Severely curled nail

[GraphicTortoise]

Hi all,

I recently rescued an 8 yr old beardie from a pretty bad neglect situation. I believe most of his issues can be fixed with proper care. (Dirty, overgrown nails, stuck shed, clogged pores, poor diet, old uvb lights)

My concern is his toes though...
One in particular is very swollen (no signs of pain while examining), which I'm going to have the vet look at it, but she can't get him in for 2 weeks.

The other problem toe has a severely overgrown nail that's curled back really bad. I'm scared to trim it and hurt him. I've trimmed all the other nails since the pic provided was taken, but I don't know if I should wait for the vet to trim this one or attempt it myself.

He keeps losing balance and flipping and I'm unsure if it's pain from his nail or dehydration/vitamin deficiency right now, or maybe both. He also has a back foot with no toes on it (3 little toe stubs and that's it) which isn't helping the balance issue. I'm assuming he lost those from stuck shed but I have no clue. He also has red under his hands and I'm struggling to figure out if it's burn marks or old food/fecal matter. He has had 2 baths so far, some has come off but most of it is still there. He's just so dirty! I threw out the heated rock as soon as I got him home!

I added repticarpet over the tiles for the time being to help his balance a little bit and put up a barrier to prevent glass surfing. I prefer bigger pvc enclosures, but he's stuck in the 75 gal he came with at least until he's vet checked. I don't want to move him to a new setup only to deal with a coccidia outbreak.

I'm trying to get his diet corrected but that's proving difficult since he's already stressed from the drastic changes happening and wasn't eating greens before I took him in.

Any advice would be great! I'm not new to owning a beardie, but I've never dealt with one that was so neglected before. I just want to make sure I'm doing what I can before his vet visit. His fecal test was already sent in, but the vet won't prescribe anything until he's seen on the 10th if it comes back positive.

 

[KarrieRee]

Hi all,

I recently rescued an 8 yr old beardie from a pretty bad neglect situation. I believe most of his issues can be fixed with proper care. (Dirty, overgrown nails, stuck shed, clogged pores, poor diet, old uvb lights)

My concern is his toes though...
One in particular is very swollen (no signs of pain while examining), which I'm going to have the vet look at it, but she can't get him in for 2 weeks.

The other problem toe has a severely overgrown nail that's curled back really bad. I'm scared to trim it and hurt him. I've trimmed all the other nails since the pic provided was taken, but I don't know if I should wait for the vet to trim this one or attempt it myself.

He keeps losing balance and flipping and I'm unsure if it's pain from his nail or dehydration/vitamin deficiency right now, or maybe both. He also has a back foot with no toes on it (3 little toe stubs and that's it) which isn't helping the balance issue. I'm assuming he lost those from stuck shed but I have no clue. He also has red under his hands and I'm struggling to figure out if it's burn marks or old food/fecal matter. He has had 2 baths so far, some has come off but most of it is still there. He's just so dirty! I threw out the heated rock as soon as I got him home!

I added repticarpet over the tiles for the time being to help his balance a little bit and put up a barrier to prevent glass surfing. I prefer bigger pvc enclosures, but he's stuck in the 75 gal he came with at least until he's vet checked. I don't want to move him to a new setup only to deal with a coccidia outbreak.

I'm trying to get his diet corrected but that's proving difficult since he's already stressed from the drastic changes happening and wasn't eating greens before I took him in.

Any advice would be great! I'm not new to owning a beardie, but I've never dealt with one that was so neglected before. I just want to make sure I'm doing what I can before his vet visit. His fecal test was already sent in, but the vet won't prescribe anything until he's seen on the 10th if it comes back positive.

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We need AHBD to chime in here w/ the toes etc ------ flipping ??? What do you mean flipping as on to his back????? If so that is not good --- what kind of UVB are you using ? NO coils please !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Basking temps what are they and how are you taking them? NO stick ons they are inaccurate -- you need a digital probe thermometer and they should be surface temps of 95-100--- probe needs to sit on the place where he sits to bask --- I will help you w/ your UVB

 

[GraphicTortoise]

We need AHBD to chime in here w/ the toes etc ------ flipping ??? What do you mean flipping as on to his back????? If so that is not good --- what kind of UVB are you using ? NO coils please !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Basking temps what are they and how are you taking them? NO stick ons they are inaccurate -- you need a digital probe thermometer and they should be surface temps of 95-100--- probe needs to sit on the place where he sits to bask --- I will help you w/ your UVB

He's losing his balance while moving around and flipping onto his back. He quickly scrambles and corrects himself, but it's definitely odd behavior. I have another dragon (separate everything! Even housed in separate rooms with separate food just to be safe) with medical issues, but I've never seen behavior like this.

As I mentioned I've only had this guy a couple of days. He had a 10.00 uvb tube but I'm pretty sure it was too far away from him (fixed closer now with a new bulb in case that one was older than 6 months)

I have no idea what his temps were before. It looks like he had a 75 watt bulb and a heat rock (rock is gone now and the bulb is replaced with a 100 watt arcadia) I doubt they were checking temps before, but I have a temp gun to get an accurate reading. His current temps are reading 110 in the basking spot and 75 on the cold side.

Like I said I'm not new to this, I own another beardie and a tortoise. I'm just not used to the neglect this one has recieved by it's previous owner. I'm trying to do whatever I can to help him out before he's seen by the vet.

 

[KarrieRee]

He's losing his balance while moving around and flipping onto his back. He quickly scrambles and corrects himself, but it's definitely odd behavior. I have another dragon (separate everything! Even housed in separate rooms with separate food just to be safe) with medical issues, but I've never seen behavior like this.

As I mentioned I've only had this guy a couple of days. He had a 10.00 uvb tube but I'm pretty sure it was too far away from him (fixed closer now with a new bulb in case that one was older than 6 months)

I have no idea what his temps were before. It looks like he had a 75 watt bulb and a heat rock (rock is gone now and the bulb is replaced with a 100 watt arcadia) I doubt they were checking temps before, but I have a temp gun to get an accurate reading. His current temps are reading 110 in the basking spot and 75 on the cold side.

Like I said I'm not new to this, I own another beardie and a tortoise. I'm just not used to the neglect this one has recieved by it's previous owner. I'm trying to do whatever I can to help him out before he's seen by the vet.

Where is the UVB ? And is it a Reptisun T 5 or T 8 ? Placement and distance is crucial for the bulbs w/ the screen as well it will determine where the UVB goes --- flipping over on to the back is a sign of MBD-- are you giving calcium D3 or regular calcium? I would invest in a digital probe thermometer as well they are the most accurate for temps --- IR guns are good but sometimes they cannot read off of certain materials -- your UVB is going to help w/ the MBD but the flipping is not good -- it means it has progressed farther --- usually it starts out w/ them not being able to walk w/ the back legs etc -- it will effect the chewing the walking the balance it just depends -- all dragons are different and how it effects them -- if caught early on it can be stopped and not get any worse --- hopefully this will happen but we need your UVB correctly placed for this to happen -- screens make a difference

 

[GraphicTortoise]

It's a T5, it was on a metal mesh screen before about 2 ft up, but I removed the screen and elevated the area to be about 12-15" away from the uvb until I get a more Permanent setup for him. I made sure he was able to reach it without struggling to get up there since he's wobbly, but once he's vet checked and parasite free I'll be able to provide a better setup with even easier access. I just don't want to do too much before I know if he has parasites or not. Eventually I'd like give him a nice bioactive setup. (Isopods on standby in their quarantine tank lol)

I was worried about mbd with him, but Surprisingly his joints don't seem stiff. I did a bit of a mobility test (my other dragon has septic and just lost a limb to it so I'm big about joint and bone health.) We're getting xrays for this one when he sees the vet to look at bone density as well as everything else. I'm a little worried his swollen toe might be gout.

He came with calcium with d3 and I believe he was getting it with his bugs, but I don't know how much or how often. I personally prefer to use repashy superveggie supplement since it has calcium with d3 as well as some other great stuff to keep them healthy. I usually provide that 3-4 days a week sprinkled on their food, and then dusted bugs once a week. I also make sure they don't get a ton of calcium binding foods.

From what I understand this guy was only eating spinach, blueberries, pellets, and freeze dried crickets with the special occasion live feeder, so very bad diet altogether. I've cut out the spinach (very calcium binding) and am offering some better options and variety like collards, kale, spring mix, hibiscus, squash, carrot, ect. but he's not having it atm. Since he's stressed he only wants to eat high reward foods, so we'll be working on that.

 

[GraphicTortoise]

Update on Mushu!
He's adjusting well to his new home and finally eating his greens!

He got a vet exam with xrays and a fecal done. The x-rays show that his bones aren't great (other than his extremely strong jaw bones) but other than giving him proper care moving forward to improve bone density, there's really nothing I can do. My vet said me taking him in and caring for him properly has probably added a few years to his life

His back foot with missing toes looks like it was crushed and mangled. You literally can't see defined bones in that foot, but the injury is so old that it doesn't bother him or cause any pain. My vet thinks he probably lost feeling in that foot a long time ago.

His swollen front toe shows no signs of injury or infection. The bone in that area is fine and It shows up on the xray like normal tissue.

His curled nail got trimmed, but I was told it will always grow in curled and need trimmed regularly.

And the big one... The flipping over.
so as I mentioned he is an 8 yr old dragon and has some not so great bones due to neglect and improper care... That being said, his knee joints are pretty lacking. The way my vet put it is that he has the stamina to climb, but not enough strength in his back knees to follow through. This makes it so when he tries to climb onto something, he can get his front legs up there, but then loses balance and falls over because he doesn't have the strength in his back legs to propel himself forward.

The fecal came back with pinworms. There was a normal amount in his system and no concerns, but they gave me dewormer since my other beardie in the house is parasite free and I want to keep it that way.

 

[CooperDragon]

I'm glad that you're giving him good care now and the vet gave a reasonably good assessment. The pinworms should be pretty easy to take care of with some Panacur/Fenbendazole and proper cleaning/sanitizing routine. It sounds like there isn't much to be done about his ability to climb, so probably best to make everything pretty flat and easily accessible to help him go easy on the joints. If baths don't stress him out (don't force it if they do) then he may enjoy some time swimming in a warm bath. That may also help give him some exercise without being too hard on his joints. Some dragons love to swim around, some hate it. Definitely an individual preference thing.

 

[GraphicTortoise]

I'm glad that you're giving him good care now and the vet gave a reasonably good assessment. The pinworms should be pretty easy to take care of with some Panacur/Fenbendazole and proper cleaning/sanitizing routine. It sounds like there isn't much to be done about his ability to climb, so probably best to make everything pretty flat and easily accessible to help him go easy on the joints. If baths don't stress him out (don't force it if they do) then he may enjoy some time swimming in a warm bath. That may also help give him some exercise without being too hard on his joints. Some dragons love to swim around, some hate it. Definitely an individual preference thing.

He HATES water lol. He freaks out even from dropping water on his nose to drink so bathing regularly is out of the question. I am planning on accommodating to less inclined climbing areas and providing more enrichment to stimulate exercise. Theres only one spot that's a little out of reach right now (his favorite spot of course). My other beardie is a tripod, so I'm pretty familiar with accommodating to mobility. This guy is going to be retiring in a good home with proper care that's long overdue for him