Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We have two water dragons. We have a male Kiwi and a female Kimo. Our female is almost three years old and our male is over a year old. Our male is three times the size of our female. They are housed seperately. Our female has always been a little sickly. Our recent problem started about a month ago. She laid a few yellow eggs and then stopped eating (although she had been hand fed for quite a while before this). She also had one eye closed and was not very active. We took her to a vet and consulted with some friends that are very knowledgeable inh breeding bearded dragons. Anyway we gave her oral antibx, antibx for the eyes, extra oral Ca for the egg production and dropper fed her baby food and pedialyte. She also had what looked like a clogged nare and increased work of breathing. After a couple of weeks of this tx and saline cleaning of the eyes she started to look a little better. Now she again is working harder to breathe, has not opened her eyes(either one) for a week, is not eating unless force fed, looks like she has lost some weight at the meaty portion of her tail, is not active at all(she will go in her water bowl and stay there until we move her, and she is cold when moved). When we pick her up she tends to put her front legs under her cloise to her body and plays dead. We have increased the heat in her tank, changed the bedding, and put her in a bigger house. I think if we do not do something fast she will die! Please help!!!!!

It does sound like she is in rough shape, it can be tough to rehab water dragons because once they show signs of illness they are really sick. Is she still on antibiotics? The drugs can make them dehydrate faster then normal, so make sure she is given lots of water from a dropper. I would remove the water area for now, she may be too weak to get out on her own, and dragons can drown in that state. Did the vet check her for more eggs? Both of my females died from being egg bound, although their deaths were very sudden.
-----

When I had taken her in originally she had been digging a cave like area we believed for her eggs although she had already laid three. She ended up with some of her bedding in her eye which caused the inflammation and caused her to keep that eye closed. At the time of our vet visit the vet said that he could do an ultrasound to look to see if there were more eggs because he said he could feel more in different stages. I had spoken with a friend that said that you cannot not feel unfertile eggs. We opted not to get the ultrasound. We were feeding her from a dropper for a while with pedialyte but then she seemed to be doing better so we stopped all medications after two weeks like we were instructed. We started giving her wax worms again (almost force feeding) like we had previously. Her slit area below the abdomen looked different to me yesrerday like it was open a little more. Last night it looked even more so. We took her out and on very gently pressing on the abdomen she stooles with a small amount of blood in it. This morning we noticed that yes it is open a little more than usual. I believe it is inflamed (swollen). About the water area is it okay to take it away from her entirely? We have moved her out of it when I've noticed she's in it for a while because I think she gets too cold and shuts down and is too weak to move on her own. What do you think about the labored breathing, the eyes never open, and the way she brings her front legs up and in. Her legs don't even come down sometimes when we set her down to stabilize we have to bring them down for her. We do not know what to do. It is very heartbreaking. She has always been a little more fragile and small. Our male who is half her age is three times her size (if not more). Our male is very healthy and never has to hand fed. I am debating bringing her back to the vet. Even then the tx is so costly and with little reward at the end. If she is egg bound where do we go from there? What can we do? Please help us with information we do not want her to suffer!!! Thank you

If she is egg bound, the only option is for the vet to do surgery and remove the rotting eggs. In her weakened condition I am not sure she would survive the surgery

My vet was never able to help my girls either.

Here is a link that may be helpful:
Egg-Binding/Fetal Retention

-----

Thank you for responding quickly and all of your help. We had made an appt for 4:00 today after we would be home. Unfortunately when we got home she had already passed. She was on the soil upside down. I don't know if she passed and fell off her branch or fell off the branch and then passed. It is very upsetting because I do not know what the main cause was and you are left with so much guilt. I feel as though we failed her in some way. I wish that we would have had the ultrasound a month ago on our first visit especially after going to the site you recommended. After we took her out of the house I swore I saw a pulse so we still ran her to the doctor. They looked at her and listened and then told us she had passed. I spoke to the lady there and she also asked about parasites. She said they also show these symptoms with parasites. This is a new doctor we went to that seems to know more about reptiles than our previous vet. They were surprised that when we went to the other vet a month ago that she was not tested for parasites. Although we are learning and have now found some great resources I feel that it was at the expense of Kimo and only wish I had reacted sooner. I am now making an appt for our other dragom Kiwi to be checked with this vet even though our dragons are housed seperately do to his larger size and that he is more aggressive and she was very calm and timid. Thank you for all of your help and direction to other web sites. It has been a day of sadness and regret.

my mom has been writing for help, however my water dragon just died in which I loved a lot.

I'm sorry to hear that she didn't make it. Parasites in combination with egg laying can severely weaken a female dragon. It is odd that she wasn't tested, most vets do a fecal test as a routine check-up. Don't feel bad, you did what you could, it sounds as if your vet may not have known what to do, mine never helped me either. Good luck with your male dragon.
-----

I m very sorry that your dragon passed. I had the exact same thing happen in april. Its so sad to see her suffering and us be so helpless. Vet really cant do much on eggbound wds because by the time you find out the eggs couldnt pass all the way, they are too weak to survive surgery. All of the symptoms you described were identical to my situation. She was lucky to have you as her caretaker and just remember she is not suffering anymore.

please make sure your male does not go into depression.
My male would not eat and he would not sit on any branches that she used to be on( like all of them) . He would lay on the floor on his side all day. it was soo sad . So i rearranged the whole enclosure , scrubbed all of the branches, and finally he snapped out of it. My male is a year and a half younger and 3 times the size like yours.

good luck.

I am deeply sorry to hear of your loss. I can't imagine the sadness.

egg binding is very common in small females. The Vet should have been able to treat this. Its too bad that he didn't know what he was doing.