sunken eyes, gapping, black beard, stomachs moving... help??

[sherie]

Hi guys,

My little guy is in a bit of trouble and I need your help. I cant get to a vet untill tommorrow.

It all started last night after his bath (which was luke warm) not hot and not cold... so I thought. When I took him out and he started gapping, his eyes litterally sunk back into his head and his stomach started to do this strange wave thing that I have never seen before... it started churning back and forward and his black beard spread to his lower stomach and even on this under arms, which again I have never seen before. His eyes became more sunken and it looked like he had trouble breathing... I rang all the vets around but there was no reptile specialist available that late at night. I hung onto him in a wrapped towel for about 15 mins then put him back under his lights in his tank, between wiping my eyes from my heavy tears he seemed to get a bit better but then his colour began to change dramatically- he is normally yellow, but he started to get orange streaks and lilac/purple spots began to pop out of his back..... then his tail became pitch black on the end and brownish spots ran up his tail from the tip to his bum. Within this time he started to look a bit better but his head appeared sunkln too ( above his eyes) so I feed him a bit of water- and within another 15 mins he looked normal,,, his colour changed back and he seemed ok but then he started the whole process again with the sunken eyes, black beard and stomach churning.

He didnt throw up.... he didnt poop.

He just looked terrible. He still doesnt look too good....

After awhile I switched off his daylights and he went to sleep- as you could imagine I have barely sleept monitoring him.... he seems better now but is extremly lethargic and not his normal self...His colour is still off and his not really interested in the world, which for my little guy is odd.

Has any one had this before??? What do I do for him??

His 3 years old male if that helps......

 

[sherie]

Please help me!!!!

Someone, anyone!!!!

I dont know what to do......

 

[diamc]

Having some problems with the forum that may be why you had no responses.

So sorry to hear that all this is going on, how scary! Did your beardie get a drink while he was in his bath that might have caused him to aspirate? How had he been acting before his bath, had he been active, eating & pooping ok?

What are his tank temps and what type of thermometer are you using? What is the brand & type of UVB and what is the distance of it? How long have you had him? Is he having any problems breathing now?

 

[sherie]

Thank you for your help. I am very worried....

he didnt have a drink that I was aware of, he loves the water and swims around if I dont hold onto him.

He was eating normally and pooping as well. His very active even though its Winter in Australia he still cruises around his tank and the house like he owns the place! He only shut down for a month over winter and has been awake for 3 weeks now. But all was normal before the bath... it all went pear shaped after that.

Ive had him three years, from 2 weeks old (proud mum!)
He has a reptisun 10.0 strip flouro and a Neodynamuim 150 light.
His tank is huge at 55 Gallons (he thinks his king in it!)
His rocks and hamocks are spread aorund the place both in the hot and cool spots but his favourite spot is dirrectly under the heat lamp which temps are about 100-105 right where he lays.

He is breathing still shallow and looks quite distressed.
His colour is normal now but his black beard is still all the way down to his groin, which in the three years I have had him I hve never seen him so upset or ill looking.

 

[diamc]

Very puzzling indeed. Did you test the bath water by the inside of your wrist, it couldn't have been too hot, could it?

 

[sherie]

I didnt... guilty of that!

I always put my hand in to check and it felt warm, he seems to prefer it warmer than it probably should be.

Oh dear I hope I havnt hurt him.

I have checked all the posts in the ER section but couldnt find anything remotly like this... I am extremly concerned as the trip to the vet is still 13 hours away.

Is there anything you can recommend I do for him?
His breathing is still shallow and he is relativly unresponsive to me. He is looking better but still looking rather depressed.

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Oh so sorry to hear about your dragon. Wow I have never heard of anything quite like that happening though.
As Diane said, maybe the water was to hot perhaps? Does your water have a lot of chemicals in it? What did you give him a bath in, the sink, the tube, a plastic bin?
At the moment, I would try to keep him a little warmer overnight say around 27 or so to help his immune system out right now. You could try to get a little bit of baby food into him, carefully. He might like a little bit, but use a plastic dropper or syringe to drip it onto the end of his nose for him to lick off.
How do his eyes look? Are they still sunken in?
Is his beard still black?

Tracie

 

[sherie]

Hi Tracie,

I have just pureed blueberries, strawberries and banana into a babyfood like concoction- I figured if he likes those foods so much he may just love them all mashed up together.... I will jump in my car right now to get a syringe, I would presume a chemist/ drugstore would sell them?

His bath is made of flexible rubber, I bought it from a baby store.

As for the water you may be right- its something I didnt think of until just now- we had flouride added to the local water not too long ago (much to the disgust and wishes of the whole town) but the government did it anyway... I didnt think of it untill now.... oh dear I hope that isnt lethal to beardies... please tell me its not... i fill his drinking water with filtered water from a water filter jug, but I didnt think of the bath water...

His eyes are sunken and dull looking one minute but cheery and normal the next! Currently in the transistion to normal, which is good.

His beard has gone down a bit its now part way down his cheast and is so black its actually shiny, his tip of his tail is still quite dark as well.

 

[evadora]

Oh my goodness, poor guy. Please keep us informed, especially if it turns out to be something with the water. I would be enraged, I wouldn't have thought of the chemicals either, as I do filtered water for mine as well. Hopefully it's not as severe as it may seem now, just a scary episode. Hope your guy is better soon.

 

[sherie]

He has eaten a fairly large portion of the puree.....which im really thrilled about, thanks for the tip.

Will keep you all informed of his progress and what the vet says.

I will be furious if it is the water too!

Thank you so much for all your help- Im so worried its nice to have a bit of an idea as to what went wrong.!

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Sorry to hear your beardie is not doing too well.
I would just like to mention that my water is heavily fluoridated and have never had a problem with either of my beardies bathing in it. That's not to say that your fluoride might be much different or more potent then the kind we use here in the states.
It could possibly be something else and that the bath just triggered a response. I am curious to hear what you find out from the vet.
Please let us know how your beardie is doing and what the vet says.
Good Luck!

 

[diamc]

Hi, I'm sorry I didn't get back to you last night, all of the sudden I was feeling "under the weather" and had to shut down. I'm glad others were able to offer you some suggestions and that he liked the slurry you made for him. Sometimes when something is upsetting (when it's not a serious problem), getting their mind off of it like feeding a favorite food does help them to calm down. It's also possible what Dawn said that he was not feeling totally well and the bath triggered the reaction he experienced. I certainly hope that he didn't have a stroke. How was he before you took him to the vet? Please let us know what you found out, thinking about you and your beardie.

 

[sherie]

Hi guys. Thanks to all responses, you guys kept me sane waiting for the vet...

Ok- so have just been to the vet and she is keeping him over night for obswrvation

She had a good check over him and she has never heard of all of his symptoms either, she said it could be one of 4 things from first view:

stroke/heart attack- loss of motor skills
Slight Drowning.
Allergic reaction to something
or something internal- infection in his intestine etc.

She is running test today and I should know by the end of the week what is wrong with my little guy. She was as shocked as I was about what was going on..... so we will have to wait and see.

I told her about the flouride in the water and she said that she had a green tree python come in not too long ago with a similair scale issue due to a bath, but the pythons was more scale rot set off by bad algae ridden water than any thing else. It could of been too much of something bad in the water- but would be unusual.

He was still relativly unresponsive this morning- but did respond to my voice and attempted to walk towards me, but fell over after a few steps. He did eat some more babyfood mush which was a good sign. Poor little guy, I hate seeing him suffer.

I hope his going to be ok.... its so frustrating not knowing what went wrong.

 

[diamc]

Thanks for filling us in. Keeping his for observation sounds like a good idea.

I suppose it's possible that he was having some stomach cramping, the bath water made it stronger and that's why he reacted the way he did since he was in pain. Could you fill us in on the substrate you have on the bottom of his tank? Had he been pooping normally? Certainly also possible that he had an allergic reaction to something. Did the vet go over foods with you to see if something might not have agreed with him? There's no chance that you've fed any avocado, right? Sure hope it isn't a stroke or heart attack, rather something easily fixed.

It must have been hard to see him walk toward you and then fall over. Poor thing. A good sign that he ate a little.

Good luck, please let us know when you hear more.

 

[sherie]

Thanks Diane,

It was extremly stressful and you do always fear the worst.

His subsrate is paper, butcher paper.

His pooping habits change like the weather- I really think his just one of those dragons just like everyone person is different in there bathroom habits. Its never been an issue, somedays he goes, some days he doesnt- his never been constapated or impacted. I would say on average he goes every second day- which my vet says isnt an issue.

Never feed him avocado, his partial to mango, berries, bananas and pear. Ive heard avocado is dangerous for the- is that right?

But he hasnt 'done his business' since the bad night..... probably due to stress.

Fingers crossed.

I will call the vets this afternoon to check up on him.