Sick water dragon please help!!

AmberJade

New Member
Hello all

I have owned my Chinese water dragon for around 4 and a half years, exactly 12 days ago he stopped eating completely no greens no meat food IE crickets worms fuzzes anything and WILL not accept of even consider anything. Day six i took him into our exotic vet and and he ran a ultrasound on him and also a blood test iam still waiting on the blood test he then told me that he is not lethargic and at this point there is nothing to worry about. He is BLOATED and has a slight hard spot below his rib cage and in front of his hind legs. ( i believe he is impacted he has not had a bowel movement in 12 days and maybe even more) we have been giving him warm bath about 4 inches of water and two cap full of mineral oil and plenty of tummy massages ( which the vet did once as well ) On that not i have never seen him react the way he is now, His name is spaz for a reason and the fella i had bathing him yesterday could turn him right on his back in his palm this is for sure the most unusual thing ever he is almost like in a state of sleep when he is in the tub eyes closed and just basically limp to a degree. we have cleaned his 72 quart water bowl out to see if there was and bowl movements and also there was one white sack about the size of three coffee beans??

iam having trouble getting pics up

he has three different parches in his cage the hottest being 97f , the middle being 90-92 f and the coolest being 87 f

he has a 10 UV bulb which he can get anywhere from 12 inches to 4 inches away all bulbs have been changes out just last month in the water tub there is a heater and a water fall and also a air bubbler

his cage dimension’s are 4’ x 3’ x 4’

can anyone please advise what to do or if anyone has experienced this first hand and has any info please help me out he was my first of many reptiles i want to make sure he has every chance possible

if someone can help me post would be awesome good

ty

p.s. we have tried taking him to the vet and he said he didnt know what was wrong. I have more faith in our knowledge, than that of one person!
 
Do you have a substrate?
Are you sure its a male?
How often have you changed his water or is it filtered? How often do you clean the waterfall?

BTW...don't turn him on his back and leave him that way for very long...its bad for their breathing. Its also "normal" for them to become docile/lethargic when you put them on their backs.
 
we do have substrate yes- gravel. and he might be a female, but he hasn't had any eggs ever and weve had him for 4 1/2 years. we change his water once a week, and the waterfall is cleand at the same time.
 
is he by a window?

how old is his uvb bulbs?

any change in temps? as in you local temp affecting your house temps? a/c switching to heater?

id take the water fall out and place two large water bowls. they need cleaned out daily as they will soak and defecate in them daily.

kinyonga will be able to give you good advice.
 
My sister gave hers 3 syringes of strained baby prunes. and then put it in watm water about 8" deep. She said that got her water dragon moving.
 
Can you post a couple of photos of it please?

Baby food pears may also help if its impacted/constipated.

What specific supplements have you been using and how often for each?
What greens, veggies and fruit have you been giving it?

I would hope that if its a female the ultrasound would have shown that. Did the vet not say??
 
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his temps are normal, and we check the periodically each throughout the day.
 

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we also just changed his uvb's. he is being offered dandelion greens, and spring mix. but has no interest.

and the vet gave us:
baytril 0.07 ml daily
pedialyte 1 ml daily
meat based baby food 7.5 ml
 
Good luck Amber, I am sure what the vet gave you will work wonders for your guy. We are going to hope for the best, so let me know how it goes.
 
Was the vet not able to sex it from the ultrasound?
If its female, it might be retaining eggs. Its hard to be sure from your photos.

Spikes on males necks are much longer. The crest on the back of the neck in males is higher than the female's. Males will develop bigger jowls than the females and often more color on the throat/chin area. They also have larger femoral pores on the underside of the upper legs.
 
the vet said its really hard to tell. and have been hearing mixed answers. we put dirt in 1/4 of the cage, and it has been in for about a day, but he has not been burrowing.
 
Hello all again!
so after a very hard week, and lots of trips to the vet.. we have found our cwd is a girl! she is in her pre-ovulatory stage. Since we have no idea how to treat our little baby further (because we were not prepared for this lol) i am asking for some help :) any tips on handling, feeding, setup, etc will help! heres the lowdown.
we have changed around her cage, she now has a smaller waterbowl (taking up about 1/3 of the cage), which still has the waterfall and aerator in it. there is one big rock in each corner to help her get out. left of that is her laybox, about 1/3 of the cage, a smallish opening and a lid and moist dirt inside. outside we have dirt all around everything else and we installed a mister, which shall be on for 45 secs every 3 hours. we are still offering her 1 worm covered in calcium daily (she still hasnt eaten tho) and her familiar spring mix :)
we will be removing the lid of her laybox every second day and spraying the dirt (to keep it moist) and have upped her daylight hours slightly. so far so good :)
all feedback helps! thank you :)
 
I was pretty sure it was a female from the one photo...but I needed a side shot to be sure.

How did the vet determine she's PRE-ovulatory?

For an egglaying container I use two square plastic wash basins one upsidedown on top of the other. I cut a hole that is amply big enough for the female to get in. I fill the bottom basin with washed playsand that is slightly moist. I've found this works well! (Bred/raised/hatched them for over 15 years)....
http://sooqmisr.com/product.php?id_product=1641&id_lang=1

Regarding feeding, supplementing, etc....if you read this information that I wrote for chameleons you can apply it to the water dragons....the only changes I make to it is that the greens and veggies I use to feed/gutload the insects I also feed the dragons for their salad a couple of time as week along with a bit of fruit (apple, pear, melon, berries, etc.) and the dragons seem to be best with prOformed vitamin A (beta carotene)...
Here's some information I hope will help you with things like supplements, gutloading, etc....
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.

Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.

Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).

If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).

Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)

Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)

Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.

Here are some good sites for you to read too...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.
 
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Amber I am glad to hear you may know what the problem is and how to fix it. Let us know how it goes for her.
 
we only looked at the x ray once, and my boyfriends recalls them as oval but we cant really remember. why whats the difference?
 
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