Vomit (?) and weight loss

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SilverGravity

Hatchling Member
Hey everyone, never thought I’d be in here for my own girl. I had Steve, my rescue beardie, a few years back if anyone remembers him. My girl, Sapphire, had always been doing poorly but she had been to several (4 I think) exotic vets and they always said she was doing great and she’s had fecals done several times that have always been negative. I finally found a good vet for her, and she had lots of issues going on. Underweight, muscle wasting, tooth issues, severe dehydration, lots wrong I kinda knew but no one ever agreed with so she never got proper care. She did a bacteria culture of her poop and we found out she had very bad salmonella. She got antibiotics and her poop went back to a more normal shape (it was a gross liquid puddle before) and she was gaining weight since I was making her eat squash in the morning and afternoon she got a critical care mix from my vet.

Suddenly she’s started going downhill again. She’s losing weight to the point where I think she’s worse than before the vet, and I can see her bones down her tail as it’s sunken now, and she’s I think vomiting. Yesterday there was a small clear puddle with some undigested squash in her tank, and today there is a large clear puddle with a lot of undigested squash in it. I thought yesterday she vomited because I overfed her (even tho it was less than what she was being fed the week after the vet) so I fed her less but today there was the bigger puddle of it. She had a small poop that looked normal last night so I don’t think this is poop. I will try to attach a picture, I haven’t been here in awhile so hopefully I remember how.

If anyone has any ideas as to what could be going on please let me know. I called my vet but they aren’t open today. I did email her already, just figured maybe someone here would know something. She already had bloodwork which was normal except for low electrolytes since she’s dehydrated and there is a second bacteria culturing but I have not heard back about what it is yet, but I’m thinking it was killed with the salmonella antibiotic since her poops are normal now. Don’t know for sure sure. Thank you for any insight if anyone knows anything!
 

CooperDragon

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She may have something else going on now. The weight loss isn't a good sign though. I would try giving her a little bit of water at a time to keep her hydrated (but not so much she vomits again, just tiny bits at a time). Try to take her outside for some natural sunlight if the weather is good. Perhaps getting a bask in warm sunshine will help. I'd probably take her back for another vet visit though, and hopefully identify what's going on. It may be a completely different issue than before.
 

SilverGravity

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
CooperDragon":3ltzdlgi said:
She may have something else going on now. The weight loss isn't a good sign though. I would try giving her a little bit of water at a time to keep her hydrated (but not so much she vomits again, just tiny bits at a time). Try to take her outside for some natural sunlight if the weather is good. Perhaps getting a bask in warm sunshine will help. I'd probably take her back for another vet visit though, and hopefully identify what's going on. It may be a completely different issue than before.

Thanks for the insight! She’ll be going back in if she keeps regurgitating her food. I think for now I’m going to skip the squash and just feed her the critical care mix since the stuff she threw back up was only liquid and squash, so it seems she can digest the formula well enough. The vet got back to me but has no idea what it might be that’s causing her weight loss and regurgitation. No new foods and nothing non food she could have eaten to cause it.

Do you or anyone know what I can do as probiotics? Her gut flora is probably all messed up considering she had a lot of salmonella and then had antibiotics. She probably doesn’t have much good bacteria anymore either. I’ve read you can give non dairy soy yogurt but I’m not sure how true that is or how much I would give her.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
I would PM Tracie Drache613 on here - she has a website and sells probiotics - she can advise on this shes our vet tech mod you can find her name on one of the post click on it her profile will come up and then find PM left side of page I believe
Karrie
 

SilverGravity

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Okay great thanks so much! I will try some yogurt since that’ll be fastest, I’ll see if I can get to the store tomorrow.

Also, does anyone happen to know how much a beardies stomach can hold? The critical care she’s on says 2.5 - 5 ml I believe, but it’s for bearded dragons as well as animals like ball pythons so the stomachs are pretty differently sized in these animals. The vet wasn’t very clear how much she was supposed to be getting a day when I asked and I’m worried she isn’t getting enough, but have no idea how much she can or should eat. She’s on the smaller side and only around 255-260g these days. 4 years ago I weighed her when I had Steve and she was 309g and thought she’s always had issues she was healthier back then and not underweight.
 

CooperDragon

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I would go easy on the food. Maybe 1-2ml at a time and see how she handles it. Better to have more small meals across the day than a large meal at once.
 

Drache613

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Staff member
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Hello,

So sorry to hear your girl is having so much trouble.
Do try the non dairy organic soy yogurt (plain or non flavored) for her, to see if that starts to
help settle her tummy. She should tolerate that well.
As suggested, go slowly with the amount of the feeding. Technically their tummies can hold
up to 10-15mls I believe, BUT do not attempt that amount. That would only be in a tube feeding
type of scenario & should be done by a vet. I would say several small feedings per day, spread
out so she can digest more easily.
Be sure to keep her a little warmer overnight, too for boosting her immune system.

Let us know how she is doing.
Tracie
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Hi there SG, sorry to hear this about Sapphire. If you have pics to post this is how to do it :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload them

When beardies vomit it's almost always scattered because the shake their head back + forth but it is possible that it came up + was deposited in one spot. As for feeding the C.C supplement I would give at least 3-4 ml's twice a day since she's getting so thin. Probiotics may help and you can give a small amount of raw unpasteurized honey as well if you can find some.
 

SilverGravity

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Thanks everyone! You guys are more helpful than my vet honestly. I will up her food then, she’s been getting two meals usually but not quite so much. She was at 240g yesterday after her first feeding and 245g today, so that’s at least better. Probably just the food adding weight but I’ll take it, she’s dropping weight insanely quick. I’ll be sure to add some pictures too, I can’t from my phone so I’ll get on my computer in a little bit. Her tail is so thin now :(
 

SilverGravity

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
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Here's a bunch of pics! The first is the vomit/regurgitation and the rest are just what she looks like today and also her weight records for the past few weeks. You can see she had been going up then suddenly dropped in weight drastically. She finished antibiotics for salmonella a few days ago, and her tail started showing the bones like that only one or two days ago, I don't remember if it's yesterday or the day before.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Poor girl is looking very frail , hopefully she can recupe + gain some weight back. That does look like vomit, I guess it's best to either stop the squash or maybe give it finely shredded or cooked until it's like mash . Then just offer it a couple times a week.
 

SilverGravity

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
I wish I knew what was causing her to lose so much weight. She’s always been a bit thinner than some but she was a healthy weight, now she’s a sad thin old lady. I don’t understand what could have caused such a drastic difference in her tail, it was still thin but not nearly as bad even a few days ago. She had bloodwork even, so if it was just old age and things starting to shut down I would think the bloodwork would have caught things starting to have issues but she was great bloodwork wise. She’s pretty happy too, she’ll be bright yellow and run around when I let her out.

For now she’s only going to get the critical care, hopefully just that will be easy for her to digest and get some weight back.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Yeah, I can imagine that this is sad for you. It's good that she's still active though, how old is she. Has she been on different meds. before the last dosings for salmonella, if so what were they ? What insects was she eating these past years ?
 

SilverGravity

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
She’s been getting dubia roaches for years, though she hasn’t gotten them in a few weeks because she has no appetite and won’t eat them anymore. They used to be the only thing she was ever super excited for other than flowers but she doesn’t have any appetite these days. She has not had any other medications besides the salmonella meds except for dewormers, but those were several years ago.

She’s around 11, so she’s getting decently old. She’s had great care for many many years now, but her care was awful her first few years because I got her in 3rd grade and my parents didn’t help me with her so pretty much everything was wrong. I know healthy dragons can live for a few more years, but I have no way of knowing how her first few years affected her or if they’ll affect how long she lives sadly.
 
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