Hello, members of beardeddragon.org - I've lurked around this forum for a long time but never posted before. You guys seem like helpful, wonderful people and I'd really appreciate it if someone could take the time to try to help me out.
Firstly, my boyfriend and I own two bearded dragons named Rukh and Jaime. Rukh has never had any trouble whatsoever and she is now over two years old and thriving. Jaime is a bit of a different story. My boyfriend and I rescued him from a Petco roughly two years ago, a few months after getting Rukh, when I saw that he'd lost two feet and no one had noticed. Upon closer examination, we found that his one good front arm was badly damaged at the shoulder, but we didn't worry about it because he didn't seem to mind using the arm and we figured we'd keep an eye on it. He was only a couple of months old at this time. I should also probably mention that since then he's always been very skinny and it is hard to get him to put and keep on much weight. However, he's got more energy than any bearded dragon I've ever seen, so it seemed like that was just the way he is. He is always active, alert, running around and wanting to jump on everything, so it didn't seem like a cause for worry.
Now, however, there are some big problems, apparently. We went on vacation two weeks ago and boarded our bearded dragons with our vet, but we noticed on the morning that we left to drop them off that his shoulder seemed to be inflamed. I thought it might be a minor infection, but not that big of an issue because he had mostly been behaving normally. He had been eating slightly less over the past couple of days, but until I saw the shoulder I hadn't thought much of it.
We dropped them off at the vet and asked about the shoulder and if someone could take a look at it. The nurse who took them said it did look worrisome and slightly discolored, and agreed with me that it might be infected. She said she would have the vet call us as soon as they'd examined Jaime. The next day we got a call saying Jaime was being put on a critical care diet and regimen with some antibiotics and pain medicine, but they never told us exactly what was wrong (they never put an actual vet on the phone, but just relayed information through nurses or interns). However, we didn't get a call after approving treatment, and every time we called back the vet said they were doing okay, though Jaime wasn't eating and they had to force-feed him. Overall, though, it seemed like he was okay.
Then we got back yesterday and went to pick them up. I was happy to see that Jaime had gained weight, but when asked about his condition, the nurses said that the vets were still concerned about his previous injuries, and that because he was a rescue, there was still a chance of losing him. No vets were in at the time we picked them up, and I did not get answers to the questions that I had. They told us we'd have to keep force-feeding him, and gave us a veggie and critical care food formula to give him. They also gave us the meds they'd put him on, even though they said he was done taking them.
We were worried, and went and got some wax worms and super worms when we got home because we wanted to see if Jaime would eat them. He normally loves worms, and he only gets them once in a very rare while, so if he didn't want those then something was definitely wrong. Also, we figured feeding him worms would help him put on weight. However, when we got him home and warmed him up, he went back to being his normal self - running around, looking alert, etc, and he was very, very excited to see the worms. He ate them as fast as we could feed them to him.
Now I'm starting to wonder if the vet was doing something wrong. When we picked the dragons up, they were both very cold, and Rukh was so happy to see us that she jumped immediately onto my shoulder to get warm. These people have always seemed to know what they were doing when it came to bearded dragons; I'd been to a few vets and no one had ever been able to give us a single piece of useful information about them, but this one had always seemed to know what they were talking about. I'm starting to think I was wrong, though. There was no reason at all for Rukh (the other lizard we own) and Jaime to have been so cold, they were in cages until we got there and we didn't linger very long. I'm also skeptical about Jaime not eating. He is typically very finicky about salad, though he really loves squash, but he loves crickets and although he'd been eating slightly less at the time that we dropped him and Rukh off, I am really surprised he stopped eating completely so quickly. I haven't tried feeding him crickets or vegetables yet as I haven't been to the store, but given his enthusiasm about the worms, I really have no idea if the nurses/interns were taking care of them correctly. I have also been reading that for infections like the one in Jaime's arm, bearded dragons are typically put on antibiotics for months, not a few days, so I am not sure if the vets gave Jaime enough medicine. They never told us if they even ran a blood test and it bothers me that they haven't been very forthcoming about answering questions or giving information.
So I'm asking you guys. Does the vet sound full of ****? What should I do about Jaime's shoulder? Should I find a different vet? There's a reptile rescue organization in the area that I'd really like to go see or get a recommendation from, but for some reason they are really hard to get in touch with; I guess because it's a small startup run by four people. But regardless, I'm running out of places to turn and look for advice. Should I go back to the vet and get them to give Jaime more medicine? I think he can come out of this just fine if given proper treatment, since his behavior is nothing like what they said since we got back. All I had to do was get him warmed up and now he is acting mostly like himself, although I am worried that he's been very dark and mottled almost all the time since returning yesterday.
I'm posting pictures of the shoulder that is inflamed. The medicine the vets had him on while boarding were as follows:
Baytril Suspension 1/2 Oz bottle; give 0.1 mL orally every 12 hours for 7 days
Meloxicam; 1.5 mg/mL bottle; give 0.02 mL orally once a day for 5 days
The foods they seemed to be giving him primarily (and gave to us yesterday when we left) are as follows:
Critical Care Fine Grind and Carnivore Care, both made by Oxbow Animal Health.
Here are some pictures I've taken of both shoulders for comparison [EDITED] :
Good shoulder: http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o731/elrounds/CentralCoast-20130105-00028_zpsfc8ab7ab.jpg
Good shoulder: http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o731/elrounds/CentralCoast-20130105-00021_zps95c49de0.jpg
Bad shoulder: http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o731/elrounds/CentralCoast-20130105-00026_zps76a72a04.jpg
Bad shoulder: http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o731/elrounds/CentralCoast-20130105-00024_zps504a9779.jpg
Overheard view of Jaime: http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o731/elrounds/CentralCoast-20130105-00031_zps642df5ff.jpg
I love my lizards more than anything in the entire world, and I really want to do what is best for Jaime. Thank you in advance for your time and help.
Firstly, my boyfriend and I own two bearded dragons named Rukh and Jaime. Rukh has never had any trouble whatsoever and she is now over two years old and thriving. Jaime is a bit of a different story. My boyfriend and I rescued him from a Petco roughly two years ago, a few months after getting Rukh, when I saw that he'd lost two feet and no one had noticed. Upon closer examination, we found that his one good front arm was badly damaged at the shoulder, but we didn't worry about it because he didn't seem to mind using the arm and we figured we'd keep an eye on it. He was only a couple of months old at this time. I should also probably mention that since then he's always been very skinny and it is hard to get him to put and keep on much weight. However, he's got more energy than any bearded dragon I've ever seen, so it seemed like that was just the way he is. He is always active, alert, running around and wanting to jump on everything, so it didn't seem like a cause for worry.
Now, however, there are some big problems, apparently. We went on vacation two weeks ago and boarded our bearded dragons with our vet, but we noticed on the morning that we left to drop them off that his shoulder seemed to be inflamed. I thought it might be a minor infection, but not that big of an issue because he had mostly been behaving normally. He had been eating slightly less over the past couple of days, but until I saw the shoulder I hadn't thought much of it.
We dropped them off at the vet and asked about the shoulder and if someone could take a look at it. The nurse who took them said it did look worrisome and slightly discolored, and agreed with me that it might be infected. She said she would have the vet call us as soon as they'd examined Jaime. The next day we got a call saying Jaime was being put on a critical care diet and regimen with some antibiotics and pain medicine, but they never told us exactly what was wrong (they never put an actual vet on the phone, but just relayed information through nurses or interns). However, we didn't get a call after approving treatment, and every time we called back the vet said they were doing okay, though Jaime wasn't eating and they had to force-feed him. Overall, though, it seemed like he was okay.
Then we got back yesterday and went to pick them up. I was happy to see that Jaime had gained weight, but when asked about his condition, the nurses said that the vets were still concerned about his previous injuries, and that because he was a rescue, there was still a chance of losing him. No vets were in at the time we picked them up, and I did not get answers to the questions that I had. They told us we'd have to keep force-feeding him, and gave us a veggie and critical care food formula to give him. They also gave us the meds they'd put him on, even though they said he was done taking them.
We were worried, and went and got some wax worms and super worms when we got home because we wanted to see if Jaime would eat them. He normally loves worms, and he only gets them once in a very rare while, so if he didn't want those then something was definitely wrong. Also, we figured feeding him worms would help him put on weight. However, when we got him home and warmed him up, he went back to being his normal self - running around, looking alert, etc, and he was very, very excited to see the worms. He ate them as fast as we could feed them to him.
Now I'm starting to wonder if the vet was doing something wrong. When we picked the dragons up, they were both very cold, and Rukh was so happy to see us that she jumped immediately onto my shoulder to get warm. These people have always seemed to know what they were doing when it came to bearded dragons; I'd been to a few vets and no one had ever been able to give us a single piece of useful information about them, but this one had always seemed to know what they were talking about. I'm starting to think I was wrong, though. There was no reason at all for Rukh (the other lizard we own) and Jaime to have been so cold, they were in cages until we got there and we didn't linger very long. I'm also skeptical about Jaime not eating. He is typically very finicky about salad, though he really loves squash, but he loves crickets and although he'd been eating slightly less at the time that we dropped him and Rukh off, I am really surprised he stopped eating completely so quickly. I haven't tried feeding him crickets or vegetables yet as I haven't been to the store, but given his enthusiasm about the worms, I really have no idea if the nurses/interns were taking care of them correctly. I have also been reading that for infections like the one in Jaime's arm, bearded dragons are typically put on antibiotics for months, not a few days, so I am not sure if the vets gave Jaime enough medicine. They never told us if they even ran a blood test and it bothers me that they haven't been very forthcoming about answering questions or giving information.
So I'm asking you guys. Does the vet sound full of ****? What should I do about Jaime's shoulder? Should I find a different vet? There's a reptile rescue organization in the area that I'd really like to go see or get a recommendation from, but for some reason they are really hard to get in touch with; I guess because it's a small startup run by four people. But regardless, I'm running out of places to turn and look for advice. Should I go back to the vet and get them to give Jaime more medicine? I think he can come out of this just fine if given proper treatment, since his behavior is nothing like what they said since we got back. All I had to do was get him warmed up and now he is acting mostly like himself, although I am worried that he's been very dark and mottled almost all the time since returning yesterday.
I'm posting pictures of the shoulder that is inflamed. The medicine the vets had him on while boarding were as follows:
Baytril Suspension 1/2 Oz bottle; give 0.1 mL orally every 12 hours for 7 days
Meloxicam; 1.5 mg/mL bottle; give 0.02 mL orally once a day for 5 days
The foods they seemed to be giving him primarily (and gave to us yesterday when we left) are as follows:
Critical Care Fine Grind and Carnivore Care, both made by Oxbow Animal Health.
Here are some pictures I've taken of both shoulders for comparison [EDITED] :
Good shoulder: http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o731/elrounds/CentralCoast-20130105-00028_zpsfc8ab7ab.jpg
Good shoulder: http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o731/elrounds/CentralCoast-20130105-00021_zps95c49de0.jpg
Bad shoulder: http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o731/elrounds/CentralCoast-20130105-00026_zps76a72a04.jpg
Bad shoulder: http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o731/elrounds/CentralCoast-20130105-00024_zps504a9779.jpg
Overheard view of Jaime: http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o731/elrounds/CentralCoast-20130105-00031_zps642df5ff.jpg
I love my lizards more than anything in the entire world, and I really want to do what is best for Jaime. Thank you in advance for your time and help.