kibbiekoo31
Bearded Dragon Egg
- Messages
- 4
Hey everybody,
I am hoping somebody may have some insight here that I have yet to gain because I am completely out of ideas at this point. Here goes...
My bearded dragon (Bunsen) is a 3 year old female. For the past year or so, she has had an eye problem in her right eye only. Initially she just kept it closed for a while. I didn't worry too much bc I know that is a common behavior for beardies. However, the eye socket on the bottom began to droop after about a month. I was worried she was dehydrated, so I made sure to give her extra baths/she always had access to fresh greens (collard greens). Once I ruled out dehydration, I began to worry she had gotten some sort of object in her eye that was causing an irritation/infection. I flushed it out with sterile saline solution (the kind with no preservatives) and treated it with terramycin which seemed to help tremendously...only for her eye to begin to swell up a few weeks later. I then tried treating it with diluted unpasteurized honey (1:5 ratio). Same thing: it got about 95% better before it got worse. (Note: I didn't stop treating it, so I don't think it was a matter of I didn't treat it long enough for the potential infection to go away entirely).
This time though, the eye socket became swollen to 3x its normal size (over a period of about a couple days, which I think is unusual for reptiles?) and you could not see her eye at all. There was a bit of blood in it too, assuming from her scratching at it. At this point, I rushed her to the exotic vet in my region (they were really annoyed with me and told me I could've waited...but I wasn't about to let her sit all day with a giant bloody eye). There they prescribed her daily antibiotic ocular ointment, oral antibiotics, oral anti-inflammatory, and antibiotics I had to inject every 3 days. I believe the treatment lasted a total of 21 days. SAME THING. It got almost entirely better before it got worse again. I am hesitant to go that route again because after about a week of treatment, she refused to eat or come out of her hiding spot. I noticed her leg started to twitch and I seriously became concerned about MBD (luckily she began feeling better in time for her to get some UVB exposure/calcium).
Finally, I thought...."well maybe there wasn't even anything wrong to begin with and all this treatment is just irritating her eye." So I stopped treating it entirely. It very slowly got better! Again, about 95% better....and now it's slowly getting bad again...
Now I'm thinking she has either a clogged tear duct or a tumor. However I don't believe either would logically explain the constant fluctuation in size of the swelling.
Some additional info: The vet confirmed the eye itself is fine. It is the tissue around the eye that is swollen.
Since her eye is perpetually drooping, I check it multiple times/day to be sure debris isn't stuck in it.
UVB bulb: Reptisun 10.0 Tube (not coil); replaced every 6 months
Substrate: Terrarium bedding (no sand)
Temperatures: 105/70 F
She gets a bath 2-3x/week
I use a dust buster to vacuum any shedded skin/various debris/possible dog fur 2-3x/week plus I do a deep clean quarterly (or as needed)
Diet: Staple vegetable- collard greens; protein- king (super) worms; occasional fruits & various veggies
I dust her food w calcium 5x/week and vitamins 2x/week
She gets natural light exposure on occasion during the summer...I am a bit hesitant to bring her out there bc Starlings like to swoop down and try to attack her.
There was about a 6 week period last summer (beside when I was treating her w her prescribed medication) where she didn't want to eat and was very inactive. I am not sure if this was due to the eye or if she was in brumation. Over the past few weeks, she has been very active and her appetite is robust, as she eats both her veggies and worms on a daily basis. She poops/passes her urate almost every day as well.
I am planning on taking her to the vet again next week if I don't come up with any solution/it doesn't get better. However I doubt they'll be able to do anything for her that they didn't already do last time I took her in...but I can't do nothing...so if anybody has any ideas that I have not already ruled out or noticed anything I did wrong in my summary, please let me know! Thank you!
I am hoping somebody may have some insight here that I have yet to gain because I am completely out of ideas at this point. Here goes...
My bearded dragon (Bunsen) is a 3 year old female. For the past year or so, she has had an eye problem in her right eye only. Initially she just kept it closed for a while. I didn't worry too much bc I know that is a common behavior for beardies. However, the eye socket on the bottom began to droop after about a month. I was worried she was dehydrated, so I made sure to give her extra baths/she always had access to fresh greens (collard greens). Once I ruled out dehydration, I began to worry she had gotten some sort of object in her eye that was causing an irritation/infection. I flushed it out with sterile saline solution (the kind with no preservatives) and treated it with terramycin which seemed to help tremendously...only for her eye to begin to swell up a few weeks later. I then tried treating it with diluted unpasteurized honey (1:5 ratio). Same thing: it got about 95% better before it got worse. (Note: I didn't stop treating it, so I don't think it was a matter of I didn't treat it long enough for the potential infection to go away entirely).
This time though, the eye socket became swollen to 3x its normal size (over a period of about a couple days, which I think is unusual for reptiles?) and you could not see her eye at all. There was a bit of blood in it too, assuming from her scratching at it. At this point, I rushed her to the exotic vet in my region (they were really annoyed with me and told me I could've waited...but I wasn't about to let her sit all day with a giant bloody eye). There they prescribed her daily antibiotic ocular ointment, oral antibiotics, oral anti-inflammatory, and antibiotics I had to inject every 3 days. I believe the treatment lasted a total of 21 days. SAME THING. It got almost entirely better before it got worse again. I am hesitant to go that route again because after about a week of treatment, she refused to eat or come out of her hiding spot. I noticed her leg started to twitch and I seriously became concerned about MBD (luckily she began feeling better in time for her to get some UVB exposure/calcium).
Finally, I thought...."well maybe there wasn't even anything wrong to begin with and all this treatment is just irritating her eye." So I stopped treating it entirely. It very slowly got better! Again, about 95% better....and now it's slowly getting bad again...
Now I'm thinking she has either a clogged tear duct or a tumor. However I don't believe either would logically explain the constant fluctuation in size of the swelling.
Some additional info: The vet confirmed the eye itself is fine. It is the tissue around the eye that is swollen.
Since her eye is perpetually drooping, I check it multiple times/day to be sure debris isn't stuck in it.
UVB bulb: Reptisun 10.0 Tube (not coil); replaced every 6 months
Substrate: Terrarium bedding (no sand)
Temperatures: 105/70 F
She gets a bath 2-3x/week
I use a dust buster to vacuum any shedded skin/various debris/possible dog fur 2-3x/week plus I do a deep clean quarterly (or as needed)
Diet: Staple vegetable- collard greens; protein- king (super) worms; occasional fruits & various veggies
I dust her food w calcium 5x/week and vitamins 2x/week
She gets natural light exposure on occasion during the summer...I am a bit hesitant to bring her out there bc Starlings like to swoop down and try to attack her.
There was about a 6 week period last summer (beside when I was treating her w her prescribed medication) where she didn't want to eat and was very inactive. I am not sure if this was due to the eye or if she was in brumation. Over the past few weeks, she has been very active and her appetite is robust, as she eats both her veggies and worms on a daily basis. She poops/passes her urate almost every day as well.
I am planning on taking her to the vet again next week if I don't come up with any solution/it doesn't get better. However I doubt they'll be able to do anything for her that they didn't already do last time I took her in...but I can't do nothing...so if anybody has any ideas that I have not already ruled out or noticed anything I did wrong in my summary, please let me know! Thank you!
