Bearded dragons usually remain healthy if you give them proper temperature, housing, and light. But even with the best care, they may experience various bearded dragon diseases. Some of these conditions include metabolic bone disease, egg binding, and stomatitis. This article will discuss some of the most common bearded dragon diseases.

Metabolic Bone Disease

Lizards in the wild don’t suffer from metabolic bone disease. This problem is caused by improper care by the owner. An imbalance of vitamin D3, phosphorus, and calcium from the diet is one of the main causes. Too little UVB light can also be to blame.

The most prominent sign of this disorder is softening and swelling of the lower jaw. Your dragon may also develop lumps and bumps along his legs, back, and tail. If left untreated, your lizard will die. To treat the condition, the underlying cause needs to be fixed. Calcium supplements may also need to be prescribed.

Stomatitis

One of the next common bearded dragon diseases is stomatitis, commonly referred to as mouth rot. Although it isn’t really a disease, it is a sign of an underlying infection. Bearded dragons with mouth rot will develop a grayish or whitish substance on the soft tissues in their mouth. If the condition is allowed to progress, the teeth will become loose and the gums may start to bleed. The underlying infection needs to be treated, or this condition will keep giving your beardie problems.

Egg Binding

Male dragon owners can relax, as egg binding only affects female. This condition occurs whenever she is unable to pass one or more eggs through the reproductive tract. Various illnesses, improper diet, obesity, and malformed eggs can all cause egg binding in bearded dragons. Since it can be fatal within days, a veterinarian needs to be consulted immediately. If drugs to induce egg laying don’t correct the problem, your dragon will need to undergo surgery.

Adenovirus

An infection by an adenovirus is relatively rare in bearded dragons. This is a very good thing as most don’t survive. Young dragons or those with weakened immune systems are particularly susceptible. This disease is made more troublesome because it doesn’t produce many noticeable symptoms. Fluids, forced feeding, and antibiotics are used to try to treat an adenovirus infection.

Having a child with autism is often an emotional struggle. But more than the fact it is indeed emotionally challenging to raise a child with autism, what is even more straining is the reality that parents still have to deal with treatments used to treat or manage autism. According to various surveys and reports, a significant number of parents of autistic children are willing to try anything to treat their child’s condition, as long as it is guaranteed not to adversely affect their children (autistic children do have a lot to deal with, after all). So while an ineffective alternative treatment for autism may not adversely affect the child, it will definitely affect the parent-due to disappointment. Parents can’t help but expect the treatment they are using to work, or at least yield some positive effects. When it doesn’t, they will feel down and disappointment, due to many reasons, obviously.

So with this in mind, how should parents approach nutritional treatments for their autistic children?

First, they should learn the basis of nutritional treatments as a cure for autism symptoms. As any parent of an autistic child should know, medical experts have not fully determined the source of autism. Although the cause is generally acknowledged to be genetic, a number of experts believe autism is caused by biomedical factors, including gastrointestinal bacteria, weak immune system, vaccine and mercury, and chemicals produced by certain food substances inside the body. In any case, nutritional treatments serve as a cushion to soften the blow of the effects of autism, so to speak. According to the experts who say autism is caused by a biomedical disorder, autistic children do not get the proper nutrition they should be getting due to the factors listed above. Needless to say, the lack of such nutrients makes it hard for their body to fully develop.

Among the natural treatments being used today, nutritional treatments are perhaps the most accepted. Everyone needs proper nutrition, especially children with autism with their underdeveloped bodies. Parents should see nutritional nutrients as a necessity. After all, autistic children have weaker immune systems; it is only natural that parents give them supplements in order to remedy this potential problem.

Often times, nutritional treatments are used to supplement other existing treatments, naturally or otherwise. Since it is only imperative for parents to give their children nutritional supplements, it should be not considered as the be all and end all of autism treatments. Many use such treatment as an additional measure to help make other alternative methods more effective. For instance, people using the gluten-free, casein-free diet often supplement the diet with nutritional treatments.

The substances used for this treatment may vary, although there are certain nutrients that they suggest children with autism take. For instance, Vitamin D is often considered as one of the more important nutrients for autistic children. Besides this, other substances used for nutritional treatments include probiotics, colostrum, and melatonin. They act on different areas of the body that affect an autistic child most severely (probiotics works on the digestive track, while colostrums is for the body’s immune system).

It should be noted, however, that the effects of autism treatments vary from case to case. It may work well for some, while it may not work for others. Parents would do no wrong with nutritional treatments, but they should not expect too much from it.

Many patients with hypertension are sodium sensitive, meaning their blood pressure increases after they consume excessive amounts of sodium and decreases after they reduce their sodium intake. Such patients may be prescribed a sodiumrestricted diet, which usually limits sodium consumption to 2 grams a day.

If your patient must comply with such a diet, help him make the change. Along with his dietitian, provide nutritional counseling soon after his hypertension is diagnosed. Include the family or caregiver in your teaching, especially if she prepares the patient’s food at home.

Sources of Sodium

Your patient must understand which foods and drugs contain sodium. Explain that the most common sources of sodium are table salt, processed foods, drugs, and softened water.

Table Salt

Advise your patient to avoid using table salt during food preparation and tell him not to add salt to his food. Common table salt consists of 40% sodium and 60% chloride, so if he takes in 6 grams of salt, he’s actually consuming 2.4 grams of sodium.

Foods

Explain that some foods, such as beef and dairy products, naturally contain sodium. Other foods are processed with sodium to enhance the flavor or prolong the shelf life. Preserved or processed foods include pickles, canned vegetables, soups, and gravy. Tell him to be alert for products that list sodium ingredients such as sodium benzoate and sodium citrate.

Also, teach your hypertensive patient how to read food labels for sodium content. To reduce confusion and regulate what manufacturers put on food labels, the Food and Drug Administration has defined the terms used in sodium labeling:

* Sodium-Free : less than 5 mg of sodium per serving.

* Very Low Sodium: 35 mg or less per serving.

* Low Sodium: 140 mg or less per serving.

* Reduced Sodium: sodium content reduced by at least 25% of usual level.

* Light Sodium: sodium content reduced by at least 50% of usual level.

* Without Added Salt, Unsalted, or no Added Salt: foods once processed with salt and now processed without it. (These foods must list the amount of sodium per serving.)

Caution your patient about foods that claim to be low in sodium. If the sodium content is less than 5 mg per serving, he can eat the food without concern. If it’s higher than 5 mg, he’ll need to include the amount in his calculation of sodium intake for the day.

Drugs

Show your patient how to check labels for the sodium content of over-the-counter drugs such as antacids, cough syrups, and laxatives. For other drugs, advise him to check with his pharmacist. If necessary, he should ask his physician or pharmacist to recommend alternative drugs with little or no sodium.

Water

Natural and softened water can be high in sodium. A patient following a severely sodium-restricted diet should investigate the sodium content of his drinking water by contacting his water company or local public health department. Then he should discuss this information with his physician. Depending on how much sodium is in the water, he may be advised to drink and cook with distilled water.