Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, so I come home today to find Tank, dead...

He was acting normal before I left for my daily activities, he ate, had fresh water, was basking, defecated recently...

He's a normal, male beardie. The only significant thing about his year of life was that when he was born his "umbilical cord" was wrapped around him, and he had a sort of indentation to show it. He was also the biggest of the litter.

Can someone maybe tell me what happened to him, if you've experienced something like this before, or head me in a direction to prevent this from happening to any future dragons I may keep.

Thanks, Lanoue

sorry for your loss....but did you have to post that picture too?
it kind of creepy and doesn't do much to see it and tell you what went wrong.
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon

Jakentbc, the reason I posted the pic was to show how he died, it seemed, extremely odd. Almost as if he stood up on his hind legs, then fell sideways, hind legs still gripping the rock, not falling off or anything. I was just curious if this was typical to a "type" of death, or what caused it.

i'm sorry this happened to you!

i can't tell you what happened...i have no clue! but the picture was a little graffic...even for my non-religious self. i hope someone else can help you somehow.
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon

only way to know for sure what caused the death is to get a necropsy done.

As it is, if he was healthy active, eating normally etc...and died in a short time, I suspect cause of death to be too hot...but since it appears he died on the rock, instead of frantically trying to bury himself under the sand to get cool..heat I am inclined to rule out. other than that, sudden death could be he ate something toxic that managed to get into his tank (ie fire flies are toxic to bearded dragons). Or some other toxic compound was sprayed or introduced into his cage.

We need much more detail about his setup to hazard a more accurate guess. What basking temps, how old he was, what did you feed him etc. Is that regular sand or that calcium stuff? Or worse, crushed walnut? Is the cage open top and do you have other pets?
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PHLdyPayne

Unfortunate loss for sure. I feel bad to share this story w/ the world, but its mistakes that allow us to grow.

My very first beardie was excellent! Nice colors, believe he was a sandfire looking back at it. Anway.

I went to clean out his beardie tank, I had a hatchling. Put the beardie inside a little critter tote, and sat it in front of a space heater, tryin to keep him warm.

Well, I guess it go to hot, because the beardie died, and he stiffened up something like in your pic. I noticed some convulsion type moves later and quickly moved him back to his tank.

He appeared instanly better, but was still burned 'stiff'. He couldn't move any of his extremeties, but I could see him breathing.

So, being careless, (at the time I thought it was good idea) I moved him to his water dish, not thinking the sudden change in temps may shock his little system.

Anyway, sadly he suffered for a day and a half before finally giving up, and going to beardie heaven.
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Leopard Geckos
Sahara (Normal)
Ghost (Blizzard)
"The Baby" (year old Albino)

Bearded Dragons
Junior(hopefully male/unsexed)

Well, Tank was in a 29 gallon with a screen top. It was the Vita-sand, and his rock, also had a water dish, and food dish.
UV desert light, and 5" heat lamp over the rock.

I'd empty the food dish of sand before every feed, just in case. And I would feed it mealworms, superworms with crushed heads, and cut up earth worms.

Temp was about 100F at basking, and about 80F otherwise, 75ish at night.

Nothing goes into, or out of the cage without my say so, lol. so, nothing poisonous or toxic got in, nor was there anything in the room.

Other animals are:
Savannah Monitor
Nile Monitor
Columbian Boa
Rose Hair Tarantula
Breeder Mice
and 2 cats

They're all kept separate and never come in contact with each other, by vision either.

the only thing i am thinking about your set up is the vita sand.....

vita-sand is not great for substrate for beardies as has been reported. just good'ol childs play sand seems to be much better (and cheaper) than any bag of sand with a picture of a lizard on it are.

anyway...maybe an impactation occured. its really hard to guess what happened after reading your discription of what you know and that picture you showed what TRUELY happened.
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon

The poster said that their beardie had recently gone to the bathroom, so to impaction is out. I remember there was a virus that reptiles could get that if symptoms went unnoticed cause sudden death (or something like that) I can't remember the name of the virus though. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I think it might be more common with snakes though. It affects the nervous system.
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1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (Rex- "normal" orange fire)
1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (Glutany- German Giant Mix)
0.1.0 Okeetee Corn (Okatee)
1.1.0 Spotted Python (Hotdog and Shoelace)
0.1.8 Emperor Scorpion
0.0.1 Vietnamese Centipede

The two CNS viruses that I know of in the reptile world are Inclusion Body Disease and Paramyxovirus. IBD (I think) only occurs in the boids (boa and pythons). Paramyxovirus can affect almost any reptile (humans and other animals as well) and looks exactly the same as IBD but is different somehow. Not an expert in this so don't take me seriously.
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1.0 Graziani Pastel Ball Python (Baldwin)
1.1 Kenyan Sand Boa
1.0 Snow Kenyan Sand Boa
1.0 Blue Garter Snake (Blue)
0.1 Sumatran Blood Python

Yes, I'm familiar with IBD...

I've had 2 breeding pairs of Ball Pythons wiped out due to it before I ever knew what hit them, But I haven't heard of this other one, that can spread among everything. I'll look into that.

Neither IBD or the other one, to my knowledge, has ever shown up in bearded dragons. However, one very deadly virus that has caused sudden deaths in dragons, especially young ones, is adenovirus (or adrenovirus, can't remember the spelling). It tends to show little symtoms till suddenly a dragon drops dead. Another illness that dragons can get but is not something that will kill suddenly, is yellow fungus disease. This one is noticeable as the skin starts to develop a yellow to brown mossy like growths on the body...and takes awhile to kill.

Adrenovirus may be your culprit, but again, there is no way to be sure without a necropsy. If you refrigerate your dragon (dont' freeze, as this destroys cells and pathogens making it virtually impossible to determine cause of death). However if your dragon dragon was sitting underneath a hot lamp for most of the day after dying, it may be decomposing a fair bit, which may make it that much more difficult to determine death. I would refrigerate, call your vet and ask with a necropsy can be done and inquire about cost. You can also mention adrenovirus but the testing for it has to be done a certain way...there is a Dr. who specializes in this ailment...name eludes me right now but i know it is in some articles which I will post links for below:

[urlhttp://www.reptilerooms.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=47&page=1[/url]

www.anapsid.org/adenoviruses2.html

www.vetpathology.org/cgi/content/abstract/33/3/343

www.reptilerooms.com/displayarticle135-flat.html
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PHLdyPayne