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i finally got to take my water dragon to the vets today. he has a pretty bad URI. i had raised the temps and humidity but now i have him in a cage a bit smaller to raise them even higher. the vet gave me 3 weeks worth of baytril to give him. he also said my dragon is really skinny even though i feed him alot. he gave him a calcium steroid shot to help and told me to feed him even more. my dragon also had something wrong with his lip, you can see his top fangs. my vet told me the meds will probably help that, also put neosporin on it, i was hoping he'd give me meds just for that but i guess its not very bad. he also told me to go to petsmart and get Emeraide (sp) its for baby or sick birds. he sais he's used it alot on sick lizards and it should help alot. when i get it how much and how often do you think i should give it to him? (that question totaly slipped my mind to ask my vet) and has any one else used it before? my vet sais hes really worried because my dragon seems so sick and sais if he doesn't get better in a few days from the baytril he think i'll have to leave him there over night for a treatment where they put him in a cage and have him breathe a medicine. he seemd alot worse at the vets, acted like he was half dead, but at home hes really perky and jumpy as ususal.
does any one have any thing to say about the bird food? i'd really like an opinion about it, i dont want to feed him too much of it
What does it do exactly?? Is it a food suppliment? is it to rehydrate, like gatorade or pedilyte? Does it contain Probiotics??? what exactly is it supposed to do??
Alissa
all my vet said is it will help him get a littler stronger cause he's weak so i dont know exactly what it does
is it a paste? alot of vets recommend A/D to fatten up reptiles. It fattens them up FAST, so its not nessecarily that good for them in large doses.. I would just feed him extra bugs, the hell with bird food, ive never heard of that idea before.
he said you have to mix it up with something and its milky, so i would then have to put it in a seringe and force him to drink it kind of like the baytril hes taking for the RI. I feed him every day, but i think the infection is geting worse, i dont know, hes been on the meds for a week but hes starting to seem even weaker and still breathing really heavy, i'm calling the vets today to see what they can do.
if hes on baytril and the infection is getting worse thats not good.... what do you have him kept in?
260 gallon reptarium. the top basking spots are over 100 degrees (but he can't get close enough to the bulbs to get burnd) the middle basking spots are around 95 and the bottom of the cage is 85. the humidity is about 80-90% on the bottom, about 70% in the middle and about 50% at the top.
Ok, il give you a few tips.. With CWD's alot of the time its not a URI, or once thats cleared up its simply a shedding problem. Their nostrals are easily closed due to a bad shed. They get lots of skin stuck in there and it makes it nearly impossible for them to breathe through the nose, so thats most likely why the baytril doesnt appear to be working (although it likely has) baytril wont cure that.
Get a rubbermaid with some air holes poked in it. (something dark is good) put the lid on, and put lots of moist paper towel inside, heavily moisten it. Leave the guy inside over night. Make sure its humid/warm, not damp/cold or you'll run into the same problem all over again.
Best of luck.
hes had this before though (i'm not disagreeing i'm only saying what has happend) and the baytril cured it, it was exactly like this but this is a bit worse cause hes breathing even heavier.
should i not call the vet and see if puting him in a rubbermaid for a while will work? how long should i keep him in there? also should i stop giving him the baytril?
last but not least-what should the temps and humidity be for the rubbermaid?
thank you alot for your help
nono, keep the baytril going. but if hes had it 10 days now the infection should be gone. its good stuff. finish off the dosage.
The nostral thing is normal, it happens with alot of dragons kept too dry, and it sounds like you ran into problems not long ago with the RI etc.. Put him in the rubbermaid at night, and take him out in the mornings. Make sure its around 80 degrees.
Most vets don't know what they're doing when it comes to reptiles. My advice is from my own expierience, and its always worked.
Does he have any mouth rot? is he eating? is he skinny? can you get me a photo of the head/body?
he does have something wrong with his mouth but i dont know if its mouth rot, neither does my vet. a tiny bit of his top lip is open, but enough that you can see his tiny front fangs. my vet told me to put neosporin on it and i have been every day, its looking alot better than before.
he eats good, hes never stopd eating, i'v been feeding him just about every day. he eats meal worms, super worms crickets and fuzzies/hoppers. almost every time i give him insects i put vitamins on them to try and help him.
hes very skinny, hes always been, last year almost all year i fed him every other day. the first half of the year i only fed him one rodent a month, but i upd it, now he gets one rodent a week.
i'll get pictures in a bit.
is he gaining weight?
the mouth thing, try using a q-tip to apply peroxide, then use some betadine (not iodine) it works well. it stains the sore, so it wont rinse off. neosporin works too, but its probably getting it from the screen on your reptarium....
theres a possibility he may have parasites if he doesnt gain weight, have you had a fecal done?
no i have not had a fecal done, he doesn't seem like hes gaining weight at all, if not looking a bit skinnier, i bet he does have parasites =( i dont know how he would have gotten them except from insects with parasites though. i will get a fecal test done though, i didn't think of that at all.
its an older animal, you purchased WC iam sure? its possible.... get the mouth cleaned up first. I dont know to many people that have wormed their CWD's including myself, so iam not really sure if thats the case, or maybe he never got enough heat to gain weight? lotta things here.. if you can get some photos of the animals head/body i can give you some more tips..
i bought him back in 2001 when he was teeny tiny. heres 3 pix
in this one hes next to a 6 inch ruler
picture of him gasping for air
its a boy!
definatly very skinny, his mouth doesnt look that bad. I would keep him in the humid rubbermaid at night still. I would buy some A/D its a fattening diet for mammals but works on reptiles. If you syringe him for about 5 days he should put weight back on.
He may need to be dewormed, but its still a worst case scenario.
does this "A/D" have a whole name? and do you think it might be at petsmart or something?
i want to put in a substrate in the bottom of the cage, its just news paper but i either want to get reptile moss or bark, it will be geting pretty wet from the mister so i can't have something that molds. what should i get?
also, thank you SO much for the help, i think if it werent for you he would be in serious trouble if not dead or something terrible =\ i will probably be geting the rubbermaid, peroxide and betadine if we dont have it and the "A/D" if i can find it.
no problem iam glad i could help!!
A/D is a science diet product thats used for fattening up mammals, I believe its usually only found at vet clinics. Iam in Canada so it may have a different name where you are. I would do like 1 syringe a day for 5 days along with regular meals. How much is the dragon eating when you throw food in? Iam really wondering why hes so skinny, but chances are hes not eating as much as you think if hes had a URI. Mix in some vitamins, and some smashed up crickets or something.
For Substrate id go with nothing for now, just paper towel so you can keep him clean until he recovers fully.. Beyond that, cypress mulch is good, or coconut fibre.
he doesn't eat every thing i offer him in one day. i will usually give him 10-20 meal worms, 3-5 super worms and a few smashed crickets in the bowl with them. i always put vitamins on them too. he doesn't eat them right away all the time but he always eats his rodent as soon as he sees it. should i offer him a rodent more than once a week to try and help him gain weight?
regular mealworms suck! they dont possess much nutrition!
use superworms, and let the crickets run around for him to hunt. Yes i would feed him maybe 2-3 pinky/fuzzies a week for now to get fat back on his hips!
i'll also add that regular mealworms are a completely different species from the superworm.. they look alike but theyre not the same. Small mealies have high levels of chitin in them, very hard to digest.
I forgot to ask as well, do you use a large water basin for him? thats almost a nessecity with cwd's.
he has a kitty litter pan. its around a foot wide and over a foot long. usually has about 2 inches of water in it plus a rock to help him get in and out.
and are you suggesting i feed him less meal worms?
btw i noticed his lip is already looking so much better!
IMO... ditch the crix and the mealworms all together. I can't even get my Wds to look at a cricket let alone eat it. I do feel though that in order to mantain good wieght levels on a water dragon crix alone or with a few superworms mixed in.. isn't gonna cut it.
Here is a rundown of what my wds eat
i switch the order and amount up every week
this past week my wds have eaten
2 fuzzies
4 nightcrawlers
15 superworms give or take a few
and Frog (who is still gaining wieght back from being gravid) would eat all of that in one sitting if i let her.
You also have to watch out for obesity in wds. I would up his food intake dramtically until his hip bones aren't exposed and then i would cut back down to a normal level. feeding every other day.
thanks lissag
today i was giving him his baytril and its really milky and cloudy. i think heat had something to do with that. my herp room gets about 95 degrees in the day now. i moved the meds into my bed room, which is cooler but still about 80-85 degrees sometimes. is it still good to use?
ps-my dragon is not very weak. every morning i take him out and put him on a small cage next to his while i prepare his meds. today i gave him his meds and he ran over to his cage, climbd up the top and walkd around on the top, i had to go around the back and snatch him off the top and put him back. i was glad to see him moving a bit.
shake the baytril before using..... i don't know if its going to lose any effect though..
I dont agree with ditching crickets, and supers however..
Keep him on superworms & crickets with a couple fuzzies a week.
Mealworms (small ones) suck, they dont possess much if any nutrition. The only animals that seem hardy enough to eat them on a regular basis are leopard geckos.
I use superworms .. i never said ditch the superworms... IMO i don't see the benifit of crickets in a dragons diet after the age of 14 months. but that is just my opinion and what i have been doing for years.... Crickets aren't bad.. i just don't like the hassle...and feel their are more benifical food sources out their. But if he is eating them i guess stick with whats working.
On another note.. i have heard of deworming wds. I never have had to do it but when i adopted frog last summer her prevoius owner had a fecal done and she was plum full of hookworms.
I don't think batyril looses it's effectiveness when shaked either... good point V. hb on shaking it....
Alissa
slowly, i noticed my dragon isn't breathing as heavy any more, nor is he even opening his mouth. i'v still got around a weeks wroth of baytril left and i am going to continue giving it to him. his lip still looks yucky but i have a bad feeling its scard and always going to look like theres a little peice missing.
next step is to get a fecal sample to the vet and ask for "A/D"
hes still eating good but still showing most of his bones good too =\
if i was you, instead of waiting for A/D id just give him lots of pinkies. Keep throwing them in, daily give him as many as he'l eat until hes back up to weight. then at that point, work on keeping his weight up with a different diet then the one you used previously.
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