Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok. The vet said that Beardie's lungs are clear and that his upper respiratory sounds less labored than 2 days ago also. His eyes have cleared up quite a bit, but the vet did give us some Neo-Poly-Bac ointment to put in them. He weighs 640 grams (is this good?) and is 51.3 cm long (20 1/4 inches). The only thing that concerns me a bit is that Beardie's next antibiotic injection isn't until Tuesday because the vet is out of town until then. Should I find another vet to give him an injection over the weekend or do you folks think that he will be ok? The first one seemed to help significantly.

I took pictures of the enclosure that Beardie lives in and also of Beardie himself, but when I downloaded them it still said that they weren't in the album. I will work on it more later tonight.

640 grams is heavy for a dragon at that length. I would definitely not syringe feed him. I would offer food and monitor his weight. In captivity Beardies can get too fat. They get large fat pads along the underside of their bodies, eventually these pads get so large that they take space away from the lungs and other organs. This may be causing the symptoms you have noticed.

From the picture you sent he does not look too fat but it's really hard to judge by pictures. I would buy a cheap weight scale and monitor his weight so he doesn't get any heavier and doesn't have any significant unexplained loss.

In general Beardies rarely get respiratory infections so I am highly skeptical yours ever had one. None of mine ever have and no rescue I've ever taken in has had one either. I would continue the treatments as your vet recommended just to be safe but wouldn't worry about the gap.

Here is a picture of one of my 40 Gal. Cages. This one happens to have a baby Uro in it who is hiding but the setup would be similar for a BD. The hood has a Zoo Med 10.0 in it. It sits on the cage with the clips that come with the terrarium. The light is a clamp lamp clipped to a floor lamp pole. This allows the light to be slid up and down to adjust the basking temps.

The combo hood also holds household bulbs to provide background temperature.

I hate removing screens so I never use them. I always want easy access for cleaning, handling, feeding, etc. The screen also blocks too much UVB.

One thing to keep in mind about screen and open top tanks is heat escapes quickly from the top, especially if the the cage is in a room with a cool room temperature, 75F or less. It means using higher watt bulbs than would be necessary if the top was solid or mostly covered.
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PHLdyPayne

Forum Princess

I saw the pictures of your dragon and setup below in your original post and commented.

640g is heavy for his size but I don't think its too bad for your particular dragon as he doesn't look over weight. The fat pads on the head, behind the eyes are noticeable and the tail base looks thick though hard to tell from the angle.

I definitely agree picking up a gram scale is a good idea at this point. Walmart has them for pretty cheap..maybe $20-$30 (or at least thats the price I have seen them here in Canada). As he doesn't seem to interested in eating much, try offering food every other day instead, mostly just greens with a couple superworms or crickets...but offer greens first thing, then insects later on. (several hours later, or offer greens in the morning, insects in the late afternoon). Sometimes dropping the greens into the bowl infront of the dragon will get them to eat them. My dragon sometimes refuses to eat her greens unless I hand feed her a few pieces, then she will eat herself after that.

Silkworms and hornworms are also good to offer dragons who don't like to eat greens. Chop the greens in bite size pieces, and drop a few silkworms or hornworms right ontop. More often than not, your dragon will end up getting some greens as they go for the worms. Often a few tastes of greens is enough to get them to eat greens on their own.
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PHLdyPayne

Forum Princess