sick dragon

[garysymington]

our female dragon we rescued, she has always been a little slow and sickly I think she Is compacted. she has stopped pooping but she has some other issues she has a bump on her side it is about as big as a dime and it is dark almost black it also sticks out a little bit.we have tried feeding her apple sauce and olive oil for a couple of weeks & daily baths but she just won't go.she also has a few scales on the top of her head that seem to have fused together they are also black and she has an extremely diminished appetite ,she dosen't want to eat her salad all she wants are super worms so we have to withhold the worms so she will eat her salad.she is 3 1/2 to 4 yrs old our male is only 20 months and he is as healthy as he could be but she is lying flat on the bottom of her tank and when she lifts her head or moves it's real slow even her regular head bobbing is really slow.i wanted to know if there is anything else we can do for her and her bms. my wife is getting quite worried about her.

 

[UTreptiles]

Sorry to hear about this. Can you tell us more about her living conditions. What kind of lighting do you have? Cage temps? substrate usage. Any info on what conditions were like before she was rescued, and when was she rescued? When was the last BM? Just a suggestion, do you lightly massage the belly during baths?

Can you submit a picture of the dragon showing spots/lumps you mentioned?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Yes, please answer the questions so we can direct you better.
How long has she not been feeling well?
Is she housed alone, or with the male?
What kind of substrate are you using?



Tracie

 

[garysymington]

Thanks for getting back to us sofast. I'm Gary's wife,he's sleeping, so I'll do my best to answer your questions. When we 1st got Miss Lizzie, she was housed in a big tank(approx 7ft long by 2.5ft wide by 2ft deep), with half of it lizard carpet and half play sand (separated by a 2by4). She had a large basking rock, a dish for water and nothing else in her cage. He said " she eats up to 15 superworms a day (at appr 2yrs of age) and some romain lettuce and I'm taking it to the pound if I can't sell it" She had NO attention, was overweight and VERY lazy. So we took her, changed her name from Miss Piggy, and put some fake leaves, a log, driftwood,a cave to hide in from the pet store and showered her with lots of love&attention. She stated to use all her new toys, lost abit of weight, was bobbing her head. She 'came to life'. After about 4 mths, we learned of all the other thingsthey can eat and changed her diet slowly but her favorite is still the super worms. After about 6mnths, she started to lay eggs. About 2mnths later (we'd had her a yr), about 2 mnths ago, we noticed a decrease in energy, loss of appetite and we thought she wanted a friend. We went to get her a mate. Found a store in Calgary, J&J Reptiles, went there and learned a bunch of stuff, including we needed to change the lighting and sand is not good.We got good lights, a male for her and started to feed them ONLY on the carpet. But i think we too late because Miss Lizzie hasn't had BM since. We've tried everything including a drop of veg oil, applesauce, and warm baths everyday for a week; gently rubbing her abdomen & armpit while bathing. All this while trying to pack our mouse-ridden house for a move to Ontario (major roadtrip),looking after 2 kids&2dogs. We really can't afford a vet, but if you don't have any other suggestions,(enema? rubbing rt or lft armpit? ANYTHING?!) i will take her in because we move in 3 days and i wanted her well before we leave. Other things: She never uses her water dish so i started spraying her once a wk after we almost lost her about 7moths ago; not sure the kind of lights we use but J&J's a reputable dragon breeder and we got the kind suggested by them & on the beardie site; no pics but the 'sore' is on her side, kinda lumpy and about the size of a small dime, it goes blacker when her beard goes black and so do the 2 small spots on her head; i ordered a book fron the pet store before we found J&Js and when i went to pick it up they said 'what book?' so we just went on suggestions from a small pamphlet- i wish now we would've been more educated because we all love Miss Lizzie VERY much and it hurts to see her suffering.Oh- we were going to wait till we moved to get rid of the sand & replace it with slate tile,she dug in the sand alot when she was laying eggs. While i'm writing this i can't see your questions, so i hope i covered everything; Thanks, Gary& Shannon

 

[UTreptiles]

So 2 months after she laid eggs you noticed the change in behavior. Is that correct? My guess would be that she may have calcium deficiency. Do you dust the foods you feed her with calcium powder? Laying eggs will decrease a dragons calcium greatly. It should not have been to the point that she seems to be in now. The lumps I have not seen before. Might be MBD. Metabolic Bone Disease which is much like human ostioporosis or rickets. Is she deformed at all. Are the legs still in good shape? Can she move around at all?

The other issue is the lack of poos. That seems like impaction. It seems to be at a serious point now. That lump could be the impaction. Again, that is a guess because I have not seem lumps like that. Did that lump grow over time or was it just there all of a sudden. If it got there suddenly I would say impaction or internal issue. If it has been growing in size I would say it may be MBD issue.

So sorry I couldn't help you more. These are just my guesses from what I am reading on your post. Sounds like she needs a vet visit.

Hope everything works out for her.

 

[causeascene203]

Are you housing them together?
Whatever the problem was originally, having the two of them together may make it worse (especially if he is constantly trying to breed her). Dragons tend to not get along with each other. Some other members can share some horror stories with you.

 

[garysymington]

Thanks again for replying so quickly. So we did take Miss Lizzie to a vet, and I am so sorry I did! It's an "all pet clinic" but I still called 1st to make sure they treated beardies and they said 'sure!' so off we went. She said the spots on her head were burns from her lights which makes no sense at all because the light is about 14 in from their heads when they bask, there'sa cool end of the cage for them to cool off in, and also our male is fine. She had no idea about the spot on her side, said her belly felt empty but perfomed & charged me for an enema saying they'd examine the BM under a microscope for worms & stuff. She handled Lizzie like a rag doll (we always handle her so gently) and when they brought her back to me, Lizzie,s beard was s o black and she hissed at me! The nurse said 'there was no poop' and I said 'so...??' and they said 'that'll be $300' Now we're home and it's 3hrs later and Lizzie's beard is still black, and her belly is totally bloated& swollen and she's laying on the bottom of her cage looking almost dead! I tried to phone them back to ask if that is at all normal and they're closed till Monday! Gary&Shannon

 

[garysymington]

the vet killed our lizard we got up this morning and went to try and give her some breakfast and she was dead we are taking it very hard she was a big part of our family. I'm convinced that the vet ruptured something while giving her an enema. We took our friend to the vet because we were concerned,she wasn'tfeeling well.You shouldn't lose a friend that way. My wife and kids feel guilty for taking her to them but i know it's not their fault.Can you take a lizard to someone for an autopsy to determine how they died?we are going to contact a lawyer on monday.

 

[crazymum]

i am so sorry to hear that. I would so sue that vet for the simple fact that they said they treat bearded dragons and obviously they know nothing about them. That just makes me mad.. Makes me glad I dont live in Calgary. I am glad to live in Kelowna

 

[momtothreeboys]

I am so sorry for your loss. That is really really awful. I will be thinking of your family. I hope you can get some answers.

Jennifer

 

[Pleaides]

wow i have to say i almost fell off my chair from reading your story, im fuming for you!!!!
i am 100% completely shell shocked, i was actually expecting to hear your baby doing better. i am so so sorry to hear of this.
yes you can get necrospys done, i live in the uk though so have no idea how much it would cost but would be very interested in hearing what went wrong and whether it was indeed the vets fault, which their actions towards your beardie and yourselves is just...theres no words to explain it. you can PM me anytime if you like. and yes if you get the necropsy done and it is their fault then sue their arses off, obviously it wont bring back your baby but at least they will think twice before treating another beardie without knowing nothing. thats just plain wrong.
some people ay, just infuriate ya.

 

[causeascene203]

Oh goodness, I am so sorry! That is horrible!

 

[UTreptiles]

I just saw this while looking at past post I have been trying to keep up with. Sorry about your loss. I thought the beardie was going to get through this, but the vet sure put an end to that one. Man I am so mad right now. There are so many vets in the world yet so few actually know what they are doing with reptiles. I don't think there is a single vet in my area that I trust with my reptiles. There are some that say they are "exotic" vets but boy will I be cautious now for sure. No wonder people tend not to take thier reptiles to the vet. It should not be that way either. There needs to be more options for reptile owners. It seems inevitable that reptile owners have to stick together and help each other out simply because there is no help for us and our beardie friends outside of this circle. Someone please renew our trust in vets by giving a good news story about a vet visit for a beardie. Sorry about the ranting and raving. I am stepping down off my soap box now.

Again, I am so sorry to hear about your loss.