Beardie Poo

[leMatt]

Hi guys,

This is kind of a follow up to: http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=104783. Wally finally had a bowel movement this morning (hurray!!!). I just wanted to check up on a couple of things (I can't find my camera, so I'll give a shot at describing it).

The majority of excrement is a soft dark brown mass, and theres a long hard white part in the middle, is that the 'urate?' I can't see any undigested bits of food, which is good, but I was wondering about the smell. Do most beardie's have pretty pungent smelling poop?

I just want to make sure that there isn't anything terrible going on with his poo (just because it took so long to come). Thanks for all of the reassurance and help that you guys have offered so far, this is a great community!!!

Cheers,

Matt

 

[diamc]

[Moved here from General Discussion forum]

Hi Matt, glad to hear that he had a poop for you. With the way you described it, sounds like he was at least somewhat dehydrated. None of the poop, should be like a mass or hard. The brown part should be soft and have some liquid with it. The white part (the urate) should not be hard like chalk or be rubbery. I would suggest you give a bath twice a day until he is pooping on a daily basis and it becomes more easier for him to pass.

Another issue with the pooping is temperatures and calcium. If you're using any type of stick-on thermometer like a strip or round gauge, then you're not getting accurate readings. The only 2 ways to get good readings are with either a temperature gun or a digital thermometer with a long wire & probe end. With a 4 month old beardie, you should be dusting with calcium with D3 but phosphorus-free 5 days a wk, but only 1 feeding a day and with vitamins the other 2 days a wk, but only 1 feeding a day. If you're dusting more frequently than that, it can make the urates hard and more difficult to pass.

Also, if the poop is very smelly, then it's very possible that your beardie has parasites. If you've had him for longer than 2 wks, it would be a good idea to have a poop sample checked.

 

[bayoupig5]

Hi guys,

This is kind of a follow up to: http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=104783. Wally finally had a bowel movement this morning (hurray!!!). I just wanted to check up on a couple of things (I can't find my camera, so I'll give a shot at describing it).

The majority of excrement is a soft dark brown mass, and theres a long hard white part in the middle, is that the 'urate?' I can't see any undigested bits of food, which is good, but I was wondering about the smell. Do most beardie's have pretty pungent smelling poop?

I just want to make sure that there isn't anything terrible going on with his poo (just because it took so long to come). Thanks for all of the reassurance and help that you guys have offered so far, this is a great community!!!

Cheers,

Matt

Beardie poop is notorious with smell. My little Em is about 10 weeks and for the most part has a little odor to the poop if the sack around it remains sealed. If that sack opens though, watch out.

The white is urate. A normal poop will be well formed, digested, not dry, with a white urate, so your poop description sounds healthy.

If you notice that the poop is more pungent than usual it could/may indicate a parasite infestation. So if a fecal has not been done recently you may want to get one done, just as a baseline just to make sure all is well. However, if your dragon is eating well and alert, I would figure everything is normal.

 

[leMatt]

diamc:

We use a digital thermometer with a probe at each end of the tank. Right now they are at 108 under his basking spot, and 79 on the cool end; these are typical temps (give or take 2 or 3 degrees). We've been dusting his food with reptocal and herptivite at the suggested intervals, although with his lack of appetite the first few days it's not surprising that he would be missing a bit of the benefit from them. Also, we've been giving him daily baths, but if we should up it to twice daily we will do that (we were just going once a day to minimize contact with him as he gets settled in).

He's been very lethargic since we got him (just under a week ago), but we've mostly chalked that up to relocation stress.. he has a vet apt on Thursday, so with any luck he'll have another bowel movement before then that we can get analyzed.

Thanks for the help and all the info guys!

Matt