Help needed, please!

[Avsha531]

Hey everyone, I know this is super long. I would really appreciate if people can read this and give me any feedback.

My girlfriend has two bearded dragons, Bitsy and Balerion. They are both around 7-8 months old. She got them at a reptile expo in February when they were around 3-4 months old.:cens0r:We both did a lot of research to make sure we had all the husbandry info perfect. When we got them they both appeared very active and healthy. In fact, we thought Bitsy was by far more active, hungry, jumpy, alert, etc.

Bitsy got sick around 2.5 months ago. She wasn't eating well, growing, shedding etc. We knew something was wrong because Balerion was developing just fine, while Bitsy started acting sluggish and depressed, and not bopping around like healthy dragons should.

We went to a vet 2 months ago and he found a small growth type thing under the skin on the side of her face, by the jaw near the ear. Vet thought it might be pus and an infecton and we started oral antibiotics. That didn't help.:cens0r:
Her arms and fingers started to swell up too. We then did an x-ray and blood work and started her on injection antibiotics.:cens0r:
X-ray came back clear other than seeing the swelling on her face and arms. Blood work came back showing that her kidneys weren't breaking down the uric acid and it was staying in her body causing all the swelling.

We did everything the vet said to do and it kept getting worse.

Recently her body/spine has started to appear curved and crooked. She hasn't shed or grown at all since this started.

She is perky and alert though, more so than 2 month ago, however definitely frail. She does have a hard time moving around and did fall off her rock on her back a couple of times and couldn't get up. She can only eat her roaches if we tilt the bowl to her face so she doesn't have to exert herself, and more often than not we are feeding her Care food through a syringe.

We went to the vet again today and he said she may be in pain, but he can't say for certain. He said she's tolerating it well for now which is why she's still perky, but that could change at any time. He said its getting worse and another bump is forming on the other side of her face. Her legs are swollen now too. It also may be why she's crooked. He said that it is likely kidney disease, but can't say definitively. The bloodwork definitely suggests that something is off with her kidney function.

So now the options are to put her down, keep her until she goes on her own (which we wouldn't want to do if she's in pain), or go ahead with getting treatment. The vet doesn't recommend this. He feels she's so young and can't grow and doesn't feel like treatment would do her any good.

Does anyone have experience with this? Before we make a decision, we would love some feedback from people who know bearded dragons well or from anyone who has been through this. I guess we would like to feel like we've done as much research as I can before deciding such a difficult thing.

Thank you so much for reading this. Any help or suggestions are appreciated. My girlfriend really loves these babies and it's been heartbreaking for her and me.

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