Will he grow again?

[nesta's mommy]

this may be stating the obvious but have you tried taking your beardie out for some outside nautral rays>>? it may be too cold where you are and if so, i'm sorry.

 

[MikeN]

Well, I took Leo to the vet on tuesday and no signs of MBD were found. He is suspecting a respiratory infection though, which might explain the frequent gaping even when it's not hot. So I've been giving Leo eye drops and antibiotics and miltivitamins daily via a needleless syringe. The doc said he should start eating once the infection has cleared, but that hasn't happened yet. So far, it's been force-feeding baby food and canned crickets with the help of a plastic spoon. He now prefers to hide (and sleep) under his log more and more, which all together makes me wonder if it was indeed brumation all along. I also spoke with the Reptileuv people and now know that the Powersun bulb emits dangerous amounts of UV out of the box, unless it is first burned away from the animal for a couple of days. So in essence, I did someone a big favor by exposing Leo to it before they get to use it on their pet. Thus, until the Megaray shows up hopefully tomorrow, it's been his old fixture with two 40w bulbs and the linear 3.0, which is fine by me considering how much UV he got in the two days under the Powersun. I hope this story warns someone of the dangers of it.

this may be stating the obvious but have you tried taking your beardie out for some outside nautral rays>>? it may be too cold where you are and if so, i'm sorry.

Hi, yes, it is something we do every once in a while, except on the days this story developed it was literally smoke and ashes falling from the sky around here. He spent an hour or so on the window cill today staring outside as he likes. Too bad it's mostly shade in one form or another at the small patch we call our yard.

 

[MikeN]

An update for those possibly in a similar situation and asking the same questions:

After a few days under the MegaRay, Leo became significantly more active. His eyes healed after a week of eye drops and the one thing that concerned us was his stomach must've got very upset after the antibiotics and vitamins treatment. He started pooping regularly, but very little at a time, and it was very moist and light brown in consistency, as if just some baby food mixed in with his urate... It did not smell at all though.

But.. we eventually caught him eating by himself, which was still very little, only a few bites of greens per day, so we thought if something that moves might spark his interest. Well, live crickets were apparently too much, but live mealworms seemed to do the trick. He now eats two to four of those a day (in addition to the few bites of greens), and for the past few days he has been HYPER active - he jumps around trying to get out of the tank and we caught him head bobbing, which he never used to do before! His beard also got black a few times. He still sleeps much more than back in the summer though, and hides under the log later in the day.

Given all this, we were just about to say "okay, it was rehearsal for next year's brumation" (especially since he's right on the verge of turning one), but in the past couple of days I thought his (now regular and still small) poo didn't look right to me - it had a good deal of liquid in it and one time he just "peed", for the lack of a better word, as there was no poop whatsoever, he just lifted his tail while sitting on his log (and normally he ALWAYS climbs on top of his tree to poop) and sorta let some gooey liquid out. Pardon the graphic description here, but my wife claimed it must've been "marking his territory" or something to that extent! Like, she thinks he's a growing boy now and it was a sign of puberty or something... I just really don't know what to think of that one. And, to add the latest event to all this, she says his poop was actually watery AND smelly just earlier today. He was treated for parasites in August/September and the vet said he wouldn't get anything for at least six months.

So.. can anyone tell me anything regarding all this? Or, do you know of a "guaranteed good" vet somewhere around the border of LA and Orange Counties? (Long Beach/Cerritos/Lakewood/La Palma, etc).. I would really appreciate it, as I think that even our doctor is good, a second opinion from someone who experienced people here think knows what he is doing would be the right thing to do for Leo's ultimate good.

Thank you.