Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi there everyone I'm new here.. this is my first post. My names Ashley and I live in Texas ... hope everyone on here is doin well.

I work at Petsmart here.. I work with the fish and reptiles and what not. And well I ended up adopting a frilled dragon. I read up on it ALOT before I got him. I just have a few questions to clear some stuff up if you guys dont mind replying

Well here is his story.

This was the first time we ever had a frilled dragon at work so I dont trust what the other people who work there with me to give me the most accurate info.

Well not long after he arrived.. SOMEHOW his tail was broken and fell off. I didnt even know we had him because I was off those couple of days. Well when one of our animals is sick we put them in the isolation room and treat them. Well he was back there almost 2 months.. with nothing but a water dish, a log, and a heat pad. (yeah i know thats horrible.... I talked to my manager and she is tryin to convince the people above her to let her pull some lamps off the shelf.

Well I felt horrible for him and I reasearch and brought him home His name is Pierre.

Well about 5 days after I got him.. I took him to a vet to get a checkup and make sure I was doing things right. Out of all the vets in my area.. only one of them knew what he was and had seen one a LONG time ago.. so I took him there.

Well the vet said that he had a respiratory infection and gave him a shot and some Baytril to take once a day. Well when he gave it to me he said giving it to him for 5 days should be ok but it could take up to 14 weeks for him to get better.

Well I'm not TO expierenced in reptiles so I dont know what normal breathing looks like. So after 14 days he was still breathing the same.. but it looked ok to me. Well I was goin to continue to give him the meds until they were gone but someone said to much is bad for him so I stopped.

He's eating just fine.. and drinking from his bowl. He goes through between 15-30 crickets a day. 3 days a week he gets them dusted with calcium and vitamins. He has a basking and UV light. Right now he's in a 10gal tank becuse he's so small but i'm upgrading it to a 20long this week, and eventually he will have a 55 gal and an outdoor enclosure. He also gets misted once a day. He has grown some as well. He was on repti-bark but I took it out and put paper towels down in case that would be harmful for him to inhale.

So my questions are...

Does his diet sound like I'm doing it acuratly?
Are those cages an appropriate size?
How long will it take him to grow up?
If he's eating ok and acting ok... should I still worry about his respiratory problems seeing as how I think he's breathing the same but dont know much about reptiles breathing?
Do you think after 14 days its safe to say he's better?
Should I take him for a re-check at the vet?
Does anyone know of any good vets in San Antonio, who are expierenced with this species?

Thanks for you time sorry for the long post Thanks!

Its nice of you to take this guy out of the Petco hell. But it is nice to see people like you actually caring about what goes on. Anyways, I would track the gram weights therefore you would knnow if he was gaining weight. Didnt you get a fecal test at the vet? If so, then you will need to treat him for those parasites. Keep the stress down, gte the bloodwork done and he shoul be good to go. Your diet sounds fine, but i would change it up with some worms soon. You can find good caresheets around; I would offer mine, but my site is being rebuilt.
good luck,
miz
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Mizzy: frilldragon.com

No I didnt have the money at the time to get the fecal done.. i plan on taking him as soon as I can for that to. And I'm sorry I forgot to mention he gets 1/2 crickets and 1/2 mealworms on tuesday and thursday i woke up today and he was shedding for the first time so i'm misting him a bit more. I searched around for care sheets but i couldnt find a whole lot of info. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places? Just thought I would try and talk to some people personally who actually have expierence with them thanks again

wow, thats awesome that you are taking so much care of your animals.

I think you should do EXACTLY what the vet said. keep him on his Batryl. Baytril shouldnt harm him too much, its a pretty safe drug (Im a vet assistant). The infection came from the two months he was with out a heat lamp. In reptiles, low temps cause these infections, so keep his temps up (with a cool end of corse).

I recomend that you cover his cage with a sheet or something for a little while. Frillies get stressed out VERY easily. with his drugs, and his infection, he is under alot of stress. He WILL stop eating if he is too stressed. So covering his cage will help. Also dont over handle him while he is young. (hand feeding is the best way to build a stress-free relationship with a young frilled dragon). these are just pre-cautionary tips from a frillie person.

I hope I was helpful. Keep up the good work.

Drew