Chalky urate poop...bit of blood

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Gretchen

Hatchling Member
Hello Dragon Family!!!
Gretchen's been doing amazing overall for the past year I would say. Yay Gretchen.

This past week I noticed she hadn't been eating alot of her veggies. Some days she would finish them and some days wouldn't touch them at all. Eating live feed no problem. She's been lazy but honestly shes always been a blob lol Vet checkup end of November and got a clean bill of health. Her vet said she one of the best looking healthiest dragon hes seen in a long time come in (he's from New Zealand and has been breeding beardies for 25 years so I love that about him). On to last night. Gretchen's bath/poop night (she goes about every 3 to 4 days now) . I noticed right at the end of her poop, which was huge larger than normal a little bit of blood came out after. Instant panic called my vet asked some questions and made an appointment to bring her and her stool in. As I was picking up her still out of the bath I noticed the white part that's usually mushy liquid came out hard, like chalk.

So I took to reading up about possibilities and I came across a few things and wanted to know if anyone has ever been through this before.
Could be:
A: Dehydration
B: Too much calcium (she gets a dusting with every live feed which is every second day). Maybe I'm over dusting???

Her substrate is tiled floors. Nothing she can ingest at all.
UVB is Arcadia T5 HO Dragon Lamp 14% UVB 36w 34"
Basking spot is 99 to 101 F and she has a CHE which keeps night time temp at 24 when it gets cold here (Montreal Canada -40 most days).

My vet actually called me back last night and confirmed both things I just listed. He told me to up the baths and pull back on her calcium D3 intake and check out her next stool.

Thanks for listening and hope this helps someone too!!!
Xo Krista
 

bayoupig5

Sub-Adult Member
I am an expert a bloody poop. But not because I want to be. Anyway, I used to have a dragon that left blood pools, it was so super scary. Turned out she was ok, and had anal fissures. Anyways, that was a little off topic, but I do have a follow up question?

How old is your dragon? For an adult you should be dusting about 3 days per week with calcium, and 2-3 times for the multivitamin. If she is an adult at every 2nd day, she may be getting a little too much calcium. I generally give mine a 50/50 calcium/multi vitamin dusting on the bug days 2 times per week and plain old regular calcium on bug day #3.

Also a chalky urate usually is an indicator of some dehydration, so try to ensure to get more fluids into her if possible. Bathing can help, but it is better if you could actually get water into her by mouth. Spraying the veggies with water is a good way, or while in the bath sometimes splashing the water near them can entice the dragon to drink. None of my dragons have ever drank from standing water. If mine do not eat enough veggie that week, I supplement with homemade veggie slurries to ensure proper intake and of course with that comes the water.

From time to time, all of my 4 dragon have been a little dehydrated and this is nothing to worry about, as long as it does not continue to be the trend. I am assuming that the blood was from the hard pushing that the dragon had to do to get that hard urate out. But from my experience, a little blood is not too much to worry about, as long as it does not continue.
 

Gretchen

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Thanks for getting back to me bayoupig5.

Gretchen is going to be 2 years old in February. Her live feeders are dusted with calcium every 2 days so she gets anywhere from 3-4 feedings per week (one week she gets 4 alternative week shes gets 3 live feeds as it works out to being every second day). I honestly think that when i'm putting her clacium on her live feeders im putting a little too much. Which up until now was ok i guess as she was eating her veggies more sooo. Right now what i have as powder is Repti Calcium with D3. I do not have a multi vitamin powder..i was under the assumption that the D3 in the calcium powder was a good enough source of vitamins. does that make me a horrible mom :( do you have any suggestions as to which Multivitamin i should get her, Ill do that right after work.

As for water, she never drinks it. Like EVER. Last year when she was going through brumation it happened twice in the bath she lapped up some water. Ill definitely try to get her to take in some water more often if i notice shes not eating a lot of her veggies. Veggie slurries sounds like that could work so ill keep that in mind.

Thanks again for the info i really appreciate it!!!
 

bayoupig5

Sub-Adult Member
Vitamins can be confusing. Actually a lot of reptile care can be confusing :lol:

I use, and what a lot of people use, is Herptivite by Rep Cal. Your schedule sounds ok, every second day should be fine in this case. What I do is have 3 cups of vitamins made up (just little plastic cups). One is Calcium only, the other is Calcium with D3, the other is a 50/50 mix of calcium (without D3 and Multi). 3 days a week I dust the bugs in the 50/50 mix. Then once per week I dust with either calcium only or calcium with D3. I do not use D3 very much, once or twice month only as adults, babies need more. I throw the bugs in the cup shake them around and then pull them out one by one to feed to my dragons. The UVB I have is strong, so is yours, so you could probably cut way back on D3, not that this caused the hard urate.

I have a 6 year old dragon who I have never, ever seen drinking water, but she does not like eating salad either, so I always have a slurry made for her.
 

Gretchen

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Poop update lol
She had a nice long bath tonight about 25 minutes and she went to the bathroom no problems. No chalky urate and NO BLOOD. So it was definitely from her straining the other day since the urate was so hard. She only ate a bit of veggies today. She said lap up some bath water after about 7 minutes of me dropping it on her snout with a syringe lol I picked up some collard greens, dandelion greens and some squash for her. She was never a big squash fan but I'll give it another go. She ate 1 grated piece just before lol Ill try making her a slurry tomorrow and see how that goes. I'm going to pick up some new powders tomorrow the multivitamin one and a regular calcium and try out your recommendations.
Her appetite has decreased because I dont think she knows if she wants to sleep or not. This time last year she was out like a light but the weather has been so weird here this year maybe that's playing a factor also.

Thanks so much for all the help!!!
 

Gretchen

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Went out today in -39 degree Celsius weather brrrrr and got Gretchen some multivitamins and a calcium powder no D3 and will take your suggestions and start alternating her powders. She ate a few crickets yesterday and 2 blueberries handfed. She has a nice salad today but simply walked through it and is now laying underneath her basking perch out of sight from her lights. Keeping an eye on her and well see. She had this behavior last year for a few weeks before she went into brumation so maybe that's what's happening. Thanks again for all your help.
Here's crabby Gretchen lol
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