I took in a rescue!

She looks great! (all things considered). So glad they brought Juste to you Hopefully she poops soon and that can at least be over with.

She's looking a lot better, any poop yet? Oh I hope she doesn't have the issues that Nix had, his prior owners told me the same thing, that he wouldn't eat anything but mealworms and that he loved him, and would eat a ton in one sitting. The day before I picked him up his owner emailed me and I was trying to ask her everything I could think of that I might need to know. I knew about the mealworms, but I just happened to remember to ask about the last time he had pooped, because she hadn't mentioned that as being one of his issues, she attributed all of his mobility issues to the severe and obvious MBD. When I asked about his pooping she told me that he "pooped ever day, and if not he was given a warm bath until he did go". But she then said that "she did think that for the last 3 months every one of his bowel movements were extremely tiny, like a normal urate with a tiny speck of poop". Then she said "ironically, that's about the time the MBD kicked in and got very bad, causing his back legs to become very weak". The poor guy had been impacted with so many mealworm shells that it partially paralyzed his back legs, and since he also had obvious MBD they missed the impaction that was starting, and kept feeding him tons of mealworms and absolutely nothing else at all. So that's how he got so bad off.

To this day he is still very weak in his back legs, much much better but still has a lot of trouble climbing. He doesn't flip over anymore, and he now actually "runs" when he's out of his enclosure with me, and he sprints across the couch and climbs up the back of it to get to his bay window platform. He could never have run or climbed at all when I first got him. He won't touch or even look at any greens, veggies, fruit, pellets soaked in fruit Pedialyte, I've tried everything. Every day I put fresh greens in, and every night I take them out untouched. Yesterday he ate a few pieces of fresh green beans that I hand fed him while making my dinner, and that's the first non-insect he's eaten. To this day he just looks at his large BSFL, hornworms, even a wax worm for at least 10 minutes, then looks at me, just back and forth, like "WHERE ARE MY FREAKING MEALWORMS?!!! I WANT MY MEALWORMS!!!" Eventually he always breaks down and eats, but not without a silent protest. And every day I say "Sorry buddy, I love you, but I'm never going through that with you ever again!"

My house is now 100% mealworm free and will be forever, no exceptions, not even for a once a year treat. I really wish I had photographed all 3 of those bowel movements that were inside him for between 2-3 months, anyone who would see it would never feed mealworms to any pet ever again.

Sometimes the reason for impaction is a combination of things. Too many of one type of insects, sometimes being fed too late in the day without enough time from the heat bulb to aid in digestion , the substrate [ in Ellen's dragon Nix's case. wood chips ] and constant low temps. The low temps. are sometimes the main culprit, causing a difficulty in digestion. Mealies aren't the ideal feeder but for a healthy reptile with the proper lights + heat they usually pose no problem. I've used them for beardies for over 20 years with no impaction, although they were not a staple.

But your dragon is looking much better, hopefully things will continue to improve and she'll get her digestive system on track soon.

Thanks guys

Still no poop!!
No natural sun today, overcast and raining since I've been home. Nice long soak in very warm water, attempt to poop, no success.

Went to feed her pumpkin. It's completely moldy. Clearly I failed to store it properly. Ugh.

I'm not sure how her heat was. They used a 100w bulb, but I didn't check her previous temp. She's nice and toasty now, though

You're doing a really good job trying to nurse her back to health, and she looks like she may be able to recover under your care. Have you been able to get her in to see the vet yet? That would probably still be a good idea if you can swing it, although you're probably already doing everything that would be recommended.

Have you tried a gentle belly massage while she's in her bath? Sometimes that seems to help our beardie when he hasn't pooped for a while. He doesn't seem to particularly enjoy it, but it does seem to help to get him to poop once in a while. Hopefully she's not as seriously plugged up with mealworms or god-knows-what else as Nix was.

BTW, thanks for sharing that horror story, EllenD. If that doesn't convince people that it's not a good idea to let their beardies get addicted to mealworms as a staple, I don't know what will... :shock:

Ugh, still no poop!
She strained so long and so hard in her bath today. It was probably about a 40 minute bath. I refilled the water three times to very very warm, gave plenty of belly rubs, rubbed her back, lifted her tail, anything I could try to think of to help her go.
She did pass a white urate, and tiny bits of poop that I can only assume is the pumpkin coming out. Nothing significant at all, just tiny clouds of brown, but this may be the start of an actual poop now that the pumpkin is making its appearance know.
Her mouth inflammation is a lot better. I see teeth!

More pics

WARNING!!!!! GRAPHIC POOP!!!!

So as you can tell from the warning, and likely the photos that show before the warning cam be heeded, we've got poop! Omg, do we have poop. Omg.

I'm sure this could be a lot worse, like Nix's case, but it was still enough for me to audibly go "OMG" and cover my mouth in disbelief as I entered the room.

I was about to mow and went to check on her.

She looks like she just gave birth! Her skin has folds now! Wow does she look so much better.

Down from 550g to 523g from Sunday to now. There's no way that's just from a diet change.

That's got to be a relief for her. Yes, the weight loss is from the huge B.M.
She worked hard to get that out + you did a great job assisting, you can be very proud. It should be much easier now going forward since she's getting the natural laxative + proper diet.

My little girl gives huge BMs but she eats like a monster and is consistent at least (her diet has been cut back a bit)

She looks so relieved. You can see the pumpkin at the end of the poo, so the rest was the blockage. Her sides are having muscle spasms due to the straining, but now she can relax. I'll continue on the pumpkin until we're in the clear, but it's smooth sailing from here. I'm going to let her rest up after all of that, but I'd like to see her movement tomorrow and see if it's less stiff

Wow. :shock: She must feel lots better after dumping that load. In the previous photo of her belly it looked like she had a lot of stuff in there, and in the next photo, there it all is. Phew!

Hopefully she will continue to improve now that she's getting better care and a better diet.

woah... :shock: I imagine she is feeling extremely relieved! So much poop... Hopefully she goes regularly now!

She's becoming a lot more "chipper" it seems. Her movement is still very lopsided, like she half drags her back left foot and hobbles, but her head movement seems better. Initially her movements were all very stiff, but she seems to have some more flexibility in her head, looking around and having quicker head movements.

She's been enjoying some calcium dusted crickets, morning salads, and evening pumpkin. No poop since that giant one, but I'd slacked on warm baths and haven't been feeding nearly as much pumpkin. She's likely due soon, though.

I do think her vision might also be hindered to some extent. No noticeable damage or fog, but she seems to not be able to move her eyes well, if at all, and seems like she doesn't see me or my hand until it's right near her eyes, then she reacts like "woah!" even if my hands have been near the sides of her face for a while.
I know she is able to see at a distance, as I introduced her to Alucard safely (Juste remained in her enclose, Alucard was on the floor outside of it) and they both sat and slow bowed to each other for a good while, so I know she could see and understood what Alucard was.

She does tuck herself into bed at night under her slab, so she has enough mobility to move out of the heat and get under the slab, but I think she's incapable of getting herself back out. I always move her to the basking spot every morning, but this morning I left her to see if she could herself. She was still under the slab and was out more, like she wanted to bask, but was incapable of getting out. I might need to block the under the slab area and give her a new area to go to bed in...

I love happy endings with beardies. I'm so glad she came into your care. Keep us updated with her progress!

Glad to hear that she's continuing to get better.

Sometimes it's hard to tell if they don't go to their basking area because they can't or because they won't -- Once in a while our beardie stays at the bottom of his tank until one of us gives him a "lift" up to his basking platform, and then he stays where we put him. He's capable of climbing up the ramp by himself, but why go to the trouble when you can get your human slaves to do it for you...