Aicara
Member
Haku, my beardie has been going through a bit of a rough patch health wise the past 2 weeks, give or take. (I've provided all his tank information at the bottom of this post)
Haku is about 5 months old, probably closer to 6 now.
Originally, he was being lethargic, not eat, burrowing obsessively, hiding a lot etc. Ended up taking him to the vet because I thought he was a bit young for brumation. Turns out (as I suspected) he was sick. He had a mild infection and due to the infection he had some parasites (also mild). He was put on several courses of medication for treatment including:
- 3 day course of oral medication
- 5 day course of oral medication
- 1 month course of antibiotics (which he is still on, has one every 3 days)
He seemed to be making a super speedy recovery after starting the medication, he was eating, basking and just seemed like his normal, quirky self again! He was even chasing crickets around, which he normally doesn't do because he's a bit lazy.
Although, the past 2 or 3 days he's been off again. He's eating little to none of his crickets (didn't eat any at all yesterday), eats minimal greens (which I hand feed him) and spends a lot of time burrowing in his hide and staying in there. I'm leaving him to it for now, trying to handle him as little as possible. Except I checked on him today to find he's wedged himself under his hide rock, he wasn't stuck but I did take him out as it certainly didn't look comfortable. He has also been digging obsessively behind the two plants in his tank. He isn't lethargic at all, pretty active actually but he's usually one to sit under his UVB and bask all day, not burrow and run around his tank and scratch at the walls/glass. He hasn't lost any weight so far and is pooping normally. He's also not sleeping as well as he normally does? A lot of the times at night I go to check if he's asleep and he's still basking and sometimes gaping, I do turn the temps down a little bit at night but I'm not sure how much sleep he's actually getting.
One thing to note is that he did start shedding on one of his feet and on his jaw the other day, I gave him a warm bath and most of the skin soaked off. Although... he hasn't shed anymore since that one leg. His head perhaps does look a little bit more dull in colour though. Is this burrowing, hiding and not eating behaviour possibly a full shed approaching? Just worried about his drop in demeanour since he seemed to be making such a massive improvement and I'm concerned he might need to go back to the vet?
Here are some pictures of him from today after his bath:
https://sta.sh/21rpjdo8jj63?edit=1 (hopefully this link should work)
Tank Set Up:
Here is a photo as well: https://sta.sh/04c1ho0mu76
Size: 60 Gallon (Wooden with glass front)
Substrate: Loose recycled paper pellets (doesn't eat them on accident, haven't had any issues)
UVB: Reptisun 10.0 (7:00am until 8:30/9:00pm)
Basking Light (Day): Exo Terra 100w Infrared (in the process of getting a new one as I've read that Infrared is no good, just not sure what to get as there are so many options!)
Basking Light (Night): Exo Terra 150w Infrared Ceramic (its currently winter so need the 150w to keep the temps up)
Temps:
Cool side: 84
Basking side: 95
(basking is on the low side, but it's difficult because when I switch to the 150w Infrared it gets way too warm, trying to sort this out by finding a new household bulb instead of a reptile one. Open to suggestion as to what would be the best one! )
I offered him some crickets just now and he wasn't interested. He glanced at them but made no effort to eat them even when they crawled right in front of him. He's also stopped burrowing and gone to basking under the UVB... not sure how long that will last though.
Haku is about 5 months old, probably closer to 6 now.
Originally, he was being lethargic, not eat, burrowing obsessively, hiding a lot etc. Ended up taking him to the vet because I thought he was a bit young for brumation. Turns out (as I suspected) he was sick. He had a mild infection and due to the infection he had some parasites (also mild). He was put on several courses of medication for treatment including:
- 3 day course of oral medication
- 5 day course of oral medication
- 1 month course of antibiotics (which he is still on, has one every 3 days)
He seemed to be making a super speedy recovery after starting the medication, he was eating, basking and just seemed like his normal, quirky self again! He was even chasing crickets around, which he normally doesn't do because he's a bit lazy.
Although, the past 2 or 3 days he's been off again. He's eating little to none of his crickets (didn't eat any at all yesterday), eats minimal greens (which I hand feed him) and spends a lot of time burrowing in his hide and staying in there. I'm leaving him to it for now, trying to handle him as little as possible. Except I checked on him today to find he's wedged himself under his hide rock, he wasn't stuck but I did take him out as it certainly didn't look comfortable. He has also been digging obsessively behind the two plants in his tank. He isn't lethargic at all, pretty active actually but he's usually one to sit under his UVB and bask all day, not burrow and run around his tank and scratch at the walls/glass. He hasn't lost any weight so far and is pooping normally. He's also not sleeping as well as he normally does? A lot of the times at night I go to check if he's asleep and he's still basking and sometimes gaping, I do turn the temps down a little bit at night but I'm not sure how much sleep he's actually getting.
One thing to note is that he did start shedding on one of his feet and on his jaw the other day, I gave him a warm bath and most of the skin soaked off. Although... he hasn't shed anymore since that one leg. His head perhaps does look a little bit more dull in colour though. Is this burrowing, hiding and not eating behaviour possibly a full shed approaching? Just worried about his drop in demeanour since he seemed to be making such a massive improvement and I'm concerned he might need to go back to the vet?
Here are some pictures of him from today after his bath:
https://sta.sh/21rpjdo8jj63?edit=1 (hopefully this link should work)
Tank Set Up:
Here is a photo as well: https://sta.sh/04c1ho0mu76
Size: 60 Gallon (Wooden with glass front)
Substrate: Loose recycled paper pellets (doesn't eat them on accident, haven't had any issues)
UVB: Reptisun 10.0 (7:00am until 8:30/9:00pm)
Basking Light (Day): Exo Terra 100w Infrared (in the process of getting a new one as I've read that Infrared is no good, just not sure what to get as there are so many options!)
Basking Light (Night): Exo Terra 150w Infrared Ceramic (its currently winter so need the 150w to keep the temps up)
Temps:
Cool side: 84
Basking side: 95
(basking is on the low side, but it's difficult because when I switch to the 150w Infrared it gets way too warm, trying to sort this out by finding a new household bulb instead of a reptile one. Open to suggestion as to what would be the best one! )
I offered him some crickets just now and he wasn't interested. He glanced at them but made no effort to eat them even when they crawled right in front of him. He's also stopped burrowing and gone to basking under the UVB... not sure how long that will last though.