Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all
A couple of weeks ago I took in a Mountain Horned Dragon as a temperary rescue. When I first got her I was told by the owner that she had not eaten that he had seen in over a week. Turns out she had a resperitory infection and was impacted. For the first day I gave her a small dose of Baytril for her resperitory conditon, I also had to force feed her for the first week (Turkey baby food mixed with pidialite and calcium powder). After two to three days I noticed that she had not deficated and that she looked just a touch swollen around her midsection so I mixed in just a little bit of mineral oil with her food. A couple of days later she passed a fairly large stool and has continued to have no problem with that since. Cage temperatures are being kept around 73-75cool side mid eighties under the basking site, humidity is kept as close to 70 percent as possible, she also has a large water dish with an air stone in it, also she has a uv light on the cage. Doing all this after the first week she seemed to be improving slightly, she would eat food that was offered to her with tongs, and she seemed more active and her color improved. That lasted for a couple of days now she is real lethargic again always laying on the bottom of the cage, color has gotten bad and I have to force feed her now. I have talked to a couple of vets that have a reputation for being OK to good with herps and neither knows anything about this kind of lizard, both say bring her in and they will put her on antibiotics and possibly parasite meds, but the one I would rather take her to as he sounds more Knowledgeable does not have an opening for almost a week. Is there anything that it sounds like I am doing wrong? Is there anything else I can do that might help like taking it to the vet or? Does this indeed sound like parasites or somethig else? Any help would be appreciated and I am terribly sorry about how long this post is.

I think it is ill. It is hard to say if the Baytril knocked out the infection if she had one. Usually it takes several doses over a period of time to clear up the infection. Also, there is a great probability that she has parasites. I would definitely get her to the vet that sounded a little more knowledgeable.

I know it is hard with this species because so many vets don't know much about them but most are willing to look up what they need. The diagnosis & treatment of parasites, infection, and other health issues is going to be the same as other reptiles so they still should be able to handle that part. The main concern I have is that they don't give ivamectin as there have been cases where that has killed MHDs.

At any rate, once the MHD is laying on the ground if it isn't diagnosed & treated it is not likely that you will be able to nurse it back on your own so you do need to see a vet.
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html