Gru was abandoned by his previous owner with a noticeable eye condition. We could tell that he had been fighting this for a long while. Once in our care, we took Gru to the vet and discovered that his problem seemed to extend to his throat as well.
What appeared to be an infection or mass was making it hard for Gru to breath and was pushing his eyes out of his head. We had biopsies done to determine what was the cause. Once we realized it was an infection, we did everything we could to fight it.
Just when we thought Gru was improving, he took a turn for the worse. Gru passed away after fighting for weeks in our care.
After his passing, we were able to have a necropsy performed. It was discovered that poor Gru had abscesses on almost every major organ in his body. Unfortunately, some time before we got him, he got an infection in his liver that appeared to have spread throughout his small body. We knew then that his fate was sealed long before he came into our care.
Through stories like Gru’s, we hope that we can learn more about common bearded dragon illnesses and afflictions. Our hope is to work with universities around the country to encourage research into bearded dragons, their care, and ways to diagnose and treat conditions like Grus. Unfortunately, diagnostics is limited for their species and we hope to see that change in the future. We believe that Gru’s story can be part of this change.