Beardie Impacted???? Cloaca vent open and looks swollen!! Hind legs paralyzed!!! Please help!

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Hi!

My beardie is 2 years old. He lives in a 55 gallon tank without substrate. We use a liner. He has the ZooMed 10.O and the Exoterra solar glow 125watt lights. He gets fed dubia roaches and collard greens. We attempt to feed every other day usually but he eats kind of when he wants.

We noticed tonight he looked sad, like he was dying. So we gave him some water thinking he was dehydrated. He doesn’t have a water dish in his tank because he never uses it, so he gets waters from regular bathing and his greens. He chuggggged the water. We decided to keep the bowl in their because he is dehydrated for sure. Not sure if he’ll go for it.

We then noticed his head and hind legs twitching. Especially his hind legs. We’ve never seen that before, so we took him out to see if he could walk, and he can’t move his hind legs or tail at all.

After putting him back, he appeared like he was going to poop so we picked him and put him in a warm bath to help pass. We massaged his chest to help with the passing since he seems like he can’t move his legs to help push.

To no avail, he did not poop. But now his cloaca/anus vent is open and looks swollen. His hind legs and tail are still not moving.

We placed a soft towel in his tank for the night so he wouldn’t rub the opening on any wood or slate in the tank.

He’s asleep now but we’re really sad cause we think he’s dying.

He has also has this bump (like stacked shed that won’t fall off, it bleeds if we try to scrape it) on his back that’s been there since he’s been like 6months old, that we’ve had checked by a vet, and all they did was cut it off and give us cream for it. We believe it’s cancer and has been spreading, bur unfortunately we can’t afford to do much about it, so we just do warm bath to help the skin shed. It’s now spread to the tail and almost to the hind legs.

Thank you for any advice you can give. I am planning to get natural laxatives like the raw canned pumpkin and baby food, and my boyfriend is going to get new lights for the tank in case it’s inadequate lighting.
 

xanothebeardie

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7B279A32-1FAF-4E88-BEBB-304DAD39D7F9.jpeg
 

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xanothebeardie

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In the last photo, you can kind of see the bump on his back. If you’d like a top view of the bump, I can take one in the morning and post it! Thank you
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
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Hello,

Poor thing, I'm sorry he is having trouble. What could have impacted him, too large of a food item?
How often have you given calcium to him?
Definitely, if he is still with you, overall body pictures would be good. It sounds like this is rather sudden.
Could he have fallen from somewhere & injured himself?
For a wound on his scales, you can try some raw, unpasteurized honey daily to help with infection. Let
us know how he is doing.

Tracie
 

xanothebeardie

Member
Original Poster
Hello,

Poor thing, I'm sorry he is having trouble. What could have impacted him, too large of a food item?
How often have you given calcium to him?
Definitely, if he is still with you, overall body pictures would be good. It sounds like this is rather sudden.
Could he have fallen from somewhere & injured himself?
For a wound on his scales, you can try some raw, unpasteurized honey daily to help with infection. Let
us know how he is doing.

Tracie
When we were massaging his chest, we could feel something there and not sure if it was the impaction. He hasn’t had any roaches the past week, cause he has been refusing them. But he’s ate collard greens, I think I may have not ripped them up small enough and my bf rips them up really small but then he eats it in a stack.

We give calcium once a week (my bf usually does this so I’m not 100% sure of when he gets it, but he gets it regularly) just by dousing the roaches or greens in a plate with calcium.

However, we researched earlier that when they poop and have a lot of white stuff come out it means he isn’t properly intaking the calcium and it could be due to lighting. His last two poops a couple weeks ago had a ton of calcium so we don’t think he’s been properly ingesting it.

I will post pictures in the morning of him (i’m on the west coast), since he’s asleep at the moment.

I’ll definitely grab some honey too for his wound! We’ve only ever used the cream the vet provided but it didn’t seem to do anything.

Do you have any suggestions for the cloaca? I’m grabbing some raw sugar tomorrow to do a cool sugar soak on him, per research we found.
 

xanothebeardie

Member
Original Poster
Here’s the pic of his lump.
 

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xanothebeardie

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@AHBD
@CooperDragon
@Drache613
I recommend a vet ASAP- here is a website to find a vet www.arav.org
If you are in a small town type in a bigger cities zip code -- NO enemas unless its absolutely necessary
where is your UVB ? top of screen or inside the tank ? and is it a T 5 or a T 8 ?
Our light was on top of tank over the mesh. It’s a t10. We realized after this happened the mesh could be interfering with him receiving adequate light, so we removed the mesh.

He got a sugar soak this morning and we fed him raw puree pumpkin to hopefully help him pass. We tried to push back in the cloaca, but it just kept coming back out.

Unfortunately, at the moment we cant afford vet service because of a previous situation.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Aw, poor baby. What size were the roaches he was eating last time, it's important to see so post pics of the roach next to him tom show size relative to the dragon. The impaction would not be caused by greens, those are digested much more easily than a large insect. Are there any fake plants in the tank that he might have eaten ? Keep feeding him raw pumpkin and the best thing for both his wound on his back as well as his cloaca is raw, unpasteurized honey . Apply it to the back and then also in the cloaca. Feed it to him along with the pumpkin as well. Then the next day give him a warmer than usual bath , that can stimulate them to poo. Remember the honey must be raw + unpasteurized.
 

xanothebeardie

Member
Original Poster
Aw, poor baby. What size were the roaches he was eating last time, it's important to see so post pics of the roach next to him tom show size relative to the dragon. The impaction would not be caused by greens, those are digested much more easily than a large insect. Are there any fake plants in the tank that he might have eaten ? Keep feeding him raw pumpkin and the best thing for both his wound on his back as well as his cloaca is raw, unpasteurized honey . Apply it to the back and then also in the cloaca. Feed it to him along with the pumpkin as well. Then the next day give him a warmer than usual bath , that can stimulate them to poo. Remember the honey must be raw + unpasteurized.
DCA2B330-2D0E-465A-B700-756FAAAAB040.jpeg

This is normally the size he receives, but he hasn’t had roaches in over a week. He’s been refusing them. However, he also hasn’t pooped in over week too…

I will have to grab the raw unpasteurized honey from a different store. There wasn’t any at the store I went too today for the pumpkin.

Do you have a recommendation for how much of the pumpkin he should be eating? He barely would take it today and we had to force feed him.
 

xanothebeardie

Member
Original Poster
View attachment 66956
This is normally the size he receives, but he hasn’t had roaches in over a week. He’s been refusing them. However, he also hasn’t pooped in over week too…

I will have to grab the raw unpasteurized honey from a different store. There wasn’t any at the store I went too today for the pumpkin.

Do you have a recommendation for how much of the pumpkin he should be eating? He barely would take it today and we had to force feed him.
BUT! Sometimes he doesn’t even chew the greens and just swallows? Could that make it harder for him to ingest greens?
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

How is he doing? How long has the tail looked like that, did he get burned somehow?
If he is not eating well, you could consider making a nutritional slurry to get some food into him. Use chicken or turkey
baby food mixed with squash or sweet potato baby food & drip it onto the end of his nose.
Did you find the unpasteurized honey for him?

Tracie
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
BUT! Sometimes he doesn’t even chew the greens and just swallows? Could that make it harder for him to ingest greens?
Please take Tracies advice shes our vet tech on here --- if hes not chewing something is not good there so the slurries would be best for him - add some honey to that slurry he may take it better - a drop or two for taste -- I think it would just take longer for the greens to digest not being chewed
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

How are things going for your boy? Has he been eating very well yet? Please keep us posted on his progress,
we all hope that he is improving.

Tracie
 

Hazel_Basil10

Sub-Adult Member
Beardie name(s)
Hazel my female two year old beardie
Hello!

I'm sorry about your beardie. I have one and shes nice and healthy But my dad is an expert at these reptiles and the lump on his back needs to be treated ASAP. If you don't treat it, then he'll have a shorter lifespan and the Swollen Cloaca means that the poop is stuck. but if you soak him in warm water, then it should swell down and he should be pooping again. If that doesn't help, then He needs to go to the Vet and they could get rid of the impaction. Because of how swollen it is, it has paralyized his legs and tail because of the impaction.

Tell me if this helps!
 
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