When mucus is present and her mouth and eyes are tearing

and is off feed and seeks warmth 24/7 along with her activity

level diminishing, chances are good that it is a URI. The noise

or popping sound does not need to be present in all cases.



If the eyes are tearing and mostly closed, the fact that tears

and sand/dust don't mix is a good reason to clean out the

sand for now and lay paper towels down instead.



A heat rock is not a good idea. There have been serious

belly burns ... some proving fatal by heat rocks. When

they malfunction they can sometimes over heat, thus

causing severe burns to the ventral side of the lizard.

An under tank heating pad is much safer when installed

under the area where the hide or cave is set. This would

only be used during the cooler nights.



If you can raise your basking site and/or lower your basking

light, this is a good deterrent to using a heat rock. Reptiles

are not supposed to heat their bodies from the surface of

the ground or a rock but mainly from above where they

are more colorful and have better heat resistant scales which

which better absorb UVB rays more safely, unlike the lighter

less colored/more delicate ventral scaling.



You can also use a heat emitter if the bright light at night

is an issue. Or buy a black light bulb which emits a good

amount of night time heat with a low/dim glow instead.

You can also contain more heat in her tank by blocking

off some of the screen top. You can use cardboard or

plastic ... just so it's not in the immediate area of the hot

basking light ... for safety reason. Also by covering the

back and sides of her tank with insulation of even card

board.



I would be more apt to get her to most any vet and explain

that on this forum someone has suggested that she may be

displaying URI (upper respiratory infection) like symptoms.

They will likely get her on a baytril (antibiotic) regime.



This will be better than doing nothing and letting her continue

to deteriorate. Chances are better than good that she may

soon begin to rehab soon after the therapy begins.



Generally a lizard with a possible URI is not soaked/bathed

as this may aggravate the infection. You may feel she loves

her soaking but this may cause her some stress. Any added

stress at this time could maybe intensify her condition. If

you are orally hydrating her, this should be sufficient.



Sorry for the long post.

Good luck with her,

John

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