Ingest laundry detergent

I’m freaking out and feeling like the worst beardie owner right now,

I’ve recently been through a family emergency and my head is not on straight. I quickly ran home from the hospital to feed and bath my dragon. I bathe him in the laundry tub with a few inches of warm water. Well I plugged the laundry tub (and normally I never leave him unattended when he’s bathing) and put a load of laundry on. Well I was doing a bunch of things and forgot him in the tub and the rinse cycle went through and filled the tub. Once I remembered he was in there I ran downstairs and the tub was full of dirty laundry detergent and water and he was floating at the top swimming. I already feel incredibly bad so please do not lecture me. But is there a toxic danger here to his skin or if he ingested the detergent? He seems fine and I don’t see any skin reactions. Please let me know if there is something I can do as a precaution?

Hi there,

It's unlikely there would be any skin reaction. You could rinse him to make sure no residue is allowed to stay on his skin.

Does he normally drink in the bath? It's unlikely he started to drink while the tub was going.

If he ingested anything you'd want to administer activated charcoal to him in an oral slurry.
How long has it been since the incident?
How's he acting now?

-Brandon

He doesn’t normally drink in the bath ever. I give him water with a dropper on his nose daily (he doesn’t have a bowl of water in his tank so he doesn’t drink like that) I did give him a rinse with water after.

It’s been about half hour, 45 mins. He’s acting completely normal. Normally he would be sleeping but I have him in bed with me to watch him and he’s acting normal, breathing fine. I’m just really worried

Hello,

He is likely just fine assuming he did not ingest any of the water. Did you rinse him off
thoroughly afterwards then?
If he is acting normally, just watch him for any type of lethargic behavior, etc for awhile. He is
not blackbearding at all?

Tracie

Yes I rinsed him, no black bearding. He was sitting with his head up. Not acting lethargic and normal breathing patterns, no skin reactions.

He’s sleeping in his hide right now (which is normal), it’s his bed time. I will continue to check on him. I just wasn’t sure if a skin reaction would occur from the soap or if the soap would be toxic at all to him? It’s just regular Gain detergent.

Hello,

I was actually going to ask the brand of laundry detergent. Good, I figured that you did rinse
him, just checking.
I'm glad he seems to be doing fine & not acting lethargic or anything like that. I would say that
if he eats normally & basks without showing any signs of illness for the next few days he is going
to be fine. You could give him a few more baths if you would like to be sure his skin is good.

Tracie

Laundry detergents ( in washing machine dilutions are quite alkaline ) it's likely this will have an effect on the dragons eyes as well as it's skink and scales , as well being bad news if ingested or aspirated..

As well as being alkaline and very harmful to delicate eye structures, laundry detergents are not innocuous substances even when diluted in water , list of common nasty chemicals in domestic laundry detergents that you need to be aware of short, list of the bad stuff:
•Sodium lauryl sulfate
•1,4-dioxane
•Nonylphenol ethoxylate
•Synthetic fragrances
•Anionic surfactants
•Petroleum distillates
•Phenols
•Optical brighteners
•Sodium hypochlorite bleach
•Ethylene-diamino-tetra-acetate

1,4 dioxane in the short term can cause eye and nose irritation.

https://www.poison.org/articles/2012-aug/laundry-detergent-pods-and-children
https://www.mayoclinic.org/first-aid/first-aid-eye-emergency/basics/art-20056647

Unless you rinsed the dragon's eyes with copious amounts of water immediately , the dragon's eyesight can be seriously effected ( permanently ).

I suggest in future that you invest in a rectangular portable laundry tub with handles or perhaps a baby bath with a flat bottom for all future bearded dragon baths , and never bath in the laundry sink again. Too risky.

I do not plan on bathing him in there anymore. However, what should I be looking for for eye irritation or permanent damage?...

Yikes, there certainly was potential for some tragedy there but sounds like you dodged a bullet. He most likely would have shown distress right when you saw if he was affected. If it had gotten in his eyes he would almost certainly have had them closed , been scratching at them, etc. So I think if it's been many hours already with no signs of discomfort he must be O.K.

Agreed!

-Brandon

Hello,

How is your dragon doing, any changes thus far?
I agree, he would likely be acting a bit off already if he was going to. I think he is likely going
to be just fine.
Definitely get another plastic tub to just bathe him in.

Tracie

He is still acting completely normal. No scratching at his skin or eyes.... phew thank god.

For now the only side effect seems to be that he is the cleanest dragon on the forum.

AHBD":3vaannln said:

For now the only side effect seems to be that he is the cleanest dragon on the forum.

Click to expand...

Certainly the luckiest, could very easily have been a drowned dragon.