Took my beardie to the vet, now i’m concerned he’s past helping and gonna die. (parasites, atadenovirus)

glizzysmom

Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Glizzy
I’m going to try and be as detailed as possible and give a clear timeline.

12/20/22: Went to the local reptile pet store to adopt a bearded dragon, at first we were going to go with one of their more expensive ones who had a cool morph but fell in love with a surrendered bearded dragon who we named glizzy. He was very calm and sweet let us hold him right away and stayed perched up on my shoulder the whole drive home. we are very much in love with him. he’s anywhere from 6-8 months old as confirmed by our new vet.

12/31/22: noticed he seemed calm and just very lethargic compared to most of the other bearded dragons we’ve seen. he also had a very sporadic appetite and even when he did eat it was very small amounts. i did a ton of research on lighting and realized we just did not have the correct set up. We had a 2 in 1 basking and uvb bulb that of course the pet store sent us home with. i thought for sure that our husbandry was the reason for his lethargy. Changed his setup to a 150w bright white basking bulb with a 10.0 Reptisun T8 uvb linear bulb (we are saving up to get a 24 inch one, he is in a 55 gallon tank) his lights and basking bulb are on a timer they go on at 7:30am and off at 7:30pm. His basking bulb runs on a thermostat to keep his basking spot no hotter than 105 degrees (we’ve noticed any hotter and he doesn’t like it) but he was still presenting very lethargic even a couple weeks after set up change.

1/10/22 : after noticing that the change in our husbandry wasn’t doing anything for him i called to make an appt with our local exotic vet. The appt was four weeks out but it was the best we could do.

1/13/22 : We decided he just wasn’t looking right to us and his poops were very inconsistent, we had a hunch he may have parasites due to the fact he was sharing a tank with a few other beardies. we decided to not wait for the appt and took him to the exotic animal urgent care. after three hours of waiting the vet basically told us that she also thinks he looks like he “just ain’t doin right” he luckily pooped while he was there and they took a fecal. Unfortunately she also suggested that he may not have parasites but have atdenovirus/“wasting disease” or a tumor in his GI tract. she did an ultrasound though on his GI tract though and didn’t mention seeing anything odd. we took him home with some Emeraid to supplement his feedings and hoped we would just be dealing with parasites. Testing for both of the more serious illnesses was going to run us about 1000 dollars total and unfortunately we just don’t have that kind of money and the vet visit and fecal was already going to run us about 400 dollars.

1/18/22: Vet calls me back with test results says no parasites 🦠 and that she has to wait for the second part of the test to come back to rule out if it could be giardia. She says even if we tested for atdenovirus that it’s fatal and nothing we can do about it anyways it would just be nice to know. she agreed to start him on an anti-inflammatory medication to see if it helps. we don’t have the money to spend on expensive tests but also want to do the most we can for glizzy.

Since i’ve already gone to the vet and am doing the best i can on that end i thought i’d come here and ask for some help and some hope.

Glizzy’s Care: 55gal Tank, 18inch reptisun 10.0 liner uvb bulb, 150w bright white basking bulb, 8 inch basking rock with hide his basking spot is 5 1/2 to 6 inches from the uvb and light is inside of his tank. He eats greens like mustard, dandelion and on occasion arugula, we top with bee pollen (he tends to like it simple too much other stuff he won’t eat it at all). he gets dubia roaches for protein. we let him out of the viv to run around in a safe area we always vaccum first.



Glizzy’s Temps: 95 warm side, 105 basking spot, 90 in the middle. 85 on cool side. night temps stay at about 70-75 degrees. we take the temps with probes and an infrared temp gun we always take the temp gun measurements no more than two inches away.

Glizzy’s symptoms: Lethargic/lazy, very small and sporadic appetite, energy levels very up and down sometimes he’ll run around our room and other times he just sits there not moving, not doing anything, inconsistent poo with undigested greens and bug parts in them. he just doesn’t seem all there? almost like he’s depressed. doesn’t get on his basking spot by himself very often (yes we have tried adjusting the temps all kinds) mostly likes to hide.

Glizzy’s current care: Greens with emeraid critcal care drizzled on top, if he won’t eat the greens we force feed him the critical care liquid mix. since he won’t eat we recently ordered a liquid vitamin and calcium it gets here on friday. we soak him most nights so that he can try to get some of his poop out, we let him sit in warm water and i give him a little tummy massage.


we love this damn lizard so much and just want to know there’s something other than an incurable deadly virus or a tumor that he could possibly have. we have a kid and unfortunately can’t spend thousands on testing or surgery if he needed it but if we could we would in a heartbeat.

has anyone dealt with something like this before? any hope or help with ideas is greatly appreciated.

i’ve attached some photos just know glizzy no longer has a hammock it was replaced with a tall basking rock.

*POOP PICTURE WARNING*
 

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KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
I’m going to try and be as detailed as possible and give a clear timeline.

12/20/22: Went to the local reptile pet store to adopt a bearded dragon, at first we were going to go with one of their more expensive ones who had a cool morph but fell in love with a surrendered bearded dragon who we named glizzy. He was very calm and sweet let us hold him right away and stayed perched up on my shoulder the whole drive home. we are very much in love with him. he’s anywhere from 6-8 months old as confirmed by our new vet.

12/31/22: noticed he seemed calm and just very lethargic compared to most of the other bearded dragons we’ve seen. he also had a very sporadic appetite and even when he did eat it was very small amounts. i did a ton of research on lighting and realized we just did not have the correct set up. We had a 2 in 1 basking and uvb bulb that of course the pet store sent us home with. i thought for sure that our husbandry was the reason for his lethargy. Changed his setup to a 150w bright white basking bulb with a 10.0 Reptisun T8 uvb linear bulb (we are saving up to get a 24 inch one, he is in a 55 gallon tank) his lights and basking bulb are on a timer they go on at 7:30am and off at 7:30pm. His basking bulb runs on a thermostat to keep his basking spot no hotter than 105 degrees (we’ve noticed any hotter and he doesn’t like it) but he was still presenting very lethargic even a couple weeks after set up change.

1/10/22 : after noticing that the change in our husbandry wasn’t doing anything for him i called to make an appt with our local exotic vet. The appt was four weeks out but it was the best we could do.

1/13/22 : We decided he just wasn’t looking right to us and his poops were very inconsistent, we had a hunch he may have parasites due to the fact he was sharing a tank with a few other beardies. we decided to not wait for the appt and took him to the exotic animal urgent care. after three hours of waiting the vet basically told us that she also thinks he looks like he “just ain’t doin right” he luckily pooped while he was there and they took a fecal. Unfortunately she also suggested that he may not have parasites but have atdenovirus/“wasting disease” or a tumor in his GI tract. she did an ultrasound though on his GI tract though and didn’t mention seeing anything odd. we took him home with some Emeraid to supplement his feedings and hoped we would just be dealing with parasites. Testing for both of the more serious illnesses was going to run us about 1000 dollars total and unfortunately we just don’t have that kind of money and the vet visit and fecal was already going to run us about 400 dollars.

1/18/22: Vet calls me back with test results says no parasites 🦠 and that she has to wait for the second part of the test to come back to rule out if it could be giardia. She says even if we tested for atdenovirus that it’s fatal and nothing we can do about it anyways it would just be nice to know. she agreed to start him on an anti-inflammatory medication to see if it helps. we don’t have the money to spend on expensive tests but also want to do the most we can for glizzy.

Since i’ve already gone to the vet and am doing the best i can on that end i thought i’d come here and ask for some help and some hope.

Glizzy’s Care: 55gal Tank, 18inch reptisun 10.0 liner uvb bulb, 150w bright white basking bulb, 8 inch basking rock with hide his basking spot is 5 1/2 to 6 inches from the uvb and light is inside of his tank. He eats greens like mustard, dandelion and on occasion arugula, we top with bee pollen (he tends to like it simple too much other stuff he won’t eat it at all). he gets dubia roaches for protein. we let him out of the viv to run around in a safe area we always vaccum first.



Glizzy’s Temps: 95 warm side, 105 basking spot, 90 in the middle. 85 on cool side. night temps stay at about 70-75 degrees. we take the temps with probes and an infrared temp gun we always take the temp gun measurements no more than two inches away.

Glizzy’s symptoms: Lethargic/lazy, very small and sporadic appetite, energy levels very up and down sometimes he’ll run around our room and other times he just sits there not moving, not doing anything, inconsistent poo with undigested greens and bug parts in them. he just doesn’t seem all there? almost like he’s depressed. doesn’t get on his basking spot by himself very often (yes we have tried adjusting the temps all kinds) mostly likes to hide.

Glizzy’s current care: Greens with emeraid critcal care drizzled on top, if he won’t eat the greens we force feed him the critical care liquid mix. since he won’t eat we recently ordered a liquid vitamin and calcium it gets here on friday. we soak him most nights so that he can try to get some of his poop out, we let him sit in warm water and i give him a little tummy massage.


we love this damn lizard so much and just want to know there’s something other than an incurable deadly virus or a tumor that he could possibly have. we have a kid and unfortunately can’t spend thousands on testing or surgery if he needed it but if we could we would in a heartbeat.

has anyone dealt with something like this before? any hope or help with ideas is greatly appreciated.

i’ve attached some photos just know glizzy no longer has a hammock it was replaced with a tall basking rock.

*POOP PICTURE WARNING*
We need Tracie to see the post -- shes the vet tech mod on here -- do you have the results of any blood work - fecal anything the vet did --- if you do please post if you have them or if you dont call the vet have them send them to you by email -- is the cover on the UVB fixture? It looks like a Zilla fixture and yes I would recommend upgrading the UVB - I know its in the works but the sooner the better
 
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glizzysmom

Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Glizzy
We need Tracie to see the post -- shes the vet tech mod on here -- do you have the results of any blood work - fecal anything the vet did --- if you do please post if you have them or if you dont call the vet have them send them to you by email --


I don’t have the exact like paper results of the fecal, she called this morning and told me that the test results were “boring” and that she’s waiting on a second round on the fecal to rule out giardia but doesn’t feel comfortable giving us meds for parasites only starting him on an anti-inflammatory.
i’ll call and ask them to email the results to me! thank you 🙏🏽
 

hdochow

Sub-Adult Member
Photo Comp Winner
Beardie name(s)
Sir Henry of Scales
did they actually test for the ADV or are they just guessing? tracie on here works on ADV and you can work with her on testing. she's on late at night. @Drache613

the undigested food makes me think switching to a T5 uvb instead of the T8 might be a good idea. usually that comes from lack of basking/uvb/temp issues but your temps seem to be in the good range. it all could be just fine too. @KarrieRee is a good one to work with for this part

the rest could be coming from just the time of the year. a lot of beardies slow down on eating and activity in the fall/winter and then activity starts to pick back up again. our sir henry spent 2 months just being a lump on a log, but in the last week or so has started with the zoomies, "i want out, there is traffic to be watched from that window RIGHT OVER THERE!"

be careful with the baths. too many is not good for their scales. (and the only time they get any hydration from bathing is if they actually drink from it. soaking hydration up through their scales or vent is a myth.)
 

glizzysmom

Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Glizzy
did they actually test for the ADV or are they just guessing? tracie on here works on ADV and you can work with her on testing. she's on late at night. @Drache613

the undigested food makes me think switching to a T5 uvb instead of the T8 might be a good idea. usually that comes from lack of basking/uvb/temp issues but your temps seem to be in the good range. it all could be just fine too. @KarrieRee is a good one to work with for this part

the rest could be coming from just the time of the year. a lot of beardies slow down on eating and activity in the fall/winter and then activity starts to pick back up again. our sir henry spent 2 months just being a lump on a log, but in the last week or so has started with the zoomies, "i want out, there is traffic to be watched from that window RIGHT OVER THERE!"

be careful with the baths. too many is not good for their scales. (and the only time they get any hydration from bathing is if they actually drink from it. soaking hydration up through their scales or vent is a myth.)
Hi, no Adv Testing, all the tests they want to run is gonna cost us money we don’t have right now and unfortunately we were only able to pay for an emergency vet visit and the fecal exam which somehow ran us $125 dollars just for the fecal. which seems much higher than the 70-80 it usually is. Vet called today said no parasites on the first round of testing second testing is looking for giardia and not back yet. doc prescribed meloxicam in the meantime.

We are saving up for a T5 bulb we do want to get one, but just don’t have the money for the fixture and the expensive bulb right now but really are doing the best we can. just ordered a uv sensor to make sure i didn’t get a faulty bulb or something and the UV sensor should be here by tuesday to test the bulb. but we just bought the whole lighting set up about 3 weeks ago.

i was thinking this as well! maybe it’s just the time of the year plus all the rain recently hear in socal and it’s been super cold and it’s making him lazy. my worry is that the vet has mentioned she just thinking my beardie just seems off… didn’t mention maybe brumation or anything. i have a tendency to not trust vets sometimes it feels like they try to nickel and dime but i also don’t want him to die 🥹
 

glizzysmom

Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Glizzy
We need Tracie to see the post -- shes the vet tech mod on here -- do you have the results of any blood work - fecal anything the vet did --- if you do please post if you have them or if you dont call the vet have them send them to you by email -- is the cover on the UVB fixture? It looks like a Zilla fixture and yes I would recommend upgrading the UVB - I know its in the works but the sooner the better
The cover is not on the fixture! i ripped off the plastic cover as soon as we got it :) it’s a zilla fixture with the reptisun bulb inside.
 

glizzysmom

Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Glizzy
did they actually test for the ADV or are they just guessing? tracie on here works on ADV and you can work with her on testing. she's on late at night. @Drache613

the undigested food makes me think switching to a T5 uvb instead of the T8 might be a good idea. usually that comes from lack of basking/uvb/temp issues but your temps seem to be in the good range. it all could be just fine too. @KarrieRee is a good one to work with for this part

the rest could be coming from just the time of the year. a lot of beardies slow down on eating and activity in the fall/winter and then activity starts to pick back up again. our sir henry spent 2 months just being a lump on a log, but in the last week or so has started with the zoomies, "i want out, there is traffic to be watched from that window RIGHT OVER THERE!"

be careful with the baths. too many is not good for their scales. (and the only time they get any hydration from bathing is if they actually drink from it. soaking hydration up through their scales or vent is a myth.)
also just a side note, he recently got a new basking rock we thought maybe he's not basking cause they hammock scares him/feels unstable so we got a basking rock with a built in hide, ever since we got it he hides all day in the little cave, could it be brumation??
 

glizzysmom

Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Glizzy
also just a side note, he recently got a new basking rock we thought maybe he's not basking cause they hammock scares him/feels unstable so we got a basking rock with a built in hide, ever since we got it he hides all day in the little cave, could it be brumation??
my partner just sent me a photo of him hiding, said he didn’t want to come out 😞
 

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KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
my partner just sent me a photo of him hiding, said he didn’t want to come out 😞
Yes it could be brumation and w/ the UVB and the lighting correct we know that is not the issue- lets have Tracie advise on this-- in the meantime keep an eye on him and your gonna want to keep a weight on him - check to see what he was at the vets office and make sure hes hydrated if he is in the brumation phase - offer water to him every 10 days to 2 weeks and a weight on him at the same time
@Drache613
 
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xp29

BD.org Addict
Photo Comp Winner
Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
Ask Tracie about sending a fecal to her. I live in vegas and have used multiple vets, the most expensive fecal was 48 dollars, they are gouging you. I had two tested for adv about 3 years ago it was like 350 (each) for the vet visit, fecal, and the blood work. I think Tracie is using a swab to test for adv, that would be a lot less stressful fir Glizzy. Even if he has adv he can live a long and decent life with good husbandry. Adv is bad but it isn't necessarily a death sentence. Tracies handle is Drache613. You might should pm her.
 

glizzysmom

Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Glizzy
Ask Tracie about sending a fecal to her. I live in vegas and have used multiple vets, the most expensive fecal was 48 dollars, they are gouging you. I had two tested for adv about 3 years ago it was like 350 (each) for the vet visit, fecal, and the blood work. I think Tracie is using a swab to test for adv, that would be a lot less stressful fir Glizzy. Even if he has adv he can live a long and decent life with good husbandry. Adv is bad but it isn't necessarily a death sentence. Tracies handle is Drache613. You might should pm her.
Thank you so much for this reply! i have watched lots of videos about getting parasite testing done and everyone said it ranged from 40-80 dollars depending on the vet and when they told me it was gonna be $125 for a fecal, i was shocked. we of course did it anyways because we thought for sure he must have parasites and we’d get an answer but it’s been a little concerning that the vet went straight to ADV or GI Tumor and didn’t suggest maybe brumation or something that wasn’t idk.. a little less deadly. glizzy does have really great days where he runs around and looks out the window and has energy! he’s usually just lazy and sometimes i wonder if he’s just been trying to brumate! we just got him a new basking rock that has a big cavernous hide in it and he hasn’t really wanted to come out of it since we got it. it makes me sad that our vet would go to worst case scenario. we ordered him a scale and some liquid vitamins and are really just trying to keep the best eye on him that we can. it’s my first reptile and i gotta be real i didn’t know you could love a lizard so much! he’s become a second kid to me.
 

xp29

BD.org Addict
Photo Comp Winner
Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
I grew up chasing and on a good day catching lizards 🦎 but same here, until i got my first beardie they where just a curiosity. Now i can't imagen life without them. I have 5 now lol (But in my defense I'm going to start breeding them as soon as my new male is big enough, should be in the next 4 or 5 months.)
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Hi there, just wanted to say that you dragon looks good and you've done a really nice job on the tank set up. :) Although he's not " plump", he is well proportioned so try not to worry too much. As for hiding in his new cave, that's what beardies do some time. It's like the human equivalent of a new favorite hang out or redecorated room, he might want to hang out in there for a while. I;m not sure why the vet gave him meloxicam with no diagnosis. Meds. should never be given " just in case ." I'd discontinue that, unless I missed something .
 

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