Posted by:
fireside3
at Wed Jan 17 00:19:58 2007 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by fireside3 ]
Sounds like an infection or organ disfunction. Reptiles can get infections causing loss of equilibrium, the same as people. The tympanic membrane over the ear could be punctured and led to infection. There is also a general term known as "star gazing" that refers to some of these neurological symptoms. This could be trauma or toxin related too. In the case of organ disfunction and/or infection not caused by trauma or toxins; genetics, extreme temperatures or nutrition problems leading to lowered immune response, or many other things could be the cause.
As well, there is this from anapsid.org; which I call a site of recommended reading. It is also one of the reasons I do not recommend feeding of larger crickets than necessary to young HL's, in contrary to what you and reptoman have stated in the previous threads. http://www.anapsid.org/adenoviruses.html "The most common cause of neuromotor problems in young bearded dragons can be caused by feeding them prey that is too large. For more information, see the following excerpt from the Feeding section in my Dragons Down Under: Inland Bearded Dragons article:
You must feed very small prey to baby bearded dragons. While the rule-of-thumb for feeding lizards says that it is generally safe to feed prey that is 2/3 the size of the lizard's head, this is not advisable with baby beardeds (0-4 months). When fed prey that is too large for them, serious physical problems often result: partial paralysis, seizures, ataxia (loss of motor control), inability to self-feed, gut impaction, even death. Start with feeding pin-head crickets and tiny, freshly molted worms, moving only slowly and gradually to larger sizes, phasing in day-old pinks when they are ready for them. Despite the fact that most stores sell animals that need them, most don't sell pin-heads, so you will have to order them directly from a cricket breeder; you can order mealworms from them at the same time.
Gut impactions, as from retained insect chitin, can cause loss of appetite, rapid weight loss, dehydration, lethargy, and ambulatory problems as the gut tries to move the mass along, food cannot be digested, the gut becomes infected and gassy from the food rotting, and pain and cramping set in. Loss of appetite, lethargy, dehydration are also the most common signs of a wide range of bacterial, parasitic, fungal, mycoplasmal, and viral illnesses. All avenues should be explored, and in the case of young bearded dragons (most of the survivors of which outgrow the neuromotor symptoms as they get older), great care must be taken when selecting the insects being fed out, making sure to feed small, newly molted ones.
Note that some viruses, such as the boid inclusion body disease, does cause ataxia and stargazing, two neuromotor signs."
----- "A man that should call everything by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy." The Complete Works of George Savile, First Marquess of Halifax 1912,246
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