Sick or Stress either way need help.

[waltersgirl]

Popeye is about 11 months old. He is in a 55 gallon terrarium with tile substrate under a 75W basking light and a 24" repti sun 10.0 fluorescent long bulb. Basking spot is 99-103 and cool side is 78-82. Night temp is about 72 in complete darkness. Humidity fluctuates a bit between 20-40% depending on weather. He takes a 20 minute bath once or twice a day (twice right now because he is dehydrated).
Veggie is mix of mustard greens, dandelion leaves (out of my greenhouse not sprayed with any chemicals), bok choy, sweet potato, green bean, and prickly pear cactus. Gets mainly crickets coated in calcium, a few mealworms, and phoenix worms. I also always provide pellets.
Problem: I got Popeye on June 25th, about a month ago. At first his light eating habits I attributed to stress of the move. His previous owner said he was eating about 30 crickets a day. I was lucky to get him to eat 20 in two days. He apparently enjoyed his veggies before, now all he eats is a few bites of mustard greens and some prickly pear cactus. His cricket intake has dropped to about 8 every two days. I give him lizard probiotic (not going to try and spell it) every other day. He saw the vet about a week after I got him because while he didn't have diarrhea his feces was quite smelly. I had them run float, smear and culture of his sample I took in. All was well. His feces is normal and not so smelly anymore and urate is formed but not hard. He weighed 440g when I got him. He is down to about 390g (different scale but shouldn't be that far off).
I had an adult beardie that we rescued but not soon enough who died (we put him down) in April. Afterwards, my husband got me a baby-Rusty. He appeared healthy. I picked up a second baby girl at Petco and she turned up very sick. My inexperience, I didn't quarantine. We treated both babies for coccidia and pinworms. The pinworm medicine was too much for Belle and she died. I got another little girl- vet visit gave her clean bill of health...Rusty stopped eating 2 weeks later. Ivy after three weeks. I force fed them both, vet visit showed pinworms in Rusty, Ivy still okay. Treated them both anyways. Clean tests but Rusty had mouth rot...got worse he lost most of the skin on his jaw and it broke so we put him down. Ivy still didn't eat. Found flagellates or whatever they were. She didn't have enough reserve to fight the medicine and the bugs and she died 3 days into treatment.
I bought Popeye because he was big and healthy. I even brought him home in his own cage to reduce the stress of moving. His previous cage was homemade and I couldn't keep temps low enough and access was difficult to feed and care for my new dragon. Not wanting to expose him to the babies problems- I bought a new cage, used his old furniture and set him up in this one 2 weeks ago. I plan to take him in and have blood work done (I hate doing it since is so stressful for him but I am at a loss). I read, follow the rules for lighting, temps, distances from the light, etc. but I feel I am losing him too.
He is darker in his cage...to absorb light or is it stress? He gets lighter in color when I take him out. Also he is sleeping more, in his basking spot. Doesn't get as alert and attentive as he used to when I came to his cage. Looks away and closes his eyes most of the time when I try to give him crickets or worms.
Any ideas or advise would be welcomed as this is my desperate plea for help.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there.....I'm really sorry that you've had such a string of bad situations with one beardie after another. I can see why you would be getting stressed out with Popeye's behavior + weight loss. Do you have a picture of him ? I think that some beardies suffer from relocation stress more than others, just like some people are far more nervous than others. I will suggest a couple of things. I would cut the baths down to twice a week....he may not like them, and he will associate contact with you as leading to another unwanted water experience. Twice a week will give him the opportunity to get the hydration he needs. Another suggestion is to offer him some hornworms....they are pretty nutritious and loaded with moisture. Is he eating his veggies ? The prickly pear contains a good bit of water as well....keep offering a good salad like you are. Just give it some time for him to settle in....less bathing [ you can try dripping water on his nose 2-3X a week, too ] See if those changes will help him out...some dragons really take a long time to settle in. Hopefully he'll feel more at home soon. If not , I can see a vet visit in the next month just for a good check up.

 

[waltersgirl]

I will give that a try. He really seems to like the bath though. Swims around, drinks climbs on the rocks I put in there. I will resize a pic of him at the office later and post it. He is a citrus with pretty markings. Thanks for the reply. Have a blessed day.

 

[AHBD]

As soon as I posted I though I should have asked if he seemed to like his baths....I assumed that he might not like them, but should have asked you first. So once a day or every other day is fine. I re-read your post + another thing that you might adjust is the basking temp., be sure that it's closer to 103 than 99.

 

[waltersgirl]

No problem. He didn't like them at first. I had to get him used to them: in the water on my hand, then on a rock, then half on the rock half in the water. Slowly added more water so on the rock he was in water, then started putting him in the water and petting his favorite spots. Now the will climb right off my arm in the water. Likes a good scrub with a soft toothbrush too! He even moves his head in so I get the right spot on his neck. Anyway I will adjust his temperature, not sure how much of day is at each temp, those are high and low for the day on my digital. I have to clear the memory in the morning so it doesn't count the night low but it let's me see where it is for the most part. Thanks again for responding. I just wish he would eat more. I will look for some of the worms you mentioned. Maybe try another green on the daily list.