Stepped on beardie

I let Norbert run around on the floor often and I have always been very careful to pay attention to where she is. But today I failed, and stepped on her back. I don't think I put my full weight on her, and she was on thick carpet, but I was wearing shoes. When I panicked and picked her up, she puffed her beard at me for a second, but then went back to normal. It was a horrible moment and I still feel horrified and very worried.

She is asleep now, but I need to know if there are any other signs I should be watching for that she may have sustained internal injuries. When I put her back in her tank, she was walking around normally and not showing any obvious signs of pain or difficulty moving. Her breathing was regular and her beard was orange, as it usually is. I felt all over her body and her bones all felt intact and none of my touching seemed to hurt her--she was sitting up calmly and alertly and acted as comfortable with handling as she always is. I offered her a dubia and she ate it. When I checked back on her a few hours later, she was the same and hadn't developed any swelling or discoloration.

That was all reassuring, but I'm just afraid that maybe she has internal bleeding or some organ injury or something. I don't know how long it would take for her to show signs of that (or if it can happen without rib damage, which she doesn't seem to have). Could she be eating and acting comfortable if she is bleeding internally? She is three years old and about 450 grams. I am so much bigger than her; I just feel like it must be the equivalent of me getting getting stepped on by a five-ton giant.

Hello,

Unfortunately, accidents do happen all of the time, no matter how careful we are.
If you didn't put your full weight on her, she is probably fine. At least she is 450 grams & not
45 grams! That is one advantage.
As far as internal bleeding, that is hard to know. She could act normal but, it wouldn't last long
if she did have internal bleeding. It would start to show in her behavior, such as her beard would
turn dark, she would become lethargic, there might be blood in the stool, etc.
It is a great sign she hasn't exhibited any stress, can walk/stand up, etc & is alert as well. If you
have any doubts about her possibly being in pain, then it might be a good idea to take her in for
an x-ray or ultrasound if you are worried about internal bleeding.
Based on her behavior right now, it seems like she is going to be just fine.
Let us know how she is doing.

Tracie

Thank you! How soon would those symptoms show up? (A.k.a., when do I get to stop worrying if she still seems fine, or should I take her to the vet just in case?) She probably won't poop tomorrow because she pooped this morning (before the incident) and usually only goes every other day.

I worry about her organs because she's got a particularly fragile liver; she had surgery last October to remove a tumor from it. She recovered well, but has a big scar on her abdomen and is living with fatty liver disease that the vet thinks may be related to the tumor interfering with liver function, since she is (and was) neither fat nor anorexic. (She gets milk thistle supplements, but I'd like to learn more more about how to get her more active treatment--the [reptile!] vet hasn't been super helpful in that vein. But that's a subject for another thread.) So I think of her as very delicate, even though she's also a tough little fighter.

I suspect if there are internal injuries …. you'll know pretty soon …. inside 24 hours as she will show obvious symptoms and behavioural changes.

She has spent the morning climbing and basking and being a nice orange girl. Here is a picture I just took. I am beginning to feel more optimistic that she is okay, but I don't want to get too confident and will keep watching her closely for any changes. I'm just incredulous that she could be fine after getting squashed by someone 150 times her size.

Juniper":35dadcmr said:

She has spent the morning climbing and basking and being a nice orange girl. Here is a picture I just took. I am beginning to feel more optimistic that she is okay, but I don't want to get too confident and will keep watching her closely for any changes. I'm just incredulous that she could be fine after getting squashed by someone 150 times her size.

Click to expand...

My wife stood on Rex's tail once by accident (near the base of her tail)…. needless to say she felt horrible about this and got a tongue lashing from me to drive it home …. Rex turned out to be fine (she was full grown by then (about 640g) , but she was very wary of my wife when she saw her coming and would quickly move somewhere safe for a few months after that.

I expect your girl will be a bit wary of you when she's on the floor and sees / hears you coming for a while …. she'll remember being stood on .

Warning: gross poop picture below!














She did this just now. It does have a lot of excess liquid, but her poops tend to be that way after she eats watery baby food (which is how I get milk thistle, calcium, etc. into her). I'm worried about the reddish bit near the skinny poop tip. (This is so gross, I'm sorry!) The color doesn't show up perfectly in the picture, but that part is jelly-like and clearish with a red tint. Is that what blood in stool looks like? I don't think it's the first time she's had something like that in her poop, but I'm not sure of anything right now. She is still behaving normally.

Hello,

I think it looks like she is going to be alright. She has some great colors there & looks very
happy. Wow, so she had surgery last year, I'm glad to hear she came through it successfully.
I agree, usually they show signs within 24 or 48 hours so I would think she probably already
would have shown symptoms by now.
I don't think that is blood in the stool though. What type of baby food do you give her? What
else does she eat?

Tracie

She eats butternut squash baby food, and sometimes green bean. Her staple foods are mustard greens and dandelion greens. She sometimes gets a clover blossom or a bite of pineapple as a treat. Her staple bug is dubias. At age three, she is still a reluctant salad-eater and I often have to sneak it into her mouth when she goes for a bug and then keep feeding bits in gradually as she is chewing. I have tried all kinds of things to make salads more appealing, but she will not have it. So her plant-to-bug ratio is not quite the recommended 80-20, but I do make sure (kind of laboriously) that she eats more plants than bugs.

Hello,

It is challenging to get them to eat their greens I know! That's really all you can do, is just try
& supplement the rest as you can.
How is she doing today, any changes or is she still a great active orange girl?
I wouldn't worry too much about the discoloration, many times there are orangish or tinted colors
in their stools & urates from foods, etc.

Let us know how she is doing.
Tracie

She is still normal, so I'm not worried now. Thank you for the reassurances!

She's a very pretty girl! I'm glad she's doing OK and doesn't even look too mad about the experience...

Juniper":2amrs7co said:

Click to expand...

Hello,

That is excellent! I think Norbert will be perfectly fine.
Let us know if you need anything.

Tracie