Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Erowen has another problem with the same eye as last year

at first I thoguht it was a slow re-infection from before, so put the vet visit off from yesterday to today becasue the time was better for me
but her eye looks a lot worse this am, so I am glad its today and not next week
She is accepting feedings, and Cipro, and changes position

I anticipate her being in for a day or so to get the eye cleaned out (again)

My other dragons look skinny, even though they have food in their dish at all times

I have ngihtcrawlers in there ata ll times, and throw crix in every 7-10 days (when ever they stop chirping I put more in)

Superworms climb into every thing so i do not want to put them in (unless I am right there to take them out again after an hour or so, and with the feeding patterns only one dragon comes down at any given time, then another etc)

Any Ideas?
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Elizabeth (ecb)

Make this world a better and more beautiful place that You have been in it
*Edward W Bok*

Hope everything works out ok, Elizabeth. Is this the result of her nesting and getting substrate into her eye, or something completely unrelated?

As for feeding, my dragons virtually never use the feeding dish. I take the food item out of the feed dish and dangle it in front of them with a hemostat and they devour it. Consequently, most of their feedings are done by hand.

I have a couple who just shut their eyes when I do that, and I have one I am abotu to rename houdini (from KAT) as he/she/it keeps escaping as soon as the zipper is opened even a little bit. my poor 6yo has been the one to find the dragon loose in the room each and every time. She gets SO upset, and scared for the safety of the dragon, that comes out as REAL fear

but I will give it a try every few days

see what happens

BTW Tripod is doing GREAT
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Elizabeth (ecb)

Make this world a better and more beautiful place that You have been in it
*Edward W Bok*

Mine are not that picky. I have a female who has one blind eye and she gets thin if I don't hand feed her. I also have one male, in the same group, who has to be hand fed or he gets thin. All the others self feed. When I start putting worms in the food bowl the females run for the dish and I wind up dropping worms on their heads if I'm not paying attention. The males wait until I am done and out of the room and then they eat. I know they are eating because they are not at all too thin!

I sure hope the eye infection isn't going to plague Erowen for the rest of her life. Did they vet have any idea what caused it the last time?

I think you need to experiment with feeding to see what will work with your others. I find that mine never turn down a roach even if they are tired of nightcrawlers. They also like supers and I don't mind them getting loose as they really help to create a healthy substrate. This of course is a matter of personal preferance. I haven't given it more than once but I purchased some NutriBAC df from bean farm to see if it would perk up my fussy ones. It's supposed to restore the natural bacteria content of the gut that is killed off by the antibiotics we use to fight infection. I have to wonder since you have treated with antibiotics in the past if they aren't suffering an imbalance. Sure would be worth a try!
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

NutriBAC

sounds like an idea
as to the Infection, this one does not look like an abscess, but just an infecton of the eye, I got some polymixin/etc. opth and some batryl to give her (drops BID and Batryl Qpm) and I am to give her feedings twice a day (mostly pedialyte becasue she is so dry, once she is up and running around I am to go back to the 1/2 & 1/2 with some Emraide aded in mixture until she eats on her own)
He is not sure if this is the same or something new, but its a deep infection, and he wants to se the swelling go down by saturday or he wants her back for more IM Abt. He gave her 2cc of Lactated Ringers Subdermally (under the skin of her neck) and checked her eye for abrasions (none noted)

We shall see

She is openign her mouth for the feedings, and she did get pissed off at him in the office, no color change but she was resisting his manipulations

I have hope
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Elizabeth (ecb)

Make this world a better and more beautiful place that You have been in it
*Edward W Bok*

Wow, you're talking like a nurse! I never could get all that stuff, BID, straight! And IM Abt. really doesn't say anything to me! But I know you have this handled and from all you have gone through with your vet I am confident that he does know what he is doing.

I am just sorry she is sick again. You know, I had some animals that just seemed to get the mouth rot over and over again. I worried about cage conditions and finally decided that it is partly the individual animal. While 2 or 3 of my girls were fighting this over and over I had a male and a couple of females who never showed a sign of it. All the other animals would show signs of illness, mostly the mucousy mouth, but one female and male in particular have never had the stringy mucous at all.

I believe that just like us there are some animals that are more resistant and other that just have no tolerance and everything that comes around hits them. Just a theory of course but from my observations I do believe it to be possible.

Again, hope she is well soon. It would be nice if your vet could find a cause for this!
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

the BID TID are not so hard
B is for Bi for 2 (as in Bicentenial)
T is Tri for 3 (as in Tricycle)
Q is for Quad for 4 (a quadraped is a 4 legged animal like a horse)

IM is Intra Muscular
Abt or ABx are shorthand for AntiBiotICS

and her eye is looking better, if onloy a bit, and she is lifting her head more
I am worried about her and all their weights, so I offered them hanging worms, 3 took them, the other 2 did not, and Erowen took her Feedings last night and this morning well, although she started to object this morning (maybe her tummy is FULL, maybe she is getting better enough to not like the treatment)

this morning there were a lot of worms missing (maybe 4) from the dish, and I saw/heard one of the dragons 'sneaking' away in the dried leaves from the food dish this morning at about 4
so maybe me dangling them is stimulating their apetites
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Elizabeth (ecb)

Make this world a better and more beautiful place that You have been in it
*Edward W Bok*

I know bi, tri, and quad, just never had it explained. Now it makes sense!

I hope she is doing better. I still think I would try the NutraBac or a little unflavored yogurt with active culture. I am a firm believer that as good and as necessary as antibiotics are they to take a toll on our bodies natural balance. Sure wouldn't hurt!
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html