hi all, I know I've been gone for a long time. I stopped posting when my students starting finding my posts on the internet. (I'm a high school teacher) I need to put my thoughts out into the world and this is the only place I can do that. People that don't have reptiles just don't get it.
My brother and his husky moved in with me in October. It never occurred to me that Penny (the husky) would do harm to my bearded dragons. (My dog has always gotten along with them fine, if anything one of my dragons - Ernie, actually chases her sometimes) One day in November, stupid me left Bert in the bathtub and I went to the kitchen. Long story short Penny broke 6 of Bert's ribs. We went to the vet right away, got the x ray, diagnosis and pain medication etc.
Bert wasn't eating on his own which I figured was due to the pain/injury etc. So I was "force" feeding him a combo of bugs, repta-aid, baby food etc. After about 8 weeks of this he was giving the signs of wanting to brumate. So I let him because I figured that was long enough for him to have healed.
He woke up on his own about 1.5 - 2 months ago. He still would not eat on his own. I also noticed he was really thin so I eventually started the force feeding routine again. In the last 3 weeks i started noticing a darker then normal beard, not major .. just not the normal pure white beard. I also noticed that he was never straightened out. His back sometimes has a curve to it when he's laying down. sometimes he even has like a hump in his back.
Anyhow I finally took him to the vet on Saturday. He had a clean fecal. We did another x ray and all 6 ribs have healed nicely - you can see the bone callouses clearly in the x ray. We also did blood work to look at kidney/liver function etc. Have NOT gotten those results yet. The vet agreed with me that the posture stuff is weird. You can't see anything on the x-ray regarding a back injury.
Vet said it's likely 1 of 2 things - a soft tissue injury to the back/spine whatever or internal organ injury from the original bite that we're just seeing the consequences of now. He prescribed an anti-inflammatory to rule out the back. He said if it's the soft tissue back thing we should see a difference with the behavior, desire to eat etc. He also said if it does the trick being on the anti-inflammatory long term will be no problem.
Now I know this is only day 4 of meds but I see no change. If anything his beard has been darker the last 2 days. But maybe I've just been paying more attention to him. I just have this sinking feeling that I am going to have to put him to sleep. All because of my stupid actions. Its just so unfair to him. he didn't sign up for this. What gives us the right to even keep them as pets?
If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading. Has anyone ever had similar health issues with a dragon?
Thanks in advance,
My brother and his husky moved in with me in October. It never occurred to me that Penny (the husky) would do harm to my bearded dragons. (My dog has always gotten along with them fine, if anything one of my dragons - Ernie, actually chases her sometimes) One day in November, stupid me left Bert in the bathtub and I went to the kitchen. Long story short Penny broke 6 of Bert's ribs. We went to the vet right away, got the x ray, diagnosis and pain medication etc.
Bert wasn't eating on his own which I figured was due to the pain/injury etc. So I was "force" feeding him a combo of bugs, repta-aid, baby food etc. After about 8 weeks of this he was giving the signs of wanting to brumate. So I let him because I figured that was long enough for him to have healed.
He woke up on his own about 1.5 - 2 months ago. He still would not eat on his own. I also noticed he was really thin so I eventually started the force feeding routine again. In the last 3 weeks i started noticing a darker then normal beard, not major .. just not the normal pure white beard. I also noticed that he was never straightened out. His back sometimes has a curve to it when he's laying down. sometimes he even has like a hump in his back.
Anyhow I finally took him to the vet on Saturday. He had a clean fecal. We did another x ray and all 6 ribs have healed nicely - you can see the bone callouses clearly in the x ray. We also did blood work to look at kidney/liver function etc. Have NOT gotten those results yet. The vet agreed with me that the posture stuff is weird. You can't see anything on the x-ray regarding a back injury.
Vet said it's likely 1 of 2 things - a soft tissue injury to the back/spine whatever or internal organ injury from the original bite that we're just seeing the consequences of now. He prescribed an anti-inflammatory to rule out the back. He said if it's the soft tissue back thing we should see a difference with the behavior, desire to eat etc. He also said if it does the trick being on the anti-inflammatory long term will be no problem.
Now I know this is only day 4 of meds but I see no change. If anything his beard has been darker the last 2 days. But maybe I've just been paying more attention to him. I just have this sinking feeling that I am going to have to put him to sleep. All because of my stupid actions. Its just so unfair to him. he didn't sign up for this. What gives us the right to even keep them as pets?
If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading. Has anyone ever had similar health issues with a dragon?
Thanks in advance,
How is Bert moving in general ? Does he walk about the tank, does he climb ? Does he hold his head up + seem alert ? A 
