Sick Bearded Dragon, Please Help!!!

Question
Hi there.  We purchased or bearded dragon 2 weeks ago.  He was about 5/6 weeks old.  In the beginning he was doing well, eating crickets from me, developing a "personality", etc.  Then, last week when I woke in the morning I found his two front legs entangled into his plant that hangs on the side of the tank, and his back legs stretched down onto his log.  I fear that he was stuck in this position the majority of the night.  He has gone down hill since, he was favoring his right arm and now the entire right side of his body is "crippled." I went to a pet store and also discovered that our UV bulb was way to old to offer proper rays for him, so he also was not getting this.  We now have a new bulb for him.  He has not eaten in 5 days and is getting real skinny.  All he does is lay in the tank and sleep, with slow breathing.  Please, please help.  What do you think will make him back to his old self again??

Answer
Hi Michelle, A vet is really your best option. The sudden on-set of this change certainly makes it sound like it was a direct result of being trapped rather then being husbandry related. Bearded dragons do not have a diaphragm, they breathe through the movement of their chest wall expanding. My guess would be that he may have been quite oxygen deprived with compromised blood flow due to the position he was caught in. He may have soft tissue or skeletal injuries as well.
I wish I could be of more help but this is really a medical situation. What a tragic thing to have happened and not something that you could have reasonably foreseen. Try not to beat yourself up about it. Good luck.