sub-Adult Female Frilled Dragon

Question

Frilled dragon  
frilled dragon   QUESTION: Hello, my name is Janet and I am concerned about my new sub-adult female frilled dragon. When I say new, I mean i just got her today. I went through a rehab for exotic pets to get her. So of course with the reputation they have, i thought i would get a healthy one. When she arrived this morning, i was in tears. She is nothing but skin and bones. I put her in a 40 gal. aquarium, with the proper heating (95 degrees) with the zilla 10.0 UVB, a climbing log where she can get close to the heat light. I dusted about 30 crickets with calcium powder and put them in there with her. She was not interested. I then let her rest for a while, went back and feed her out of my fingers. She only ate 2. I own 2 other frilled dragons, and adult male that i raised from a baby and a baby suspected female, both healthy. I don't want to loose her, I guess my question is, will she make it? today is Sunday, so i have plans to make a vet apt. tomorrow. I have done hrs. of research today and found that it is most likely parasites. My question is: If she is this skinny, with vet. help, what would her chances be of survival? I thought she was CB, but now I'm not so sure. She is tame and will let you hold her, and her attitude is amazing considering how she looks. She is acting like my healthy adult male. (in attitude) anyway. I cant help but cry when i think about what she has been through, but at the same time happy that she will get at least a chance in my arms. I'm worried, any advice and or knowledge would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time. -Janet

ANSWER: O...M...G...
She is in HORRIBLE shape! What kind of a rescue shelter is this? They can't be reputable at all. I run a reptile rehabilitation myself, including for wildlife, and I would NEVER adopt out a creature in such poor condition. This is UNETHICAL that they did not take better care and they dumped her off on an adopter to foot the bills. What is the name of this organization please? This needs to be addressed and they need to know others in the field are EXPECTING them to do a better job than this.

There is no quick answer for this. This is a complicated medical issue, and you're guess that it is likely parasites could be completely wrong. Do not take answers from other laypersons found on an internet hobbysit forum as sound medical advice. I am a rehabber with experience giving medical treatments to reptiles, including surgical procedures.

The first thing to do, is to make sure her temps and humidity are within proper range for Frillies and that she is warmed up. I am no expert on this particular genus, but I would imagine their environmental requirements are similar to Bearded Dragons.

http://www.thefrilleddragon.com/content/115-Frilled-Dragon-Care-Sheet

Once she is warmed, place her in a bathtub soak in tepid water and douse her head to toe if she will let you. Allow her to sit and soak for at least 30min, and rewarm the water as need. Do this everyday. When you take her to the vet, ask the vet if you can have a bag of LRS prescribed to you in order to soak her in.

She is emaciated. Hydration is most critical in this condition BEFORE you start feeding her very much. until you can see a vet and get a suitable electrolyte for reptiles, you may see if she will take Pedialyte or a generic pediatric equivalent via syringe or dropper. Do not use sports drinks.  

Also, do not feed her as much as you try to feed the others right now. That is not the way this works. Her body is in a fragile state, and she is likely dehydrated as well. If you tax her digestive system with too much solid food you can cause her to go into shock, especially if she is dehydrated. Feed her smaller portions as opposed to large ones, and not excessively. Also, avoid processed or dried foods. Fresh live insects are better, however, it may be more appropriate to start her on something like applesauce and NutriCal.

When you get her to the vet, the standard treatment for her nutritional needs should be to enteral tube feed her using something like Oxbow Critical Care liquid nutritional diet, and you should be given a bag, and a stomach tube and syringe, and shown how to do it, if she will not take willingly orally. She is not strong enough to handle normal solid meals right now as normal course. She is sick. Think soup instead of meat and potatoes right now.

If she were being treated by me, the next thing I would be doing, is giving some IV, ICe, or SC fluid infusion using Lactated Ringers, Normosol R, etc. She also may be suffering from metabolic acidosis given her catabolic state, and though LRS or Normosol will help with that, I normally administer a small amount of bicarbonate as well in the food, or even a few drops of citric acid.

When she contributes a fecal sample, you may have it looked at under a microscope, but absence of evidence of parasites in any single sample is not evidence of absence. You cannot be sure she does or does not have parasites unless you confirm parasites, or you take several samples. Some parasites cannot be seen unless they are shedding ova. Even if she does have parasites, this is NOT necessarily causative. Parasites are opportunists, and other factors such as stress, improper housing and environment, poor nutrition, bacterial, fungal, viral, mycoplasma, or environmental toxin could be the cause of this..so don't make any diagnosis in this case that it is parasites. That is a catch all that people on forums throw out when they don't know what something is.

If parasites are discovered...then the treatment should take into account her current state of health, and I would be reluctant to utilize most treatments, weighing her current condition against the pharmacokenetics. Metronidazole is about all I would feel safe using in this situation, in reduced dosage, until her strength and body condition are better. Treatments such as Fenbendazole are common, but may lead to seizures, coma, and death from liver failure if her liver is atrophied too much. In her shape, I would expect that it has.

Additional diagnostic procedures I would recommend if you have the means, are

1. x-ray to rule out any gastric/enteric involvement such as swelling or blockage, egg binding, liver abscess, kidney abnormalities, etc.
2. blood hematology and chemistry to check for presence of anemia, hypocalcemia or other imbalance, and infection markers.

The specifics are a little much to get into here, but I do offer my own consult service which you may find on my website. And if this information has helped, as always, the rescue center appreciates donations.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I just wanted to say thank you. All day yesterday I kept her sprayed and the humidity up, took your advice about the bath. I made her an apt. for this week with the vet. I gave her some pedialyte, and I'm so happy to say, that she is eating on her own today. :) I saw her catch a cricket all on her own today. Thank you soo much for your response, now I feel like she has a really good chance of full recovery. I will make a donation to your rehab, next paycheck, cause I'm pretty sure this vet. bill is gonna be very expensive, but thats ok. :) Again, Thank you so much for your response yesterday. :) I cant rate you, or I would give you the highest! -Janet

ANSWER: She needs primarily liquid nutritional support. And where did you obtain here please?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: The person I got her through is an owner of a rehab where I live. The situation was cleared up for me. She did not own the frilled dragon, she had her shipped to me. She did not even know the extent of her situation. The rehab is actually really good, I myself have seen their pets, and all are healthy. Even though I paid a pretty penny for her, she was NOT adopted out to me, due to earlier business with them. I asked for a frilled dragon specifically, all she did was find one and have her shipped to me. I know that if it was me in her situation, I would have made sure the pet was healthy, but my husband and I are looking at this as a rescue. If she had not been found and shipped to us, she would have died no doubt about it. So this is a blessing in disguise. And since its not her job to find specific animals for customers, I feel she went out of her way to get me what I asked for, which she has not done for anyone els. I blamed her at first, but its not her fault. I apologize for that. -Janet

Answer
Sure, but if she is deriving a fee from any of this that makes her partly responsible for the condition of the animal from the vendors she is contacting, and she has an ethical duty to be more informed. I don't know what kind of "rehab" this is, because nothing you told me is standard practice for a legit rescue operation. It sounds unethical.

What you likely received, being that it was shipped to you (which you never said before), is likely a wild caught specimen. And under those cases you can't say that you ordered an animal and supported the wild collection trade, but that the animal is a rescue because you paid for it.

Sorry, no matter what happens to her now, if you save her life or not, she is in captivity because there was motivation for profit to capture her from the wild, and you paid into that system. That is NOT a rescue. That is supporting the trade, I am sorry to say. A captive breeder would NEVER allow one of their animals to be sold in such a condition because it is way too bad for business.