Spay recovery

Hey everyone,

Axel is 3 days post spay and im just trying to figure out what to expect. She is on 0.1 Metacam for the pain 1x24hours and tazicef injections .08 1x3days for seven doses. She ate a small hornworm yesterday but she isn’t moving around much and pretty much just basking a lot. I don’t know if she looks swollen or not so I’m uploading pics she doesn’t want to be touched which is making it difficult to give the tazicef. Any tricks on immobilizing her while she has these stitches would be much appreciated. I’m so scared to hold her too tight while doing them it will hurt her that I haven’t done her next Dose yet. I changed all of her tile out and put rubber kitchen mats and a fuzzy bath rug down on half. She has the stitches until the end of the month and I just want to know when she should start feeling better. 1-2 eggs had already ruptured when the vet did the surgery so it was definitely a good idea, I just want my little gal to be okay.

Thanks,
Chelsea

And on top of all of this stress it is looking like she is going into a full shed which I can’t bathe her till her stitches come out at the end of the month. I might just be panicking because this is my first reptile and my first major pet surgery. She weighed 539 grams (overweight I know) and had good fat stores on her pre op work so I’m not as worried about her slowing eating with the shed but I know she needs nutrition to heal properly. She is staying 75-80 at night to help her immune system as well but I just want to know if there are any other measures I should be taking to get her through this. They also didn’t tell me how many doses of metacam to give her just the dosage and how often. She just looks miserable and I feel awful. She’s Blackbearding and her belly looks really big. She’s only on the antibiotic & pain meds from me so I don’t know if that helps with the inflammation at all.

If shes black bearding I would be calling your vet something is going on----
Karrie

She just started blackbearding today about an hour ago after her antibiotic injection, could that have irritated it? I called my vet and I’m waiting on a call back. These are pics now. She wasn’t blackbearding in the pics before the shot (posted first). My vet is 4 hours drive away. I’m leaving her alone for now and not Messing with her I’m just scared because she hasn’t blackbearded at all in quite some time. She is shedding that started today as you can tell in the pics. Could that be why?

That could be cuz the of meds-- I am not a vet and some one else needs to respond to you that has more experience - TracieDrache613 is the vet moderator and is on at nite - AHBD - Cooperdragon or Brandon might be better help than I --- I am hoping some one responds here soon
Karrie

I'm glad your vet was able to do the surgery. That probably saved her life if the eggs had already burst. I'm sure she is still in some discomfort and that's probably showing via the black beard. She has her head up and the rest of her body is a good color, so I'm guessing she's in a bad mood and in some discomfort but perhaps not in grave condition. I'm sure the shots don't help her mood either. It may be helpful to wrap her up in a towel or fleece blanket in order to help keep her more still when giving her the shots. I hope she starts to feel better soon.

My vet called and I talked with her and she said since the beard is just now presenting and her surgery was 4 days ago that she doesn’t know what it could be. She said that her surgery went so well that she can’t imagine it being anything but post op pain with healing. She also believes since she started doing it after her shot it could have just aggravated her. If she doesn’t stop the Blackbeard for 24 hours then she wants me to bring her in to see her. She said I can send pictures of the bloated looking abdomen but because beardies bloat out for all kinds of reasons she would need to examine her to know if it is behavioral or medical. Is there anything I can do at this point to make her more comfortable?

I think you're doing a good job making her as comfortable as possible. It sounds like your vet is quite good too, so I would trust her advice as well.

CooperDragon":1s2in31k said:

I think you're doing a good job making her as comfortable as possible. It sounds like your vet is quite good too, so I would trust her advice as well.

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Thanks for your replies. She has never really Blackbearded so I think that is why is was so alarming for me. My vet also mentioned that metacam is kind of like a “better than nothing” answer for pain in reptiles. She said that dealing with reptile pain is just difficult. She mentioned that there are a few studies going on with opioid injections but they aren’t yielding much either. So Axel being in pain while on pain medication is far from surprising. She said it should subside as she heals and my husbandry is exactly where it should be. Here she is after she finally decided moving was an okay idea.

Hi there. How is little Axel doing today? Her pictures look great, but sorry the poor thing was frightened and irritated from the shots. Hope she has a speedy recovery!!