Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok a month ago my beardie puked up two tomato worms. Ever since then she makes a weird burping noise and acts as if she will puke again.

She has puked up a few crickets but now she is holding them down.
Still making the weird noise. Active and loves to be held. Chases her crickets too.

I would love to take her to the vet but unfortunally I dont have the money and my friend is a vet tech and said she never heard of this problem before.

So I was wondering if anyone else ever ran into this problem and can offer me some help.

Tomato worms? If you feed Tomato Hornworms from outside they are toxic to reptiles. Tomato and Tobacco leaves are the problem and cause the hornworms to be toxic. Feeder Hornworms are fed a special food that makes them OK to feed.

When horned worms eat old, rotten food they become gut loaded with bad bacteria. Bad worms can kill a dragon over night. Always check and smell to make sure the worms are o.k. to feed off. The dragon may have a bacterial infection in its stomach now.

Scrape together some change and take the lizard to the vet. This is something the vets should be able to handle and resolve quickly. Otherwise your dragon may decline rapidly and die. Maybe your vet tech friend can get you some medicine.

Steven Barnes

Has this ever happened to you? It makes sense but so does the thought that feeding old rotten food to any feeder would be bad for a dragon. I inquired to my hornworm supplier about this and he also has never heard of commercial hornworms causing a dragons death.

It has never happened to me. I don't use those worms. Several people on the east coast lost thier dragons this year when a worm distributor sold off a batch of contaminated worms. I am sure other people would chime in and back me up if the title of this thread wasn't so silly.

Steven Barnes

I haven't heard anything about bad horn worms killing dragons..but that doesn't mean it isn't possible. However what contaminated those hornworms may not have been bacteria from an injured worm. Though I have noticed horn worms die really fast if you feed them anything but the horn worm chow. As I don't feed dead worms to my dragon there wasn't any problem.
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PHLdyPayne

Who was the worm distributor. I'm not being critical but I have them here full time and don't want any risk since the bulk of my animals are rehabs for hospitals. Maybe you should backchannel me as it may be inappropriate to post.

Steve

The worms are from mulberryfarms.com. They are fat and healthy. It is really easy to spot the unhealthy ones. The ones that she was fed were bright green and semi firm to the touch. Not squishy or dull.

She has been isolated right when she vomited the worms up and now feeding on nothing but crickets and greens.

Like I said she has been doing well and not vomiting anyting up but from time to time she makes the noise.

Pretty much been a week since her last noise and she has not made a peep since. Other then running back and forth.

So I really have no idea what she is doing!!!

Could be a respiratory thing. I would make sure the whole cage the dragon is in is nice and warm......on the cool side 85 maybe and 110-115 basking, and check with a digital thermometer what the overnight low is and make sure its not getting too cold.

I have been using hornworms and so far so good! Never fed a dead one, and I really havent had many worms die, but so far these worms are awesome, aside from being a bit pricey.

I've been getting weekly shipments for over a year now and also have never had a problem. I don't like the dark food though. Seems like I'd be hard to tell if the food was good or bad. I wish I knew who the vendor was that supplied the worms that killed dragons.

Well even better. The Vet said she has pin worms and flagants(sp?). Gave me Flagyl and dewormed her.

Thing is my friend who is a vet tech said those are normal! I really don't know what to do now!

Beardie is still making the weird burping noise. Holding down crickets. Other then that she is normal.

*sigh* I really wish she quit with the noise.