really big poop + blood

[demiblood]

My beardie didn't poop yesterday, wouldn't eat, and didn't bask much
(i think - possibly due to changes in his terrarium?)


so I decided to give him a bath today to see if he just needed help passing.
after trying desperately to escape the bath, he finally produced a MEGA dumper, 25% larger than usual poop, with an amazing amount of pee (2x the size of normal pee!).

there was blood in the pee, none in the poop



I don't have outrageous amounts of money to spend on a vet, any recommendations?



He's been perfectly healthy to date, he's just under 4mo old and 15in, healthy eater except yesterday, healthy pooper except yesterday - no problems to date, except today

feed a variety of greens, crix, occasional phoenix worms,
*no spinach, meal/super worms

substrate is impaction-safe, lighting is repti-sun 10.0, heat is 60w incandescent, 12-14 hour days, 100+ basking temp, he's well taken care of, daily handled

 

[demiblood]

I keep a good eye on him, and take good care of him, I observe how much he eats, his poop, his lighting etc. on a daily basis

he seems lethargic today, as yesterday - doesn't want to bask or eat,
today hes trying to escape/ doesn't want to be handled

I keep checking his cloaca for active bleeding - I don't see anything, I hope its nothing major

 

[demiblood]

*update* its a little later in the day

He seems quite a bit more active now, and is eating too...
those are both good signs -
so...

I think I'll wait to see if he makes tomorrows regularly scheduled doody before freaking out,
and I'll have it checked for parasites + look for blood

 

[tank4102]

do you have any pics?

 

[demiblood]

I don't have pix -
but he pooed again today (on schedule)
there was only a tiny speckle of blood,
looked absolutely nothing like it did yesterday,

here's to hoping it heals in the next couple days,
if he poos blood again tomorrow, I'll take him to the vet
(I don't get paid till Tuesday so can't take him in any earlier than that, I'm living paycheck to paycheck right now, like almost everyone else on earth)

 

[randtm]

Your dragon sounds very similar to ours. Ours is about 5 months old, and has been doing great and going through about 60 crickets a day, and pooping every day. Then suddenly, about two weeks ago, started only going every 3-5 days, cut back to 20-30 crickets a day, and acting a bit lethargic.

Took her to the vet last week and found she has pinworms and a high coccidia count. A couple of searches on this board then revealed that if you get your dragon from someplace like Petsmart or Petco, where they have been kept with other dragons, it is almost guaranteed they will have something like this and they almost always need worming and such after a few weeks.

That may well be your issue too. If the poop smells really bad when they do go, unfortunately you need to shell out the money for a vet visit. Maybe you can appeal to them on times being financially rough and ask if they'll check a stool sample only to avoid the visit charge. They'll probably complain, and you should really have them seen, but at least it would be better than letting parasites go unchecked.

Good Luck!

 

[demiblood]

Yeah, he has had some pretty stinky poopers lately, I think I will have a fecal done ASAP.

However, there's no more blood in his poo today, its all gone, just a light pink tint to his pee, I'm going to say by tomorrow there probably won't be any blood at all

 

[duke11]

That's great that it's going away! I'd get a fecal in anyway, just to be safe. Duke was perfectly fine over the summer, gaining weight and when he went in for his exam, he was diagnosed with pinworms! Better safe than sorry!

 

[demiblood]

Well, just updating this post for the last time
fecal done & they said nothing was abnormal,

I think he might have just been leery about taking a dump on the substrate so I removed it from his cage and have been giving him daily baths (as opposed to every other day) to ensure he's going on a regular basis,

It only took him one day without making a poop to start getting impacted <- the very next day I guess (since his intestine wall is paper thin) the poop had gotten to big for him to pass,

and because I think he knew it was going to be painful, he didn't want to poop at all (which would be why he tried frantically to escape the bathtub when I first put him in)
after he finally squeezed it out, it was twice the size of a normal poop and had torn something on the way out (which would account for the bleeding)

it did take 2 days afterwords for the bleeding (while defecating) to stop, but he appears to be just fine, no more bleeding, he's eating fine, active and basking, behavior is normal, and nothing unusual in the fecal (no unusual worms or parasites),

all this happened over a simple change in the substrate over the period of 1 day!
maybe I'll try another substrate again some other time but I will keep a closer eye on his habits afterwords, making sure he eats and goes to the bathroom on a regular basis afterwords, though I was already keeping an eye on him,

I've heard that they sometimes go a few days without taking a dump, I don't think this is true, if they're also eating regularly
(IE: if the eating habits haven't changed first, I don't think its O.K. for him to not poop regularly)

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I am glad to hear that he has escaped any major damage from a slight impaction. However, if you have a loose substrate in there I highly advise you to remove it before he becomes impacted on it again.
What substrate are you using? There are NO digestible substrates out there, as most of them can & will dangerously impact them.
Slate or ceramic tiles are great, non adhesive shelf liner, or paper towels all are very attractive choices for substrates.
You should probably add a drop or two in with some apple or grape juice for a few days, to help finish cleaning his system out a little bit.

Tracie

 

[demiblood]

the substrate was not the direct cause of the impaction,

the direct cause of the impaction was his unwillingness to shed a turd onto his new substrate
he wouldn't poop, because he didn't want to poop on his new bedding,

it was entirely impaction-safe from an edible point of view (IE: he could not digest any of it, it was made out of a solid foam-based washable material like a rock-wall, there was no way he could eat it)

he just didn't like the idea of dropping a bomb on it, so he went a day without, while still eating regularly, this was the cause of his impaction.

His previous substrate was made of paper towels, but I thought I'd give the new substrate a try as paper towels laying on a glass surface (whenever he sits on this, the glass still has desire to absorb heat from his body) especially while he is sleeping, because he likes to climb underneath the paper towels and lay directly on the glass

I thought it would provide a comfortable (soft) sleeping place, which would not also absorb the heat from him (as a cold glass or ceramic/concrete/steel surface would)

I've been advised against heating pads/rocks as they can cause burns, I thought this would be a moderate compensation, something that doesn't directly absorb his body heat, but also has no risk of burning him
unfortunately, he didn't like it

 

[duke11]

Hi,
Sorry if I missed this but what exactly is the substrate you're using? I would have to agree and say that heat pads and rocks can be very unsafe. I had one a long time ago before I joined this site and it got VERY hot. I could've burned myself on it it was so hot.