another sick beardie

[Treehorn]

How old is your dragon? About 15 months.
How long have you had your dragon? About 12 months or more (bought from breeder)
How long is your dragon? 16 inches
What is the sex of your dragon? Female
What size enclosure do you have your dragon in? 65 gallon
What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank? Hard hodge-podge homemade
Do you use UVB lights? yes
If so, Is it a coil, compact, fluorescent tube, or Mercury Vapor bulb? tube
What is the brand name and number of your bulb? Wattage (if MVB)? 36” Zoomed Reptisun 10.0 25w
How old is your UVB bulb? 2 weeks
How close can your dragon get to the UVB? 12-15 inches
Do you use a separate basking bulb? What kind and what is the wattage? Zoomed basking spot 150w
What are the basking temps? 111
What is the cool side temp? 85-95
Do you take the temps with a stick on thermometer, a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end or a temp gun? Probe and also temp gun
Where exactly are you taking your basking temps? Probe wrapped around log where she sits
Do you use a heat rock or heat pad? no
What do you feed your dragon? Please be specific. Ususally dubia & crickets w/ blueberries, strawberries, & kale.
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)? Every morning at 8:30, evenings a bit more irregular.
Do you gutload (feed) your crickets, worms, etc? Roaches are fed well a varied diet but not calcium
Do you use vitamin or calcium supplements? What brand(s)? How many days a week do you use each of them? Dusting every other day with calcium. 2-3 times a month with reptivite.
Is your dragon having regular bowel movements (poops)? No, not in over a week!
Do you bath your dragon? How often? Usually 2-3 times a week. Lately 2 times a day to try a promote BM.
Do you mist your dragon or offer water other than in the bath? She will lap from a small bowl in her viv if I offer it.
Does your dragon share an enclosure with another dragon? no
Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done? Can’t get a BM to test

For about two weeks I noticed my beardie started going off her crickets and roaches. Eating less than normal and getting lethargic. I gave it a few more days and was convinced that this was exactly the same behaviour that she exhibited when she had coccidia 6-months ago. Rather than doing a fecal and consulting the vet I stupidly decided that since I still have the Toltrazuril left over from last time so I put her on 5 day treatment of that followed by a 5 day treatment of Reptaid. Don’t slam me too hard for medicating without consulting a vet. I feel like an ***** already about that and don’t need to be reminded that it wasn’t a good idea. At the time it made sense to me.

At this point she would still eat the occasional small dubia at the rate of 1 a day. I started to wonder if she was just boared of her food so I picked up some wax worms. She will gobble these up as many as I will offer her but I will only give her 2-4 at a time because I heard they are like candy and high in fat. Thinking this confirmed my theory about being board I bought some superworms. She has never had them before but I thought since she is bigger now I would give her some. She loved them and gobbled up four that evening and another 5 the next day.

This is when I started to realize that she had not pooped in a couple days. Also I was reading about brumation and with her hiding her face and such I thought maybe I should try to get her to poop and give her a hide. Thinking that if I take a poop to the vet it will settle this mess once and for all. No poop in site.

It’s been another 4 days without a BM. Giving 2 baths a day for 4-days+. Giving baby food for 4-days. Giving olive oil for 4-days. Also will still eat occasional wax worm if offered.

I will make an appointment with the vet in the AM.

What do you do if she won’t poop? X-ray to explore for blockage or impaction?

She does not look skiny or unhealthy. No prolapsed vent. Just looks sad and won’t poop.

Any thoughts?

 

[Beardednoob]

Still could be brumation, even the act of defecation doesn't happen as much. Where do you live? How has your outside weather been?
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Reptiles-704/2008/1/bearded-dragon-brumation.htm
Best of luck..

 

[Treehorn]

We are just outside of Toronto. For sure the weather has turned cooler over the last few weeks. Seeing signs of weather changing.

I put a hide inside her cage but I have a few concerns;
1. She is in the hide but I can see that during the day she has her eyes open
2. I have read not to let them brumate without gettng fecal test and without having them do a BM
3. If brumation is likely cause do I stop offering food all together? or do I continute to offer but not be concerned if she ignores?

 

[MALIBUSMOM]

have you tried soaking her in warm water?I use a kitty litter pan fill about 3-4 inches.
Also you can try lowering your temps to 100-101 sometimes as beardies get older they do not like it so hot.Malibu will not bask if temps are over 100.

 

[Treehorn]

Thanks for the reply.

I've been doing 1-2 baths a day since I became concerned about her lack of BM.

I will try and lower temps. I have a 100w basking bulb that I can switch for the 150w. I'll see where that puts the temps.

 

[mdtalley22]

How long do you bath your beardie? I usually let mine soak for about 15 minutes unless he poos before that. And you haven't felt anything in her belly? No lumps or anything?

 

[Treehorn]

15-20 mins. No lumps. soft belly. I'm booked to go to the vet tomorrow afternoon.
I assume she will do an x-ray.

 

[Treehorn]

My wife reports that she spent the whole day in her new hide but caught her scratching, not napping. Is that a sign of brumation or something else?

 

[MALIBUSMOM]

Could be egg laying.....has she been mated?Not thta she needs to be mated to lay.
But before they lay they will slow down on eating and not poop...but usually malibu runs around like a mad women trying to look for a mate before about a week before she lays.She will leave little presents of just white looking substance.
I also leave Malibu in the bath till she either poops or crawls out.
My viv is about the same size as yours and i use a 60 or 40 watt housebulb for basking 100watt maybe stilltoo hot,,,depending on how high her basking spot is.
A good way to tell if its the temps is to shut off the basking light for a couple hours and place her on her spot if she stays ther under the UVB then temps may be to hot.

 

[Treehorn]

Definately not mated.

But it seems to me about 3-4 weeks ago she was going crazy up and down the glass and climbing. I said something and my wife said she does that all the time. It thought it was a bit excessive.

Since Im at the vet today I will ask for a x-ray.

 

[Treehorn]

I took her to the vet.

No x-ray. The vet did a physical exam and said there were no eggs.

The vet was concerned about her belly seeming big and perhaps "full of fluid" and suggested egg-yolk peritonitis as a possibility. I didnt think her belly looked any different than usual.

because she had not pooped in so long she suggested an anema. While preparing the anema izzy did a big poop on the examination table. What a laugh. It was like "your not sticking that up my butt-here's your poop- now leave me alone"

There was hard chalk like urate even though I have been giving daily baths, olive oil, & baby food.

Vet gave the anema anyway because it has been so very long since a poop. She said there was likely more to come.

Today the vet called and said the stool was "no paracites found".

Perhaps she is trying to brumate. Im not convinced on the big belly egg-yolk peritonitis thing. seemed like a stab in the dark. The vet did say if it was that Izzy should present looking much more ill than she is. Right now she is standing on all fours, holding her head up, alert. Just lazy and not eating.

Brumation seems more likely at this point. An will clean stool I feel better about letting her hide.

 

[Beardednoob]

LOL "Heres your poop". :roll: Still keep up posted.

 

[diamc]

Hi, I also have to agree that it sounds like the temps are too high. Usually when they are 12 mo old and older, they prefer cooler temps. All of my adults like the basking temp no higher than 102 to 103 otherwise they won't bask. I do think it would be a good idea to try the 100 watt bulb or you might find that you need to go down to a 75 watt. A lower wattage bulb than the 150 watt will also help to lower the cool side temps which are actually too high at 85 to 95. Those temp should actually be between 78 to 82 in order to allow them to thermo-regulate properly.

I noticed that your Repti-Sun is 12 to 15 inches away which is really too far. The recommend distance is 6 to 8" so lowering that may help with her health and activity level. For a 15 mo old, calcium should be used 2 to 3 days a wk rather than 4 to 5 times a wk and the vitamins should be given once a wk. With the UVB so far away it really wasn't allowing the calcium to be synthesized correctly so her body wasn't able to absorb all the calcium she was given so adjusting the supplements might make a difference in her too and helping with the lethargy. Too much calcium can also cause hard urates.

Please be sure to keep us updated on her.