Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a female bearded dragon 10 months old. For the first six months the animal ate and behaved with remarkable vigor growing over 18 inches and weighing over a pound. Then in march it became listless and its appetite dropped. I figured I would wait for spring and the weather warmed before I suspected anything. By the end of April I decided to take it to the vets. The vet said she didn't appeared to be egg bound but from the xray had some fluid build up and from the fecal sample had parasites. He recommended Panacur and Albon treatment over a three week period. After the treatment I gave the animal probiotics, Acidophilz. Much of the animals activity has returned but its appetite is still very minimal It will not eat much of anything where once it would eat nearly anything. Its husbandry has not changed one bit from the time it was healthy and to rule that out I replaced its UV bulb in case it was loosing strength. Since the last vet bill was over $250 I am loathe to take it back when the animal does not seem in any danger of dying. In the past 4 months it has lost all of 2.5 ounces of weight and gets misted and soaked regularly and is not dehydrated. One other thing even when active it prefers the cooler side of the cage at 80 degrees then the hot side at 95 degrees and sleeps over there at night.

One Pound is 454 grams. 2.5 ounces is 71 grams. I'd be concerned with that. I have a dragon that brumated for 5 1/2 months last year and lost only about 10 grams. 71 grams is 15% of her body weight. I would reexamine all of your husbandry again. Temps. change as the ambient in your house changes. I would list your results here for comments and suggestions. Things like cage size, temps., food, calcium, vitamins, everything. I would also recommend another visit to the vet.

is the warm end 95F ambient or the temp of her basking site? If her basking site, I would raise it to have areas running between 100-130F (with the highest point of the basking spot if its an angled one, or the highest tier of the basking area, if you use bricks or ledges) with various temps falling within that range on lower levels of the basking area. This gives the dragon a greater choice on what basking temp she needs at any given part of the day.

If the ambient temp (air) is 95F that may be a bit high..though it depends how accurate a reading that is (most stick on the side of the cage type dial or strip thermometers are not very accurate at all, may be as much as 10-20F off in either direction) Digital thermometers with probes are good to measure both ambient (where the main unit is) and surface (where you place the probe) or temp guns (perfect for surface temp measurements, ie basking spots)

Detains on what you feed, how much, how often, how much she does eat (less than she did before doesn't tell us anything other than less than before. As dragons tend to slow down on how much they eat as they reach full adult age (12-14 months) could simply be natural lessening of the appetite (growth is 95% done so no need to drive to eat everything in sight to fuel needs of rapid growth (ie 4" length to 18" in less than a year, if a human baby grew that much, they would be over 15 feet)

Finaly, setup... cage size now, substrate used now and in the past, type of UVB, Heat, hours heat/light on per day, other heat/light sources. Housed alone or with others? What the dragon is doing now? (just sits eyes closed, lathargic etc) or actively moving about and alert?
-----
PHLdyPayne

all good questions that need answers, and i think this is going to come down to inadeqeute temps, especially a basking setup. poor temps can absolutely create problems over time.
-----
robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

I know the animals are sensitive to husbandry conditions, however the husbandry has not changed one iota since the animal was healthy. The only thing that could have changed was the UVA/UVB and that bulb was swithced out a month ago. Since this post the animal prolapsed twice and the odd thing about it was that it didn't happen when trying to use the bathroom as its had nothing but some appetite stimulant paste, but when posturing at its refelction and head bobbing and biting the glass. I took it to the vets again only another one and gave them a run down on the last vet visit. After examination of the lower intestinal area the vet was sure the animal was not consitpated due to an impation but felt that it had aquired an intestinal disturbance and inflamation due to the last antibiotic treatment, despite probiotics afterwards. I have noticed today the animal rubbing its vent on the newspaper so it must be irratating it. The vet described a three week treatment with Trimeth sulfa.