Help

Lasher · 12-17-03, 07:46 PM

Hey Beardie experts, I need some help. My wife's beardie has become nearly paralyzed over the past 2 months. She gets a dusting of Repti-vitamins and calcium W/ each meal and eats mostly veggies W/ some small crickets. Her enclosure is 24"X24"x12", temp is 80 to 90 W/ incandescent basking lamp. Large soaking area and a limb to climb on. Her left front leg is swollen and all limbs seem to be painful to move. All that I have read indicates a lack of calcium and vitamin b3, but she should get plenty of these. Can anyone help? Our exotic vets here are quacks and I truly trust our advice more than theirs. Please advise![IMG]http://[/IMG]

Dragon_Slave · 12-17-03, 10:32 PM

There's not much WE can do. You really need to see a reptile vet, if all of them are quacks in your area, you should be willing to drive to another town or something. I'm sure you can find someone in your area who's not crazy... the dragons life depends on it. I wish there was more advice I could give you.

ChristinaM · 12-17-03, 11:54 PM

Why would you wait 2 months before seeking help?
Aside from that....

- the basking spot temp is too low. It should be around 100-105F

- do you have a UV bulb? If so, what kind? How old is it?

-what kind of veggies do u feed?

- other than UV, proper temps, and good calcium rich food, there's not much we can do. She needs to be seen by a vet, and possibly given calc injections if it is MBD. She sounds to be in pain

-

ICULIZARD · 12-17-03, 11:55 PM

Very hard to tell you what's going on without an indepth discussion about cleaning practices, feeding, enclosure, etc.

One quick question, are you using a source of UV. light? And........temperatures in the basking site should be 100-115.

ICULIZARD

ICULIZARD · 12-17-03, 11:57 PM

D*mn, birchaddict you beat me to it! Good questions!

ICULIZARD

Arthropimp · 12-18-03, 05:47 PM

birchaddict and iculizard are right on the ball, the one thing that came to mind with me could be an infection but i agree with everyone else enlist the help of an expert. the internet is a great resource i'd look for universities with a large reptile department and maybe shoot off an e-mail to someone there. i'm relatively new to the bearded dragon scene but thats what i think would work

C.m.pyrrhus · 12-18-03, 06:15 PM

Besides seeing a qualified vet ASAP.......

I would have to continue in the same direction. Your bearded needs access to strong UVB light, and only stated incandescent (which does not carry the needed UVB). No matter how great her diet is, she still needs the proper light. She needs the strong amount of D3 provided for her to use the calcium she takes in. Also, it would be nice to know what is being feed as in 'veggies.' You should aim to use dark greens for the nutrient content. I would give her more room and a hotter basking spot as well (roughly 100-110°F). A vet will be able to help diagnose what is exactly giving your lil' gal so many problems, but till then you should improve on a few of the husbandry needs....

Lasher · 12-18-03, 07:52 PM

Thanks for the advice.She eats baby food for veggies, only because she refuses Kale, Mustard greens etc. We were able to find a vet today with good references from a pet store. The vet is about 50 miles away, but not too far if he / she can help. So, in the mean time (2 weeks before appt.), we will find her a UV bulb and continue to supplement her diet W/ calcium and Repti-vitamins. To be specific, we are using Jurissi-cal brand calcium and Herptvite multi-vitamins. Can anoyone suggest a different brand that might be better?

To Bichiraddict,
Her partial paralysis has been a very slow thing, it is not like it happened overnight. It started with her running around as normal, but she seemed to tire and her belly sometimes dragged the ground. For about the next month, she slowly got worse as we kept trying to supplement her diet (feeding different things, meal-worms, raw veggies etc)...
Thanks again for the help

ICULIZARD · 12-18-03, 08:00 PM

For the UV bulb, I recommend using repti-sun 5.0. They are more expensive but are much more effective. They should be replaced at 6-8 months as they lose their intensity.

Also......I would use rep-cal for the calcium.

Feel free to check out our caresheet at www.iculizard.com

Hope your little girl gets better.

ICULIZARD