help, my beardie is shaking..

[kaykayy]

i have a 10 month old beardie called zuko n wen he was a baby he took a leap for life n his elbow is now down in his wrist i dont know if that has anythink to do with this.....

but hes been shaking lately, like, when hes in my hand it feels like his body is vibrating... hes one of three that we have n the others dont seem to do it...
he has a good calcium intake we use a reptisun-10 UVB wich was changed a month ago and his temps r all fine, he doesnt eat alot at all he will go a week-2weeks without eating most times n then he will have a gannet day....by the way as he doesnt eat alot i usually mix some calci n vitamin powder with water n feed it to him through a syringe (needle-less one lol from the vets)...he has salad n veg every now n again when he feels like it....
any help and advice will be greatly appreciated as im really worried bout our little guy ..

 

[Jp]

Poor guy. Has Zuko seen a vet since his injury? If not, 1 is definitely recommended at this point.

 

[richard]

at 10 months old he should still be eating very well. im with jeff, a vet visit is in order i rescued a dragon 2 years ago who vibrated like that and he was very malnourished. not saying yours is but some bloodwork may be in order.

 

[kaykayy]

what does malnourished mean? ok well im going to try and arrange a lift to take him to the vets hopefully tomorrow, could it be a sign of MBD?

 

[Fliehigh]

at 10 months old my guy would anywhere from 60-110 crickets a day.

This "could" be a sign of MBD and may have been brought on by him not wanting to eat from the injury. It also worries me thast when he doesn't eat you are not including any Protien in his Syringe. If it is MBD he is young enough that with a lot of patients and determination you will probably be able to help him and may even be able to reverse most of the effects.

 

[Jp]

I wouldn't risk the little time u may have guessing what the issue could be, try 2 get your dragon 2 the vet ASAP. If it has needed extra attention since day 1, something should be done.

 

[kaykayy]

im taking him, in the meantime tho its good to get some more opinions as alot off ppl on here have had years of experience with beardies

 

[kaykayy]

also thanks fliehigh, hoppefully we will av him bak to normal in no time.......my last comments gone lol :/

 

[Chelsey]

my beardie's head shakes every once in a while. just his head. and usually after a bath. is this normal? or should i get him checked out?

 

[kaykayy]

do u notice his spikes shuddering?...the vet sed just to keep an eye on the temps n make sure hes gettin his vitamins n he asked me how old my uvb strip bulb is wich i answered only a month old, as they run out of usage after 6 months he shud b ok, if u notice any other changes in his behaviour (physically n mentally)take him to ur local reptile vet n get him checked over, i was worried it was a symptom of MBD but thankfully thats not the case

 

[P]

Hi hows your beardie doing?

Shaking can be a symptom of a Vitamin B deficiency, add a pinch of brewers yeast to his food daily for a week or two, it should resolve the issue if it is whats causing the shaking.

Also what are your temps atm?
Basking temp?
Cool temp?
What do you measure it with?
Do you use heat at night? If so what type
How much does he eat atm?

 

[kaykayy]

Hi hows your beardie doing?

Shaking can be a symptom of a Vitamin B deficiency, add a pinch of brewers yeast to his food daily for a week or two, it should resolve the issue if it is whats causing the shaking.

Also what are your temps atm?
Basking temp?
Cool temp?
What do you measure it with?
Do you use heat at night? If so what type
How much does he eat atm?

hi p,
he perked up for a couple days but now hes gone bak to hiding again
i do give him his calcium n vitamins thru a plastic syringe i got from the vets mixed with water as he hasnt eaten for about 2 months now so have to force feed him....hot end temp is around 95-110 cool end is 60-70 n we use a thermometer...we use no heat at night wud u recomend it if so what type?,,,n like i sed he isnt eating off his own back so we have to force feed him wich is really stressful for him but i cnt think of any other solution, although my boyfriend has suggested not force feeding him for a while n see if he gets so hungry that he eats on his own eventually...:/

 

[richard]

basking temp should be around 110 and cool side should be around 85. no night heat is needed unless temps get into low 60's at night. this is also the time of year for brumation so it's not uncommon for animals to "shut down" this time of year. keep hydrated, feed with syringe every other day to keep things moving and nutrition up. i use a mixture of critical care and carnivore care from oxbow, i get it from my vet. i have 2 that are just now coming out of a two month shut down. the key is to monitor their weight every few days. if they start losing quickly or more than 10% of body weight then attention is needed. as for the shaking have you seen the vet yet?

 

[P]

At 10 Mnths brumation is uncommon but not unheard of. And you said he stopped eating 2 mnths ago which made him about 8 mnths at the time, which is a bit young for brumation.

You said you took him to the vet, did they run a feacal? It may be parasites.....

I agree on the cool side temps, it is too cold there temps should be as follows for BD's btwn 0 and 12 mnths
Basking between 105 and 110
Cool side between 80 and 85

You said you use a thermometer, i didnt ask previously......what type? Is it a stick on type? Digital with probe at the end? or a temp gun?
(The stick ons are way way inaccurate, can be up to 20 deg off either way, which means your temps could be anywhere from 75-120 at the basking spot and even lower at the cool side)

If your temps drop at night below 65, buy a CHE (Ceramic heat emitter). It suppplies heat from above but NO visible light to disrupt their sleep patterns

I would recommend, upping your cool temps, get a fecal done and hopefully the problem is fixed easilly

 

[kaykayy]

thanks guys, he has seen the vet but he didnt feel it was nessasary to take things with his shaking any further, maybe i shud get a second opinion if u guys think parasites r a threat...P that cud be why hes shaking, maybe we havent got the temps right, its a round plastic one :/ n its designed for vivs, thats all i can tell from it really, n me n my boyfriend spoke about night heat last night, and were considering it...

we are trying somethink today, at the moment we have all 3 tanks on top of one another, cud this be promoting stress which is linked to spyro n zuko not eating (although spyro does eat more than zuko) maybe cuz they know they are beneath and on top of one another, can they sense each other?, were thinking of having spyro in the living room and zuko and rex in the bedroom on the same wall but opposite sides of the wall, im thinkin this COULD be the problem but im not sure, what do u guys think?

thanks for the help n info ur giving me really appreciate it

 

[P]

The shaking will definately not be due to the temps, all that happens when they get too cold is they go to sleep........, its either neurological or a vitamin B deficiency or hypocalcemia. Easiest one to fix is the latter, It basically means calcium levels are too low. Not meaning you do not supplement but that its not getting processed correctly. This is probably due to the incorrect temps, its too cold and his body is not absorbing and processing the calcium supplements propperly, thus making him deficient.

I would say STEP 1 would be to fix the temps............

The thermometers are the analogue / stick ones im afraid , giving you false readings.
Get either a temp gun or two digital ones with the wire and probe on the end.
Place the 1 in the cool sode and the other one you attach the probe to where they sit and bask.
Since you have 3 vivs Id suggest a temp gun, its more expensive to buy than the digi ones BUT with 3 vivs, youll need to buy 6 digi's vs 1 temp gun. The temp gun you just point at the spot you want to measure and it takes an infra red reading and has immediate results.

Once the temps are correct and the symptoms persist the 2nd thing probably wrong is a vitamin B deficiency (Since he cant absorb the calcium, chances are other vits arent being absorbed either) so try my previous suggestion about the brewers yeast.....it wont harm him in any way if you give a pinch daily over food for a week or so.

Does he just shake or are there other symptoms such as staggering, seeming "drunk" or missing his food when hunting?
If the shaking persists after all the above has been tried and shows NO improvement, a second opinion with a vet is recommended

 

[kaykayy]

hi P
thanks again for all this advice ur takin ur time to give me,
so funny....i just red this out to my boyfriend n told him to type into ebay "temp gun"...he says "no need" goes in his tool box n gets 1 out lol!! i didnt remember him having one! he uses it to measure the heat coming from his revo truck....
bit of a problem, thier thermostats cnt actually go up any higher :/ could this be because all 3 tanks r stacked up on top of each other so thier absorbing the heat from each others tanks so it wnt go any higher???...the temp gun reads all 3 tanks 93 on basking spot wich is way off what it shud be and cud answer all our problems :/

 

[kaykayy]

Does he just shake or are there other symptoms such as staggering, seeming "drunk" or missing his food when hunting?
If the shaking persists after all the above has been tried and shows NO improvement, a second opinion with a vet is recommended

he doesnt seem to stagger but he does have trouble catching his food....even if its on the tweezers he has trouble aiming for it, i think n correct me if im wrong that this is just down to bad hand/eye coordination (when he actually does eat)

 

[Fliehigh]

This may have been asked already but, what type (Shape and Brand) of UVB lights are you using?

Coil Bulbs are know to casue issues with eye sight and they also do not give off enough UV which also effects calcium obsorbtion.

 

[kaykayy]

This may have been asked already but, what type (Shape and Brand) of UVB lights are you using?

Coil Bulbs are know to casue issues with eye sight and they also do not give off enough UV which also effects calcium obsorbtion.

where are using reptisun 10.10 uvb bulbs and they were all changed a month ago