URGENT lizard worries

[kreamkrackers]

This morning I woke up and found our lizard stiff with his mouth open. We thought the worst but he is making one big gasping breath every couple of mins. His eyes are barely open. I'm not sure what to do, he was on the cold side of the vivarium so we've moved him to the warm and we've tried to drip water into his wide open mouth which he didn't swallow so we stopped. He's so stiff yet he isn't dead. We're worried the local vets will just put him down and the one that deals in reptiles is really far away. What does anyone else think we should do?

I'll be calling our local vets at 9 anyways just in case there is something they can do but although we've fed him properly and given the correct lighting, heating, etc he's never really grown. We got him when he was 4 months old and we got told he'd be a friendly lizard, he's a bearded dragon, he hates people. If he does die we're selling the vivarium and never getting another reptile again and I urge others to listen to us as we've read so many books yet it's been a lot harder work than we ever thought it would be. We now have a lovely black lab and it's best to stick to normal pets!

TIA for any thoughts or advice.

Just to add the only thing we've done differently lately is put his crickets outside as he prefares black crickets and they're very loud so now the weather is slightly warmer we decided to put them outside. His poo has gone from black with a tiny bit of white to looking the shape of rat poo and is a sandy brown colour.

Anyone?

look at this to see if it is any use
Can you try meal worms or super grubs to fatten him up a bit.
My chameleon gapes when threatened or when too hot but stiffness can happen when they are cold.
Does he have any bites ( from the crickets) or do you have a cat etc? He sounds really stressed.
Is he still outside? It will be too cold just now especially at night. Can you put him under the heat lamp for a while and syringe water ( a little at a time) into his mouth?
Yes, it is hard work looking after them plus expensive too.

He's dead.
He's never been stiff before that's why we noticed straight away, it was totally out of character for him. He doesn't have any bites, at night we've always killed any crickets that haven't been eaten by night time as they might bite him. He isn't outside just the crickets in their box. He lives well lived in our bedroom and we had a heat mat on and a low wattage ceramic heat lamp on at night. We have thermometers on both the cold and hot side so he is always at the correct temp. He did bask properly as this was something we worried about at first. We have the strip uv light as well so he always got enough uv. It's so sad. We have spent hundreds on him getting him set up and comfy. We'll never have another one as there is no way I can see another animal die at such a young age. RIP Syndney

Aw hell. I am really sad for you.
Perhaps he was sick when you got him...I really don't know.
They can suffer from metabolic problems and it is tricky getting the UV, vitamin and diet right as well as heat and water. They really are not the easiest little creatures to look after.
It sounds as if you had everything set up right and you did the best you could for him but it is still so sad.

I can't believe this has happened I'm so sad

I knew as soon as I opened my eyes I looked in his vivarium and could see there was something wrong. He seemed his normal self yesterday. Why did he have to get so ill last night? I know he never seemed to grow but he's always been strong and quick. He's never shown any problems before apart from he hasn't been growing.

I've been thinking about this all day and wondered if the person you got your lizard from was a reputable dealer. Sometimes the lizards can come from a dubious source and are weak through stress, parasites, worms, metabolic bone disease etc.
A good reptile seller would have been able to advise you and re not seeing him grow - either his growth was really slow or seeing him every day makes us sometimes think they are not growing.
Still for you though.

I can't understand how it happened. We've had him 6 months
He was fit and healthy yesterday, nothing wrong yet this morning this happened. I keep thinking I wish we didn't see him make those last few breaths as it was so horrible seeing that. I can't get my head around it. Despite not growing he's always been very strong and loved to bask.

Oh there's one other thing that has changed, we have started in the last few weeks giving him one pinky a week as another pet shop said it'd help him gain weight. He's not had any problems digesting them and the last one he had was about a week ago so again I can't really see it being that.

This day is such a horrible day

hi KK we got a bearded dragon 2 years ago he was a tiny baby when we got him and like you had all the correct set up and fed him and gave him vitamins but he had a growth deformity his spine was curved and he didnt grow very big and eventually he stopped eating so sadly he was put to sleep
we got him from a specalist reptile shop and they said its just one of those things and we got another bearded dragon about 10 months ago hes growing well and eats well and is a real chracter he gives the hoover the "eye" when i hoover!
dont give up on reptile keeping yet beardies are ment to be one of the easiest to keep
where did you get him from? id contact them and tell them what happened too or i could give you the number of where i got mine from they are really good and helpful and they may be able to give you some answers xx