Potential brumation? Please help!

Okay so for some background. For the past week or two I’ve been a very concerned bearded dragon owner. It started with my beardie not eating for about three days ( she doesn’t really eat veg but started to turn down live food too). I also noticed she hadn’t pooped either, obviously quite concerned I took her to a friend who is a beardie expert he said she could be egg bound as she is quite plump. So I took her to the vets who examined her and did an x ray and ultrasound but said he couldn’t see any eggs. He diagnosed her with impaction and said surgery was the best choice and scheduled it for five days after (For the record I don’t have sand I have newspaper so impaction wouldn’t be from that). I was obviously concerned and spoke to a few people that have beardies also. Anyway a couple days had passed and she decided to eat some wax worms (obviously I was doing EVERYTHING to help her naturally pass, from baby food to bath massages). She has been since (that was a week ago) however they’ve all been small poops since (not necessarily a bad thing). However I am beginning to think she was not and is not impacted but rather going into brumation. This has never happened to me since owning her (I’ve had her for 18 months ish and am obviously worried about everything). Could she be going into brumation? She has slowed down eating and pooping and is digging (with front legs not back) which could indicate eggs but the xrays confirm that’s not it. Could this be another sign of brumation? She still had been wanting to get out however and has a good run around when I let her out. She also still frequently basks- doesn’t just stay at the cold end and tonight even slept under her basking rock all snuggled up. I feel as if everything I read is contradicting what it could be, however if it was impaction I believe it would have fully passed by now- does this mean it’s brumation, please help!! She’s never brumated and it’s all quite overwhelming.

Anyone??

Since she's an adult it's less likely she is impacted. If you've been offering plenty of water and tried the olive oil drops and baby food applesauce etc then that should help her go if she's having trouble. It's good that eggs were ruled out by ultrasound and x-ray. Has her weight dropped at all? If not, then she may be trying to brumate as you suggested. They tend to eat less and be less active to varying degrees, but their weight should remain fairly stable since they slow their metabolism down.

Yes that’s what I was thinking. She hasn’t lost weight at all and still looks healthy. However she is staying under her basking light just chilling a lot more lately and being a lot less active. She doesn’t look unhealthy but is the fact that she is on the basking end mean it isn’t brumation? Or does that just mean that she could just be slowing down but wants a bit more heat for the minute. She’s also sleeping in the day quite a bit.

The slowdown doesn't necessarily mean they aren't going to bask or they will sleep constantly. They just kind of slow down overall to various degrees. This may just be the degree to which she's brumating. If she wants to sit and bask and relax, that seems fine to me as long as everything else looks good.

Okay thank you. What should I do? This is quite overwhelming as this is the first time anything like this has happened. Thanks for your replies.

Keep a log with her weight. Weigh her every few days to get data points and watch the trend. Her weight should remain fairly stable over time (no significant downward trend). You can offer water and food but she may not want it which is fine as long as her weight is stable.

Thank you!

My little one has done the same thing for the past couple of months. She's just less active now that it's winter time. She still eats and is very responsive to me, but she's just slowed down. The only thing that has concerned me, is that she hasn't gone to the bathroom in a while, but I've talked to several beardie people and they say that they tend to get like that the older they get, so I'm not too worried about it. I think your little one is okay. Just keep watching her, but this time of year, I've been told, is a typical time for them to slow down.

Okay, that’s good to hear. I’m very cautious so I’m always checking on her and looking for any alarming signs. Thank you