chemgrl08
Hatchling Member
Hi all. It is unfortunate, but my beardie is suffering from impaction. I have already taken her to the vet and am doing all I can but I wanted to share the info on this forum so that others can possibly learn from it.
Yoshi is a 2.5-3 yr old female beardie. She woke up from brumation, went poo a few times. and then just stopped pooing. She has had a normal appetite, is very active, but has not pooped for over a month. I first tried warm baths and rubbing her belly on my own. She would go back to her cage, attempt to poop (she did the little butt wiggle) but nothing would come out; maybe a very small amount. I cut her off from supers and crickets because I was worried it would build up more exoskeleton in her system (hard to digest.) Gave her lots of veggies (mostly kale and bok choy) but no go. Finally realized it was getting serious and took her to a vet (an exotics specialist.)
They took a couple of xrays and showed that her entire intestinal tract is full to the brim with poo! (It was really sad to see it!) The vet said it was a unique case though because the poo was distributed evenly, as opposed to a normal impaction which would show one spot that is blocked up (usually the stomach, he said.) It was impossible to distinguish the different parts of the intestine.
He was confused that her appetite was still normal, she was very active, and had no vomiting. If you saw her today, you wouldn't know anything was wrong! I only knew because I paid attention to her habits. He said he was going to email the case to a friend of his who "wrote the book on reptiles" since he thought it was an unusual case.
In the meantime, the vet prescribed 0.5mL of lactulose twice a day, along with tons of warm baths to attempt to hydrate her and soften the poo. He also told me to put her veggies in a blender and mix in metamucil (fiber) and colace (an over the counter laxative/stool softener for humans.) I have done all of the above for two days now; he said that three days would be the time to really look for some results, but if she didn't go in 5 days, the only alternative would be surgery. To make matters worse, it would be a complicated surgery too: they would have to carefully remove poo from the entire intestinal tract. They said this could be anywhere from $600 to $900 or more depending on how complicated it is (so probably on the higher range.)
I really can't pay for this surgery, and not to mention that if we never figure out what caused it in the first place, I think it could happen again, and I certainly don't have the financial stability to take care of a chronically ill beardie. In short, she really needs to poo in the next few days!
And if you are wondering, no, I don't use sand or walnuts or any of that for bedding. Yoshi lives on some nice tile I found at Home Depot on sale; she certainly couldn't have eaten those big things! (They are like 4" x 4") Underneath them are layered paper towels. She has been in the same setup her whole life since I got her (over 2 years) with regular changes to the UV bulb. I feed her superworms as a staple but with a higher proportion of veggies (usually kale and bok choy or baby bok choy.) The vet said she is a tad overweight (I must feed her too many bugs- who ever heard of getting fat from bugs and veggies?! lol)
So anyway, wanted to share this with you in case someone could learn from it. The metamucil and laxative tricks might be able to help someone in the future. Send some good karma our way! I'll keep y'all posted.
Yoshi is a 2.5-3 yr old female beardie. She woke up from brumation, went poo a few times. and then just stopped pooing. She has had a normal appetite, is very active, but has not pooped for over a month. I first tried warm baths and rubbing her belly on my own. She would go back to her cage, attempt to poop (she did the little butt wiggle) but nothing would come out; maybe a very small amount. I cut her off from supers and crickets because I was worried it would build up more exoskeleton in her system (hard to digest.) Gave her lots of veggies (mostly kale and bok choy) but no go. Finally realized it was getting serious and took her to a vet (an exotics specialist.)
They took a couple of xrays and showed that her entire intestinal tract is full to the brim with poo! (It was really sad to see it!) The vet said it was a unique case though because the poo was distributed evenly, as opposed to a normal impaction which would show one spot that is blocked up (usually the stomach, he said.) It was impossible to distinguish the different parts of the intestine.
He was confused that her appetite was still normal, she was very active, and had no vomiting. If you saw her today, you wouldn't know anything was wrong! I only knew because I paid attention to her habits. He said he was going to email the case to a friend of his who "wrote the book on reptiles" since he thought it was an unusual case.
In the meantime, the vet prescribed 0.5mL of lactulose twice a day, along with tons of warm baths to attempt to hydrate her and soften the poo. He also told me to put her veggies in a blender and mix in metamucil (fiber) and colace (an over the counter laxative/stool softener for humans.) I have done all of the above for two days now; he said that three days would be the time to really look for some results, but if she didn't go in 5 days, the only alternative would be surgery. To make matters worse, it would be a complicated surgery too: they would have to carefully remove poo from the entire intestinal tract. They said this could be anywhere from $600 to $900 or more depending on how complicated it is (so probably on the higher range.)
I really can't pay for this surgery, and not to mention that if we never figure out what caused it in the first place, I think it could happen again, and I certainly don't have the financial stability to take care of a chronically ill beardie. In short, she really needs to poo in the next few days!
And if you are wondering, no, I don't use sand or walnuts or any of that for bedding. Yoshi lives on some nice tile I found at Home Depot on sale; she certainly couldn't have eaten those big things! (They are like 4" x 4") Underneath them are layered paper towels. She has been in the same setup her whole life since I got her (over 2 years) with regular changes to the UV bulb. I feed her superworms as a staple but with a higher proportion of veggies (usually kale and bok choy or baby bok choy.) The vet said she is a tad overweight (I must feed her too many bugs- who ever heard of getting fat from bugs and veggies?! lol)
So anyway, wanted to share this with you in case someone could learn from it. The metamucil and laxative tricks might be able to help someone in the future. Send some good karma our way! I'll keep y'all posted.
It really just hit me today that I might lose her. 
