Hi all,
It's been a crazy weekend in our lizard-loving house.... I'm writing to seek your advice about our younger beardie, Salsa, who has had a rough go of things in terms of pooping and her GI tract. When we adopted her a year ago she had a host of problems with parasites, which were very persistent, and it took us more than 6 months to get her in the clear. During that time she was on a combination of meds, panacur/SMZ/metronodizal and finally ponzaril which ended up clearing the coccidia.
Ever since then, she has never really been on a very good pooping schedule. At best it was once every 3-4 days (when she was on a kind of calcionate syrup .01ml twice a day) the longest go was nearly 3 weeks, and then only induced by enema.
This Sat. we took her to the vet because she hadn't pooped in nearly 2.5 weeks. Aside from the not pooping, she was seeming happy, basking, she had eaten 3 large hornworms the night before. The vet gave her an enema (which she had had in the past and pooped no problem and then felt much better). The problem was this time she didn't poop within 2 hours, then they tried to give her another enema, but it wouldn't take. Meanwhile, they brought her back to me pale as can be with jet black beard and tale, limp and lethargic. I was terrified. When the black beard didn't go away, they gave her a small injection to help relieve her pain it was metacam. We went went home and 3 hours later she was still jet black, they called us to check and told us to bring her back so they could give her a shot to stimulate her GI tract--it was something called reglan (metoclopramide). She perked up a little after that shot--enough to run from the sun to the shade when we brought her outside, but still no poop, and by the time we brought her home she was limp again. Her black beard went away in her sleep and her color improved by the morning
We gave her 2 more doses of the reglan orally, and she finally pooped in her bath on Sun. morning. It's now Tues. and she still isn't her regular self. We brought her back to the vet to have an ultrasound, and the vet said the results were inconclusive, and is waiting to hear more opinions from other vets with more expertise in reptiles. The ultrasound person thought the spleen might be enlarged but wasn't sure, and also thought the wall of the colon was thick/full of fluid.
We're waiting for more information. In the meanwhile, I'm curious if anyone else has had similar experiences--have your beardies' GI tracts never been the same after long boughts/fights with parasites? Has anyone's lizard reacted so badly to an enema?
We're feeding her critical/carnivore care by oral syringe, since she's not much interested in greens or worms, and waiting for next steps from the vet. They also gave us more calcionate syrup, and upped the dosage to.4ml (Salsa weighs about 440 now).
It would be great to hear from other people who have some experience in these things.
Best wishes,
Jan
It's been a crazy weekend in our lizard-loving house.... I'm writing to seek your advice about our younger beardie, Salsa, who has had a rough go of things in terms of pooping and her GI tract. When we adopted her a year ago she had a host of problems with parasites, which were very persistent, and it took us more than 6 months to get her in the clear. During that time she was on a combination of meds, panacur/SMZ/metronodizal and finally ponzaril which ended up clearing the coccidia.
Ever since then, she has never really been on a very good pooping schedule. At best it was once every 3-4 days (when she was on a kind of calcionate syrup .01ml twice a day) the longest go was nearly 3 weeks, and then only induced by enema.
This Sat. we took her to the vet because she hadn't pooped in nearly 2.5 weeks. Aside from the not pooping, she was seeming happy, basking, she had eaten 3 large hornworms the night before. The vet gave her an enema (which she had had in the past and pooped no problem and then felt much better). The problem was this time she didn't poop within 2 hours, then they tried to give her another enema, but it wouldn't take. Meanwhile, they brought her back to me pale as can be with jet black beard and tale, limp and lethargic. I was terrified. When the black beard didn't go away, they gave her a small injection to help relieve her pain it was metacam. We went went home and 3 hours later she was still jet black, they called us to check and told us to bring her back so they could give her a shot to stimulate her GI tract--it was something called reglan (metoclopramide). She perked up a little after that shot--enough to run from the sun to the shade when we brought her outside, but still no poop, and by the time we brought her home she was limp again. Her black beard went away in her sleep and her color improved by the morning
We gave her 2 more doses of the reglan orally, and she finally pooped in her bath on Sun. morning. It's now Tues. and she still isn't her regular self. We brought her back to the vet to have an ultrasound, and the vet said the results were inconclusive, and is waiting to hear more opinions from other vets with more expertise in reptiles. The ultrasound person thought the spleen might be enlarged but wasn't sure, and also thought the wall of the colon was thick/full of fluid.
We're waiting for more information. In the meanwhile, I'm curious if anyone else has had similar experiences--have your beardies' GI tracts never been the same after long boughts/fights with parasites? Has anyone's lizard reacted so badly to an enema?
We're feeding her critical/carnivore care by oral syringe, since she's not much interested in greens or worms, and waiting for next steps from the vet. They also gave us more calcionate syrup, and upped the dosage to.4ml (Salsa weighs about 440 now).
It would be great to hear from other people who have some experience in these things.
Best wishes,
Jan
How is she doing today?
