Glottis/esophagus

[lumpbump]

Anyone know of any diagrams of the mouth/esophagus/glottis of beardies? I have been syringe feeding one of my babies now for about a month and am thinking its time I cannulate her straight to her stomach and get it over and done with. Its gotta be stressful being force fed mouthful after mouthful. I'd rather just open her mouth once and inject the food directly into her stomach. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[StreetMoggy]

Are you wanting to go straight to the stomach because you think she really can't swallow it? or because you feel the method will be easier?
I'm not a vet! but in nursing, when it comes to humans, you always try and promote people to do as much as they can on their own. Which is why we hand feed people, and not just stick tubes in them.
They do much better when they can at least do a tiny part of their task, "use it or loose it" theory.

I would take this approach with your dragon, thickened liquids are the easiest to swallow, they don't go down too fast, so choking hazard is lessened.
If you do decide to try and feed into the stomach you can probably get past the epiglottis easily, (as long as the epiglottis is functioning normal. It covers the trachea, and in relaxed state leave esophagus open) But there is also the sphincter that opens and closes from the esophagus to the stomach, if you hurt that sphincter stomach acid can damage the lining in the esophagus.

All this info is based on human anatomy, but I do believe the basics of the digestive tract are pretty similar.

Maybe talk to your vet and they could teach you how to do it properly before you attempt on your own?
Good luck, I hope your beardie gets better!

 

[lumpbump]

I'm a paramedic. It is my job to stick tubes in people to save their lives I'm not wanting to do it for my convenience but my dragon does not lap at liquids. I have been opening her mouth with a syringe at least 20 times a day for the past month. She is getting bruising to her mouth and I'm worried that if I continue to force feed her that she will develop sores from the blunt trauma occurring multiple times a day. I am wanting to escalate my feeding method because she needs it not because I'm trying to make things convenient for me. There's nothing convenient about invasive procedures. I do invasive procedures for a living only when it is deemed necessary in my opinion after evidence and assessment. I practice evidence based pre hospital medicine.

 

[StreetMoggy]

ahhh ok well it sounds like you know what your doing! Trust your judgement then. I haven't read much on here about people taking that method, but maybe you could find something on the internet, even if it's a different reptile.
I hope it works!

 

[BeardiesOnBlast]

What are you feeding? My beardie has been off feed for 2 months now and he is losing allot of weight. I have been trying to feed him bugs by force but its impossible to get his mouth open an when I do he spits the food out. I tried him on Zilla jump start and he has gone down hill so I am getting some ocbow critical care. If you can also tell me how to get a tube down there that would be great so when you find out let me know please. He's busted his mouth already and I don't want him to get more hurt.

 

[lumpbump]

I was feeding a mix of reptaboost calcium powder and blended up dubia roaches. I never did find out how to tube her stomach. She died last week. She held on as long as she could.

 

[BeardiesOnBlast]

I'm sorry to hear that.