Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My bearded dragon sleeps standing on all fours and makes like these burping noises with his mouth open and his sides exhaling and inhaling. He was treated for 10 days of albon for coccidia and still doesn't have much of an appetite and is skinny(230 grams) He's 2 years old, i use 100 watt basking and 100 watt powersun at other end of tank. I soak him every other day in half water and half pedialyte. Does anybody else have similiar problem or could help me out with some advice as too what might be wrong with this poor guy.

I think your giving him too many baths and not drying him properly.

Put both lights on one side allowing him a cooler side.

I would bathe/soak him once a week.

I think this is why he/she is sick. Otherwise get some repti aide I believe it's called (they have it at most pet shops) mash up bugs and insects and force feed him/her. Give it a lot of food if you can to recharge its digestive system and body. Your going to have to force feed it.

Grab the beard pinch it and pull down to get the dragon to open its mouth. Be careful forcing open the mouth as you can break their jaws.

You should always use a probiotic after Albon has been used. This should help his appetite. You will probably have to order it online since I've never seen it in a store. Here's the best product.

http://www.reptilesupply.com/product.php?products_id=227

I'm also concerned about the burping sound. It could be a respiratory infection. Or is it possible that you got some of the Albon in his lungs? How long ago did you finish the treatment? Sorry for the late reply. I never saw this post somehow.

Both products are decent but only if you are consistent with them and use them on a regular basis for about 2 weeks. If your doing this you should see some positive changes. Also add mashed live into the mix and put a good deal into his/her belly. Once they have made a bowel movement... repeat.

persistence!

by the way...
I have a much bigger syringe that I use for force feeding.

Force feeding is tube feeding. Opening the animals mouth and inserting food for the animal to chew and swallow is called assist feeding. I don't recommend assist feeding if the animal is eating on it's own somewhat. Assist feeding is a last resort for animals that can no longer eat on their own.

Reptiaid is worthless. Stick with the Acidophiliz.

Mashing up live with repti-aide and using a syringe to dump it down the dragons throat is force feeding. Assisting with live feeding by forcing the animal to take it is once again force feeding. Forcing/pushing it down the animals throat.

If your holding the insect in your fingers and put it in front of the dragons face and it then eats it on its own, that is assisted feeding.

If your putting the sustenance into the animals body without it directly taking it from you and chewing it on its own you are forcing the animal to eat, not assisting it.

You are not going to assist a bearded dragon in taking a syringe you're going to force it down its throat and pump the liquid into its mouth.

The aciddophiliz your going to give to the dragon to help it gain size and recover bdlvr?

Acidophiliz has no nutritional value and will just come out as wet squirts of nothing.

What do you recommend for nutritional value bdlvr? Just a wet squirt of probiotics? That does nothing my friend.

Mashed live with repti-aide in conjunction with acidophiliz and maybe a little pedialyte would be ideal.

The repti-aide is nothing more than powderized eggwhites and vitamins etc. It works great if you use it correctly in conjunction with mashed live.

Im done here, thanks for your expert advice bdlvr.

I didn't make up the terms. The veteranary trade did. Squirting something down an animals throat is called a "death sentence", as material will surely get in the animals lungs. This is never done by experienced individuals or vets.

Have you ever came across giardia? I've always been so fortunate not to have any parasite problems with my hobby but klast week i had a beardie that passed from giardia, now i have a female that's starting to make the same sounds. Did a bleach/water combo to clean everything because they say that giardia is from dirty cages or contaminated water, but i'm a compulsive cage cleaner. I don't understand and i'm frustrated that i'm starting to have these problems besides feeling bad.

I've been lucky enough to have never experienced it. But it is treatable. Unfortunately, it is not something that technicians that do fecals are generally looking for so it can go unnoticed. My suggestion would be to have the fecal sent by your vet to the lab for a full analysis and would discuss your thoughts with a reptile vet prior.

I'm sorry for your loss.

I'm taking my female tomrrow to greenfield to get treated for the giardia that seems to be what she developed. Already have fecal samples, not from her but from her cagemates(2 other females) She didn't poop in the last two days, and hasn't eaten today, but hasn't done the burping noises since yesterday and her weight is still holding steady at around 280 grams. Soaked her in pedialyte/water last night and she slept well but just isn't herself. I soaked everything and the cage cleaning last night in bleach/water and changed the carpet(substrate) that i use and suggest to anybody. Well, see what the vet says tomorrow. Thanks for your imput

I also believe that the soaks are contributing to,not helping with the problem. Constant soaking,especially if done at night when the dragon may not have proper time to dry thoroughly and warm back up can really contribute to his problem..Soaking in water and Pedialyte is useless,and you don't want that stuff sticking on his scales,that's not good.I also wonder,with his symptoms,why your vet gave him so much Albon ? It's known to be very harsh,destroying the good bacteria in the dragon's gut. That's why BDlvr recommended a pro-biotic. Also,what size is the cage? You may not have enough heat with 100 watt bulbs one each side. They may need to be on the same side to produce enough heat,like Dreamworks mentioned. The noises you describe sound like a respiratory infection. Make sure he has a 110 degree basking spot,and that the temps. don't go below 78 at night.

thanks for the info but he did pass away and i did find out from a well experienced source that had several beardies that had this and it was discovered that it is GIARDIA.

That's going to be a difficult parasite to contend with.

I would go to town with the bleach solution and soak everything and consider getting a micro-organism killing agent such as microban and delouse everything like the end of the world is coming.

You may need to get your water tested at the house for parasites and bacteria. That stuff can easily spread to humans so be careful.