I have a male Chinese Water Dragon, about 8 months old, 18" long, very strong and, normally, extremely healthy. A few days ago he stopped eating (normally he'll devour anything we put in with him instantly - if it moves, he'll attack it). He normally gets king worms and Reptivite-dusted crickets, with the occasional earthworm (eats 'em like spaghetti). For the last few days, he just closes his eyes if food goes in with him.

But tonight, he scared the daylights out of us. My wife tried to pick him up, and he went berserk, and dove into his water (1/3 of his tank is water, deep enough to swim around in, with a power filter to help keep it clean). After a few minutes, I got concerned, and took him out. He had gone stiff, and had stopped breathing, with no response or movement to any handling, even when touching his eyelids. I thought he was dead, but my wife pried his mouth open and started blowing into it gently, and he finally blinked after 5 minutes or so.

We held him for an hour or so, trying to warm him up, and he finally started to move a little, but can't move from his front legs back. Of course, it's Friday night, and there are no herp vets in our area that we could hope to see until Monday.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm desperate...

By the way, his tank has gravel substrate, rocks and logs to climb on, temp is about 78 at night, 80 during the day, humidity is about 80%.

- Thanks for any ideas...

I don't have any real experience with WD's, just a little bit from taking care of them at the pet store I work at, but the temps and humidity seem okay. I'll let someone who knows more chime in on the exacts there, but I'm more worried about the substrate you use.

I would not be using gravel with a WD. The only reptiles I think are okay on gravel are crocidillians as far as I know. If he's not eating, it could be impaction. He may have swallowed some gravel, if he's small enough it may explain why he sank in the water, the gravel could have weighed him down just enough.

I'm no expert, but for now I would worry about keeping him warm enough, and drain out enough of the water so he cant drown in it. As far as I know, only a vet can do anything about impaction on a reptile.

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Day time temps needs to be bumped up to at leat 85 to 88. Night temps look good. What size is your enclosure? Do you have a UVB light? Do you feed him inside the tank? If so, he could have ingested some of the gravel which is not a very good substrate for water dragons just like Ryan said above. Here is our care sheet with suggestions for substrates.

Chinese Water Dragon Caresheet (Physignathus cocincinus) - Reptile Information - Caresheets Database
Chinese Water Dragon Caresheet - Part 3 - Reptile Information - Caresheets Database

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welcome. Hold out for the weekend and get him to a vet on monday. If it IS an impaction, a simple X-ray will be able to see it. And as Venus said, bump up the temps and tell us about the rest of his setup.

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I just wanted to say welcome! sorry to hear about your problems, but it seems like you have gotten some good advice so far. One question I do have, is that while you were holding him and couldn't wake him up, he wasn't upside down was he?

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Welcome to the HCN, let us know about the rest of your set up and keep us updated

Also bear n mind that water dragons are really good at holding their breath, search for threads about dragons 'falling asleep' in their water.
We've had more than one member have a near heart attack because their dragon is just sitting at the bottom of the water dish "dead" only to see it revive later.

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During the night he's made a great recovery, and seem to be more or less normal, although he's still not eating. He's no longer dragging his hind legs around, and seems to be able to clamber around again.

I'll be seeing what I can do to get his daytime temps up a little, to see if that will help. Maybe he hasn't been digesting well if the temps were low?

When he was...unconcious?...he was right-side up (I've never turned him upside-down...didn't know why before I visited this forum, but it just seemed wrong).

We'll see how it goes...I'm watching him like a hawk now...don't ever want a repeat of that!!

Thanks all for your concern and suggestions!

when you turn them upside down, it causes their lungs to collapse on themself, and they suffocate, so keep on not doing that!

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

welcome to HC! glad you joined. good luck with your WD

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