Blood in urates?

Hi,

I am new to the bearded dragon world. Personally I have kept many aquatic tanks and a snake. I recently bought a bearded dragon from Petsmart (I know I know, not the best place) and I have had him (I say him but I have not checked "its" gender bc I read at around two months its hard to know) for around 3 weeks. Poe is 7 1/2 inches and was eating on small crickets when I first got him but I do not like the quality of crickets around me so I have recently started him on the 1/4" Dubia Roaches. He gets Calcium 5x a week and vitamins 1-2x, along with collard greens and a variety of other fruits or veggies. I did extensive research on what he can and can't eat so I know I'm not giving him anything he cannot eat. Today I noticed while giving Poe a bath that he had a speck of blood in his urates and, of course, as a first time beardie mother it worried me. When I say a speck, I really mean a speck..lol. I wanted to know if this could mean anything? I read pinworms and maybe some medicine for parasites????? Another thing I read is impaction?

Poe is kept on reptile carpet, NO sand.
Im not entirely sure how people feel about the all in one bulbs but I use the Exo Terra Solar Glo
The temps are right around 100 on the hot spot. He gets baths regularly, although he does not love them yet lol.

Thanks in advance.

I wouldn't worry about a speck in one poop. That can happen and not be an issue at all. Was the poop and urate dry/chalky or did it look well hydrated? Dry poops can cause some straining which sometimes leads to a little blood. Keep a close eye on it and if the bleeding continues or gets worse, see a vet. If it's isolated I wouldn't be concerned about it at all though.

As far as the Solar Glo goes, they can be inconsistent between bulbs. Which wattage do you have? How far above the basking area do you have it mounted? In general the issue I have with the MVBs is that it's tough to keep them at an appropriate distance for UVB output while still maintaining a proper temperature gradient across the tank. If you can do that, they're fine though. I prefer using them as portable basking lights around the house. They're excellent for that and as travel lighting (although fragile so pack them well).

Next poo , upload a picture of it and the urates .... a orange stain in the urates might be confused for evidence of blood in the poo, where it is actually fine calcium oxalates precipitating in the urates.

I have a 125w bulb and around 7 inches away from him. He is in a 36x18x18 exo terra. As far as the gradient goes its around 87 in the middle and 76 on the cool side. The urate was not chalky at all, he was in the bath though but it looked normal as far as I could tell besides the speck of "blood". He did not pass any poop with it though, just urates. He ate a little bit less the day before but passed a healthy poop in the morning. The urates was in the afternoon. I apologize if thats confusing. I do have a picture of it but I am new to this forum, as I have only been reading and never asked a question but if I can figure it out I can definitely post it.

This might be me looking too far into it but I also read about coccidia and how with relocation stress it might make the bacteria count higher so don't get poop samples done for a couple of weeks. I am just now starting the third week with him so could that be anything? Like I said this could be me looking too far but maybe not.. lol. Of course if it gets any worse, he will be taken to the vet.

Also I just checked up on him and he passed what id call a healthy poop. Urates and poop this time and I see no "blood". The only reason why I was saying blood is it was bright bright red and didn't look orange to me.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. Coccidia often causes really messy poop that is clear the room stinky. You can upload photos here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post them to your threads using the XIMG button.

According to the test results I have, the 125w produces optimal output between about 10-14'' so you'll want the main part of the basking area within that range. It should produce a basking surface temp of around 100-105 while keeping a nice gradient down to about what you have on the cool side. 76 is just about right give or take several degrees to room temp fluctuations.

I apologize if the picture doesn't come out right. It was messy because my beardie decided to swim through it lol.

I wouldn't be too alarmed yet, but if the blood continues (even a speck if it's constant) I'd get a fecal sample to a vet to check for worms and parasites. It's quite common for baby Beardies to come home with worms and/or parasites, especially if they came from a pet store. If he just did a healthy looking poop then he's not impacted (and no loose substrate, so that's good), and as far as you know he has no injuries from any accidents, so it's either just a bit of blood from straining to poop, from something he ate, or its worms/parasites, which I would put my money on just because of how common they are.

I don't like what you read about waiting 3+ weeks to get a fecal sample tested for parasites or worms, they either have parasites and/or worms or they don't. Yes relocation stress can cause lack of appetite, lethargy, etc. but blood it cannot cause worms or parasites. Bacteria load levels vary between Beardies and can stress cause them to rise-maybe, but most likely not enough to cause blood in the stools.

There's no set rule about how long to wait to take your beardie to the vet if he is exhibiting signs or symptoms of illness. Should you run him to the vet the first week you bring him home if he's not eating? No. That's not what I'm saying. But there are a couple of pieces of advice I can give you that will save both you and you beardie a lot of time, money, and possibly stress and pain. #1, if your beardie starts to exhibit signs and symptoms of illness like sudden lack of appetite, lethargy, constant sleeping, black bearding out of no where, etc. then you need to watch him carefully and if he doesn't improve soon or he gets progressively worse then it's better to take him to a certified Reptile vet ASAP. #2 is just that, find a certified Reptile vet and take him to that vet from day one, because from what I've seen (and it seems to be getting worse) general vets and "exotics" vets that say they treat reptiles (and birds, and small animals, basically anything not a cat or a dog) generally have no idea what they are doing. Just because they will "see" reptiles means nothing. Most people that have sick or injured Beardies that take them to an exotics vet end up seeing multiple vets before finally driving the hour or so to a certified Reptile vet, and they spend a small fortune. #3 Only you know your pet and his personality, so you know if something is very wrong with him. That being said, in general, "The longer you wait to take your beardie to the vet, the more you'll pay and the longer and harder his recovery will be".

In this particular situation I think he's fine, and I appreciate you caring enough to ask opinions and seem prepared to take him to a vet if necessary. As already stated I'd watch him closely and if you see any more blood in his poop or if he starts to exhibit other signs or symptoms of illness such as lack of appetite, lethargy, constant black beard, etc. then I'd collect his next bowel movement in a Ziploc bag and get him to a certified Reptile vet for a fecal, because he most likely has worms or parasites, which can be easily treated. But no need to panic since he seems otherwise fine and he had a normal bowel movement. Just don't hesitate to take him if you think he's sick simply because people say to wait a month after first bringing him home from the pet store.

And btw, I have an 8 month old girl I got from Petco who has never once been sick, is very, very healthy, huge and still growing, and has the best personality I could ask for. So PetSmart or Petco Beardies are not necessarily bad or problem-ridden. All baby Beardies are susceptible to worms and parasites, regardless of where they come from. I'm sure your little guy will turn out wonderfully!

I agree with him going into the vet if it continues, as of right now he looks okay and is eating so I'm not too worried about it.

I also totally agree and understand what you're saying about parasites and worms no matter if its three weeks or not. I grew up volunteering in a vet clinic so I completely get that, I just read about coccidia but once you stated that it made more sense. I didn't necessarily think it was related to the blood but just a thought. As for finding a vet, I grew up around that environment and know of quite a few I could/would take him too and how well they are with reptiles. I know that is very important and would not take him somewhere I did not know was well informed about reptiles

As you said, petco and petsmart are not the worse places and the ones around me are very clean and look like they have pretty healthy animals so I'm not freaking out too much about that. I would also like to say thank you and everyone else for the replies!!

Our beardie has had red color in his urate/poop since we got him 4 years ago and at first I was concerned that it might be blood as well. I finally managed to get a good enough sample for the vet to look at under a microscope and she said it was crystalline, not cellular, so not blood. He was a rescue, so we speculated that he might have been kept on colored sand because at first the color was a little too bright to be blood. Eventually it turned to a more dull rust color and I read that this is normal for other lizards who eat greens so I thought maybe it had something to do with iron, but our vet said it can also be due to "porphyrins". Anyway, to make a long story at least a little shorter, we eventually learned to regard the red color as normal for him and we don't worry about it anymore as long as we don't see any other signs of illness.

So I guess the moral to the story is that if you see something red in your beardie's poop or urate, it isn't always blood and it isn't always something serious, but still best to check with a good experienced reptile vet just to be on the safe side.