When the Vet Trip Doesn't Help

[Desdemona]

So, I thought I'd look for tips or insight on my current Dragon blues. I have a girl who is roughly 3 to 4 years old. She got what looked to be an infection in one eye. The eyelid that lies in-between her eye and the outer lid was stuck in the middle and it was reddish. Took her to the vet, he prescribed eye drops. They didn't do much and she wasn't eating. So, he gave her a antibodic shot. It seemed to perk her up a little, she was no longer laying around, but she still wasn't eating. I have been forcefeeding her babyfood and trying to sneak in supers (normal diet) as well as butterworms and wax worms. She will eat very small amounts of babyfood, but that was it. She has been slowly eating less and less. She is loosing weight so it isn't brumation or proper brumation. The vet put her on baytril which she has been taking for almost a week now. She's been eating less and less, showing no interest in water, and sleeping more. She perked up when I first started giving her the baytril, ate some worms and even had a normalish poop.. a bit small but good otherwise. I had already taken a very small orangy poop effort of hers into the vet and all he found was some worms but he said it was their normal kind and at the normal level. He said he could give her some medicine for it in case it was bothering her, but that he would need to order it. I haven't heard back from him, however.

So... keep on taking her to the vet? Ask him to put her out of her misery (at a vet, nothing inhumane)? Try to find a new vet? What would you do? I don't know if she'll last much longer since the last day or two she's started to respond quite a bit less. She does tend to brumate around this time so I don't know if it's just really bad timing of a illness plus the brumation or what. Her eye is still red and is leaking something. Yesterday she hardcore tried to refuse me feeding her, though she took the baytril. She wouldn't drink so I gave her a bath. She started to fall asleep after 10 minutes or so, so I took her out so she wouldn't drown.

Any insight would be helpful. I don't really have the money to be shelling out 100 bucks or so a week since she's already cost me a bit in vet fees already. However, I don't really want her to suffer and die a horrible death either. I could squeeze out a bit more money, but it doesn't seem like anything is really working.

 

[chastityx]

So, I thought I'd look for tips or insight on my current Dragon blues. I have a girl who is roughly 3 to 4 years old. She got what looked to be an infection in one eye. The eyelid that lies in-between her eye and the outer lid was stuck in the middle and it was reddish. Took her to the vet, he prescribed eye drops. They didn't do much and she wasn't eating. So, he gave her a antibodic shot. It seemed to perk her up a little, she was no longer laying around, but she still wasn't eating. I have been forcefeeding her babyfood and trying to sneak in supers (normal diet) as well as butterworms and wax worms. She will eat very small amounts of babyfood, but that was it. She has been slowly eating less and less. She is loosing weight so it isn't brumation or proper brumation. The vet put her on baytril which she has been taking for almost a week now. She's been eating less and less, showing no interest in water, and sleeping more. She perked up when I first started giving her the baytril, ate some worms and even had a normalish poop.. a bit small but good otherwise. I had already taken a very small orangy poop effort of hers into the vet and all he found was some worms but he said it was their normal kind and at the normal level. He said he could give her some medicine for it in case it was bothering her, but that he would need to order it. I haven't heard back from him, however.

So... keep on taking her to the vet? Ask him to put her out of her misery (at a vet, nothing inhumane)? Try to find a new vet? What would you do? I don't know if she'll last much longer since the last day or two she's started to respond quite a bit less. She does tend to brumate around this time so I don't know if it's just really bad timing of a illness plus the brumation or what. Her eye is still red and is leaking something. Yesterday she hardcore tried to refuse me feeding her, though she took the baytril. She wouldn't drink so I gave her a bath. She started to fall asleep after 10 minutes or so, so I took her out so she wouldn't drown.

Any insight would be helpful. I don't really have the money to be shelling out 100 bucks or so a week since she's already cost me a bit in vet fees already. However, I don't really want her to suffer and die a horrible death either. I could squeeze out a bit more money, but it doesn't seem like anything is really working.

for some reason i think i read that baytril is reaaaaaaallly hard on their systems? idk maybe do some research into that. it could be the thing actually making her worse.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....I'm sorry to hear about your poor girl. Can you post a picture of her, a close up of her eye when it's open ,and also one when it's closed [ if possible ] also a whole body shot ? I think that you are right, she may just be going into brumation with an eye problem, so she is naturally dopey and sluggish. Have you weighed her regularly to know how much she's lost ? I can suggest something to try on her eye, it worked on one of my beardies very well and took a very swollen , puss filled eye right back to normal within days. This was a baby that got it's eye scratched while hatching, they very often hatch overnight, and there's a whole little gang dashing around in the incubator in the morning. But anyway, he came out with an eye scratch, it swelled up to a huge size, so I took some raw [ it MUST be unpasteurized ] honey, diluted with a few drops of warm water + applied 3X a day with a Q- tip. It worked great....raw honey is a natural antibacterial/ antibiotic. But it must say raw honey on the bottle....most grocery stores carry it, and probably any health food store. No particular brand, just so it's raw. A small bottle costs between $5-$10. It's just a suggestion, but it worked for my baby very quickly, right before my eyes.

 

[Desdemona]

I can try to get an eye shot when I get back home tonight. She perked up last night, after I posted this, and I was doing the meds/force feed ritual. So, she might not be as bad as she seemed before I posted. She keeps on leaving the heat lamp area (I have multiple thermometers so I know it's not too hot.. if anything I need to get a new lamp to make it hotter since she hasn't been on her branches) and going to sleep. I put her back under the lamp and it seemed to wake her up. So, she probably is trying to brumate. I asked the vet during one visit (we have been there 3 times thus far) if she was dropping weight and she has lost 300 grams, so she is losing. I have a scale somewhere but I put it somewhere and can't find it. I have small apartment and far to much stuff syndrome. She was a heafty eater before she got sick so she had plenty of weight on her at least. She isn't a bag of bones yet but she is getting there. Fri or Sat I will have time to harvest/clean my roach motel so hopefully a new food will perk her up. I work a lot which isn't helping her cause out any.

I have raw honey, I will make sure it doesn't have any interactions with baytril and use it if not. She is almost at the end of her 10 days of Baytril, so I will probably end up calling the vet if she doesn't perk up after a day or two when that is done. He did say that sometimes meds can kill their appetite.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Try some sterile saline solution daily also, in combination with the eye drops. What eye drops/ointment did he prescribe & how long did you use them for?
You can also try using an herbal (chamomile) tea bag, warmed up & moistened at night to help with discomfort as well.
What UVB light are you using, a fluorescent tube bulb or a compact/coil light?
What substrate is she on, sand, paper towels, tiles?

Has she started eating much right now, or is she losing weight?
Some pictures would be helpful!

Tracie

 

[Desdemona]

She has a UVB tube light and I just bought her a new one maybe two weeks ago just to see if it would help. It is UVB 10. She is on tile. I used saline when I first noticed her eye and it seemed to make it more irritated instead of less. She will watch her food squirm around and seem interested, but not actually eat. I asked the vet if maybe her vision was throwing her off with the infection but he didn't seem to think that would be a problem.
She is losing weight now. Sadly today is my 15 hr work day so I can't post pics til 10 pm tonight PST. The eye drops were actually a anti-bodic salve. Then she got a antibodic shot, waited a couple of days and then the baytril. She is only on baytril right now.