Would like to know more about signs of illness

[tedbubz]

Hi all,

I've just been wondering if a bearded dragon DOES NOT show any signs of illness as in
- no change to behaviour, bowel movement, etc
- no visible injury
- no stress marks / black beard

Can they still be hurting internally?

Like... say that a dragon has minor MBD and is getting worse, how would we know? Do they show it? Or can a beardie have a disease but doesn't display any visible or behavioural changes?

I am asking because in the most recent faecal test my usual vet found a parasite(?) but they have no idea what it could be. Right now they're talking to a parasitologist and pathologist, and I'm just waiting to hear back.

Ted, however, seems completely fine. You would have never guessed something was wrong. Sleeps, eats, poops well. Very active etc and never shows stress marks.

Anyway... it's just been heavy on my mind if he is hurting inside.

Here's a pic of Ted when I told him he has an unknown parasite:

 

[KarrieRee]

Hi all,

I've just been wondering if a bearded dragon DOES NOT show any signs of illness as in
- no change to behaviour, bowel movement, etc
- no visible injury
- no stress marks / black beard

Can they still be hurting internally?

Like... say that a dragon has minor MBD and is getting worse, how would we know? Do they show it? Or can a beardie have a disease but doesn't display any visible or behavioural changes?

I am asking because in the most recent faecal test my usual vet found a parasite(?) but they have no idea what it could be. Right now they're talking to a parasitologist and pathologist, and I'm just waiting to hear back.

Ted, however, seems completely fine. You would have never guessed something was wrong. Sleeps, eats, poops well. Very active etc and never shows stress marks.

Anyway... it's just been heavy on my mind if he is hurting inside.

Here's a pic of Ted when I told him he has an unknown parasite:
View attachment 77683

Behavior is the most recognizable for illness - dragons will hide it for as long as possible tho- sometimes you can catch it early enough and sometimes you cant- losing weight is a sign of illness or parasites - hes young and he looks good - the best way to keep them this way is make sure your surface basking temps are on par along w/ correct UVB properly placed and distanced -- those are critical for the dragon

 

[tedbubz]

Behavior is the most recognizable for illness - dragons will hide it for as long as possible tho- sometimes you can catch it early enough and sometimes you cant- losing weight is a sign of illness or parasites - hes young and he looks good - the best way to keep them this way is make sure your surface basking temps are on par along w/ correct UVB properly placed and distanced -- those are critical for the dragon

Ah OK I see, I do weigh him weekly and try my best to take note of his behaviour, and there's no glaring problems there.

And yes, with your help and other users on here I was able to have correct basking temps and UVB long ago.

Thank you!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Just saying hello! Ted is SO cute. How is he doing?
I know it's hard not to worry as they are masters of hiding
illness. Usually you are able to see some type of external
signs or behavioral change to let you know if they aren't
feeling well.

Tracie

 

[tedbubz]

Hello,

Just saying hello! Ted is SO cute. How is he doing?
I know it's hard not to worry as they are masters of hiding
illness. Usually you are able to see some type of external
signs or behavioral change to let you know if they aren't
feeling well.

Tracie

Hi Tracie!

Thank you! He's doing very well, I just love seeing him always exploring his enclosure although sometimes he can get a bit loud with his shenanigans but as long as he is happy then he can do whatever

OK, that's very reassuring to know. Thank you for your help!

 

[AHBD]

Beardie's can have parasites naturally that are not even a health problem as long as they don't have a high count of them. If he's not acting ill you might not need to have him treated at all for low counts. I'm wary of vets that have to send the fecal test off, they can read the slides right there in their clinic. Is this vet a true reptile vet ? EDIT....I see that Ted is a P.minor, are you in Australia ? There are very few of these little guys in the U.S. He looks healthy + handsome.

 

[tedbubz]

Beardie's can have parasites naturally that are not even a health problem as long as they don't have a high count of them. If he's not acting ill you might not need to have him treated at all for low counts. I'm wary of vets that have to send the fecal test off, they can read the slides right there in their clinic. Is this vet a true reptile vet ? EDIT....I see that Ted is a P.minor, are you in Australia ? There are very few of these little guys in the U.S. He looks healthy + handsome.

Ah yes I've heard of that, that beardies naturally have low counts of coccidia and as long that it doesn't get too out of hand where it causes illness then you should leave it alone?

Yes they specialise in exotic vets (they even have a docuseries about their vet and the patients they see called The Bizzare Pet Vets)... anyways yes they took a look at his faecal but Ted's Dr couldn't determine what it is so he sent it over to his collegues from the same vet business but different location and they were unsure - they did say that it looked similar to nemotid(?) so we got medicine for that but when it came to recheck stool it was still there.

I'm worried it could be something dangerous in the long term even though he's xompletelt fine now so Ted's Dr offered to send to parasitologost. They're setting up a schedule right now and will get back to me on when I can send the poopy to them.

And yes, I'm in Australia! Thank you, Ted is indeed handsome. In fact here's a pic of him trying to pick up a lady beardie

 

[AHBD]

What a sweet little fella Ted is !

 

[AHBD]

Oh and Panacur is used in the U.S for nematodes [ fenbendazole ]

 

[xp29]

What a handsome lil dude, those pics are great.
The best way to keep them healthy is like Karrieree said, but also by staying on top of keeping his habitat sanitized. (Not implying that you don't, just saying as a general rule of thumb). There is a diffetence between cleaning and sanitizing. Every now and then we need to break their habitats down and sanitize the decor with 200ish degree water or oven (needs to soak/bake 10 minutes or so) and deep clean the habitat, steam or ammonia is the best, it needs 10ish minutes contact for either option also. If ammonia is used it is toxic so it needs to be rinsed and aired to zero fumes.
Some stuff like Coccidia can't be killed even with bleach, it takes high heat or ammonia to kill it. Part of the life cycle of Coccidia requires it to be pooped out and reingested. If you stop it from being reingested you effectively break it's life cycle and cure it. Beardies can naturally carry a small load with no health concerns. It's when they pick up more by eating something that they tracked poop onto is when you get flare ups. As far as i know Coccidia is the hardest to cure that's why i used it as an example. If you keep Coccidia at bay it should also be sufficient to keep the other stuff at bay also.

 

[tedbubz]

Oh and Panacur is used in the U.S for nematodes [ fenbendazole ]

Oh yes that's what we used! It didn't work though as he still had them in the next faecal

 

[tedbubz]

What a handsome lil dude, those pics are great.
The best way to keep them healthy is like Karrieree said, but also by staying on top of keeping his habitat sanitized. (Not implying that you don't, just saying as a general rule of thumb). There is a diffetence between cleaning and sanitizing. Every now and then we need to break their habitats down and sanitize the decor with 200ish degree water or oven (needs to soak/bake 10 minutes or so) and deep clean the habitat, steam or ammonia is the best, it needs 10ish minutes contact for either option also. If ammonia is used it is toxic so it needs to be rinsed and aired to zero fumes.
Some stuff like Coccidia can't be killed even with bleach, it takes high heat or ammonia to kill it. Part of the life cycle of Coccidia requires it to be pooped out and reingested. If you stop it from being reingested you effectively break it's life cycle and cure it. Beardies can naturally carry a small load with no health concerns. It's when they pick up more by eating something that they tracked poop onto is when you get flare ups. As far as i know Coccidia is the hardest to cure that's why i used it as an example. If you keep Coccidia at bay it should also be sufficient to keep the other stuff at bay also.

Yup he did have coccidia before and we had a talk about that and he has now been cleared of it... but now that I'm thinking about it when he was positive for coccidia he never displayed signs of parasites or illness, he seemed as happy as can be, being very active lil boy so I was a bit surprised with the results