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Sick Beardie

JC310 Mar 27, 2010 02:36 PM

I have a bearded dragon that is acting weird.. Her head is tilted back and walks around kind of drunk looking.. I don't know what is wrong with her.. Any advise would be greatly appreciated..

Replies (9)

mightybd Mar 27, 2010 03:29 PM

You will need to post more info about your setup in order for people to help.
Pictures say a thousand words too.
Good luck

angiehusk Mar 27, 2010 03:59 PM

Some things to consider...over-heating,eating anything that is too large[ crickets should be no longer than the distance between the eyes. I've also read that a possible ear infection,virus or toxins. Can you describe your set-up,temps.,how long it's been doing this,how big the dragon is?

JC310 Mar 27, 2010 04:22 PM

Thanks for the feedback.. I have a 60g tank with a 100w T-Rex UV light and a florescent tube light for a brighter tank. She's about 9mo old and about 16" long. I use Vita sand in her tank. Her diet consists of crickets on a daily basis and 1 roach/wk I recently fed her 3 superworms to try them out..

PHLdyPayne Mar 27, 2010 07:10 PM

Staring upwards and walking in circles is often called Star Gazer's disease...which can be caused by several things, nutrition imbalance, neurolgical disorder, toxin, over heating, ear infections and a couple other things which I can't think of right now.

Also, from your description of what you feed it, it doesn't sound like he is getting a proper nutritious diet. Crickets every day with a cockroach once a week and a couple superworms, isn't even food. Unless you are really filling him up on crickets every day.

A 9 month old bearded dragon should be getting 1-2 feedings of insects (which can be crickets (gutloaded 24 hours before feeding, or just constantly feeding the crickets a healthy diet. Insects should also be dusted with calcium powder with D3 three times a week when offered for a 9 month old), appropriate sized roaches, superworms, butterworms, hornworms, or silkworms. A mix of insects in my book, is just as important as a variety of greens). Speaking of greens, by this age, your dragon should be eating about 40% greens ontop of insects. As BDLvr mentioned below, place a bowl of mix greens with some water at the bottom, between insect feedings, so the dragon can snack on greens during the day. The water helps keep the greens fresh longer, when kept in the cooler side of the tank.

Since there are so many different causes of Star Gazer's disease, it would be best to take your dragon to your reptile vet for a full check up and bloodwork, to determine what is causing this condition. Also, get rid of the vita-sand, its a waste of money, has a much higher risk of causing impaction and is absolutely useless as a 'calcium source' since the granules are far too coarse to break down in the digestive track. Powdered calcium powder designed to be used as a dust for insects, is far more absorbent. Washed and sifted Children's playsand is really the only safe 'sand' for bearded dragons...if you really want to have a sand substrate. It is far more cheaper as well.
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PHLdyPayne

JC310 Mar 27, 2010 04:27 PM

Also I almost forgot to mention... She recently laid a clutch of about 15 infertile eggs..

angiehusk Mar 27, 2010 06:32 PM

So she began acting that way afterwards? By the way,it's a big help to know that it's not a juvenile. She really should be seen by a reptile vet...I do want to mention that if she is not getting calcium powder and no greens either,she can certainly have a severe calcium deficiency. Greens such as collard,turnip,mustard,dandelion are REALLY important sources of calcium minerals. Be sure to dust her food with a calcium powder,especially since she just laid eggs. Someone else may have additional insight...hope she recoups.

BDlvr Mar 28, 2010 08:08 AM

"Just recently" I don't know how long that is. After BD's lay eggs they are very dehydrated. Try dripping water on her nose with an eyedropper and see if she drinks.

Were the eggs laid in a nest box? Or were they just laid on the substrate? Were any of the eggs broken? It's always possible that an egg could have broken inside of her which is bad. She would need to have a vet clean her out and administer antibiotics very soon if this happened.

jc310 Mar 28, 2010 06:13 PM

She laid eggs about 3 weeks ago in her tank but we removed them right away.. All of the eggs were intact but infertile.. We have been giving her water with a spray bottle and also in her greens but she wont really touch the greens.. she normally drinks fine except for when this happened. As of Friday night she won't even open her mouth. Today she put her head back down for a while and then back up again..

BDlvr Mar 29, 2010 01:50 PM

I would bring her to a vet right away for an ultrasound. The timing sounds like she could have a 2nd clutch of eggs that needed to be laid but no appropriate nesting site was available. If she has eggs inside her, she could be in dire straights and you need to narrow out that possibility.

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