Hi, Its been a few weeks gone by now. We have been waiting for post mortem results and we have just found them out now for poor Brick Top.
His blood test results taken the day before his death showed that he had significant kidney failure. The vet believes this is the main cause of death. Since the day we got Brick Top he always had slight "bloodhound" droopy eyes. I posted here on the forum and googled about it online and even took him for the health check up the day after we got him and were told that it could be kidney issues, but it could also just be how he looks. I am now wondering if he had kidney problems the whole time we had him, I just don't know.
The post mortem also showed he had (excuse my poor spelling) hepatic liverdosis where there was a lot of fat around his liver. The vet said this could be due to his anorexia as he stopped eating suddenly 3 weeks before he passed. He was always fit and healthy before then. His small intestine also had almost completely broken down inside wall, which is apparently responsible for absorbing water as he was severely dehydrated. This could have happened after death but for a while before he showed signs of being ill, he was pass water when he pooed, but he would drink a lot of water every day (he would drink from a needless syringe or from the
bath a lot, I thought it was excess water from being
hydrated after finding out more about it online and even asking our vet).
<<< likely the sulphur drugs buggered up his kidneys and may well have have wrecked his liver too. Poor little fellow.
This is all the information I was able to jot down whilst on the phone to her just now, she is going to send me the results via email later today. She said in her opinion the most likely cause of death was the kidney failure, and it could have been an issue he has had since before we got him at around 6 months old. She said it was the worst kidney failure she has seen herself.
This is the second time we have gone through this with a bearded dragon in the past year. Our Trevor died back in March, who had signs of suffering from MBD (we didn't know this until we had had him a few months and something just wasnt right). He was 2 when we homed him, and we only had him a year before he died despite our best efforts and we were utterly heart broken. It seemed he was doomed before we even got him and it was only a matter of time. To be told this again about Brick Top just feels like ground hog day. He barely even made it to a year old, and thats so unfair for him. we've decided to not get anymore beardies or reptles (we were going to get a second bearded dragon, I ordered 2 stacking vivs for them and was going to make the spare room the reptile room) and I was going to be getting my first snake (a royal python) but we just can't go through this again. I'm now in the process of selling off all the things (and the two brand new vivariums now sat in our hallway).
We may think about getting bearded dragons again in the future, but for now its just too painful for us, I realised I felt bitter towards people I know who have never had issues with their beardies and I feel like if we get another its just going to go wrong. Thank you all for all of your help and support. One thing I truly loved about having bearded dragons is the community and passion, and you have all been so supportive. Thank you for that.