Reptile & Amphibian Forums

WELL TONIGHT WE WENT IN TO CHECK ON OUR DRAGONS, AND WE FOUND OUR FEMALE FROM MYSTICAL DRAGONS DEAD IN HER CAGE. WE HAVE BEEN WORRIED ABOUT HER FOR SOME TIME, SHE WAS VERY SMALL FOR HER AGE. ONLY AT 130 GRAMS AND SHOULD BE ALMOST FULL GROWN BY NOW AND READY TO BREED AT THE END OF THIS SEASON, MAYBE SOONER. ANYWAYS WE HAD HER INTO THE VET, CLEARED FOR PARASITES. VET DECIDED TO TREAT HER ANYWAYS JUST IN CASE WITH PANACUR AND ALBON BECAUSE SHE WAS CAGED WITH ANOTHER DRAGON AT ONE TIME. SHE HAD EGGS IN HER ALSO WHICH I WAS VERY CONCERNED ABOUT FOR HER SIZE. SHE HAD NEVER BEEN WITH A MALE. I HAVE NEVER GOTTEN A FEMALE WITH EGGS IN HER THAT SOON. SHE PASSED THE EGGS OVER SEVERAL DAYS, MANY DIDNT EVEN HAVE A WHITE SHELL. ALL WE INFERTILE OF COURSE. SHE PASSED AROUND 8-10 OF THEM.

WHEN I DID FIND HER I CHECKED EVERYTHING IN HER CAGE, WE HAD HER ON NEWSPAPER CHANGING IT WITH EVERY BOWEL MOVEMENT JUST IN CASE OF ANYTHING. ALSO BECAUSE THATS WHATS SUPPOSED TO BE DONE. HER TEMPS IN BASKING SPOT WERE AROUND 112 DEGREES. ONLY THING I DONT GET IS I USED THE LASER TEMP GAUGE I HAVE POINTED IT AT HER BODY AND IT WAS AT 116.5 DEGREES. THIS CONCERNS ME A BIT, IF SHE WAS NOT ABLE TO REGULATE HER BODY TEMP OR SOMETHING.

ANYWAYS, ITS A SAD DAY FOR US. WE ARE GETTING OUT OF BEARDEDS RIGHT NOW DUE TO TIME AND A BABY ON THE WAY. SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN AN AWESOME ADDITION TO ANOTHERS COLLECTION, AND A GREAT BREEDER, AND JUST A BEAUTIFUL DRAGON. SHE ALWAYS CLUNG ON TO US WITH HER FRONT LEGS.

hi
sad too hear yeah i know how you feel losing a bearded friend is always hard .
i wish you much joy an happines with the baby to come .
byeeeee
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www.dragoncave.nl

Sorry to here about the loss of your dragon.

I wouldn't worry about the temp. thing. Her coloring may absorb more heat that the item that you measured the 112 on. Plus when she sits on it she is probably closer to the light.

My thoughts and prayers are with you in your loss. I am so sad when a pet has passed cause they are part of the family. Take care.
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Cheryl

SOrry to hear you lost your dragon. It is sad when they die unexpectedly. It isn't unusual for dragons to have infertile clutches of eggs. The fact the eggs didn't shell properly could be due to not enough calcium in her body to spare for shelling. Then again often infertile eggs don't get shelled right even if the body has sufficient calcium stores.

One or more eggs may have been left inside of her which could have ruptured and caused death. Only way to know is to bring the refrigerated body to a vet for a necropsy. (has to be refrigerated, frozen destroys cell tissue and makes it virtually impossible to tell what caused death).

Good luck on the new addition and hopefully in the near future you can bring breaded dragons back into your life (your child may love to have a bearded dragon to take care of when he/she is older)
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PHLdyPayne

SO sorry to hear that.

thanks for everyones messages and condolences. we appreciate it.

we took her to the vet for a necropsy today. we should hear from the dr anyday. 90 bucks later its getting done. but worth it if it tells us that other dragons may be sick. ill post the news when i hear it

i just got the call from out vet. the good news is no sign of any parasites at all. we took in stool samples of the rest of our dragons and had them all fecal tested. they are all cleared as well. big relief. she did all the fecals for free since she charged us for treating parasites on the dragon that died who didnt actually have parasits.

now the cause of death....unfortunately she was very small. she was only 130 grams and should be about full grown. she had eggs in her stomach which she had been passing for the past week. she passed about 10 within 5 days. at some point, her ovaduct *passage the eggs travel through* got torn, or was torn and an egg went into her abdomin and ruptured. she also had 2 eggs in her ovaduct when the vet opened her up. they took would have ended up in her abdomin probably. this is what killed her unfortunately. vet also thinks she may have been a runt due to her size or she started producing eggs in her very early and it stunted her growth. she said some of the eggs were pretty old looking.

for those wondering, she was never kept with a male either.

I kind of figured having eggs rupture inside of her was the cause of death. Some females do develop infertile eggs at a young age. Not sure why but it does happen. Being small and underweight (either simply because she was very small, very young or just didn't eat and thrive as well as other dragons do) and suddenly developing eggs, definitely can result in problems, hence why most people emphasize waiting till a female is at least 350g and 15 months old before breeding them.

But in your case, she decided to do her own thing and had infertile eggs. THis could have been trigged because she was old enough (either age wise, (14 months or older) and small for her age, matured faster than her body was ready (this can happen, not often but it can...they can produce eggs as young as 8 months of age but this rarely happens and rarely infertile eggs). The rupture may be due to the eggs not forming properly, a weakness in the ovi-duct, etc.

Sorry she had to go but at least it wasn't something contageous which could effect your other dragons.

Oh, one other thing it may have been, at least what oculd have triggered her to produce infertile eggs, is if she is housed near a male.
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PHLdyPayne

So sorry to hear that. Glad thought it was nothing serious thatthe other could have gotten. Hope all goes well. Good luck with the rest!

Hi
it happend to me also one time .
i got a very nice female a orange one ,she never been with a male either.
at 1 year old she whas very fat ,but sudenly she got impacted .
i try every thing bathings massage,even oil in mouth and later in vent not worked
later she dieed .
vet dith a free athopsie becuase she whas also curoius what happend .
then she also find many small eggs in tummy .
so i whas also very sad ,but those things happend and it seems ofthend you cant do any thing its nature .
byeeeeeee
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www.dragoncave.nl