JLynn87
Hatchling Member
A friend of mine recently acquired a foster bearded dragon. He is estimated at two years old and the owners had them for roughly one year. During that year it appears he’s not had any UVB or heat, his enclosure is not appropriately setup and dirty, he is skin and bones with no fat pads, clogged femoral pores, stuck shed and a sore on his chin, possibly infected, and arms feels a bit rubbery like MBD. It was tough to get a weight on him, he is anywhere between 40 to 60 g 
.
To make the situation even more difficult, my friend and her boyfriend do not have the best knowledge about bearded dragon care. She listens to me and I’ve encouraged her to register on this site along with a few other resources; however, her boyfriend used to work at Petco in the Reptile department and thinks he knows the correct way and a lot of things he says are not quite right. They do let me come over and help, and they let me take him this afternoon to give him a Betadine bath and some other stuff. Once his chin dried I put raw, unfiltered honey on it (don’t have Neosporin right now). I fed him 2 hornworms, squash and zucchini, he ate a decent amount. My beardie has been brumating since November so I don’t have any other life feeders around, I have some on order. I gave him liquid multivitamin, calcium and electrolytes from Bug-De-Lite and he has been getting powered calcium with D3, I think that has saved him from even worse health issues..
I bought him appropriate lights (ReptiSun T5 10.0 22” tube with reflector and 100 W basking bulb) two days with the lights, he has made some improvement. Financially I am in a tight place for the next couple of months and my friend is also in a tight situation. I’m thinking they would let me take him to a vet when I can afford to do so, however that requires travel for me so I really need to save to do this. I have taken lots of photos and will post those and I also got a photo of his bowel movement today, it looks concerning.
His home still needs work, he has sand and another mixture of something for flooring, I spoke to them about this and the boyfriend thinks it’s OK, I’ve tried giving him the education but he gets defensive. I will be going over there to clean his tank in the near future, in other words when my friend is not at work and I will put in repticarpet because that is all I have right now.
Any other advice on how to help this sweet guy would be much appreciated. He has a wonderful temperament, he surprisingly does well being handled. He can stand up well, has a good grasp and was a bit curious walking around my apartment. My friend is asking to keep him and I offered to pay to keep him if the owners don’t give him up.
They also acquired a leopard gecko, I know little to nothing about their care so helpful resources are greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance for your help and guidance
. To make the situation even more difficult, my friend and her boyfriend do not have the best knowledge about bearded dragon care. She listens to me and I’ve encouraged her to register on this site along with a few other resources; however, her boyfriend used to work at Petco in the Reptile department and thinks he knows the correct way and a lot of things he says are not quite right. They do let me come over and help, and they let me take him this afternoon to give him a Betadine bath and some other stuff. Once his chin dried I put raw, unfiltered honey on it (don’t have Neosporin right now). I fed him 2 hornworms, squash and zucchini, he ate a decent amount. My beardie has been brumating since November so I don’t have any other life feeders around, I have some on order. I gave him liquid multivitamin, calcium and electrolytes from Bug-De-Lite and he has been getting powered calcium with D3, I think that has saved him from even worse health issues..
I bought him appropriate lights (ReptiSun T5 10.0 22” tube with reflector and 100 W basking bulb) two days with the lights, he has made some improvement. Financially I am in a tight place for the next couple of months and my friend is also in a tight situation. I’m thinking they would let me take him to a vet when I can afford to do so, however that requires travel for me so I really need to save to do this. I have taken lots of photos and will post those and I also got a photo of his bowel movement today, it looks concerning.
His home still needs work, he has sand and another mixture of something for flooring, I spoke to them about this and the boyfriend thinks it’s OK, I’ve tried giving him the education but he gets defensive. I will be going over there to clean his tank in the near future, in other words when my friend is not at work and I will put in repticarpet because that is all I have right now.
Any other advice on how to help this sweet guy would be much appreciated. He has a wonderful temperament, he surprisingly does well being handled. He can stand up well, has a good grasp and was a bit curious walking around my apartment. My friend is asking to keep him and I offered to pay to keep him if the owners don’t give him up.
They also acquired a leopard gecko, I know little to nothing about their care so helpful resources are greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance for your help and guidance
