Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I work at a petstore in a rather isolated town where the vet that handles more unusual animals has had a stroke and isn't available any more. One of our two baby (6-7inch) bearded dragons is sick. It is very thin (spine and limb bones too obvious), is listless and uninterested in food. I have moved it to a separate tank to avoid the healthy one getting sick, in case it is infectious. They haven't been getting greens, but that will be fixed as of tomorrow, because I'll bring some in for them.

From reading information on the internet, I'm wondering about the likelihood of a)pinworms, b)coccidiosis, c)a gut impaction due to possibly oversized crickets. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to tell what is wrong and what to do about it? Any suggestions would be very welcome.

There are no external injuries, mites, deformed limbs, or shedding problems and the substrate is reptile carpeting and unlikely to be ingested. We use heat rocks for heat, and reptile bulbs for light. We feed crickets, mealworms and exoterra juvenile bearded dragon food.

Thank you

So nice of you to care about the little sick one, it really is. Do you know whether or not it arrived in that condition ? Sometimes shipping will stress one more than another and will hasten a sickly dragon's decline. It COULD have eaten a large prey item...but that's just a guess. Many times there's partial paralysis with the impaction. Is it possibly dehydrated ? Try giving some water via dropper or spray bottle [ gently ] Someone else may chime in I'm sure, with possibilities. Bones showing is a bad sign for a little one.

Hey, to me it sounds like a possible case of MBD (metabolic bone disease). It could be a case of impaction as Angie stated, especially if you see the paralysis of the legs. Question, do you have a UVB light on them and dust food with calcium supplement? if not, your probably looking at MBD, in which case get him to a vet ASAP, if this is not possible, i would recommend lots of time in the sun, liquid calcium, and phoenix worms as they are high in calcium.

We are going to need more information. How long did you have this dragon and was it always housed with others? Often with multiple dragons in the same cage, one or more will dominate all the others, taking all the food, best basking spots etc. Do you have UVB provided? What is the basking temp (surface temp) and ambient temperatures? What is its weight? Does it have a bright basking light?

It is good you have separated it, but make sure it has the best setup possible, with UVB, basking temps between 110-120F and ambient in the hot end around 85-90F and cool end around 75F. Reptile carpet is fine as long as its kept clean (ie completely removed and washed/sterilized every time its soiled). Personally for babies, paper towel is much better, far easier to clean especially with babies who can poo several times a day.

As for internal parasites...no way to know if it has any if its not getting really runny poo or very smelly. Giving how skinny the dragon is, getting its weight up is more important...if undernurished badly, treatment for parasites may do more harm than good at this point. Make sure the dragon is well hydrated and offer appropriate sized well gut loaded crickets 2-3 times a day as much as it will eat. Dust crickets with calcium with D3 as well. You can also offer a 'critical care' meal to help get nutrients into your dragon and kick start its appetite.

Also, any vet can do a fecal from a poo sample, so even if your local exotics vet isn't available, a regular cat/dog should be able to do a fecal float to check for parasites common with bearded dragons.
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PHLdyPayne

Forum Princess

Thank you very much for all the help. I'm not sure of exact temperatures, but I'm planning to check that today. I believe the dragon was always housed with others (it has been housed with one other dragon since we got it). We dust all crickets and mealworms with calcium/vit. D powder. I'm not entirely certain about the lighting, but I had been assuming so because our supervisor knows many lizards need it. They might be old enough to need replacing, though. The anoles have a similar setup and seem perfectly healthy and have been laying eggs. I'll see if I can find out about the lighting, because we need to know that anyway. I don't think we've had these two longer than two or three weeks, which I wouldn't think was was enough time for metabolic bone disease to develope. I should have mentioned that last time, sorry.

I do know we lost a baby bearded to something that sounds similar in the past, but I don't know details because that was before I started working there. Also, apparently one of the babies we sold six weeks back took sick and died some time after the new owner took them home, so I'm wondering about possible infectious agents (though that one was never in contact with these and wasn't even in the store at the same time), non-light mistakes in our husbandry, or problems with our source of dragons.

Again, thank you for your help, it is much appreciated.

Pet store generally don't give dragons the proper conditions to thrive. The minimum size enclosure should be a 20 long for a baby dragon. This gives them good temperature separation to thermoregulate. Pets stores use small enclosures that are an average temp. throughout. This doesn't allow the animals to reach optimal temps for digestion etc. Some babies will be OK with this while others will not thrive and decline.

Another risk as mentioned is food size. If too large a prey is eaten them the dragon will go off food and decline. This is not uncommon at all.

MBD is an unlikely cause of the symptoms mentioned.

The baby that became sick after being purchased was most likely just not kept under the proper conditions as well. Reptile care can be difficult and confusing for new owners.

At very minimum he needs the best possible conditions at this point to recover, definately outside of the pet store environment. Perhaps there is a rescue you could donate him to?

Unwanted reptiles, amphibians and fish generally come back to us - there isn't a reptile rescue that I can find information on.

For temperature, it is 105F in the basking spot and about 80F elsewhere. The terrarium is pretty small, but this seems about the right temperature differential? The light has UVB - I checked. The lizard has actually become more active and is behaving more normally since we gave it a bath - I think it may have been dehydrated. Unfortunately, it still doesn't seem inclined to eat. The other dragon loves the dandelion greens I put in and eats crickets with enthusiasm.

Thank you for the help. Now if only it would start eating...

I was leaving crickets in the cage overnight which caused stress and he quit eating. Simple but makes a huge difference. I learned the hard way.

Hmmm... I don't think we had crickets in there most nights to do that, but I'll definitely keep it in mind. Thank you.