Tilly, a seven-year-old bearded dragon, was taken to Berkshire Reptile Rescue on Thursday last week.

A friend of the reptile's owner - who lives in Priestwood, Bracknell - found the animal starving and dehydrated on the floor and immediately informed the rescue centre.

Jay Reich, chief animal carer at the centre, said: "Tilly was found on the floor in the hallway. She'd had no heat, UV, food or water for months.

"Tilly was taken to the vet's where she had a few blood tests, a booster injection and an antibiotic injection."

Miss Reich took Tilly home to care for her and began giving her hourly feeds of water and medicine. Tilly passed a large calcium lump and her health began to improve. Over the next few days Tilly's hydration began to increase.

But on Saturday evening things took a turn for the worse when Miss Reich gave Tilly her usual small feed - but the reptile regurgitated the food.

She said: "I didn't realise at the time but her kidneys had already shut down and her intestines were doing nothing. She had gone into renal failure.

"I have never seen anything like what I witnessed come out of her."

Tilly suffered multiple organ failure and was taken to an out-of-hours vet at 11.30pm, where the decision was taken to put her to sleep.

Miss Reich informed the RSPCA that the animal had been neglected. She told the News that she is hoping the RSPCA will prosecute the owner.

She said: "We just need to raise awareness. If we can make a difference to one reptile that's enough. Bearded dragons are the most common reptile pet. We had one at the rescue that died at 22.

"We try to rehome to anyone that's willing to take one from the rescue but people don't tend to want older ones.

"People are still getting wrong advice and it ends up with the animal being mistreated because they haven't done proper research."

A spokesman for the RSPCA said they were investigating the matter.