Reptile & Amphibian Forums

the rescue that we took in 2 weeks ago has not improved...in fact she has lost even more weight...She stopped eating on her own last week and will only occasionally take greens from my hand--no interest in bugs of any type. She is now used to the dropper and will take fluids/baby food.

2 weeks ago she was put on panacure for parasites. A side effect was severe diarhea and no interest in food. I added parazap tea a few days ago and her poo is more 'solid' but it is full of 'undigested' matter...you can count how many leaves she ate and see the lump of sweetpotatoe babyfood...

I've been soaking her daily and offering her water or diluted gatoraid/pedialite several times a day. She is still alert--but not looking as good (well she never looked great).

I have a workin appointment with the vet tomorrow. He is at a loss...I'm beginning to think she will not make it. My daughter is starting to get attatched...so have I--Lizzabella has such a sweet disposition and loves to be held and cuddled and loves to go exploring.

Our other dragon--Drako is just waking up. He is soooo healthy looking compared to her! Even if she is twice as big boned--being a German Giant.

I just gave her more fluids--I'm so bummed!

DM

With all the meds a probiotic would be a good idea, it sounds like she may not have much gut flora left. The vet trip is the best idea though and see what they say. Good luck to ya.

Sean
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Heart Mountain Herps

I forgot to add that she has been given acidophilis daily during this treatment...I'm a firm believer in pro-biotics.

DM

Sean, you took the words out of my mouth. Get her some probiotics right away. Acidophiliz by Pet Authority is a great product with a papaya taste that my beardies love. You can usually pick up a bottle at a local PetSmart. Otherwise you might have to order online. You can also go to a local health food store and get some Acidophilus in capsule form. Just open a capsule and mix a little bit with some juice or baby food that you normally feed to her.

Also make sure the temps are higher than normal, like around 105 to 110 in the basking area. I always keep sick or weak dragons in a warmer environment.

Good luck!

Veronica
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Beautiful Dragons

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Signature file edited; [phw 8/31/04]

From what I have heard, panacur is such a mild wormer that it doesn't harm any bacteria...good or bad. That's why they have antibiotics for them.

Correct me if I'm wrong. That's just what I've read, and what my vet told me when I asked about probiotics. They're probably not a bad idea, but I was able to get my mali uromastyx eating again during her pinworms just by the force feeding method I mentioned in my post.

Have the vet do a gram stain of fecal matter....she may have gram negative bacteria which is causing her decline....

Make sure you give the parazap tea twice a day....give the acidophiliz daily.....and plenty of fluids, the baby food is great too.....the parazap tea really takes a week in severe cases to see improvement.....

Keep us posted!
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Tracey
Tracey's Beardies
www.beardiecrazy.com
"Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous.
It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood" ~Maya Angelou

What are all of the temps and everything? what kind of substrate, what size tank, etc.

A sick reptile is going to need hotter basking temps to get better. I'd say for a bearded you might want to try just boosting the temps a little at a time.

Other than that, there might be an underlying problem as well. What color are her urates? Sometimes they can develop sort of a secondary liver problem from having parasites. This would cause the urates to be yellow instead of white. This happened to my mali uromastyx (who is looking like she's making a good recovery). Here's what I did for that:

-if the beardie goes off feed for more than a few days and seems to be declining in health, you can (and will probably have to) jump start the digestive track. What I do is take gerber baby food (peas), and mix it in with some unflavored pedialyte (a mixture of about 1 parts peas to 2 or 3 parts pedialyte...depending on if the reptile appears to be getting dehydrated). You feed this with a needle-less syringe (you can usually find them in your local pharmacy...if not, just get some from the vet). Feed it in the morning and then again at night...I'd say try to get about 4-8 mL in each time. Usually in a couple of days of doing this the reptile will start eating again on its own. Sometimes you have to sort of coax it to start eating real food again by hand feeding. Basically this method of jump starting is necessary sometimes because after a lizard goes a while without feeding (when sick usually) sometimes their digestive system can't process solid foods right away.

Good luck.

I posted below with the tank info---but here it is again...
Temps are 100-107 in basking area, mid 70's on cool side. 75 gallon tank, newspaper substrate (cleaned out 2 times a day and after any 'incident'. She also has high coccidia levels--vet wanted to wait a week or so before starting Albon--because she was so underweight and stressed. Basking rocks are cleaned and baked daily.

This afternoon she ate some mustard greens from my hand and this evening she took 2 crickets. She took both doses of parazap tea well as 3cc of babyfood/pedialite. At least she went for some food on her own. I'm actually anxious to see her poo tomorrow...I hope some of the food has been absorbed!

Her colors have gotton dramatically darker the past few days--lots of stress markings, She has NO fat reserves left--the little she had on her back is gone and is sunken in. Her hips and pelvis stick way out...

I posted a picture of her last week. She looks even worse now. If I can I'll post another updated picure tomorrow. She is still moving around her tank/up and down her basking rocks without problems.

I appreciate any and all suggestions...
DM

It sounds like you're doing the best you can do, and from the recent post, it sounds like it's worked.

I hope your beardie continues to get better.

Lizzabella had NORMAL poo today. She also woke up very hungry and devoured her salad and even chased and caught a few crickets! BIG change from the past few days. She gets a vet check and fecal tomorrow--vet couldn't get us in today (and the fact that she was doing better).

Thanks for all of the support and help...I know we still have a long ways to go but there is a lot more hope now!

DM

That's really good to hear! Every time I want to post a question asking you about how she's doing, you post anywayz, lol. Thanks for updating, and I hope you still have good luck. I can't wait to see pictures of her when she's filled out!
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~Shana~

0.1 Bearded Dragon (Kaida)
1.0 Betta Fish (Boo)
0.1 Cat (Ginger)
Fish Tank