Sombody help..Please!

[xRemshidosxMommehx]

Ok, well i just got my Beardie a few weeks ago, When i got him out and put him on my bed, he was fine, when i put him back in, i noticed that his back right leg wasnt moving good, i dont think its broken, i was aiming towards sprained, I was wondering if any special treatment would heal this faster? i've been babying him for days, it seems that he is forcing his leg to move, which is a great sign for me, it makes me know that his leg is either, Sprained or a pulled muscle, I cannot take him to a vet, i do no have the money to pay for it, i barley have enough to feed him..

Can sombody please help me? and should i wrap his leg out str8 or let him walk on it? he does infact walk on, though he is not putting much pressure on it.


Hopfully someone can help me with this issue.

Thanks.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Did he fall off of something to have hurt his leg in that manner?
Are you providing a good quality UVB light for him? If so, what type & brand of UVB light are you using, is it a flourescent tube bulb or a compact or coil light?
The easiest thing for now to do for him is to get his tank rearranged to where he doesn't have to climb up to bask. Instead, move the basking light down for him so they are within range for him to bask. That way it will give that leg time to heal if he did sprain it.
Also, you could give him a warm bath, daily, to encourage him to swim & exercise with no impact. That will serve as water therapy & it is very helpful for injuries.
Does there appear to be any swelling on that leg that you can see?

Tracie

 

[xRemshidosxMommehx]

Hiya! Thanks so much for writing, i'm freaking out lol.
As for the lights, we bought 2, One for the heat and one for the sun, they are both from "Zilla" if that helps at all, There at 60 and 75 watz. Which is what the person i got it from said it shoudl be, And Remmers fell/jumped off my bed and hit the ground. His leg moves, just not that well, i dont think its broken, cause he wouldnt be moving it at all fi that was teh case, and i will give him warm baths everyday, His stone and log are both low to the ground as it is, so that's good news. Such as swelling, no, his color is the same and no swelling what's so ever, his feeding hasnt died down at all, i also gave him so Babyfood with mealworms in them, he loves it, He eats just as much as he did before this happend, he also doesnt show any sign of meanness towards me when i pick him up, i know that some dragons tend to open there mouth when there in pain or mad, so that's also a good sign, my other thery would be a pulled muscle, The only thing he cant do is walk with much pressure on it, thought he trys so hard, i can just tell, poor little guy i'm a horrible Beardie mommeh.

Hello,


Did he fall off of something to have hurt his leg in that manner?
Are you providing a good quality UVB light for him? If so, what type & brand of UVB light are you using, is it a flourescent tube bulb or a compact or coil light?
The easiest thing for now to do for him is to get his tank rearranged to where he doesn't have to climb up to bask. Instead, move the basking light down for him so they are within range for him to bask. That way it will give that leg time to heal if he did sprain it.
Also, you could give him a warm bath, daily, to encourage him to swim & exercise with no impact. That will serve as water therapy & it is very helpful for injuries.
Does there appear to be any swelling on that leg that you can see?

Tracie

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Ok, so you have 2 Zilla lights. The basking is fine, but the UVB is not a good light. Is the UVB light a flourescent tube bulb or a compact or coil light? How close is the UVB light to him?
How old is your dragon, is he still a baby?
How often do you give calcium?
The best UVB light is the Reptisun 10 flourescent tube bulb. The UVB emissions are much better than the Zilla bulb is.
He may have pulled a muscle so it will take a little while to heal. That is good you don't see any swelling on that leg though.
Great he is still eating well!

Tracie

 

[xRemshidosxMommehx]

The only thing that really worrys me, id that i had to take out his basking stone to replace it, it wasnt as low as i thought, So he doesnt have basking till i get him a new, which will be very soon. And i beleive the lightbulb is a Compact. The lights are farther from him, but what can i do? i cant get him a higher up log cause of his leg..., My baby beardied is at most 7 months, he is still just a tiny thing. But to be honest, i dont know, he was one of my bestfriends and she didnt want him anymore.
As for calcium, she said that if you feed the crickets a potato it will sub, since my beardie dont eat calcium tablets. We do have little pelets to put into our lettuce, and he rarely eats that, he enjoys the live food so much better. I was so glad to see him run on his leg last night when i was making him use his leg, i wanted to see if he was dragging it or if it was getting better, and by god it is! He walks on it, he uses his other legs with more force but he can walk, which is alot better then he used to be a few days ago, so i'm so happy, i've also thought about giving him a few more water baths to see if that helps, he also hasnt pooped in 3 days so hopfully that will help with that problem too lol.

~Hunter

Hello,

Ok, so you have 2 Zilla lights. The basking is fine, but the UVB is not a good light. Is the UVB light a flourescent tube bulb or a compact or coil light? How close is the UVB light to him?
How old is your dragon, is he still a baby?
How often do you give calcium?
The best UVB light is the Reptisun 10 flourescent tube bulb. The UVB emissions are much better than the Zilla bulb is.
He may have pulled a muscle so it will take a little while to heal. That is good you don't see any swelling on that leg though.
Great he is still eating well!

Tracie

 

[Embee]

As someone who has used a Zilla compact, my best advice to you is to turn it off, immediately. Sadly, it is doing your dragon more harm than good. This bulb emits low and inconsistent levels of UVB which do not properly stimulate beardie's appetite and growth. It has also been associated with eye issues and other health problems. Here is a thread, with link, you might find helpful:

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I cannot stress enough how important a quality source of UVB is to your dragon's appetite, growth, and overall health. Best option as Tracie mentioned, is a ReptiSun 10.0 TUBE great price here: http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-fluorescent-bulbs/504983/zoo-med-reptisun-10.0-uvb-bulb.html You will need a fixture for the bulb, which can order or purchase from a pet store, or likely find cheaper at your local pet store. Beardie should be able to get to within 6-8 inches of the bulb as basking, and the two bulbs (basking and tube) should line up like this at the basking end of tank:


_____________tube
0 basking

...so that beardie can have benefit of both bulbs while basking.

You need to provide a calcium supplement for your dragon, in the form of calcium dust, excellent product and price here: http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-supplements/105551/rep-cal-ultrafine-calcium-with-vitamin-d3.html

What are your tank temps, basking, ambient and cool side? I realize you're adjusting your basking area but what do they run usually? And what type of thermometer are you using to gauge temps?

You mentioned your 7 month old dragon is "tiny." How tiny are we talking, in inches, nose to tip of tail?

Due to our experience with the Zilla compact, we have a "micro beardie" (who is now on the mend ). She stalled out at 6 inches at 2-3 months old, and is now finally growing, and healthy as we have made some key changes to her enclosure. She is 6-7 months, and just about 8 inches. Still very small for her age, but growing, finally.

The best to you,
Em

 

[xRemshidosxMommehx]

WE recently got some regular light blbs, 65 watz cause i did read up on the zillas, not so good, so thank you. He seems to enjoy the regular lightbulbs os much better then the zilla to be honest. As for the feeding, he eats crickets/lettuce/baby food and Mealworms, though i cut the heads off of them. We are going out friday to get him the calcuim powder ^^ I feel bad for waiting so long, but thats when i get my check lol. The temps , it came with a side bar on our cage and it is uaslly around 80 Deg. Sometimes higher and sometimes lower, He seems to be content with the heat. As for the basking area i would no know, but i do know its hot, not to the point of buring, cause he loves to sit on it now, and just sleep and bask, its so cute. I mesured him and he is 13" inches, so he is alot bigger then i thought by looking at him lol.

Hope this helps you.

Btw, he pooped. ^^
he also loves to walk now he is always on my arm or on the ground walking lol. his leg is healing very well

~Hunter

As someone who has used a Zilla compact, my best advice to you is to turn it off, immediately. Sadly, it is doing your dragon more harm than good. This bulb emits low and inconsistent levels of UVB which do not properly stimulate beardie's appetite and growth. It has also been associated with eye issues and other health problems. Here is a thread, with link, you might find helpful:

[ Invalid URL Removed / p= t=65424 f=1 ]

I cannot stress enough how important a quality source of UVB is to your dragon's appetite, growth, and overall health. Best option as Tracie mentioned, is a ReptiSun 10.0 TUBE great price here: http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-fluorescent-bulbs/504983/zoo-med-reptisun-10.0-uvb-bulb.html You will need a fixture for the bulb, which can order or purchase from a pet store, or likely find cheaper at your local pet store. Beardie should be able to get to within 6-8 inches of the bulb as basking, and the two bulbs (basking and tube) should line up like this at the basking end of tank:


_____________tube
0 basking

...so that beardie can have benefit of both bulbs while basking.

You need to provide a calcium supplement for your dragon, in the form of calcium dust, excellent product and price here: http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-supplements/105551/rep-cal-ultrafine-calcium-with-vitamin-d3.html

What are your tank temps, basking, ambient and cool side? I realize you're adjusting your basking area but what do they run usually? And what type of thermometer are you using to gauge temps?

You mentioned your 7 month old dragon is "tiny." How tiny are we talking, in inches, nose to tip of tail?

Due to our experience with the Zilla compact, we have a "micro beardie" (who is now on the mend ). She stalled out at 6 inches at 2-3 months old, and is now finally growing, and healthy as we have made some key changes to her enclosure. She is 6-7 months, and just about 8 inches. Still very small for her age, but growing, finally.

The best to you,
Em

 

[Pleaides]

hey
glad hes doing better but i must mention a couple of things, firstly lettuce is not nutritional for him, this site here has the absolute best information about what greens and veg he can have and whats best for him http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutritionframeset.html

also even though your cutting the heads off the mealies their really bad for young dragons, big impaction risk because of their chitin shells, this could have been the reason for his impaction, the best nutritional soft bodied worms to feed him and seem to be real popular to fussy eaters are phoenix worms and butter worms. obviously wax worms are soft bodied but they are very fattening and should only be given as a treat, the butter worms are a tad fattening but not much, these are a favourite for my female, Venus who was fed wax worms as a staple by her previous owner so it was extremely difficult to get her off them but butters did the trick.
good luck with him.

edited to add - forgot to mention temperatures, those stick on ones can be quite inaccurate, you really need an accurate reading for the correct temps, he may be basking a lot trying to heat up because its not getting hot enough. id recommend a digital thermometer with a probe. you need to measure the cool end, warm end and the basking area.

 

[Embee]

WE recently got some regular light blbs, 65 watz . . . He seems to enjoy the regular lightbulbs...

I'm not surprised he prefers the Zilla free zone! :wink: To be clear, he will need a UVB light. Regular bulbs provide UVA and heat, but they do not provide UVB, which is essential to processing calcium, and to the growth, and overall health of your dragon. I posted a link in my previous post to an excellent UVB bulb, and a great price.

Btw, he pooped.

Good news. :mrgreen:

As Pleaides mentioned, you need to be able to gauge the different tank temps. Stick on dials will not be helpful toward this end. Also, they have been known to be up to 20 degrees off. When we got out digital with probe we found this to be quite true, indeed. You need to know what the true basking temp is, and you can't do that without placing a probe end exactly where beardie basks under the light... alternatively, a temp gun but they tend to be more expensive. The tank temps should be 105-110 for basking, 85-90 ambient, and cool side about 80. Too low of basking temps can slow down and disrupt digestion, too high and they can cause dehydration or worse.

he also loves to walk now he is always on my arm or on the ground walking lol. his leg is healing very well

I'm glad his leg is feeling better.

The best,
Em

 

[Pleaides]

embee - glad you picked up the UVB, was meant to edit again to add about that!, silly me

hunter - as embee said UVB is crucial for their health and development, you really need to be picking up the reptSUN 10.0. i cannot stress the importance of this. how is he doing today?

 

[Embee]

Hello Hunter,

Just checking in with you... how is your dragon doing?

The best,
Em

 

[Pleaides]

hunter, any updates for us? pictures perhaps... :wink: