Chronic Illness in Bearded Dragons

I've been doing some studies on necropsies on bearded dragons in the US and thanks to many vets and labs I have about 70 now. According to those, this are the leading cause of early death;

Adults

1. Fatty liver disease/other liver diseases such as mycosis
2. Renal failure (this can be related to fatty liver, meds or lack of hydration)
3. URI
4. Parasites
5. Egg binding in females( in most cases, the owners were not aware she had eggs, so not that she could not lay them, but fought laying them since she had no place suitable to, till they ruptured )
6. Viral infections

Under age one year, most these are under 6 months

1. Dehydration
2. Parasites
3. Impaction
4. Viral infection
5. URI
6. Renal failure

As you can see, most of these are related directly to basic husbandry issues. Fatty liver disease is most often related to improper diet over a long period of time and bearded dragon's digestive systems can not break down fats and stores them. The first argument that most people have to this is that dragons in the wild eat many fatty food, such as rodents. But we have to remember that the liver stores fats for lean times, in the wild they do have many lean times when little or no food is available to them, its what has adapted them to such a varied diet and they will eat almost anything. In captivity we do not (or should not) starve them for periods of times, so the liver is never releasing those stored fats to keep them alive. Starving them would help release the stored fats, but at other nutritional cost so that is not a solution.

How can we help avoid the number on cause of early death in adult bearded dragons? Watch the fat intakes in foods such as rodents, and other high fatty prey food such as wax worms. They rarely need to have such foods and if a dragon is thin, find out why it is thin, not cover up the problem with feeding them more fats. The major diet of adult dragons should be greens and vegetables. Mycosis in the liver can occur when feeder insects are fed moldy grain foods, these do not harm the crickets, but over time can build up in the reptiles liver and be deadly. Make sure your feeder insects come from a reputable supplier, are clean and keep them clean with fresh food and water prior to feeding to your reptiles. Please see URL for cricket care to avoid mycosis toxic build ups.

That also bring in another common cause of early death in both adult and young bearded dragons. Rodents are prime source of parasites and bacteria. Something to think about before feeding them as a source to dragons. Renal failure often is a result of other husbandry issues such as fatty liver disease, dehydration at some time in the past or parasites. Again dietary related and when you have problems there, it opens the door for secondary infections such as URI's and weakened immune systems that allow normal occurring parasites and bacteria in their digestive tract to get out of hand.

In young dragons, mostly very young babies, dehydration is a major problem, but it also is often related to stress, parasites and impaction which is also on the main cause list. Unlike adults, babies do not have the fluid stored in the tails and cells to support a period of time without hydration and they can succumb to that rapidly. Also they stress more easily with change, that can lead to dehydration and parasitic blooms. Babies should never been bought or sold under 6 weeks of age, older is preferable and efforts by both breeder and buyer should be made to make that change as smooth as possible to a new homes. Crickets should be size appropriate, not larger than the space between their eyes and small dragon should not be feed worms with hard shells of chitin, like mealworms or superworms. When they are older, try a few one day and wait till they pass through and make sure they are digesting them properly, if not, stop feeding them and wait several weeks more to try again.

We can help bearded dragons live longer and healthier lives with the proper care, they are normally very hearty animals if their basic needs are met. Good diet of rich greens and vegetables, clean well cared for and gutload feeder insects of proper size, UVB to allow them to make the pre D3 in their skin they need to absorb calcium from their diets and supplements, proper temps ranges for heating up digestion and cooling down when they want to move and fluid intakes from their greens, pellets, misting and/or soaks. There are detailed articles on all the above husbandry needs on the knowledgebase or care info links.