Did I kill my beardie by taking her to the vet? *Updated*

For the past couple of weeks, my beardie was acting a little differently. She had been spending more time lying on the bottom of her tank and was going to sleep before lights out on occasion. She was eating and pooping okay, although her poop was a little runny.

I took her to the vet on Saturday for a check up. She had pooped early the day before, and I didn't think it would last long enough to take for a sample, so the vet had to do two enemas in order to get a stool sample. This was a vet with herp experience, and I had seen him twice before with her.

He said she had parasites that he didn't usually see in beardies. He didn't tell me what they were, other than some kind of protoza. He gave her a dose of medication, then gave me two more vials to give her over the next two days. She was extremely stressed after this visit; her beard and down both sides of her body were extremely black. She wouldn't eat anything Saturday, and didn't eat on Sunday, although she seemed a little bit calmer. I took her out in the sun and held her for a long time, and her beard got a bit of color back to it. On Monday when she still wouldn't eat, I called the vet and he said the medication was making her not want to eat, and to give it another couple of days. She went into her cave Monday at lights off, and didn't come back out when the lights came on Tuesday morning. When I went to check on her, she was dead. The vet asked us to take her to a different place for a necropsy because he wanted to find out where the parasite came from.

The doctor doing the necropsy called about an hour after I took her there, and said his initial findings were a perforation in her intestine, and bacteria had spilled out into her body. I asked him if the vet giving her an enema could have caused that, and he said his findings didn't support that but he couldn't rule it out. They are doing several different types of testing on her, and I will get a copy of the report in about 10 days.

I am beating myself up about this pretty badly. I feel terrible that something I did could have killed my beardie. She was only a year and a half old. I miss her terribly.

Do any of you have any knowledge of this kind of thing? Could the parasites have perforated her intestines? She was kept on tile and never ate anything bigger than the space between her eyes, so I don't think she could have been impacted by anything.

I was in total shock all day Tuesday that this happened after what I thought may have just been her getting ready to brumate. Now I am afraid to ever get another beardie and take it to the vet for fear of this happening again.

Thanks to all of you for letting me vent, and I would appreciate any thoughts anybody might have about what happened to my baby girl.

so sorry for your loss, its a terrible thing to go through. Personally I have never heard of parasites causing a perforated intestine. Did you ask the vet performing the necropsy how far up the intestine the tear was? It was far away, I wouldn't think the original vet caused it.
What ever happened, it wasn't your fault. Even if it was caused by the vet, you can't blame yourself for that. Don't be afraid to get another beardie if and when you are ready.

I'm sorry to hear about your loss. It's not your fault you were only looking out for the best interest of your beardie by taking her to the vet. Keep your head up and we are all here for you!!!

Vets are people we should be able to trust. It's who we turn to when we need the reassurance and expertise that we are lacking. It is totally not your fault that this happened. You were doing what you thought was best for your little one and that is what you must remember. It may not have been anything the vet did either, but even if it was, please dont let it stop you getting another beardie. There are so many out there that need/want a loving dedicated person to share there lives. You are in my prayers tonight Sheranne. Let us know what the results of all the tests are, we are here for you to rant/vent whenever you wish. ((((hugs))))

You were doing the best for your Beardie, so very sorry she passed. I have worked for upwards of 30 vets in my career. Many have not had the experience they should have to be doing the work they were doing. Many don't have any experience with exotic animals, even if they say they do. Best to go to a vet that has been recommended by word of mouth. Unfortunately we have to seek a docs help at many points in our lives so have no choice but to trust them with our loved ones. My personal opinion is the procedure the vet performed to extract the feces perforated the bowel. No vet is going to incriminate another vet, they will most likely say the necropsy is inconclusive but still give you the findings. I have only worked for a couple vets that will admit that another vet made a mistake and that still wouldn't be in writing.

Hello,

Wow I am sorry to hear that!
If possible I would like to see the lab results when you get them in.
You were doing what you thought was best. Personally, giving enemas is relatively dangerous & especially if the vet is not experienced in that it can cause damage to the intestines yes.
I do not think that a parasite would cause a perforation in the intestines. I have never heard of that anyway. Hookworms will cause some tearing or bleeding of the intestinal walls if they are bad enough however.
It is also a possibility that the vet gave a shot of Ivermectin which could have been an overdose. Do you know what medication was given & what the dose of it was?

I am very sorry for your loss.

Tracie

Thanks to all of you who have responded. I appreciate your thoughts and your sympathy. I sure miss my little girl.

I do not know what kind of medication I was given or the dosage. I wish I had asked about it at the time instead of just trusting it.

This vet did have reptile experience, but I am sure anyone can make a mistake. I feel in my heart it was the vet's fault, and I am still just sick about letting it happen. I will never let a vet do an enema on a beardie again. I was trying to do the right thing for her, but it cost me a great deal of pain and I'll never feel the same about trusting a vet again. I guess I will never really know if the vet was at fault, and that will haunt me the rest of my life. Regardless, it won't bring back my baby. I hope if there is a reptile heaven, she is happily chasing crickets and knows that I love her, and that I'm sorry if her death was my fault.

I have not received the necropsy report yet, but I will post the findings when I do.

I got the necropsy results today, and they are inconclusive, as was suspected. It states "the cause of death was peritonitis, but the primary cause/source of the infection was not apparent. A perforation was not seen grossly, although the severity of the peritonitis and the massive hemmorrhage hampered gross evaluation to some degree. The owner reports that the animal was treated with an enema, which prompts consideration that the rectum was perforated, causing the observed hemmorrhage."

My vet got a copy of the report, and left a message on my husband's cell saying the enema could not have caused this because beardies don't have rectums, and doing an enema would not cause perforation. I guess it could have been a coincidence, but it still seems suspicious to me that she died three days after the enemas were done.

The report did not find the protozoa that the vet found (which I still don't know what it was), but the vet said the flagyl that he treated her with could have killed it by the time she died. It did find a small number of Giardia cysts.

Other tests indicated there were Klebsiella pnemoniae and Proteus sp. found in the liver, Proteus sp. found in the lung, and Providencia rettgeri and Proteus sp. found in the intestines. It did not indicate what any of those findings meant.

The diagnosis of the gross examination was severe fibrinous peritonitis and abdominal hemorrhage. Histopathology showed that "all internal organs were affected by fibrinosuppurative serosal inflammation. All organs have a large number of small vessels that are plugged with bacteria, suggesting terminal septicemia."



The report made me cry all over again.

I am so, so incredibly sorry for your loss. I know that it doesn't matter just how many people tell you not to blame yourself (myself included), you're still going to do it. It's a natural reaction of someone who cared deeply for their pet. I also agree that I wouldn't let this one horrible incident stop you from getting another beardie, when you feel ready, or course. Just take your time to get your head and heart right with your loss, and do what you can to heal.

*gentle hugs*

This might not matter now, but I wanted to say it anyway. The pressure of the enema could have indeed caused a perforation (and I think it sounds like the necropsy still isn't ruling this out). I personally don't understand why this vet gave this beardie an enema in the first place if he wasn't sure the beardie was impacted. Also, most types of parasitic worms can and do bore through the wall of the digestive tract (I've seen rescued snakes that have had pin worms boring out their bodies), but since it was a protozoa, that doesn't make sense. So, not all parasites can, but some (the worms) do.

I'm very sorry for your loss. I'm glad you were strong enough to get a necropsy though and did not baulk at the thought of doing one. As someone else already stated, I know it's difficult to not blame yourself, almost all of us do it, but it's not your fault!! You did all you could do and you put your trust in a vet who sounds to me as if he probably hasn't been honest with you. Some of the less ethical and negligent vets will always cover their butt if they do something wrong, so he'll never admit it if it was indeed perforation from the enema. The enema was not your fault either.

This whole thing really makes me question how much 'experience' this vet actually had. I know of one local vet here in particular who considers himself 'experienced' in herps, but he calls my boyfriend for advice on how to treat the herps he gets in. Treating herps a dozen times does not constitute experience, but unfortunately, many vets will consider experience enough to get your business. It's very difficult to find a good, experienced herp or exotic vet that is truly experienced in these matters. They can handle the basic stuff, so it seems they know what they are doing, but when it's an emergency for a specific species...their true colors show through. This is not your fault either though! Some vets are very misleading and it does happen to everyone at one point or another on the search to find a good vet.

Please do not let this deter you from getting another beardie. You sound like a great owner and an owner that didn't care or wasn't thorough would certainly not have gone through a necropsy and all of this trouble for their animal. I hope that you can find peace in this matter.