Dehydration

Signs of dehydration
lack of energy
lack of an appetite
wrinkled skin
sunken eyes
your beardie will perk up after a bath or from drinking water

Along with MBD and emaciation, you will most likely have dehydration. You will want to make sure this is the FIRST thing you do when you get your rescued beardie home. They can not digest food if they are dehydrated. Pedialyte baths are the best thing to do to hydrate them. If you can't get it at the store here is a simple way to make your own, 1 cup water, 2 tablespoon of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Bath should consist of 50/50 warm water/pedialyte. My rescue beardie Cassie had all 3 of these problems, MBD, emaciation and dehydrated. I started out with 2 pedialyte baths a day for a week, started feeding her baby food with a syringe (squash was her favorite) for a few days, then added in a little repti-boost to it. I had her on liquid calcium so I added a little baby food to it and syringe fed her that then gave her the baby food. I only had time to feed her twice a day but the more smaller feeding the better for them. Some beardies will be very weak and will not lick baby food off their nose. If you have to force feed your rescue, you have to be careful not to get the food in their lungs. You can open their mouth easily by putting your thumb on their beard and GENTLY pull down, slip the syringe in the side of their mouth and around to the front and just put a drop of food in. DO NOT squirt food in their mouth. Most of the time they will figure out its food and will get to where they will lick it off their nose. If they are weak it might take a few days of them eating to have the strength to lick food off their nose.






This is what Cassie looked like the day I brought her home.

What Cassie looks like now, a year later

Metabolic Bone Disease

Here are just some of the signs of Metabolic Bone Disease- MBD
bent legs
floppy legs
rubber jaw
under bite
twitching or tremors
bumps on back, base of tail
kinked tail

First thing, is to find a good reptile vet, if you don't have one yet, that deals with Bearded Dragons. You will want to have your beardie vet checked to find out what exactly is wrong. It might take a few days to get your beardie in to have it checked out, so you can follow the information I am giving you to start out with. An x-ray is the best way to tell just how bad the MBD is. Next you will want to have your vet dose liquid calcium, if possible. The beardie can absorb it better then the powder form and it works faster to stop the bones from any more damage. You want to have a good UVB bulb to help stop the MBD. Make sure you follow the vets dosage on the liquid calcium, to much calcium is as bad as not enough and will cause the same symptoms. Most of the time a beardie having MBD will also have emaciation and possible dehrdration too.

You will want to make sure you have a good UVB bulb to help out with your beardie. One of the best on the market is Repti-sun 10, tube bulb. Coils are bad and can create eye problems in beardies.

Emaciation

A rescued beardie that is emaciated will need a lot of extra care. I want to point something out now dealing with this. NO PROTEIN at all to start with, this could shut down their organs and kill them. If they are not used to eating protein it will take a toll on their system. Dehydration, and some times MBD goes along with them being emaciated. I have rescued a few beardies and what I did saved their lives. I started out syringe feeding baby food. Some good baby food is squash, green bean, peas,sweet potatoes, the most popular is squash. If you don't/can't do liquid calcium you will want to add calcium powder to the baby food. Feed a few times a day, in small portions, its better on their system.You will want to do this for a week or so, and watch to make sure your beardie has normal poops and urates before adding protein to their diet. When its time to add protein to their diet a great thing to add is called Critical care. This is something you can get at your vet office or on line. I would start off slow with it and just add a little to the baby food. You will want to make sure their system can handle some protein before giving live food. It took me about 2 weeks before I gave Cassie live food (Dubia Roaches).

Impaction

Causes of impaction
loose substrate which include, sand (calcium sand is the worst), crushed walnut shells, wood chips, and gravel. Anything that they can lick or eat is considered loose subtract.
to big of live food for the beardie.

signs of impaction
lack of appetite
lack of energy
sunken eyes
hard lump in belly
paralyzed in back legs


Any signs of impaction you will want to deal with it right away. There is a chance it could kill your beardie if left untreated. Never put your beardie on any loose subtract, it is the most common cause of impaction. Calcium sand is the worst, it will clump in their stomach and will not pass, you might not see any signs for weeks, months or years later. Crushed walnut shells are just as bad, they might end up cutting up your beardie's stomach trying to pass it. Wood chips, if small enough can be eaten and will cut their stomach up and might not be able to pass it. Live food is another one that can cause impaction. If it is to big it might cause the back legs to become paralyzed, and not be able to pass it. Meal worms have a hard shell which is very hard for beardies to digest. Never feed super worms to beardies until they are 16 inches long. Before beardies reach 16 inches long their digestive track has a kink in it and it is hard to pass the worms.


If it is a slight impaction you can give your beardie, punkin (nothing added to it), baby food squash, prunes,or  Olive oil. Giving them a bath and rubbing their belly from the ribs down to their vent might help too. If its a severe impaction, with any abnormal behavior, you will want to get them to a vet as soon as possible and get an xray to find out what is going on. Do not wait to do anything about an impaction if you think that is what the problem is, your beardie's life is at stake.

Parasites

signs of having parasites:
lethargic
loosing weight
lack of appetite
loose feces
bad smelling feces


2 most common parasites rescue beardies have
pin worms
coccidia


You will want to get a fecal done on a rescue beardie, in most cases they will have some kind of parasite. You will want to wait 2-4 weeks to get a fecal done. With moving the beardie stresses and it raises the level of parasites, once they are no longer stressed the levels go back to normal and the vet can get a good reading. If you feel they are loaded with them, do a fecal as soon as you can, maybe when you take them to the vet to get x-rays done.


Pin worms are easy to deal with . The vet will most likely give you Panacure to take care of the problem. It might take 1 or more rounds to get rid of them. You will want to retest after the first round to see if the worms are gone or if you need to do another round of wormer.


Coccidia is very contagious and hard sometimes to get rid of. You might have to do more then one round of wormer. You will want to make sure you keep a very clean tank. Taking everything out , putting paper towels or news paper on the floor, and 1 thing for them to bask on. Keeping the tank spotless is very important to get rid of Coccidia. Keep this beardie away from all other beardies, so they will not catch it. Make sure you use separate things with the beardie that has Coccidia and your healthy beardies. After the first round of wormer ( Albon is one wormer that might be given to you for this parasite), you will want to retest your rescue to make sure the wormer worked or if you need to do another of wormer.

Yellow Fungus

There are a lot of different signs of yellow fungus, but here are a few of the normal ones,
patches of yellow skin,
patches of grey skin
dry, crusty lesions
may look like thick dark patches of old shed


Yellow fungus is highly contagious and for most beardies fatal. If you suspect your rescue has yf, a vet visit is in order ASAP. They will do a scraping and have it tested to see if it comes out positive. Please keep any rescue beardies quarantined, away for any other ones you might have. Make sure you wash your hands before and after handling the beardie who has yf. There is no cure for yf, but in some cases it can be controlled with medication from your vet, orally and with ointments you can get at the pharmacy.They can get yf from other beardies who have it, and from dirty living conditions.

I rescued a beardie 2 years ago and didn't know she had it for about 8 months. She had dark thick skin on her head, I had thought it was old shed, and I even took her in to check and the vet said no, as I have found after 2 different vets who said no, she did have it and by then it was to far along to save her. I tried for 6 months of doing anything and everything for her, just to have to put her to sleep when it went septic. One thing I learned with yf, if you have to give antibiotics for any reason the yf will start to spread faster. If you think you see signs of yf, its best to have it checked out and make sure before it gets to far along so that you will have a chance to save your beardie.


My rescue Jesse and her yellow fungus. I only had her for 13 months when I had to put her down due to yf and it was going septic.

Respiratory Infection

Signs of a Respiratory Infection-RI
having problems breathing
gaping more then normal
mucus around their mouth and/or nose
puffing their beard and/or throat more then normal


Causes of an RI,
low temperatures, high humidity, and/or not the correct housing.



Respiratory infections can cause problems and in some cases if really bad can kill your beardie. The best thing to do is get them to a vet and have the vet check your beardie out and if its found that they do have an RI, the vet will prescribe an antibiotic to try and take care of it. In bad cases of RI, it might take a couple rounds of antibiotics or stronger ones to clear it up. It is best to keep your beardie a little warmer at night then normal to help with the RI.