Kidney Disease - Is This Something I Did?

I recently lost my beloved Emmalee, my first bearded dragon at the age of 9 years 8 months.

She had a non-diagnosed, but vet treated incident last year where she was passing blood and bloody mucous in her urates. She did lose some weight with loss of her fat pads. The bloody urate/mucus stopped and she had a successful brumation (although she do not gain any of her fat pads back, she did not lose on brumation).

This Spring, Summer, she ate well, very rarely refused her dubias, syringe food, or dandelion greens. I even supplemented her occasionally with the Critcal Care I had left over from the year before. When feeding her she only got straight calcium on her bugs 3-4 times per week, no D3 and Herptivite about once or twice a week depending on if she was fed Critical Care. She laid her eggs this summer (non-fertile, about 15) with no issues, they were nice looking.

However, this Fall I notice she looked slimmer, and definitely by taking her weight she had in fact, lost quite a bit (despite eating well). No other symptoms emerged. I started to only feed her Critical Care, for about two weeks. Last Wednesday, she had a normal, happy poop, she looked great. I took a picture of her on Thursday, she was hydrated and basking but did not eat her dandelion green. Friday she pooped again, this time with a yellow mucus. I fed her Critical Care, and she ate about 7 mls on her own (nose feeding). By Saturday there was a drastic change, her eyes had literally sunk, she was basking, but did not look well. I bathed her for about 30 minutes and then had to slightly force her to eat some Critical Care, 2-3 mls. I took her weight and she was 419 grms. I looked at her on Sunday, she still looked bad and had a black beard, she had left 4-5 poop spots in her viv which basically consisted of very runny, small urates, and yellow water. I repeated bathing, but she did not want to eat. Monday, same scenario with black beard, and again 4-5 areas of runny small urate, with yellow to clear water in the viv. Her wight on Monday was 404 grms!!

My reptile vet was closed all weekend due to being Canadian Thanksgiving, but I made an appt on Tuesday to get her in ASAP. On Tuesday after her 30 minute bath, she pooped on her basking spot (she never does this) and it was again, small urate, and clear water, but this time, it was flecked with Critical Care. The vet visit showed that she had a very large left kidney, and a swelling right kidney. The vet confirmed her drastic weight loss over the year (20%) and said that this could be a metabolic disease, or long term kidney failure, a chance it could be infection, but not likely due to the weight loss. Given this news and poor prognosis for any recovery. I had to let her go.....

My concern is that I may have done this. All the kidney info I have read points to bad husbandry as being the cause for renal problems and I have not read anything that points to old age being a cause. Emmalee had not shown previous signs of any kidney issues, never had gout, never passed clear water.

I have three other dragons at home...ages 2- 5, and do not want to put them in jeopardy, if in fact, I had caused this. Does anybody out there know, or have any experience or knowledge about this? I feel so terrible.

Hello,

I am so sorry you lost Emmalee so suddenly.


Wow, there are a lot of different things that could have
caused it. Genetics usually play a huge role in overall
health. You had supplementation questions in another
thread, but your schedule has always been terrific.
Had she ever had trouble with any egg issues, I can't
remember? We're there egg issues this time, causing
the renal failure?
Did they do a blood test or an autopsy?
Did she have critical care food last year, or just this year?
How much critical care did you give her?

I am so sorry you lost her. ?

Tracie

Thanks Tracie for your response. I just want to do the best for my other babies, and really hope this was not my fault...
to answer your questions:
You had supplementation questions in another
thread, but your schedule has always been terrific.
Thanks, I hope I was not not missing something there in terms of what I was doing. The only time the beardies are not getting vitamins on schedule are when they refuse to eat that day or brumation. The Repashy inquiry was just to see if I should switch my regular routine, but I think I will stick with the same.
Had she ever had trouble with any egg issues, I can't
remember? We're there egg issues this time, causing
the renal failure?
Emmalee was an extreme egg layer, she started at 4 years. The first year I believe was 87 eggs!!! They just kept coming. The following years was anywhere from 40-60 per season. I will not lie in telling you that is was very difficult to keep everything in check for her. She lost weight each season due to all the egg laying 1) the stress 2) the production of them 3) she would be so full of eggs she did not want to eat, 4) keeping enough calcium in her was also difficult, and at times she did develop hind leg tremors, especially after brumating. She never had a problem with binding, she always laid. She had a dig box which I would put her in, but mostly she just decided to drop them right from her basking spot. During her first vet visit last year with the blood, they suspected egg peritonitis, but this turned out not to be the case, as she recovered from her episode and did not lay anymore that season. This year was her first year with the least eggs. Only 12, but again no trouble with that.
Did they do a blood test or an autopsy?
No blood test this time, she had a full work up 11 months before and everything was normal. The vet felt that blood test would just confirm what she suspected which was renal failure. However last year's kidney and liver function results were well within parameters, all other blood test were great as well. The only thing that did show up was infection, which was what likely causing the blood. Fecal was negative. So we really do not know what ultimately cause last years infection, but on x-ray the spot they found last year was nowhere near the kidney. She did not even offer an autopsy, and I was so distraught I guess I did not bother to ask for one. I guess this would have given me more answers She did offer an ultrasound, but that would only confirm her finding of the very large kidneys and would tell me if she had calcification, which would not help with her recovery, and at 500 dollars to be in the same place medically did not seem financially feasible.
Did she have critical care food last year, or just this year?
How much critical care did you give her?
Critical Care was given last year, for about 3-4 weeks until her poop cleared. I did not add any multivitimin supplementation during this time, but did keep her calcium up (every second day) due to her previous egg laying and getting her ready for her brumation. I was successful this year if that is any consolation as when she woke this Spring there were no back leg tremors. This year I started to give it to her on the Sunday as she did not eat for three days (Thurs, Fri, Sat). I gave her the slurry on her nose and she licked it up, about 7 - 10 mls. She was given Critical Care again on Monday, but I had to coax her mouth to open and she only got about 2-3 mls.


I assume that this kidney issue was going on for a while as she had lost so much weight, or maybe it was quick and fast over the last month or so?? I am not sure. I do know that between Saturday and Tuesday she had lost about 8 -10 grams, as I weighed her on a digital scale. That is a lot of weight in a few days. But there were no real symptoms....none early anyway. I must admit I did not notice how much weight she lost as after her 2017 hospital event, she never got her fat pads back, despite eating well this Spring and Summer, and they were always depressed and her ribs always showed somewhat (egg laying to that extent, it's the worst). She had excellent blood results in 2017 (nothing at all out of the ordinary), she never had gout, she did not get too much D3 by supplementation, she did not eat high oxalate veggies very often. She was mostly on dandelion green, and slurry veg. such as squash, peas, green beans, apple, berries, every now and then kale. This year she got fresh clover from my yard - no pesticides allowed. My other lizards ate the clover too, and they seem fine, so I do not think this was the issue. She had a normal poop on the Wednesday (text book), she did not throw up, or gasp, or was even lethargic. The vet was also noticing how feisty she was despite being so ill. So it is concerning...I feel like a bad beardie mom...When the vet explained to me that the only thing we could do for her would be hospitalization and routine sub -cue for hydration. I did not think that would be the best life for her...especially as no water was being processed at that time, coming out just as it had come in.

Emmalee was the only lizard that I had that drank water in her bath...the others don't and this concerns me as well. If the others are not drinking and Emmy did, where will this leave them....

The only other thing that stuck out about Emmy is her poop. You will find lots of post about Emmy and her poop. She would go long periods without poop, she would sometime pass blood in her poop, and she always made pooping look difficult. Even though she was bathed at least once per week, massaged and fed slurry. Sometimes pooping was so hard for her she would turn black. She made me a poop expert! My other lizards do not have poop issues...thank goodness.