Behaviour After Cleared Impaction

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Hi all! Hades has been impacted for two-ish weeks now so I finally took him to the vet today. No amount of warm baths, apple sauce, or olive oil was working for me. The vet was very experienced with beardies and gave him a warm bath and then opted for a mineral oil enema (I know the controversy around these - but I had no other option). He ended up pooping a ton and seemed perkier immediately after he was cleared out. The vet recommended the occasional small hornworm going forward for extra hydration and is sending in his stool sample for any kind of parasites just to make sure. Overall, he has a good appetite and seems much happier than he was whilst being impacted. How long can I expect him to drag his back legs for after his impaction is cleared? Should I give him a few days? Overall he’s in great spirits.

Some background info:

Age: About 4 months
Tank: 40 gal
Lighting: 150 watt basking bulb, and T8 10.0 ReptiSun tube UVB mounted on the inside of his viv lid. No plastic covering.
Diet: Dandelion greens, butternut squash, crickets dusted in calcium powder (with D3) once a day and Herptivite a few times per week.
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

Sorry Hades is having some trouble after clearing an impaction out.
This can happen sometimes after such an ordeal. Hopefully there wasn't any nerve
damage that occurred during that time. I would give it at least a week or so, to help
his back & insides heal up.
What had caused the impaction initially?
His diet sounds good to me. I would cut back on the herptivite to 1, maybe 2 times a
week, max. It contains calcium so using that along with the calcium powder with D3
may be a bit much for him. Are his urates hard or soft now?

Tracie
 

colleen1999

Member
Original Poster
Drache613":1ssdh27i said:
Hello,

Sorry Hades is having some trouble after clearing an impaction out.
This can happen sometimes after such an ordeal. Hopefully there wasn't any nerve
damage that occurred during that time. I would give it at least a week or so, to help
his back & insides heal up.
What had caused the impaction initially?
His diet sounds good to me. I would cut back on the herptivite to 1, maybe 2 times a
week, max. It contains calcium so using that along with the calcium powder with D3
may be a bit much for him. Are his urates hard or soft now?

Tracie

Hi Tracie,

Mealworms originally caused the impaction, as well as crickets that were too big. Lesson learned haha. Vet has recommended a soft diet for now of butterworms, wax worms and the occasional hornworm until he heals up. The hornworms I got him are smaller than the really big 4” ones, but I thought they’d be too big. The vet said they should be fine if fed sparingly, same with the butters and waxes, because they are soft and shouldn’t cause impaction? Will definitely reduce his herptivite intake! He hasn’t pooped yet at home since the vet was just yesterday morning, but going to give him a warm bath today and see if he will.
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

He is very cute indeed! Oh ok, mealworms! Some youngsters do become impacted by
those. The softer bodied worms should be fine, if they are small enough.
Did he enjoy his bath today? I hope he is feeling better soon, he does look pretty alert in
the picture.

Tracie
 

colleen1999

Member
Original Poster
Drache613":1khg8ie3 said:
Hello,

He is very cute indeed! Oh ok, mealworms! Some youngsters do become impacted by
those. The softer bodied worms should be fine, if they are small enough.
Did he enjoy his bath today? I hope he is feeling better soon, he does look pretty alert in
the picture.

Tracie


Hi Tracie,

His stool sample results came back, and he does have parasites unfortunately. Because of this he’s on 0.2 ml of Metronidazole for the next two weeks. The vet said it’s probably because he was from PetSmart as all of the moving around they do stresses them out. He’s been pretty lethargic, seems like it may be because his insides are healing up. He was okay in his bath, but no poop unfortunately. Fingers crossed for today. Just want my little guy to feel better :(
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

It takes time for their system to get back to normal after a traumatic experience such as an
impaction.
The medication will hopefully help him out, too but be sure to keep him hydrated. Do
you plan on giving probiotics also?

Let us know how he is doing.
Tracie
 

loljelloclowdz

Juvie Member
I’m so relieved he’s okay, enemas are so risky! He is a lucky little boy to have such a great vet and an owner who changes what they do wrong. Just out of curiosity, do you have pictures of xrays of his impaction before it was cleared, and do you mind if I submit them to a database? I do research for fun because I like helping graduate students out, but wow, I’m so happy this went well. Maybe we can make a reference point for where enemas can be successful — Reptilian medicine is so behind that as someone going into human medicine, I feel a bit bad for them because I think regular veterinary offices should have specialists for every animal just as hospitals have specialists in every category. I hear veterinary work is competitive and very hard to get into, which I think is counterintuitive because we need more people who know axolotl medicine and hedgehog reproductive surgery and even people down in Atlanta who can swim down and screen a whale shark for ovarian cancer. Wouldn’t it be nice if the veterinary office you took your dog to had a person there who specializes in bearded dragons?
 
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