constipation or dangerous?

[jnamarie]

Last night I noticed my beardie had a firm-ish bump on her right side, near her ribs. At first I was worried it was a tumor or abcess, or constipation. I believe she developed this only a couple of days ago, as I had her out and about on the 19th this month and there was no bump. Her appetite has also been smaller. I’m very worried, and have had her for five years. Can somebody please help? I’ve given her two warm baths as of last night and put strawberries with some olive oil in her enclosure. She’s only eaten a few. I’ve misted her enclosure and very worriedly noticed that her enclosure thermometer is at 80F. Is this life threatening? I can’t seem to find answers, please help.

 

[jnamarie]

Hello,

Has she ever laid eggs before?
While the lump could be impaction, so you can definitely treat as
possible impaction. We recommend canned pumpkin, sugar free apple sauce, & either baby food squash or baby food sweet
potato along with a drop or two of olive or coconut oil.
If you make some lighting adjustments as suggested, that should help a lot as well.

Let us know how she is doing.
Tracie

hi! she’s never had eggs before. i’ve been treating it as impaction since sunday now. i’ve given her a bath and massage every day since saturday, and have been feeding her baby food of squash mixed with sweet potato and olive oil by syringe. currently i can’t get an entirely new lamp, but i have changed the bulb in my dual dome to have 2 uvb lights that are 100W. she always lays on the warmer side. i can’t get a thermometer, so i still don’t know if it’s the right temperature. is there something i’m doing wrong? i’m very worried.

 

[jnamarie]

hi! she’s never had eggs before. i’ve been treating it as impaction since sunday now. i’ve given her a bath and massage every day since saturday, and have been feeding her baby food of squash mixed with sweet potato and olive oil by syringe. currently i can’t get an entirely new lamp, but i have changed the bulb in my dual dome to have 2 uvb lights that are 100W. she always lays on the warmer side. i can’t get a thermometer, so i still don’t know if it’s the right temperature. is there something i’m doing wrong? i’m very worried.

also, does the time have anything to do with the feeding? i’ve been feeding her the baby food since monday, and i don’t get home until 6pm. yesterday i fed it to her at 9pm. today it was at 6pm. could that be a reason she won’t poop?

 

[AHBD]

No one can know for sure if she has eggs or if she's just a lit constipated. Having eggs would be a bigger deal but only xrays would tell you for sure but either way the adequate heat and uvb are mandatory to give her the health she needs for her body to deal with this. You'll need a digital thermometer with a probe to measure the temp. to be sure it's 100 on the basking side.

A little constipation is not a problem and will pass at some point. Even healthy dragons may not poo for 2 weeks or more at times. So be patient unless you want to have a vet see her. She lacks muscle tone in her legs so she is just a bit frail. She could probably benefit from a supplemental food called Oxbow critical care which you can get from a vet or online. Tracie might have more suggestions.

 

[jnamarie]

Last night I noticed my beardie had a firm-ish bump on her right side, near her ribs. At first I was worried it was a tumor or abcess, or constipation. I believe she developed this only a couple of days ago, as I had her out and about on the 19th this month and there was no bump. Her appetite has also been smaller. I’m very worried, and have had her for five years. Can somebody please help? I’ve given her two warm baths as of last night and put strawberries with some olive oil in her enclosure. She’s only eaten a few. I’ve misted her enclosure and very worriedly noticed that her enclosure thermometer is at 80F. Is this life threatening? I can’t seem to find answers, please help.

small update: after about four days, all of which i have given her baths and massaged her, she finally pooped. it wasn’t that much, however, and she still has a huge lump. i’ve been feeding her sweet potato baby mixed with squash baby food and olive oil since Monday. please excuse the gross pictures, her poop looks healthy to my knowledge!

 

[jnamarie]

No one can know for sure if she has eggs or if she's just a lit constipated. Having eggs would be a bigger deal but only xrays would tell you for sure but either way the adequate heat and uvb are mandatory to give her the health she needs for her body to deal with this. You'll need a digital thermometer with a probe to measure the temp. to be sure it's 100 on the basking side.

A little constipation is not a problem and will pass at some point. Even healthy dragons may not poo for 2 weeks or more at times. So be patient unless you want to have a vet see her. She lacks muscle tone in her legs so she is just a bit frail. She could probably benefit from a supplemental food called Oxbow critical care which you can get from a vet or online. Tracie might have more suggestions.

thank you! i posted a small update.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Oh my, that is a sizeable lump indeed. Are you able to get her to a vet, for an x-ray? It seems that it
cropped up pretty quickly? I am not convinced she has an impaction & it doesn't appear to follow the
usual physical look of eggs.
How is she acting, has she been very active or does the lump seem to be bothering her?

Tracie

 

[AHBD]

That's good that she poo'd ! But yes, these pictures are very different from the first ones that didn't show the bulge at all. She definitely needs to see a vet ASAP. This bulge was not apparent until these pics and there is nothing anyone here can do.

Except we will be pulling for your girl of course and hope that a proper diagnosis and possible solution can be found !

 

[jnamarie]

Hello,

Oh my, that is a sizeable lump indeed. Are you able to get her to a vet, for an x-ray? It seems that it
cropped up pretty quickly? I am not convinced she has an impaction & it doesn't appear to follow the
usual physical look of eggs.
How is she acting, has she been very active or does the lump seem to be bothering her?

Tracie

unfortunately, i am not able to get her to the vet. she hasn’t been eating and isn’t moving around much anymore. she was a little bit last night after her bath, but still has been sleeping all day. i’m unsure if the lump is bothering her, because she lays on it fine when sleeping. but i do think that she’s uncomfortable with it.

 

[jnamarie]

That's good that she poo'd ! But yes, these pictures are very different from the first ones that didn't show the bulge at all. She definitely needs to see a vet ASAP. This bulge was not apparent until these pics and there is nothing anyone here can do.

Except we will be pulling for your girl of course and hope that a proper diagnosis and possible solution can be found !

i’ll definitely start looking to see if the vet is an option, but as of right now the chances of that are very slim. is there any small idea on what it could be? i’ve been researching this whole time and impaction was the closest thing i could find. how much would an x-ray cost?

 

[AHBD]

Impaction wouln't cause just one side to bulge out, plus she passed a stool yesterday. It's possible that she may have a tumor growing.

 

[jnamarie]

Impaction wouln't cause just one side to bulge out, plus she passed a stool yesterday. It's possible that she may have a tumor growing.

there’s no discoloration, though. the pictures i’ve seen have discoloration….

 

[AHBD]

Which pictures have discoloration ? Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. A tumor could possibly growing in her body wheere you can't see it, but see the bulging of it. An xray is probably a few hundred dollars at most.

 

[jnamarie]

Which pictures have discoloration ? Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. A tumor could possibly growing in her body wheere you can't see it, but see the bulging of it. An xray is probably a few hundred dollars at most.

i’ve tried to search up pictures of bearded dragons with tumors and abcesses. a lot of them have a darker discoloration, which made me believe it wasn’t a tumor and was impaction in the first place. but i think it is best if i just go through with the x-ray and see if it’s even possible right now. i’ve seen that an x-ray can cost from $125-$300, and i plan just to go to pet smart because they have a reptile vet there. i’m going to try and raise enough money to go through with the xray and possible surgery. have you ever done that with your beardie? what was the rough estimate of how much it was?

 

[AHBD]

No I haven't, I've just seen them here on the forum over the years.

 

[jnamarie]

No I haven't, I've just seen them here on the forum over the years.

i understand. thank you so much. i have around $370 saved and will try to raise more. if it gets very bad, we have to give her up and take her to an animal rescue facility.