Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey I will try to keep this as short as possible to not take up too much space, here is a little background on the dragon I rescued him about a year and half ago from a pet store other than poor living conditions his overall health was good and he ate like a champ and over the next year and half grew about three inches and put on a good amount of weight he was extremely healthy and beautiful even thoug h he was a normal when he fired up he tirned pure pattenless white withe yellow eyelids, My wife and I recently bought a new home and had to sell all of are high end dragons to fund some remoldeling costs but kept him as he was our favorite even over all the blazing color ones he was the sweetest dragon and would beg for you to take him out and hold him. In the new house we bought there is a greenhouse like room attached to the house and that is were he and the other dragons were housed before we sold them, he got great direct sunlight all day long and perfect temps last night I feed him when I got home from work and everything was normal this morning my wife called me at work and said that there was an awful smell in the house and she couldnt find out what it was I had put his greens in this morning and everything was normal well when I got home I walked into the sun room to the most sadning sight I had ever seen he was laying in his cage completly stuffed and blown up to three or four times his size. The smell was so bad I had to run out or vomit it was like he had been there dead for a week after getting stuff to cover our nose and we could see his beard was blackened and his entire underside of his jaw was like caved in mush as well as his underside was completely red and ripping apart as if the insides were going to come out.This is about all we could see before we buried him as the smell and seeing him like that was more then we could handle, I know the temps were good as I checked the cage later and all the temps were the same as usual plus we have an ac unit that willl kick in to keep the right temp the only thing I can think of is some sort of bug got in his cage and he ate it, we have these june bugs down here we call them that have really hard shells and I wonder if this could have caused, I am sorry this is so long I meant to keep it short but I have no clue and have cared for many many herps and never lost and have even rehabilitated some really bad off igs If someone has any clue or thought please let me know I never ever want this to happen again. Also I live in louisiana if that helps with the bug thing

thanks in advance for looking

I'm sure sorry, that must have been really sad. It is really odd that he would have such a bad odor so quickly. I've never heard of anything that can cause what you described. A necropsy would probably have been the only way to find out if he or what he ingested something.
Again, so sorry this happened.
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TheClassyLizard

so sorry to hear you lost your boy, i really have no clue what could have happened, first thought would be the temps, but being that they were checked i really have no idea, unless the AC broke down? i dont really know. again,Im very sorry for what happened to him, if you do find out what happened, do let us know.....
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reiko

photos

June bugs should not be toxic to a dragon, unless someone near by or the county had sprayed chemicals on them and he ate those. Dragons are very sensitive to most chemicals used in lawn maintainence, even sprays around a house have to careful with, such as lysol sprays or deoderant sprays.

Also, doesn't LA have lightning bugs, those are also very toxic to bearded dragons, only eating one will cause a terrible reaction in them and death.

Your description sounds like a reaction to something toxic to him, just for future reference for anyone else reading this... should something like this happen again (I pray not), but you can call your county agriculture department and they will invesitgate it and take actions if it is found that someone or them are using dangerous to wildlife or animal life products in the area. They have at times also done necropsies on the animals at no charge.

Again, I am so sorry he is gone like this. You did a wonderful thing offering him the home he has had since his rescue. Accidents happen and that is what this is, an accident.

Thank you guys I do beleive we have lightning bugs down here but have hardly ever seen them It could have just one of those really bad freak accidents that are just terrible I just still dont get the oder and the decay of the body so quick Its just weird for it to have advanced that fast, thanks again to everyone for your support and sympathy.

Bryan

The very quick bloating and rotten smell is pretty normal. As an example I will use mice/rats. If I use a frozen rat that I thaw out I can leave it in the snakes cage over night and up to 24 hours before it ballons up and starts to smell up the whole house awefully. Where as for those picky snakes that I have that will only eat freshly killed rodents you can not leave the rodent in over night, or else the whole house will stink by morning and the mouse will look like it is going to explode. The reason I believe is that once dead and not frozen the bacteria naturally in the animal explodes exponetially. This bacteria begins to break down flesh and produces gas (I believe it produces the gas) Usually body will cope with it, immune system liver kidneys all help out. Once dead population explodes and their is no system to rid the body of it. It is rather gross. But that is what it is I believe. As far as the cause, I have no idea what so ever. Some sort of toxin I would guess, the source? Who knows, don't think it was your fault though.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

Is there anyway any other wildlife could have gotten into the greenhouse? Such as a snake? I'm not sure if there are venomous snakes in your area but the description sounds like a possible snake bite. Maybe even a bee sting could cause something like that but that seems unlikely.

Just some thoughts. Very sorry you lost him. Hope this helps you in finding a cause of death.

Dave

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How heartbreaking! Is there a possibility of a spider? Like a brown recluse? Or something venomous? I would think a beardie would definately see it as food.
I am so sorry for your loss.
Lin (from the iguana forum)