SnjezanaBirch
New member
Hello, I found and joined this site to try to get some help from anyone that might know what's going on with my new baby.
First off, I have a beardie that's about a year old and he is just doing great. He is a big beastly champ that just thrives with us and is our new best bud. He was the first lizard we ever owned and we did LOTS of research to make sure we gave him the best life he could have. We never had any problems with him whatsoever.
Anyway we got another baby from the same place we got Beard Man. Not sure the sex yet but I'm hoping its a girl so I'm gonna refer to it as a her lol anyway she seemed like the spunky one. The other two were sleeping she was sitting up looking around. And she was very pretty, bright color, looked a lot like our little man.
When at the store we noticed that she had a little black mark on the top of her head. The petco worker said they didn't know what it was, but nothing to worry about. We personally thought maybe she would lose it in the first shed. I bought her on August 8th. The first few days that I had her she was very active, very spunky. But from the start I noticed that she wasn't eating quite as much as beard man did. When I fed her I put about 10-20 crickets at a time in a separate tank and she never ate more than about 7-10 crickets a day and that was on a good day. Usually she ate only about 5. That was the first time I thought something might be wrong.
On about the 25th she didn't eat at all. Same as the 26th. I started getting worried and started trying to feed her multiple times a day. However nothing. She didn't eat at all till the 30th. She was starting to look very very skinny. She slept all day long pretty much. She's pretty small still so I'm very very worried about her being so little. I remembered that they had mealworms in their dish at the store so I went out and bought some thinking maybe she didn't want or wasn't used to the crickets. (We never fed them to beard man as everywhere said that crickets are the best source of calcium and we order them in bulk for beard man). When I put 5 in her dish she looked over and literally sprinted over to the food bowl and ate 1. I really didn't think she would eat them so I didn't even think to powder them right away. When I saw her eat 1 I immediately powdered some more and threw them in. But she didn't eat anymore
. Later that day I got her to eat one more. I gave her water each day. I dripped it on her nose from my finger and she drank every day. Yesterday (the 30th) while I was giving her water I dipped my finger in the calcium powder and put it on her snout and mixed it with the water while she was drinking because I'm worried she obviously isn't getting enough calcium since she isn't eating. Today (the 31st) she again hasn't eaten. She just pretty much sleeps all day. This morning she was basking in her water dish. However since she ate those 2 worms yesterday she doesn't look quite as deathly skinny anymore.
But now the other problem that started on the night of the 29th was that she started shaking. Up until that point i wasn't as extremely worried as i am now, i thought it was just her adjusting to the new environment. At first it was her front legs and her head that were shaking, twitching almost. The next day it was her back legs. It doesn't go on for very long and mainly the times that I've noticed it happen was for the first time the night of the 29th when I picked her up. Afterward, it's only been happening mostly when I try to put her back after holding her. Then I pick her back up and hold her and talk to her try to soothe her and comfort her. Usually she stops and then I make her a bed out of either a tshirt or a few of those soft paper towels put together at an incline so she thinks I'm still holding her and she just falls asleep on it and doesn't shake when I put her down. Today I saw her shaking again and it's just breaking my heart. I don't know what to do. I want to take her to vet obviously but I am just too broke right now and I feel like such a piece of crap that money is even a question right now but it just is. I went and talked to petco about it and they pretty much didnt take it too seriously and said I could bring her back and they would monitor her in their back room and take her to the vet if needed but I talked to a friend of mine from high school that I haven't seen for years that works there and she said they aren't very good about actually taking them to the vets so I just don't want to take her there to be left alone in some back room there with no one to actually love and hold her because she seems like she really wants to be held right now.
I tried to take her outside to get some natural sunlight for about 10 minutes in my hand and she seemed to actually perk up quite a bit. So I took her aquarium outside and put it out in the sun for about half hr 45 minutes. She started running along the side of the cage every time I tried to leave her side so I just kind of hung out with her in my hand for a bit and then went upstairs and put her cage in a different room so I could put it in the sunlight by the window.
Another thing I forgot to mention was that she is still going to the bathroom, even the days that she wasn't eating but her stool has become very runny. And a couple times she pooped and didn't even move out of the spot. One of the times was when I had my shirt in there as a bed for her. It seems almost as if she can't control her bowel movements at times, and then doesn't even realize she went or doesn't have the strength to move. I think she doesn't realize because she is still capable of walking and running even but idk maybe at times she isn't.
Now I'm just racking my brain trying to figure out if it was anything I did to hurt her! At first I had her in the walnut shell substrate that we use for beard man which I know they aren't supposed to ingest but since I feed her in a separate clean empty tank I figured it wouldn't really hurt. I've since taken the sand out and put paper towels down instead. Another thing I worry about is I had a half log thing for her to bask on but when I looked at it closer it looks like it cracked under the heat and the bark was falling off so I worry she might have eaten a piece of that but she doesn't seem to have impact ion but idk. I also obviously took it out since then too. 1 other thing is that with beard man we used only purified/distilled bottled water for anything except baths. But I've been using regular water for her. Now that I think of it I will be seriously angry with myself if she could have gotten sick from me giving her the wrong water
The cage specs for her: I have her in a 20 gal only tank right now until I go through the rest of the crickets which I've been holding in our 40 gallon tank since beard man got his new cage (we built him a huge 6' by 2' by 2'. We are in the process of building her her own cage for when she is bigger too, even though we could probably just divide beard man's but we don't want to impose on him and make him jealous lol) I bought her the ReptiSun 10.0 UVB 13 watt desert mini compact fluorescent light, and the ZooMed 75 watt Repti Basking Spot Lamp.
Sorry for such a long message I just wanted to put absolutely every detail I possibly could that might make a difference so I hope someone out there knows whats going on with my little girl, god forbid from personal experience, or anything. I am just having a major mental battle with myself as to whether to take her back to the store and hope they give her the vet treatment instead of just shoving her in some back room, and just feeling like I'm torturing her by not giving her a shot at the vet treatment. I'm trying my hardest to try to come up with the vet money but I just have had everything hit us at once and I just don't know what to do. I was told that she would have a small chance at actually getting to the vet with petco and it definitely wouldn't be till Tuesday because of the holiday anyway. But then I also have the fear that even if petco does take her to the vet, what if they don't want to give her back to me? I know it hasn't been but about a month but I am very attached to this little girl and would really like to have her back (when i spoke to them about this they said they would have to give me my money back for her in case they did have to take her to to vet so it just worries me) but still if I knew they would give her the care she needs I would give her back in a heartbeat.
Again I'm really sorry this is so long. I hope I didn't miss anything. If I did please just ask. And please please let me know ASAP if you know at all what this might be or what I could try to do to help her. If she doesn't get better by Tuesday and I don't come up with the money I'm taking her back to petco if only because at least she will have any chance at all at vet care. Gosh but I'm so scared they won't give her the TLC she needs and is so used to by now. And that I won't get her back. But I can't live with not doing anything.
Thank you so much for your time and your help. I really appreciate it and so does my little girl! We really hope someone out there knows whats going on and what we could do to make her better and back to her real lively self.
First off, I have a beardie that's about a year old and he is just doing great. He is a big beastly champ that just thrives with us and is our new best bud. He was the first lizard we ever owned and we did LOTS of research to make sure we gave him the best life he could have. We never had any problems with him whatsoever.
Anyway we got another baby from the same place we got Beard Man. Not sure the sex yet but I'm hoping its a girl so I'm gonna refer to it as a her lol anyway she seemed like the spunky one. The other two were sleeping she was sitting up looking around. And she was very pretty, bright color, looked a lot like our little man.
When at the store we noticed that she had a little black mark on the top of her head. The petco worker said they didn't know what it was, but nothing to worry about. We personally thought maybe she would lose it in the first shed. I bought her on August 8th. The first few days that I had her she was very active, very spunky. But from the start I noticed that she wasn't eating quite as much as beard man did. When I fed her I put about 10-20 crickets at a time in a separate tank and she never ate more than about 7-10 crickets a day and that was on a good day. Usually she ate only about 5. That was the first time I thought something might be wrong.
On about the 25th she didn't eat at all. Same as the 26th. I started getting worried and started trying to feed her multiple times a day. However nothing. She didn't eat at all till the 30th. She was starting to look very very skinny. She slept all day long pretty much. She's pretty small still so I'm very very worried about her being so little. I remembered that they had mealworms in their dish at the store so I went out and bought some thinking maybe she didn't want or wasn't used to the crickets. (We never fed them to beard man as everywhere said that crickets are the best source of calcium and we order them in bulk for beard man). When I put 5 in her dish she looked over and literally sprinted over to the food bowl and ate 1. I really didn't think she would eat them so I didn't even think to powder them right away. When I saw her eat 1 I immediately powdered some more and threw them in. But she didn't eat anymore
. Later that day I got her to eat one more. I gave her water each day. I dripped it on her nose from my finger and she drank every day. Yesterday (the 30th) while I was giving her water I dipped my finger in the calcium powder and put it on her snout and mixed it with the water while she was drinking because I'm worried she obviously isn't getting enough calcium since she isn't eating. Today (the 31st) she again hasn't eaten. She just pretty much sleeps all day. This morning she was basking in her water dish. However since she ate those 2 worms yesterday she doesn't look quite as deathly skinny anymore. But now the other problem that started on the night of the 29th was that she started shaking. Up until that point i wasn't as extremely worried as i am now, i thought it was just her adjusting to the new environment. At first it was her front legs and her head that were shaking, twitching almost. The next day it was her back legs. It doesn't go on for very long and mainly the times that I've noticed it happen was for the first time the night of the 29th when I picked her up. Afterward, it's only been happening mostly when I try to put her back after holding her. Then I pick her back up and hold her and talk to her try to soothe her and comfort her. Usually she stops and then I make her a bed out of either a tshirt or a few of those soft paper towels put together at an incline so she thinks I'm still holding her and she just falls asleep on it and doesn't shake when I put her down. Today I saw her shaking again and it's just breaking my heart. I don't know what to do. I want to take her to vet obviously but I am just too broke right now and I feel like such a piece of crap that money is even a question right now but it just is. I went and talked to petco about it and they pretty much didnt take it too seriously and said I could bring her back and they would monitor her in their back room and take her to the vet if needed but I talked to a friend of mine from high school that I haven't seen for years that works there and she said they aren't very good about actually taking them to the vets so I just don't want to take her there to be left alone in some back room there with no one to actually love and hold her because she seems like she really wants to be held right now.
I tried to take her outside to get some natural sunlight for about 10 minutes in my hand and she seemed to actually perk up quite a bit. So I took her aquarium outside and put it out in the sun for about half hr 45 minutes. She started running along the side of the cage every time I tried to leave her side so I just kind of hung out with her in my hand for a bit and then went upstairs and put her cage in a different room so I could put it in the sunlight by the window.
Another thing I forgot to mention was that she is still going to the bathroom, even the days that she wasn't eating but her stool has become very runny. And a couple times she pooped and didn't even move out of the spot. One of the times was when I had my shirt in there as a bed for her. It seems almost as if she can't control her bowel movements at times, and then doesn't even realize she went or doesn't have the strength to move. I think she doesn't realize because she is still capable of walking and running even but idk maybe at times she isn't.
Now I'm just racking my brain trying to figure out if it was anything I did to hurt her! At first I had her in the walnut shell substrate that we use for beard man which I know they aren't supposed to ingest but since I feed her in a separate clean empty tank I figured it wouldn't really hurt. I've since taken the sand out and put paper towels down instead. Another thing I worry about is I had a half log thing for her to bask on but when I looked at it closer it looks like it cracked under the heat and the bark was falling off so I worry she might have eaten a piece of that but she doesn't seem to have impact ion but idk. I also obviously took it out since then too. 1 other thing is that with beard man we used only purified/distilled bottled water for anything except baths. But I've been using regular water for her. Now that I think of it I will be seriously angry with myself if she could have gotten sick from me giving her the wrong water
The cage specs for her: I have her in a 20 gal only tank right now until I go through the rest of the crickets which I've been holding in our 40 gallon tank since beard man got his new cage (we built him a huge 6' by 2' by 2'. We are in the process of building her her own cage for when she is bigger too, even though we could probably just divide beard man's but we don't want to impose on him and make him jealous lol) I bought her the ReptiSun 10.0 UVB 13 watt desert mini compact fluorescent light, and the ZooMed 75 watt Repti Basking Spot Lamp.
Sorry for such a long message I just wanted to put absolutely every detail I possibly could that might make a difference so I hope someone out there knows whats going on with my little girl, god forbid from personal experience, or anything. I am just having a major mental battle with myself as to whether to take her back to the store and hope they give her the vet treatment instead of just shoving her in some back room, and just feeling like I'm torturing her by not giving her a shot at the vet treatment. I'm trying my hardest to try to come up with the vet money but I just have had everything hit us at once and I just don't know what to do. I was told that she would have a small chance at actually getting to the vet with petco and it definitely wouldn't be till Tuesday because of the holiday anyway. But then I also have the fear that even if petco does take her to the vet, what if they don't want to give her back to me? I know it hasn't been but about a month but I am very attached to this little girl and would really like to have her back (when i spoke to them about this they said they would have to give me my money back for her in case they did have to take her to to vet so it just worries me) but still if I knew they would give her the care she needs I would give her back in a heartbeat.
Again I'm really sorry this is so long. I hope I didn't miss anything. If I did please just ask. And please please let me know ASAP if you know at all what this might be or what I could try to do to help her. If she doesn't get better by Tuesday and I don't come up with the money I'm taking her back to petco if only because at least she will have any chance at all at vet care. Gosh but I'm so scared they won't give her the TLC she needs and is so used to by now. And that I won't get her back. But I can't live with not doing anything.
Thank you so much for your time and your help. I really appreciate it and so does my little girl! We really hope someone out there knows whats going on and what we could do to make her better and back to her real lively self.
