Freaking out. 6 month old beardie passed brown and runny urate, soft stool. Has been lethargic

[MochiMom]

Please help. Mochi is my first beardie. I adopted him from PetSmart in July and based on his size I guess that he is about 6 months old now. It’s been a learning process having him. I recently relocated his enclosure to be farther away from the home heat vents so that his humidity levels weren’t so low. That caused him some stress. But separate from that he has been acting sort of lethargic and sleepy, but I associated that with him shedding (he is currently doing a partial shed on his tail). He’s been using his floor heat mats more as well. He didn’t eat much of his night meal yesterday but I hand fed him mealworms as a treat earlier that he ate so I associated it with that. Today he refused to move to eat his morning meal and sort of flinched away from me when I went to pet him. I went to check on him and he had a soft BM and his urate was all brown and it smelled BAD. This is extremely abnormal. His BM is usually soft but his urate is usually all white. Please help. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Austinnnnn23]

Do you have a UVB bulb on the tank if not that would be the first thing baby beardies are a little more difficult to take care of because they can be extreamy picky with food and other things. My only other guess is that the change in humidity really affected him because bearded dragons live in a very low humidity environment so maybe the humidity spiking has caused some sort of shock. If I were you I would move the tank back to where it was and put some greens and insects for him to eat if he feels like it I would also recomend getting an external heat bulb instead of heat mats.

 

[MochiMom]

Do you have a UVB bulb on the tank if not that would be the first thing baby beardies are a little more difficult to take care of because they can be extreamy picky with food and other things. My only other guess is that the change in humidity really affected him because bearded dragons live in a very low humidity environment so maybe the humidity spiking has caused some sort of shock. If I were you I would move the tank back to where it was and put some greens and insects for him to eat if he feels like it I would also recomend getting an external heat bulb instead of heat mats.

I have a full set up with UV and heat bulbs. I have heat mats for him to keep warm at night since I live somewhere it gets pretty cold at night, even with heating systems but he’s taken to lying on them in the day as well. He’s normally an excellent eater but has been very lazy with his eating. Unless the mealworm or crickets come to him he doesn’t want them and he turns his nose up at the greens he normally loves.

 

[KarrieRee]

I have a full set up with UV and heat bulbs. I have heat mats for him to keep warm at night since I live somewhere it gets pretty cold at night, even with heating systems but he’s taken to lying on them in the day as well. He’s normally an excellent eater but has been very lazy with his eating. Unless the mealworm or crickets come to him he doesn’t want them and he turns his nose up at the greens he normally loves.

Please go over the surface basking temps-- how are you taking them - digital probe thermometers are the most accurate - they should be 95-100 -- NO coils for UVB they are inadequate - this will effect appetite and stool -- please get rid of the heat mats and invest in a ceramic heat emitter -- what size is the tank? Please get a digital probe hygrometer for accurate humidity -- placed on the back center wall of the tank -- nothing below 20% and over 70% - optimal humidity is 40-50% -- I can post links for anything you need

 

[xp29]

If his poo is really stinky, collect a sample and drop it off at the vet. Here it runs about 45 dollars. Take it in within 24 hours of him going poo. Donot let the vet do an enema under any circumstance, they can really injure or kill your beardie.
Smelly poo can be a sign of parasites

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I agree, just to be sure everything is good, a fecal is usually the best idea just to determine
if there is a heavy load of worms or parasites.
He might have eaten too many mealworms which could have caused an upset tummy perhaps.
As Karrie requested, please review your type/brand of UVB for us, along with pictures so we can
be sure it is all correct.

Tracie