Shaking and slight paralysis

[Elise Miller]

I have a female bearded dragon that is about 6-7 months old. This morning she was running around eating crickets and acting absolutely fine. I come back home 3 hrs. later and she was laying with her legs bent behind her with the paw of her foot pointed up. I picked her up to check on her she wouldn’t move her back legs, tail, or her left front foot. I soaked her and she passed a stool but still wouldn’t move her legs. Once I put her back in the tank she would only push with her back legs but still couldn’t move feet. It seems like she is regaining feeling in her legs because she has started to put weight on them but she is shaking and twitching a lot. She isn’t acting like she is in any pain but just like her feet are numb? Her diet consists of mostly crickets but also Dubai roaches and super worms as well as veggies. I give her calcium supplements, her heating light is 100 watts, her uvb bulb is 150 and 26 watts. I soak her and clean her tank weekly. There are no exotic vets in my area. If you have any advice i would greatly appreciate it. She is my sweet baby.

 

[Elise Miller]

The 26 watt UVB should be in a reflective dome approx 6-8 inches from basking spot-- No screen blocking bulb-- has she fallen off one of her decor pieces possibly- what kind of substrate-? No sand- that could cause impaction--- and paralysis of back legs

I have reptile carpet in her tank. No loose substrate. None of her decor is really high up. It’s less that 2 inches up from the ground. I haven’t seen her fall off anything.

 

[Elise Miller]

I don’t know how to post a video of her leg shaking but here’s a picture of her back legs which seems to be her biggest problem area.

 

[Elise Miller]

Update: I gave her a slurry of multivitamins, calcium powder, collard greens, and unsweetened apples sauce. And she’s acting fine now. I have no idea

I want you to take this post and pics of her to this website- www.beardeddragon.org
There are people on that forum that can help you - is the UVB in a reflective dome approx 6-8 inches from basking decor-- ? If not I would get it moved ASAP--

I want you to take this post and pics of her to this website- www.beardeddragon.org
There are people on that forum that can help you - is the UVB in a reflective dome approx 6-8 inches from basking decor-- ? If not I would get it moved ASAP--

The lamp is about 7 inches away from her basking rock an diy is in a reflective dome. My bf has suggested that she was bit by a spider? She seems to be doing better now though. I will up update. Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it.

 

[Elise Miller]

Keep and eye on her and if she starts doing this again please either take her to the vet --- here is a website to find a vet in your area www.arav.org
or go to the website I posted to get help there -
Do you have spiders getting into the tank?

Previously I have never had a problem with house bugs getting in her tank. I’m searched high and low for a spider but I haven’t found one but of course she could have eaten it. I’ve thrown out all of her old bugs and gotten new ones. I’ve cleaned her tank and soaked her again. When I checked on her this morning she was a dark color but that might just be because she was cold. She’s also seems on the skinnier side which might just be because she didn’t eat a lot yesterday but she’s usually a lot plumper. I’ve read a forum about a young chameleon being bit by a baby black widow. The owner reported that her chameleon experience paralysis in its limbs and it’s body turned black but eventually recovered. So maybe it was a spider? I’ve found a vet up in north California. I remember when I adopted her the people were complaining about how hard it is to get an exotic vet to them because there are none within a 100+ mile radius I should have remembered that. I have talked to that vet though and they told me to wait until Monday and if she is not doing better I should bring her in. I really appreciate your help!

 

[Antigone Haritos]

I have a female bearded dragon that is about 6-7 months old. This morning she was running around eating crickets and acting absolutely fine. I come back home 3 hrs. later and she was laying with her legs bent behind her with the paw of her foot pointed up. I picked her up to check on her she wouldn’t move her back legs, tail, or her left front foot. I soaked her and she passed a stool but still wouldn’t move her legs. Once I put her back in the tank she would only push with her back legs but still couldn’t move feet. It seems like she is regaining feeling in her legs because she has started to put weight on them but she is shaking and twitching a lot. She isn’t acting like she is in any pain but just like her feet are numb? Her diet consists of mostly crickets but also Dubai roaches and super worms as well as veggies. I give her calcium supplements, her heating light is 100 watts, her uvb bulb is 150 and 26 watts. I soak her and clean her tank weekly. There are no exotic vets in my area. If you have any advice i would greatly appreciate it. She is my sweet baby.

It’s the calcium deficiency that causes it. Keep a good eye for those symptoms, I lost a dragon to it before I found out what it was. The slurry corrected it like you said, I used a water bottle with calcium supplements in the water on my baby dragon and it corrected the problem as well. Calcium deficiency can go from the twitching and paralysis to full blown seizures and death.

 

[CarolineAD24]

My female beardie looks identical to yours and is experiencing a similar issue on top of an attack and amputation..

I really don’t know what to do

View attachment 21585 View attachment 21586
I don’t know how to post a video of her leg shaking but here’s a picture of her back legs which seems to be her biggest problem area.

y

 

[Elise Miller]

My female beardie looks identical to yours and is experiencing a similar issue on top of an attack and amputation..

I really don’t know what to do



y

I’m not super experienced on how to treat bearded dragons but if it is identical to mine I would think maybe they have a calcium deficiency? Do you give her a calcium supplement 3+ times a week?

 

[CarolineAD24]

yes, her meals are dusted with calcium powder and i have been putting calcium supplements in her water too since this started. She has faced a lot this week, she was fine one night and stationary the next morning. I went out and came back to my male biting her tail and foot which both had to be amputated. She has not eaten since the incident but is drinking and becoming more active. The last few days she was moving her back legs although she was slightly unbalanced until yesterday, she stopped moving her legs and today I have noticed what may be a bump at the bottom of her back / base of her tail. i do not know if this is stress related weight loss from everything thats happened or mbd developing. she is only ten months old and vets i have spoken too are not sure why she was stationary or why my male did what he did as this is apparently very unusual especially since they have been together since hatching

 

[Elise Miller]

yes, her meals are dusted with calcium powder and i have been putting calcium supplements in her water too since this started. She has faced a lot this week, she was fine one night and stationary the next morning. I went out and came back to my male biting her tail and foot which both had to be amputated. She has not eaten since the incident but is drinking and becoming more active. The last few days she was moving her back legs although she was slightly unbalanced until yesterday, she stopped moving her legs and today I have noticed what may be a bump at the bottom of her back / base of her tail. i do not know if this is stress related weight loss from everything thats happened or mbd developing. she is only ten months old and vets i have spoken too are not sure why she was stationary or why my male did what he did as this is apparently very unusual especially since they have been together since hatching

My knowledge is fairly minimal so I apologize if this is things you’ve already heard. Despite them being different genders people often still suggest to not house them together solely because bearded dragon tend to fight over food, basking spots, ect. Take petsmart for an example. They house a bunch of hatchlings together which often makes people think they can coexist when they are older but this isn’t the case. I actually adopted mine because they had an incident where all of the juveniles started fighting. This caused the petsmart to have to give away 3 juveniles because they all suffered injuries that made them “unsellable”. Another possibility is that they might actually be the same gender? You said they were about 10 months old which is right around the time when you can start to tell what their gender is but it wouldn’t surprise me if maybe the female in question could be a male because before they develop, all bearded dragons look like females. As for the bump near the base of the tail, I’ve only heard about something like this once before and their bearded dragon ended up having mbd but in your case it might be swelling since it’s happened after an injury.

 

[N W]

My female beardie looks identical to yours and is experiencing a similar issue on top of an attack and amputation..

I really don’t know what to do



y

Go to beardeddragon.org and post in ER section