Tl;dr what are the long term effects of poor husbandry
Hi guys. I wanna ask about porunga, my 3 year old.
He's been with me since july and a month later I took him to the vet cause it looked like he got his leg broken from an overzealous cuddle from a 5 year old. The vet was visibly angry when I explained the previous husbandry he went through (I went through the arav website to find porunga's vet. He wouldnt look at the lizard until I explained my set up top to bottom and had that corrected since ive never even owned a reptile before) porunga had hyper calcimia and a urate plug (I may be saying that wrong) which was treated with supplements and basically a month of no climbing, handling ect. The fracture turned up so small on the x ray the vet wasn't 100% if it was there, but porunga is better now. I'm saving up to go back because he didnt take care of the plug yet, but it seems to have gotten smaller with better diet it seems. I also just want a general check up.
What I am concerned with is what are the long term effects of his poor husbandry? For example, his gait is uneven and the vet said it'll never be 100% again from his break that was caused more by lack of nutrition then a kid learning how to handle small animals.
I cant seem to get rid of his dehydration wrinkles. I spray him with water daily, I'm having trouble getting him to drink but I try the tap the water and put it on his nose trick. I bathe him for an hour once a week and every other day or third day he gets a short soak for poos, but at no point does he look interested in drinking it. I spray his face and I can see him swallow but he doesn't stick his tongue to lap it up. He kinda went nuts when I tried the juice in the water because he stole my syringe, so it seems a bad idea to give the sugar monster his fix. But For real. He snatched it. He was originally given a water bowl and just expected to know what to do.
On lighting he has a reptisun tube 5.0 (I went by what the vet said) and the zoo med basking reflector dome light at 75 watt. Orginally his uvb light went through glass because his tank was a sideways aquarium and so you can imagine his heating situation since glass would crack under proper heating. Right now his low side hits around 82 on average and after some experimenting its roughly around 112. I use a temp gun, by the way.
His diet previously was the typical mistake of feeding him like a baby as an adult where he consumed mostly crickets and mealworms. The vet said alot of dragons have lived vegetarian diets as adults and have been fine and so up until like 2 weeks ago I had been doing that. His poop though was super watery, which was incredibly confusing with the wrinkles, but I've added back some hornworms and phoenix worms and the occasional cricket. his poop went back to normal beardie poop like a week after adding in bugs so I dunno how to feel about the water poop. I went through a few posts about vegetable diets and it turns out I was right about not being overly concerned.
His previous greens were the occasional kale and grapes. Now he gets a staple of collard greens. I'll defrost one of those vegetable mixes sometimes since the vet said that had lots of yummies for him. I'll grate carrots, add sometimes mango or prickly pear or squash. I add cactus leaf and turnip greens or endive. Occasionally bok choy. He gets fed every other day because feeding him every day was making him fat. I'm not sure if he's too thin now since I never had a healthy beardie!
Sorry for the long post but lets plunge on
He's had a slow shed and the pictures aren't showing, but his yellow is turning into a beautiful color and his lilac is gorgeous under the light. Right before I got him I thought he was a dirty yellow and I had been told he just had his shed by the previous owner. He started a month ago shedding and a day ago he started back up again.
He's missing toes, the end of his tail and I'm waiting for him To finish because the end of it is a worrisome dark brown. I have a credit card to smack down if y'all think tail rot is a genuine concern at this point, but you know how dangerous that road is financially.
Just further info, he's in a 4x2x3 melamine wood cage with newspaper as substrate. No water bowls inside, he's got a branch for basking, a plastic climbing tree thing, and a half log hide. Btw he loves napping or just chilling inside that hide. I'm not sure if thats normal. he was never active when we got him. He'll actually stand up properly now but he seems to elect not to use his newfound athleticism. Playtime out the cage means lemme hide and stay in one spot behind the shelves but that could also be that all my floors are hard. And our bonding currently consists of I am tolerating this human more then I tolerate others.
I know this is a lot wrong, but I wanted to home an older beardie who might have trouble finding a one. I'm just hoping that I can take care of my grumpy old man better with a little help.
Thanks y'all!