I just found out that my 5 1/2 year old beardie Sid has severe arthritis, and am looking for any suggestions/help on how to help her with the pain. Apparently this is rare in lizards. Basically my vet has said we can try drugs, but if it doesn't work I should consider putting her down as she's in a lot of pain.
Long story short she was a happy healthy dragon and then last March she started to get tail rot. After three tail amputations (the last one May 2016), she finally healed properly but I started to notice twitching and pain in right back leg and back and minimal/difficult mobility after healing. X-rays show severe arthritis, so we tried metacam first (0.2 cc) every day but did not help. Now she is on Buprenorphine (0.02 cc) every day, which seems to be helping a bit as she's more alert and eating but still not great.
Anyone had this in their beardie and if so how did you deal with it? I love my baby and want to try all I can before deciding to put her down.
Poor girl, I'm sorry to hear she is in pain. I haven't dealt with this in person but you may want to try some serrapeptase and/or introduce lots of silk worms into her diet. This is an anti inflammatory and may help to ease her pain a bit. Others may have some ideas for you as well but I think this would be worth a try http://www.bug-de-lite.com/store/index.php?app=ecom&ns=prodshow&ref=Serrapeptase
I agree with cooper too. You could try some colloidal silver also. It might help depending what the arthritis is caused from. It's worth a try. You can find it on the same site link.
So sorry your Sid isn't doing well. Arthritis can be very painful for them.
Did they do any x-rays see if she has any metabolic bone issues since her amputation?
You could give a daily bath in nice warm water, to help try to relieve some of the pain & swelling.
The pain meds are only good for short term use unfortunately, as they can cause side effects.
The serrapeptase is a silkworm enzyme used for pain relief, along with anti-inflammatory relief too.
Let us know how she is doing.
Yes I got x-rays which is how we found out it was arthritis. There is no metabolic bone issues. I have been giving her daily baths too, but I figured there wasn't much I could do I will try the silk worms and Look at the silver collidial too.
Let us know how Sid is doing. Continue with the daily baths, it could help relieve some discomfort & pain some.
Hopefully she will like the silkworms! Most tend to as they are nice & soft.
I am glad that at least she doesn't have metabolic bone disease on top of the arthritis, that would be even worse!
Perhaps take a look at how the tank is set up to ensure it is easy for them to climb up for basking without the need for difficult climbing or jumping that could cause more pain.
Thanks for all the suggestions, she is doing s bit better on her meds and have ordered the silk worm oil so hope to see more improvement. I already had to change the tank when she had the amputations because she couldn't climb, but thanks for the suggestion.
I have heard about CBD (Cannabidiol) oil for pets too but I can't get in Canada yet which is too bad.
On week 2 of Serrapeptase in combination with her meds and she seems to be doing a lot better. I'll be ordering some more, thanks to all who suggested this.
They got your dragon on some potent medication! It's weird you can't get cannabinoid medications in Canada, I thought it wasnt restricted there. Hopefully you and your vet can come up with a good pain management plan and some of the other naturalistic suggestions help.
Yes I think the meds are too strong, they Serrapeptase seems to help so I'm hoping to do that in combination with CBD as a few places are finally starting to carry it. Will start that in about a week?
Thanks so much for the concern, I'm very glad I joined this forum and get to share with other beardie lovers. She is doing a lot better, less twitching, moves more although still not easily but considering her condition it's lot better, and she's eating more.
I finally found some CBD oil and want to start trialing it on her but I need to figure out the proper dose.