Hi!
I apologize in advance for the book I'm about to write.
I was given a 1 year old male beardie from a friend that was moving away. We've had him for a few weeks now and he doesnt seem to be doing so well. We baby sat him for a while when he was really small and he had this weird thing going on with his lips where they looked like they were chapped. They were keeping him on sand and it looked like his lips were irritated. When he moved in with us his lips were VERY bad. (think the most horrific chapped lips you have ever seen) They were scabbed and they had become misshapen like he had a duck bill. My friend was putting neosporin on them twice a day as recommended by the vet. The vet said he had never seen anything like it before and i couldnt find anything like it on the internet. Anyhow, once he got here I stopped putting neosporin on it so that it would heal. The neosporin just moistened up the scabs and made it all gooey. After a couple of baths I had to pull the big scabs off his lips because he couldnt open his mouth, it was scabbed shut. It didnt bleed or anything it just pulled a bunch of yellow goo off. About 2 days later the horn on his top lip pulled off in the night. It was hard and his top lip had the yellow goo but not much and it looks healed now. His bottom lip horn fell off last night, and his bottom lips looks a little gooey. I put a little neosporin on where it fell off cause it looked raw. Do any of you know what it could be or what i could do to prevent it from happening again? My friend said that it gets real scabby all the time she would just peel it off in the bath, then it would come back a few days later.
Part 2 ( i told you it was long)
Ok so when we got the beardie, the people we got him from were feeding him nothing but super worms and the occasional leaf of lettuce. They said the vet told them that crickets were bad for dragons and that he should never be fed crickets again. Anyhow, when he got here he ate a whole bunch of dandelion greens and at as many super worms as he could eat. I tried giving him crickets (in a separate container) and he just kinda sat there and looked at me like I was crazy. Then about the time his upper lip horn fell off he stopped eating greens all together. He went from eating only the super worms to eating only one a day and now none. And for the last 3 days he wont eat anything. I've tried giving him all different kinds of things. I tried apples kiwis green yellow and red peppers, lettuce, dandelion greens, escarole, collard greens, butter lettuce and even commercial dragon food. He wont have any of it. I dont know what to do. He hasn't eaten now in 3 days. He poops and pees regularly but hes acting very lethargic and hes looking real skinny. He had a bath 2 days ago and pooped one day ago. Hes in a 40 breeder tank on carpet (thats what he arrived on I plan on changing to alfalfa pellets on pay day) He has two hide logs, a climbing stick, a rock and two dishes one for water and one for greens. His tank is 85 on the cool side and 92 on the hot side and he has a brand new uvb bulb. At night the cool side is about 70 and his basking spot is around 82. I bathe him every 2 or 3 days and he always poops in the water after he finishes drinking. Also he always drinks a whole lot of water in his bath and then as soon as we pick him up to put back in his house he spits it all back up. (I dont think its a RI because its only when he drinks water and he doesnt wheeze or couch or gape his mouth open). I'm at my wits end. This morning when I turned on his lights he didnt want to wake up and he wouldnt wave at me like he always does when I wake him up for the day. He just sits on his log and looks not good. I dont want him to die and i dont want him to be sick.
Thank you so much for reading all this and any advice would be greatly appreciated. I really want him to get healthy and be a happy dragon.![]()