Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm new to water dragons and I have a baby here that doesn't seem as active as it should be unless I try to pick it up, she is eating but not quite as much as I would like. From what I understand she should be moving around more(if their anything like a bearded dragon)...I was thinking she might have some internal parasites or something. Thanks for any advice in advance.

Years ago it was standard practice for people to blame parasites for their lanquishing baby herps. They would treat them with a standard dewormer only to find out that it excelerated the animals demise. The reason for this is two fold, first most wild caught animals have parasites, so the presence of internal parasites alone is not an indicator of a health problem, secondly, with babies the problem is more likely that they are lacking the necessary micro flora that aid in their digestion, which the dewormer can kill making the situation worse. Is is true that baby understress can have a dangerously high parasite load, but even in these cases, killing the parasites is not a good idea, dead the parasites rot and the babies little systems can not handle the toxins produced. If you have listless baby that is under weight and may have parasites, your best course of action is to first eliminate the stress that brought on the situation, i.e. improper cage, heat, over crowding etc. And then nurse him back to health by giving him yogurt with active cultures, this will establish his micro-flora and bring down the parasite load by virtue of competion, to safe levels. Deworming a baby is a bad idea, and I believe that most Vets now understand that. If anyone is recommending that you do that, then you should have them do some reading and get caught up on the times.

It was actually a vet that recommended deworming but I was a little uncomfortable with his prognosis thats why I came on here to ask. I've been giving her an electrolyte supplement which seems to be helping a bit but I will try the yogurt, thanks.

Good luck, let us know how he does.

She is doing much better already, she even tried to bite me yesterday which is always a good sign . The electrolytes must be helping, I couldn't get her to lap up any yogurt yet but I will try again today.