Came home and found her dead

[xoerika620xo]

I thought we were making progress, she was eating well, more active her temps were perfect, i don't know where things went wrong. I came home in the afternoon yesterday after running errands and before i went to eat lunch i wanted to feed kerwin. Every morning i left her veggies out but she would not touch them, before it was only with baby food she would lick them but she was not budging anymore so i knew when i saw the plate full of veggies it was to be expected. I noticed she was on her basking rock again and had not moved all day from there. The day before i noticed she was on her rock and when i moved her to the cool side, she just went right back to her rock after a while. I just thought maybe she loved that rock so much because she slept on it, basked on it, did everything and it worried me the rock would be too hot for her underbelly (it wasn't a heating rock but it did seem to warm up). After finding her on her rock again, i went to pick her up and noticed she wasn't moving and her eyes were halfway open, her mouth also was a tiny bit open on one side and there was poop ontop of the rock and on the floor. i panicked i started shaking her seeing if she was sleeping but i knew she wasn't. she was dead.....Is it possible she could have burned up on that rock? it is 8 inches away from the uvb lamp and even farther from the uva. i feel horrible, like i let her down. I wanted everything to be perfect for her so everything that was wrong with her cage before i changed, i bought her vitamins, pheonix worms changed her uvb light to a repti sun..... I just don't know what went wrong.

 

[Taterbug]

I'm so sorry to hear you lost your little one.

You did a great job fixing her setup for her and hopefully her time with you was far more comfortable than her previous life. Sometimes there are things we cannot detect or fix, unfortunately.

From reading your other posts it sounds like she may have had a hard life before coming to you, and maybe had some hidden problems. Her brumation symptoms may have been an indication of some deeper problem, but without a longer history and vet tests like bloodwork it may difficult to tell. Sometimes reptiles will do the same sort of behavior (slowing the metabolism, sleeping, trying to keep cool) to slow down illness. She did sound otherwise quite healthy and it's very reasonable to think it would be brumation, and it very well could have been and something else entirely took her in the end.

Do you know what temperature the rock got? It's unlikely it got hot enough to damage her if it was unpowered and the other temps were correct.

Gruesome as it sounds a necropsy by a vet may be the only way to get a good idea of what went wrong.

 

[xoerika620xo]

I'm so sorry to hear you lost your little one.

You did a great job fixing her setup for her and hopefully her time with you was far more comfortable than her previous life. Sometimes there are things we cannot detect or fix, unfortunately.

From reading your other posts it sounds like she may have had a hard life before coming to you, and maybe had some hidden problems. Her brumation symptoms may have been an indication of some deeper problem, but without a longer history and vet tests like bloodwork it may difficult to tell. Sometimes reptiles will do the same sort of behavior (slowing the metabolism, sleeping, trying to keep cool) to slow down illness. She did sound otherwise quite healthy and it's very reasonable to think it would be brumation, and it very well could have been and something else entirely took her in the end.

Do you know what temperature the rock got? It's unlikely it got hot enough to damage her if it was unpowered and the other temps were correct.

Gruesome as it sounds a necropsy by a vet may be the only way to get a good idea of what went wrong.

I believe it did have something to with her previous life, they are family but they were mis informed. they used red lights, she didn't get any vitamins, and she wasn't fed vegetables at all. Mainly crickets, pinkys, and horn worms. Her uvb was a repti glow and she had sand in her enclosure. the rock's temperature was 120 degrees and her body temp was 135 the rest of the tank was at 100 degrees and her cool side was 89 degrees when i checked.

 

[Tonja]

I am so sorry to hear about your beardie, It's always so hard when you lose a pet. Your beardie is now an angel sitting on your shoulder after having left her footprints all over your heart. I lost my Geico 3 days after this past Christmas. I have my suspicions as to why <long story> and it does get a bit easier with time. You will never forget but can move on with fond memories and not so much heartache. I buried him in the garden and still say goodnight to my sleeping prince <that's what I call him now> and tell him I will be with him again someday. Just hold onto the fact that not all beardies will let you know something is wrong until its to late and its not your fault. They are great at hiding illness and pain. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

 

[xoerika620xo]

I am so sorry to hear about your beardie, It's always so hard when you lose a pet. Your beardie is now an angel sitting on your shoulder after having left her footprints all over your heart. I lost my Geico 3 days after this past Christmas. I have my suspicions as to why <long story> and it does get a bit easier with time. You will never forget but can move on with fond memories and not so much heartache. I buried him in the garden and still say goodnight to my sleeping prince <that's what I call him now> and tell him I will be with him again someday. Just hold onto the fact that not all beardies will let you know something is wrong until its to late and its not your fault. They are great at hiding illness and pain. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Thank you so much your words truly touched my heart.

 

[Tonja]

You are very welcome. Hope things are getting a bit easier for you.