SquirkyTurtle
Bearded Dragon Egg
- Messages
- 3
Heya,
We adopted a little juvenile beardy about 3 weeks ago. He was fine when we got him and he's had a healthy appetite (eating between 10-20 medium dubias a day). We have been struggling to get him to touch his veg but it got better the longer we had him. Last Saturday, all over sudden we noticed him having lameness in his front legt. He kept it of the ground and we saw it jittering quite a bit. We were concerned but he was shedding so we thought it might be that, as his eating and pooping and general behaviour was alright even if maybe a little less at that point. The leg got a lot worse and by Monday evening he wasn't moving his back legs either. They were also swollen up quite a bit. We freaked ourselves out about MBD but our tank has all the important bits (uv tube, basking area, etc) and as it was all new we assumed there couldn't be any issues with the uv light. We have also been dusting his dubias.
We booked an emergency vet appointment for Tuesday and he stayed over night. The vet did an xray and she said there was a mild case of MBD and he also had an injury to one of his legs. We showed the vet our setup and she said this could be caused by the uv light being too high upfor his basking area (we got a 4.5ft tank, light is at the top and basking spot is like 30% up in the tank) and even tho he did tend to sit on his root right under his uv light, we assumed this was probably the issue. We then went and got a new basking uv light and took him home with calcium and pain killers. He was really active the evening we got him home and ate an usual high amount of dubias. His front leg was a lot better also but his back legs were still pretty bad. From the next day on it started degrading again (both food eaten and movement) and he's down to not eating today (3rd evening home) and he's mostly just sitting in place not moving and looking more ill again. We don't understand what is happening, he should definitely get his uv now as he's by his basking uv light all day long. I know this is not an instant cure but be was so much more active the night be brought him home and now he's back to seeming more ill. We have a follow up appointment next Thursday but I thought I would post this here to see if anyone has any ideas? I am really worried, we have had him for so short and I've really tried to do all the research.
Some more info:
-he used to poop once or twice a day but its a bit more irregular right now (approx every 2nd day for the last 5ish days but he's also eating a lot less) but his poops look good, not wet and all digested
-the painkillers we got knock him out quite a bit, we give them in the evening and after he's pretty dazed and out of it
-we had a nice temperature established (30-cold,40-hot) but since we switched to the uvb basking bulb, we had some struggles getting that back. Our temperature gun got something around 30 on the cool side and like 38 on the hot side, right under his basking bulb it gets between 40 and 45. We bought a more low wattage bulb but we are still not quite there yet, especially since we gotta heat the tank with it as well
- we got a bioactive viv with quite a lot of stuff inside that we can't take out (rock wall and cave) but we baby proofed everything with towels at the moment because the vet suggested giving him more even areas for recovering. This obviously pushes everything up so we think the higher temperature probably has to do with that.
Please if anyone has any ideas what I can do to improve things please let me know. This is making me really concerned, we only just got him and I dont want to be the cause if him being ill.
I tried to describe everything but if there is any questions, please ask! I will appreciate all kinds of insights.
Cheers
We adopted a little juvenile beardy about 3 weeks ago. He was fine when we got him and he's had a healthy appetite (eating between 10-20 medium dubias a day). We have been struggling to get him to touch his veg but it got better the longer we had him. Last Saturday, all over sudden we noticed him having lameness in his front legt. He kept it of the ground and we saw it jittering quite a bit. We were concerned but he was shedding so we thought it might be that, as his eating and pooping and general behaviour was alright even if maybe a little less at that point. The leg got a lot worse and by Monday evening he wasn't moving his back legs either. They were also swollen up quite a bit. We freaked ourselves out about MBD but our tank has all the important bits (uv tube, basking area, etc) and as it was all new we assumed there couldn't be any issues with the uv light. We have also been dusting his dubias.
We booked an emergency vet appointment for Tuesday and he stayed over night. The vet did an xray and she said there was a mild case of MBD and he also had an injury to one of his legs. We showed the vet our setup and she said this could be caused by the uv light being too high upfor his basking area (we got a 4.5ft tank, light is at the top and basking spot is like 30% up in the tank) and even tho he did tend to sit on his root right under his uv light, we assumed this was probably the issue. We then went and got a new basking uv light and took him home with calcium and pain killers. He was really active the evening we got him home and ate an usual high amount of dubias. His front leg was a lot better also but his back legs were still pretty bad. From the next day on it started degrading again (both food eaten and movement) and he's down to not eating today (3rd evening home) and he's mostly just sitting in place not moving and looking more ill again. We don't understand what is happening, he should definitely get his uv now as he's by his basking uv light all day long. I know this is not an instant cure but be was so much more active the night be brought him home and now he's back to seeming more ill. We have a follow up appointment next Thursday but I thought I would post this here to see if anyone has any ideas? I am really worried, we have had him for so short and I've really tried to do all the research.
Some more info:
-he used to poop once or twice a day but its a bit more irregular right now (approx every 2nd day for the last 5ish days but he's also eating a lot less) but his poops look good, not wet and all digested
-the painkillers we got knock him out quite a bit, we give them in the evening and after he's pretty dazed and out of it
-we had a nice temperature established (30-cold,40-hot) but since we switched to the uvb basking bulb, we had some struggles getting that back. Our temperature gun got something around 30 on the cool side and like 38 on the hot side, right under his basking bulb it gets between 40 and 45. We bought a more low wattage bulb but we are still not quite there yet, especially since we gotta heat the tank with it as well
- we got a bioactive viv with quite a lot of stuff inside that we can't take out (rock wall and cave) but we baby proofed everything with towels at the moment because the vet suggested giving him more even areas for recovering. This obviously pushes everything up so we think the higher temperature probably has to do with that.
Please if anyone has any ideas what I can do to improve things please let me know. This is making me really concerned, we only just got him and I dont want to be the cause if him being ill.
I tried to describe everything but if there is any questions, please ask! I will appreciate all kinds of insights.
Cheers
