Steph31789
New member
Hello all, yesterday I took my 7-8 month old beardie to the vet. He had been staying in his hide all week if we took him out he would eat and bask but go back in his hide and sleep earlier. His beard was not black but he was pretty lethargic. I took him out of his tank one day and he did run around. His last poop was 8 days prior in the bath. He wasn’t too fond of baths and since he did not seem to be feeling well I had not given him a bath after. We took him to the vet and due to Covid we were not allowed in the vet called while we were in the car and said he would need critical care food and medication for a respiratory infection. He also wanted to do an enema to get a stool sample to send to the lab. I hung up the phone and within 10 minutes the vet tech came outside and asked me to come in. My dragon who was very much alert just minutes ago was now slumped over a heated water bag half unconscious. I asked if he was sedated they said no that he was in liver failure and that he had jaundice in his mouth. Within minutes my dragons belly started contracting it looked as if something was trying to break out of his belly. He did not release any feces or blood after the enema nothing at all came out. He started flopping around on the table his mouth open stretching his beard as if he was yelling but there was no sound. My heart was breaking and the vet was not doing anything. He said we could treat him. Once I saw him in so much pain I asked that we just put him down becuaee the vet could not explain what was happening. Before the vet could do anything my dragon stopped breathing on his own. His heart was still beating so he gave him a bit of gas anesthesia to stop it. I am so confused as to how we went from critical care food and a poop sample to my beardie dying a horrible painful death minutes after an enema. I am just looking for any insight or thoughts someone may have on what happened. I asked the vet if it was possible the enema tore is bowels or intestines causing him to poison himself with his feces and he said if that had happened we would have seen blood.
A day prior he had done a weird contracting of his beard while basking for about a minute straight it seemed Uncontrollable and his stomach was contracting as well. I would describe it as a gag no noise his mouth was closed.
We had been feeding my beardie meal worms a lot which once I found out was bad I ordered him Phoenix worms. He ate some veggies and fruits as well as crickets. How sand also had some Sand in it that came with the kit when we bought it. He had sand in his tank for about 2 months. Could he have been impacted and when he revived the enema tried to push and exploded his intestines? He did poop a week ago so I can’t imagine he was so impacted he would explode internally?? The vet did not initially do an X-ray when I came in I asked for one by then my beardie was already in horrible shape he said he did not see any tears on the X-ray and stuck with liver failure as cause of death.
A day prior he had done a weird contracting of his beard while basking for about a minute straight it seemed Uncontrollable and his stomach was contracting as well. I would describe it as a gag no noise his mouth was closed.
We had been feeding my beardie meal worms a lot which once I found out was bad I ordered him Phoenix worms. He ate some veggies and fruits as well as crickets. How sand also had some Sand in it that came with the kit when we bought it. He had sand in his tank for about 2 months. Could he have been impacted and when he revived the enema tried to push and exploded his intestines? He did poop a week ago so I can’t imagine he was so impacted he would explode internally?? The vet did not initially do an X-ray when I came in I asked for one by then my beardie was already in horrible shape he said he did not see any tears on the X-ray and stuck with liver failure as cause of death.