Welcome Home Happy Go LUCKY

Has anyone used/had problems with the magic mushroom basking ledge? It attaches to the cage with magnets and can be used as a platform for basking.

There is something wrong with my beardie. I have ruled out just about everything, so now I am checking particular cage furniture. Pogo goes back to the vet on Tuesday (and I am surprised I have been able to keep her alive this long). She has serious eating problems and now she has eye problems too. No signs of respiratory infection, though - like no mouth opening, weird breathing, crusties, mucous, etc. (I use a Reptisun 10.0 T8 Tube - not coil, so that should not be the problem.) I actually turned off the UVB today to see if it would help her eyes - it seemed to help at first, but now tonight, they seem worse again. Her temps are right. I have had two reptile vets (and people here) tell me that my husbandry is fine, but I am taking her back to the vet on Tuesday with multiple stool samples to see if maybe parasites just aren't showing up in every poop, but are there. And now the eye problem, which I thought was just shedding at first but seems to be getting worse . . .

 

[sweetiepie9]

I would take the ledge down & use a brick or something like that for basking. I'm sorry your little one isn't feeling well, I'd suggest getting some Carnivore Care, butternut squash baby food and bee pollen. That's what I give mine when they stop eating. I'll wish you the best. Hope the fecals do the trick, parasites can be awful for them. How old is your basking light. The Reptisuns have to be changed every 6 mo, but I've heard some say they can reduce after 5 mo. Is it inside her tank so it's only about 8" away from her basking spot? Please keep me updated. I've been through alot of illnesses with mine in the last year. Glad you have a good vet. GOOD LUCK!

 

[PogoLover]

I would take the ledge down & use a brick or something like that for basking. I'm sorry your little one isn't feeling well, I'd suggest getting some Carnivore Care, butternut squash baby food and bee pollen. That's what I give mine when they stop eating. I'll wish you the best. Hope the fecals do the trick, parasites can be awful for them. How old is your basking light. The Reptisuns have to be changed every 6 mo, but I've heard some say they can reduce after 5 mo. Is it inside her tank so it's only about 8" away from her basking spot? Please keep me updated. I've been through alot of illnesses with mine in the last year. Glad you have a good vet. GOOD LUCK!

I have only had Pogo (and her lights) for about a month, so they shouldn't be bad yet. She can get within good ranges of her Reptisun (and the screen lid is cut out so that the light does not pass through a screen). She is a little baby - she was, at most, 2 months when I got her. Ate fine for a couple of days and then slowly stopped eating. I have been feeding her Carnivore Care mixed with baby food squash and a little water for the last three weeks. She was gaining weight on it for a while, and the the eye problem started up. She will still eat the mix but not enough to gain weight (which she should be doing at this point). She is skinny But she is still really friendly and fairly active, despite her issues. She poops regularly. She likes her baths. She even knows how to tell me when she has had enough of the bath. Took her to the first vet a couple of weeks ago - they tested her for parasites and it came back negative. He looked at her organs with a light (she is small enough that you can basically see through her with a light!). She didn't have the eye problem then.

The eye thing started out looking like she was just going to shed her head - she was scratching her chin, etc. on her cage furniture, doing the couple second beard puff (like stretching) and also doing explody eye. Then it almost looked like she got shed in her eyes and can't get it out. I am just hoping that the vet in a couple of days tells me that there is something that I can do to help little Pogo. I am so worried.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I'm going to move your post to Beardie ER where you'll get better advice than I can give you. She definitely has something wrong, poor sweetie.

movng to beardie ER by moderator

 

[PogoLover]

I'm going to move your post to Beardie ER where you'll get better advice than I can give you. She definitely has something wrong, poor sweetie.

movng to beardie ER by moderator

Thank you. I am pretty much resigned to just waiting until the vet appointment on Tuesday and trying to keep her as comfortable as possible (and alive) until then. I think I have tried just about everything that anyone has ever posted on these boards (going back six years), other than force feeding her. If I ever have occasion to buy a bearded dragon in the future, I will not buy one that is under 30 grams. This is heartbreaking.

 

[AHBD]

Poor lil' Pogo. I've been following her journey since you got her. Please don't give up hope, she may still come around. Can you post a few pics of her and a few close ups of her eyes ? I'm pretty sure that fecal tests won't be any different than before, but I understand your frustration, but that won't be causing her eye trouble.

When you bathe her, is there any type of residue from anything at all that could be irritating her eyes ? Do you ever use any type of soap ? And is there anything in her tank that you have used any glue or other adhesive that might irritate her eyes ? Anything recently sprayed in the room ? Think of anything at all. But please post pics of her and her set up.....just to be sure nothing is overlooked.

 

[PogoLover]

Poor lil' Pogo. I've been following her journey since you got her. Please don't give up hope, she may still come around. Can you post a few pics of her and a few close ups of her eyes ? I'm pretty sure that fecal tests won't be any different than before, but I understand your frustration, but that won't be causing her eye trouble.

When you bathe her, is there any type of residue from anything at all that could be irritating her eyes ? Do you ever use any type of soap ? And is there anything in her tank that you have used any glue or other adhesive that might irritate her eyes ? Anything recently sprayed in the room ? Think of anything at all. But please post pics of her and her set up.....just to be sure nothing is overlooked.

I haven't given up. I will try to post pictures later this afternoon. I am out right now getting my daughter ready for her first day of high school tomorrow.

Nothing new in tank and the eye problem started only about a week ago. She was in the tank for three weeks before that. I think she is having trouble shedding her head ... It looks like she got shed stuck in her eye. She is so tiny I don't want to mess around with her eyes as I might accidentally blind her. She still opens her eyes and the actual eyes look normal .... It's like stuff on her eyelids is causing the problem. I am wondering if she was scratching her head in something and got a fleck of something in there. No soap when I bathe her .... And I rinse the bathing tub out with really hot water in between baths.

It's like every time I find a way to fix the current problem, a new one starts. I had her gaining weight on the food mixture and then she got the eye thing. She is still taking some of the food, but not nearly as much. I sit with her for about an hour three times a day and try. When she does take the food, she gobbles it up like she is starving for a few seconds and then closes her mouth. I keep her warm under a light outside the cage while I wait for her to open up again for the next few bites.

I have been taking her outside on my lap for about a half hour every day since it is still in the 80s here. Sometimes she will take some food out there (from the dropper) but not today. Nothing so far today.

It's killing me. When I go to pick her up she grabs on to my finger and she doesn't want to let go. If I put her on my leg she will either run up my shirt to sit on my boob, or she will try to get back to one of my hands. She is so sweet.

 

[AHBD]

I know you won't give up and she is definitely a sweetie trying to hang on to you. I think her eye problem is probably from a bit of shed then and it will be temporary. You can rinse with a bit of saline [ if you haven't done so already ] and even apply a tiny bit of watered down raw honey. But if she's still eating a little + still active, those are both good signs.

 

[PogoLover]

I know you won't give up and she is definitely a sweetie trying to hang on to you. I think her eye problem is probably from a bit of shed then and it will be temporary. You can rinse with a bit of saline [ if you haven't done so already ] and even apply a tiny bit of watered down raw honey. But if she's still eating a little + still active, those are both good signs.

OK, so here are some pics. Of course, she decided to "wake up" tonight, so there are good and bad in here.

Bad right eye:

Bad left eye:

Cage (currently without mushroom ledge and without UVB on):

Eating dinner:

After dinner:

The yellow yuckies on her nose/mouth area are just food. I wipe her off after but she starts "giving me the hand" if I try too hard, so I don't fight her (afraid of scrubbing her little scales right off).

I swear tonight when I picked her up, she looked at me like - "I have been here starving, where have you been?" (Despite the fact this is the fourth time today that I have tried to feed her!)

 

[sweetiepie9]

Aww, she is a sweetheart. Are you sure you have a Reptisun and not a Reptiglo? The only reason I ask is that I got a Reptiglo by mistake and had the same sort of issues with my baby Issy (this was years ago), didn't realize I'd made the mistake until someone pointed it out to me. But if you do have the Reptisun, I'm not sure. The only other thing I can say is mount the UVB inside the tank so it's closer to the basking spot, it should cover 2/3 of the tank and be over by the basking more than on the cool side. Mounting it above the tank top (even if you've made a hole in the lid) still doesn't put it close enough to her basking spot. Maybe that would help.

 

[PogoLover]

Aww, she is a sweetheart. Are you sure you have a Reptisun and not a Reptiglo? The only reason I ask is that I got a Reptiglo by mistake and had the same sort of issues with my baby Issy (this was years ago), didn't realize I'd made the mistake until someone pointed it out to me. But if you do have the Reptisun, I'm not sure. The only other thing I can say is mount the UVB inside the tank so it's closer to the basking spot, it should cover 2/3 of the tank and be over by the basking more than on the cool side. Mounting it above the tank top (even if you've made a hole in the lid) still doesn't put it close enough to her basking spot. Maybe that would help.

I am positive that I have the Zoo Med Reptisun 10.0 T8 36" long tube. I kept the packaging (the bright yellow box with the big red letters) and spent around three weeks (before I got Pogo) deciding which UVB light to buy. My UVB tube runs the full length of the cage and the screen is cut out below the fixture. Her normal basking spot (which was the ledge) put her about 6-8" from the light (and my fixture has a built in reflector). I checked the stats on it and that should be good. If anything, I was nervous that she was getting too much because she started hanging out in parts of the cage where the UVB couldn't get her (e.g., in shade at the bottom or at very top of the back wall where her head was not being hit by the light, but it is still really warm!). That's part of what made me decide to turn the UVB off for a couple of days and just spend more time with her outside - to see if that helps her eyes. I will ask the vet about that.

Vet is tomorrow - YAY- maybe some tests/answers.

Thanks to you and AHBD for keeping me company during this . . . Pogo is my first beardie and I did a month worth of research before getting her to make sure that I had what I needed and had the time/money to properly care for her. When I saw her, I knew she was smaller than she should be for a new beardie owner, but she was at PetSmart and getting me was probably better than getting someone who had no clue how to take care of them or didn't understand the potential expense for food and vet. My PetSmart actually cares for their beardies - never more than two little ones in a cage, and often only one. I visited the PetSmart a couple times a week for a month to watch their beardies - always had clean cage, bright eyes, proper stuff in there. They would come running down their perch to eye you when you came to look at them. And the caretakers there clearly favor them, because they get sad to see them go because they are already attached to them. They even asked about my set up before they let me buy her (and gave me right sized crickets for her).

 

[sweetiepie9]

Sounds like you have everything for her. And honestly, I don't think the perch is the issue, so you can put it back in. Getting her out in the sunshine is best for her now anyway, so great that you can do that. I have a feeling it's stuck shed in her eyes, it happens when it doesn't come off properly. I learned to "help" when mine are getting shed off their eyes, to make sure it all came off.

I'm crossing my fingers that the vet can see that and help remove it for her. Mention it when you take her in, k?

Keep me updated when you get back from seeing the vet. Have you tried phoneix worms with her yet? She might be having a reaction to crickets, not all dragons like them. phoenix worms are great for them, full of calcium and they're a small soft worm so easy to digest.

 

[PogoLover]

Sounds like you have everything for her. And honestly, I don't think the perch is the issue, so you can put it back in. Getting her out in the sunshine is best for her now anyway, so great that you can do that. I have a feeling it's stuck shed in her eyes, it happens when it doesn't come off properly. I learned to "help" when mine are getting shed off their eyes, to make sure it all came off.

I'm crossing my fingers that the vet can see that and help remove it for her. Mention it when you take her in, k?

Keep me updated when you get back from seeing the vet. Have you tried phoneix worms with her yet? She might be having a reaction to crickets, not all dragons like them. phoenix worms are great for them, full of calcium and they're a small soft worm so easy to digest.

I will keep you posted. I have tried crickets and dubia roaches ... Dusted and undusted. I have tried Phoenix worms as well. I have tried various greens, and even cherries. The crazy thing is that when I first got her, she ate mustard greens and collard greens, beardie pellets ... And she even drank from her water bowl and baths. Now she opens her mouth for nothing but the eye dropper. And to the extent I have been able to see inside her mouth, it looks light pink and healthy. She will also occasionally "taste" (lick) her surroundings. She is such a good girl .... Except for the anorexia. I just don't get why she ate for the first several days and then just stopped. I can't starve her out at her weight, so even if I am creating a spoiled monster, I will continue feeding her the mix by hand.

 

[sweetiepie9]

There's no rhyme or reason why they stop eating. I have two older ones that just stopped eating one day, they were eating fine and now, if I don't feed them, they would starve.

You can only continue what you're doing. If you want, you can put a big in her mouth when she opens it instead of the syringe, see what happens. I have to "force feed" my 4 1/2 yr old and my 8 yrs old. I'll take a bug & put the tail end long the side of their mouth, when they open their mouths, I pop in the bug, when they've done chewing, and they're licking their lips, I pop another one in. I've become expert at it as I used to do this when I had baby rescues that wouldn't eat. They got the carnivore care, baby food squash, I also added bee pollen, but I'd also try to get a bug in their mouths as well. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but they eventually got back to eating bugs. I'll wish you well and keep me posted on what the vet says.

 

[PogoLover]

There's no rhyme or reason why they stop eating. I have two older ones that just stopped eating one day, they were eating fine and now, if I don't feed them, they would starve.

You can only continue what you're doing. If you want, you can put a big in her mouth when she opens it instead of the syringe, see what happens. I have to "force feed" my 4 1/2 yr old and my 8 yrs old. I'll take a bug & put the tail end long the side of their mouth, when they open their mouths, I pop in the bug, when they've done chewing, and they're licking their lips, I pop another one in. I've become expert at it as I used to do this when I had baby rescues that wouldn't eat. They got the carnivore care, baby food squash, I also added bee pollen, but I'd also try to get a bug in their mouths as well. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but they eventually got back to eating bugs. I'll wish you well and keep me posted on what the vet says.

I try to shove phoenix worms in there every now and then - so far no luck - she is good at snapping that mouth closed when she sees a bug coming - it's like she ate something bad and now doesn't want to do it again. I will wait to see what the vet says. If she says that it is better to really force feed her than to let her keep going like this, I will be enlisting other family members to assist with shoving the worms in while I get her mouth open. I really hope it doesn't come to that - she is so nice and I don't want her to turn mean because of lizard torture!