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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Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

Yes, did you already contact me regarding testing? If not, you can go onto the website:

www.thepats.info

Be sure to include your shipping address for me so I know where to send the swab & form.
The swab fecal test is easy to do at home & is $21.

I agree, he looks pretty good really. Oh, Adeno is not always a death sentence, no. There
are a lot of circumstances to consider on that.
At the age of 6-8 months, estimated, it is possible he is just going through relocation adjustment
or stress combined with seasonal slowdown that likely wont last very long.
Did you get a blood test done? I know that they are very expensive.
Personally, it doesn't sound like he is ill, to me. Is he losing weight or not? Since he seems to
have a good appetite, he might just need a boost of nutrition.
It sounds like the vet was trying to help with finding some type of diagnosis but many times there
isn't anything wrong & they are simply slown down trying to brumate. If that is the case, medicating
them, etc will make things much worse.
If nothing was found on the ultrasound like a mass, etc there probably isn't anything out of the ordinary
in his abdomen area. Give him some time, & keep doing what you are doing. His appetite should
eventually pick up some, too.

Tracie
 

glizzysmom

Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Glizzy
Hello,

Yes, did you already contact me regarding testing? If not, you can go onto the website:

www.thepats.info

Be sure to include your shipping address for me so I know where to send the swab & form.
The swab fecal test is easy to do at home & is $21.

I agree, he looks pretty good really. Oh, Adeno is not always a death sentence, no. There
are a lot of circumstances to consider on that.
At the age of 6-8 months, estimated, it is possible he is just going through relocation adjustment
or stress combined with seasonal slowdown that likely wont last very long.
Did you get a blood test done? I know that they are very expensive.
Personally, it doesn't sound like he is ill, to me. Is he losing weight or not? Since he seems to
have a good appetite, he might just need a boost of nutrition.
It sounds like the vet was trying to help with finding some type of diagnosis but many times there
isn't anything wrong & they are simply slown down trying to brumate. If that is the case, medicating
them, etc will make things much worse.
If nothing was found on the ultrasound like a mass, etc there probably isn't anything out of the ordinary
in his abdomen area. Give him some time, & keep doing what you are doing. His appetite should
eventually pick up some, too.

Tracie
Hi Tracie! yes i did message and thank you for your response! sending over that forum now and would love to do the testing. thank you, thank you! <3 I did not get blood test done as we just could not afford it in the moment. though the vet did suggest. He doesnt seem to be losing weight, we bought a scale so that we could monitor his weight and make sure he's not losing much or at least gradually gaining. We've been supplementing fresh food with Emeraid critical care and i tried some repashy beardie buffet just to see if he would eat it but no go. he eats a couple leaves here and there or sometimes a whole salad and bugs, it really depends on the day. we found a arcadia 24 inch t5 fixture and bulb at petsmart for 75 bucks so gonna upgrade him to that as soon as i get paid and see if it helps some? maybe my t8 bulb just aint doing the job. Thank you so much! your message gave me so much hope.
 

xp29

BD.org Addict
Photo Comp Winner
Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
That is a great fixture and bulb, i use the same one with all 5 of mine. If you mount inside the enclosure it's even better.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Hi Tracie! yes i did message and thank you for your response! sending over that forum now and would love to do the testing. thank you, thank you! <3 I did not get blood test done as we just could not afford it in the moment. though the vet did suggest. He doesnt seem to be losing weight, we bought a scale so that we could monitor his weight and make sure he's not losing much or at least gradually gaining. We've been supplementing fresh food with Emeraid critical care and i tried some repashy beardie buffet just to see if he would eat it but no go. he eats a couple leaves here and there or sometimes a whole salad and bugs, it really depends on the day. we found a arcadia 24 inch t5 fixture and bulb at petsmart for 75 bucks so gonna upgrade him to that as soon as i get paid and see if it helps some? maybe my t8 bulb just aint doing the job. Thank you so much! your message gave me so much hope.
Distance 12-15 inches directly above the basking decor
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

You are welcome. How is he doing today?
I'm glad he doesn't seem to be losing weight, hopefully the Emeraid supplement is helping out.
I will get a testing packet out to you, too.

Let us know how things are going.
Tracie
 

glizzysmom

Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Glizzy
Hello,

You are welcome. How is he doing today?
I'm glad he doesn't seem to be losing weight, hopefully the Emeraid supplement is helping out.
I will get a testing packet out to you, too.

Let us know how things are going.
Tracie
Hi! sorry for the late response, work has been crazy and really been zoning in on our guys care. He seems to be doing well. the scale came and he weight 255 grams! we’re gonna keep a close eye on it. he seemed more energetic today after he had a big poo! and we gave him vitamins and calcium he seems to like eating more in the evening so that’s when we’ve been trying to feed. his appetite is still sporadic and he still has this mucus that comes out with his poo. but he seems like he kinda has more energy! it just depends on the day! but today we are worried because we noticed this is this stargazing or just him trying to soak up that light?
 

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glizzysmom

Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Glizzy
stargazing or just soaking up the light? He seems to be doing well. the scale came and he weight 255 grams! we’re gonna keep a close eye on it. he seemed more energetic today after he had a big poo! and we gave him vitamins and calcium he seems to like eating more in the evening so that’s when we’ve been trying to feed. his appetite is still sporadic and he still has this mucus that comes out with his poo. but he seems like he kinda has more energy! it just depends on the day! but today we are worried because we noticed this is this stargazing or just him trying to soak up that light?
 

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xp29

BD.org Addict
Photo Comp Winner
Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
Stargazing is neurological and it's called that because they can't physically put their head back down, it is a result of avd. Beardies do that when they are enjoying the light.
 

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