Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Our female beardie, not quite a year old, escaped from the yard and we didn't find her until 30 hours later. She was outside overnight where the temperature dropped to 50 degrees.

When we found her late last night she was sleepy (expected) and her eyes were sunken. Someone had found her late in the day and placed her in a smallish cardboard box with a reptile light.

I did not want to stress her further so I left her alone until this morning. She slept kind of standing up and hasn't moved from that position since her lights went on this morning. Her color looks fine and she will open her eyes occasionally when we talk to her.

Is this expected behavior after being stressed and cold? Perhaps she got too hot when the person who found her kept her in that small box?

Any suggestions of what I should do to get her better?

If she was in good health to begin with,just watch for signs of distress...gasping,forced or raspy breathing,etc.If you keep her at her proper temps. now and raise the temp. at night to about 75-80 if she seems sluggish, that may help.Use a ceramic heat emitter[che]or a dark blue bulb from home improvement store,[not a red "reptile bulb"they are too bright disrupt sleep]If she is ill,you'll have to take her to a vet,will need anti-biotics.

Those temps are not that cold.

50 degrees is not all that bad. That can endure some pretty low temps. It gets very cold in the outback deserts at night. In the winter especially and even during summer months the temps dip quite a bit. Easily down into the 50 and below.

They can endure some pretty low temps and low temps are not as bad as too high of temps. Then they will just cook and their brains will boil. Otherwise they just get very sluggish and dormant when cool.

Get the dragon back into her warm cycle but do not raise the temps at night. Dragons need cooler temperatures at night to shut down and rest.

If anything he/she may be a little dehydrated. I would do a very warm soak when the dragon is very hot and been basking awhile. Put it into a really warm bath. It may drink if dehydrated. Let it soak in the very warm water for say 2-3-5 minutes. No longer than that. Immediately take it out and have a dry towel ready to dry the animal thoroughly.

Place the dragon right back into the basking spot directly under the light to get warm again.

The baths can cause illness if they are not thoroughly dried, placed into warm warm baths (temperature shock) and then put into a warm basking area instantly to rewarm and dry the dragon.

Then I would just leave it alone and let the dragon de-stress a few days before messing with it. Offer it some food if it looks to be doing better.

Mask off the glass if its in an open tank so it cant see anything and stress further for a day or two also possibly.

If the dragon is becoming ill,raised temps.at night will benefit it.This is not a huge increase in temps,but a slight one.Many parts of the country[like mine]are cold enough that my indoor temps.fall to 60 at night which would be detrimental to a potentially sick animal...the dragon can move closer to or further away from heat source.And 50 degrees could be harmful to an animal if it was not in the best of health to begin with.Then again,as was mentioned,the heat lamp placed over the box could have been what caused the problem.Rehydration is mandatory as mentioned as well.

I don't like the sunken eyes description. That is a very bad sign. It could be something she ate. Lightning bugs kill dragons. She could have eaten one of those. 50 degrees should not have caused a healthy dragon to get sick so fast.

The story sounds strange. Where did the person get the box and reptile light? Where did they leave it? What did they plug it into? Is it possible someone stole your dragon? and then returned it when she got sick? Maybe you should call the police.

The poster said the dragon had only been missing 30 hours...so not likely it would take sick that fast. However if it was kept in a box with a basking light, it could have overheated.

As there is no way to know if it did eat something toxic...other than rushing it to a vet for testing or it dies from toxicity.

The sunken eyes is unusual, even a dragon in deep brumation doesn't have sunken eyes. I would get it back to normal temperatures then leave it alone to give him a day or two to recover from the stress of being outside and in cold temps. (though Australia does get alot colder than 50F at night during certain parts of the year, dragons would be in burrows or other shelters which may not get that cold inside. But they do better resisting sudden cold drops than they do high temperatures so shouldn't have to worry about damage from the cool nights).

What we don't know is the condition of the dragon before he was lost. How was his activity, weight etc before you let him run loose outside? A current picture (and recent past picture) would be beneficial too.
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PHLdyPayne

Thanks to everyone who posted suggestions. Not wanting to take any chances with this little one, I took her to the vet. The vet believes that she is very stressed and dehydrated from this ordeal (we've only had her for two weeks). Also, she could have possibly been heated too quickly and/or overheated by the person who found her. It is possible that she also has a respiratory infection.

The vet gave her an injection of antibiotics and also administered oral fluids. She actually seems to be doing a bit better already. She has moved from her hiding spot to the warmer side of her enclosure (the temps range from 82 to 98 degrees) She was very healthy before all of this and we're hopeful that she'll make a quick and full recovery!

Great!! Glad to hear it!! I hope that she does get better quickly.

If you don't think they can get sick in 30 hours you don't have enough dragons. It is not that uncommon at all for outwardly healthy dragons to suddenly turn sick with dramatic symptoms and very poor appearance. I lost a 2 year old 600 g. female this summer that was fine on a Friday then Saturday morning she suddenly had sunken fat pads on her head, her tail thinned out, and her eyes were sunken. I rushed her to the vet and he didn't seem as concerned as I, and said the famous words "She should be OK for a few days" meaning see how she is in Monday since he closes at 2 on Saturdays. She died in my hands on Sunday morning.

It is true I haven't owned many dragons, but from what you wrote I see it is possible for an otherwise healthy dragon to suddenly get sick. Its just not the norm, I would expect. In the case of your dragon, it may have suffered some major issue, or had a long time condition that turned for the worse...but this is all guess work as I don't have all the facts (such as whether you had a necropsy done to find the cause of the sudden death).

From the picture ginger (I think that is the name of the person who started this thread) the dragon doesn't look healthy and seems underweight and definitely stressed. The basking temp I would raise to its in the range of 110-120F, 98F is too low for a basking temp especially for a sick and stressed dragon.
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PHLdyPayne

Actually from the picture her dragon's condition is not dire. But, from her description you never know. I had a bad episode in June. My gut says it was contaminated food. I was lucky to lose only one. The dragon that died's mom and sister also crashed, among others, it hit my females worst. I was lucky, I didn't notice the scope of the problem at first because I was so concerned for the one. Her mom lost over 150 grams in less than 7 days, thankfully after 4 months she is OK again. The moral of the story is that dragons get sick very very fast and recover very very slow.

I took in 2 dragons on 9/26. Raxx and Rhea. Both were about 18" long. When I saw them I didn't think I could save either. Raxx was 205 and Rhea was 187. Sadly, despite my best efforts Raxx passed on 10/7. Rhea is the fighter. She is 225 today. I told the other rescue that Rhea didn't have a chance but maybe I thought I could help Raxx. Funny the way things work out.

A year ago I took in what I thought was the worst rescue ever. He was 386 and lived less than 10 days. I never would have imagined an adult full size dragon could survive at less than half his weight.

The picture below doesn't do her justice. She is all skin and bones. I have learned so much from her already. If I feed her too much she regurgitates. Her trust of me is amazing. My fingers are all crossed.

Nice to see the survivor...skinny but quite alert and ornery enough to do a stand up in the corner of the cage.Will she eat twice a day if offered,to gain weight?Just curious as to whether you may have tried....that way it wouldn't be too much at once.

I'm having some difficulty in that department. Sometimes she will eat too much and then regurgitate, so I count the crickets. If I give her 30 and she eats them she will not eat on her own again for days. I've run into this before though. It seems when they get used to eating only once in a while and it takes time for them to get used to food coming regularly. I would say syringe feeding is her primary intake right now. She has periods where she is very active followed by periods where she lays on the basking spot with her head down. It doesn't help that she is 7 years old either. At least she is very sweet and friendly.