Injured Beardie

[Keliculus]

Hi everyone,
My little brother and I were kicking a soccor ball around this arvo and while chasing the ball he found what he thought was a dead bearded dragon. When I went over to check I realised that it was one of our resident beardies we call Charlie that has been surprising me by randomly popping up for months now. When I picked him up I realised he was still alive. He was bleeding from around his eyes and mouth and had ants in his eyes, ears and mouth. I rushed him inside and washed the ants off him and gave him a quick check over, he has a busted left ear membrane, he hasn't opened his eyes at all I'm hoping whatever happened to him hasn't blinded him and a small nick on the top of his head and one on his back. He still has use of all four legs ang manage a pretty powerfull wiggle when I was cleaning him up and had re-positioned himself under the heat source, but he is slightly puffed up so I'm hoping he isn'y bleeding internally.

I have him in a smallish glass tank at the moment because it wall all I could find at the time with a heat lamp in one end, I have a small heat rock in there as well but It's not turned on because I wasn't sure if he could move away from it. He rubbed the side of his face along the tank when he was moving and I found a small yellowish worm in the blood from his mouth so I'm guessing he's full of parasites, but being wild thats hardly surprising.

I want to know if I have done anything wrong by him or if there is anything else I need to do for him right now??
Fingres crossed that he makes it through the night and I'll take it from there
Oh he's about 1 to 1 1/2 foot long and looks well fed

Thanks guys

 

[amy5189]

well i know that beardeds like it nice and warm. so keep your temps up because heat is probably the best thing for him at the moment.
by the sounds of it though its likely a dog got a hold of him. you should be able to find a vet that will take wildlife though. some vets will take native wildlife for free and hopefully they can do something for him.
for the night though just keep the temps up and probably cover the tank up so he isn't disturbed. fingers crossed for the little guy!

 

[geckos_are_great]

pics?

 

[Keliculus]

Here's a couple of pics, I'm afraid that his breathing seems to have gotten bit shallower but I cant be sure.

One of my dogs does tend to 'play' with beardies but they were locked up all last night and today so I don't think it was her and our property is completely dog fenced so nothing else should have been able to get in

 

[geckos_are_great]

poor beardie throats abit swollan

 

[geckos_are_great]

pitty very nice looking beardie

 

[Jake-Beardie]

Geez thats so sad! keep us posted on how he is going!
Hope he makes a full recovery.

 

[Keliculus]

I hope he pulls through as well, I've become pretty attached seeing him around all the time.
Sometime I hate my pets because about a month ago my mum's cat brought a present of a young beardie up from the back paddock and dropped it at the front door, luckily she was only a little shaken up and I was able to let her go the next day, not after giving me a nice bite as a thank-you though, lol. Hopefully this guy doesn't decide to do the same because he's about 3 or 4 times the size

 

[innocent]

oh that is so sad I hope all ends well for the little fella.Thanks for sharing and good luck.

 

[redbellybite]

Hey Keli ..do you have a local wildlife carer that you can call?...otherwise you can always ring the Australia Zoo hospital and see what they say ..

 

[Keliculus]

Well as it turns out I have to take my cat to the vet tomorrow because of a semi-emergency so I will talk to them and get some phone numbers of carers or just take him down there, unfortunately the last time I took an injured native, a rainbow lori with a broken leg that would have healed and it could have been re-released but they just put it down without even giving it a second look but I will definitely be making some phone calls tomorrow

 

[Keliculus]

I thought I'd give a quick update on Charlie. He's doing surprisingly well, basically because he is still alive I got in contact with a friend of mines aunt who used to run a reptile rescue service and had a good talk with her and she gave me some advice. Her main advice was don't get your hopes up which I have been trying hard to do, but I have also been giving him daily warm baths (which I was doing from day one) and I have been syringe feeding him pureed fruit and veg with added wombaroo reptile supliment until he starts taking food himself and taking him out to get some natural sunlight each day, he gets a really nice blue hue on his head and down his back when he gets some sun. He's gotten alot stronger and more responsive when he hears me opening his tank or touching him, he actually managed to open his mouth and hiss at me for the first time today.
My one big concern is still his eyes though, he still hasn't opened them and I'm worried that I didn't get to him in time before the ants did some real damage

 

[redbellybite]

Well contact the help again and explain this ...see what they say ...it is great you trying to save this fella ...and as much as we all want to help them ,sometimes in the long run its better to EUTH them ..but as I said get some more help and information ..a vet check is really a need if the lizards eyes are involved ..especially being both ...

 

[WombleHerp]

take it to the currumbin wildlife sanctuary, the vets do native wildlife all the time. I know them personally, and know for a fact they do a really great job! they have dealt greatly with reptiles, and i have seen the recovery of a vast amount of different species! They will be happy to help and maybe then ill get to see him hehe

seriously consider it, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. (Vet hospital is located on Millers Drive)
and there is a WildCare building/office right behind the sanctuary aswell, if you wanted to get into wildlife caring yourself

Nat