Poop problems

EllenD":1z7hpvif said:

It's hard to tell what it was (unless you took a photo of it), it could have been partially-undigested food, it could have been something else that he ate that wasn't food, it could have been an impaction of something that was inside him for a while and actually became encased in fecal matter (I rescued a dragon that passed 3 similar things that looked like long cigars, they were actually masses of mealworm shells encased in poop), or it could have been a urate plug. Either way, as long as he's okay now, not black-bearding at all, not bleeding at all now (the blood could have been from the actual act of passing the impaction), not still straining to poop any more, and has no sign of a prolapse or anything else protruding from his vent, then he's probably fine, hopefully it was the only impaction, etc. that he had and he's done now...

What is his normal, daily diet? I don't know how old he is or whether he eats more live insects or more fresh greens/veggies, but if you feed him anything like mealworms or a lot of superworms, which have hard, chitlin shells that they cannot fully digest, then that could very likely be the culprit. If he's at all dehydrated then this can also cause impactions, as can a Basking Spot Surface Temperature that is too low. But as you describe it, it sounds just like the impactions that my rescue guy had to pass, all 3 of them were massive, far too large for him to pass without pain and a bit of bleeding, and all 3 looked like mini cigars that when I wiped the poop away from the outside, ended up being hard, compacted, masses of mealworm shells that had been inside him for quite a long time.

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