Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I'm looking for help with my beardie, I'm really worried about her, I'm not entirely sure what happened. I'm a college student and I got home early (thankfully) from class today to find my 2 year old beardie female pinned loosely on her side against the glass of her tank.

She has a branch which sits in her tank(it is sturdy where it is, I made sure, to avoid it falling on her), and it sits against the side of her tank. As far as I can tell, I think she found a way to wedge herself between the glass and the wood and was stuck there when I got home. I removed the wood, rolled her back onto her stomach, and she immediately lifted her head, expanded her beard, opened her mouth and took several deep breaths. I've offered her food and water, but every time I open or go near her tank, all she does is stargaze, flare the beard and do more mouth-breathing. Her underbelly and beard are not dark, like they are when she is distressed or angry.

Also, I have tried to keep her laying flat, straight, and comfortable on her stomach, but she continues to drag herself up onto rocks and into the corners of her tank to lay curled up like a dog, which isn't unusual for her (I have caught her sleeping in far stranger positions), but she seems to be having some trouble moving her back legs. They are flat out behind her and they aren't moving more than twitches when she moves herself. There are times when she will lay and move like this, so I don't know if it's just that she's exhausted after her ordeal and I'm being paranoid, or if it's actually another side-effect and my panic is warranted.

I'm really starting to worry that she may have some type of internal injury, although I'm really hoping she just needs a night to relax and calm down and feel better. Nothing looks terribly out of place, but I am well aware that that is certainly no guarantee that there is no internal injury. I am hours away from any veterinary clinic that will accept reptiles and the fact that it is 9:30 pm is not playing to my favor.

Please, if you have any guess as to what could be wrong, let me know. Physically, she is roughly 2 years old, weighs probably around 3 lbs (that could be grossly inaccurate, we have never had a need to weigh her), she is 14-16". She is given dusted crickets weekly, and greens daily, and has had the same feeding schedule since we acquired her a year and a half ago; she is in a 40 gallon tank, on cage carpet. She has absolutely no deformities (save for a crooked toe on one hind foot), and is otherwise very healthy.

Thank you for any help...

I'm really sorry to hear about your little friend...if she is having trouble moving her legs I'm thinking that while she was wedged she may have struggled so hard that she did some damage to her spine. Probably the best advice anyone could give is get her to a vet asap...unless it corrects itself overnight by some[ very small] chance. I'm sure others will respond. Hope she pulls through.

Thank you very much. I'm really worried about her. She has a lot of really weird habits, and I've seen her walk without using her back legs before, but the problem with all those little quirks is that now that there may actually be something wrong, it's hard to tell...

I'm really hoping she's just exhausted and needs a good rest, because I don't know how long she was pinned there and how hard she might've thrashed to get out. But thank you very much for the kind words and wishes, I was really worried that I was going to get a tongue-lashing for something obscure and I'm already beating myself up over it. I was pretty panicked when I first found her, and I was really hoping that the first response or so on here wasn't just "How could you let that happen, that's awful, you're a terrible keeper!" or something equally soul-crushing...

Since you mentioned that a past problem with sluggish back legs I wanted to ask you if this began long ago? Ingesting a too large prey item can cause hind leg paralysis when they are young,also not enough calcium with D3 [ using supplements and UVB lighting] and adequate basking temps. [ 105-110] can also cause that problem. So it's not really a quirk but probably related to husbandry. What kind of lighting,heat do you have?[ Still no tongue lashing !!]

Also what are you dusting the live food with and how often? What greens are you feeding? Are you using UVB? What type/brand is it?

I dust his insects probably twice a week. His greens are chicory, squash, carrot, and collard greens. I just started to feed him collards because I used to not be able to find them but he was still getting all of the other greens I mentioned. Do you think the introduction of the new greens would do that? His bulb is like 10 inches from where he is if he is on the basking spot. But I have had it there for years and not had a problem until now. The bulb was a t-rex uvb and heat in one bulb that I just switched to a week ago. I took it out last night and put his old just heat bulb and turned on his strip uvb bulb which is a zoomed 10.0. He seems to be slightly more alert and opening his eyes a little more now that I have the old bulb in. But he still closes them a lot. I was able to hand feed him a dozen meal and wax worms last night. And he ate some squash this morning so hopefully he is getting better. Does my setup sound right, or should I change some things around? Thanks

Sorry this should have gone under the bulging eyes topic. My bad

She had a new 150 watt desert bulb and a ceramic heater, I forget its exact power level as we've had it awhile, but I know it was the one recommended to produce more arid climates( I live in Virginia and winter can be pretty vicious). On average the temperature in her tank was around 75 but rarely above 100, except for summertime. The humidity was around 40-70% (I never could get it to stay anywhere...).

She got dusted crickets and mealworms weekly, and greens daily. Nothing bigger than the distance between her eyes, because I read that that was a relatively reliable gauge. She got kale, carrots, dandelion, squash, and occasionally peeled grapes as a treat. I tried a few times to get her more interested in pinkies, but she was always intimidated by their size and refused them.

Unfortunately, as we were saddling up to take her to the vet Wednesday (a fairly significant drive for us), she stopped breathing. We took her anyway and he said it was a severe impaction that he probably would not have been able to do anything for had we come in before she'd shown any symptoms. He said that she was otherwise in excellent health and that he'd found no other problems with her, but was unable to tell what had caused the impaction. We're no closer to knowing how it happened, but I miss my little friend dearly. If my fiance was not leaving for basic training, we would have another already....

Thank you for your patience and willingness to help. I attached a link to a picture of her when she was younger, making friends with her food. She always saved the noisiest crickets for last so that they chirped obnoxiously in her tank for a day or two. I hope the URL works...

Unfortunately, the impaction was most likely caused by temps. that were too low. BD's need an ambient in the low 90's with a basking spot of 105. Without high enough temps. they can't digest their food.

Sorry for your loss.

My sympathies to you as well!! I'm so sorry!!.. Yes BDlvr is correct...without a high temp. for basking the body cannot function properly. Pet stores rarely can tell you the right info,so PLEASE don't rely on them. A basking temp. of 105-110- is mandatory,and the cooler side can be as low as 75-80.

Unless you have an emergency vet to take the dragon tonight, the soonest you can get the dragon to a vet will be first thing in the morning. Definitely do this as there can be several things wrong. Pressure on the spine by being wedged against the glass/branch can cause rear leg paralyzed, though the fact you mentioned he drags his legs behind him several times before this, causes me additional concerns.

Get him to a vet asap. In the mean time, give us more info about your set up. One other thing, it would also be a good idea to get yourself a digital gram scale so you can accurately weigh your dragon. There are no dragons I have ever heard of who are 3 pounds. The heaviest dragon I have heard of was at most, 2.5 pounds and he was over 24" long as well. Most dragons now fall about 1 to 1.5 pounds. I also understand you were taking a wild guess, but its always much better to depend on accurate measurements and weights, just as it is for temperatures.
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PHLdyPayne