I don't mean to hijack a post, but my Mustashio is having the same issue. He is about 11months, 16in (with a little tail nip), 413g and viv set up/temps are correct. He used to eat tons of vegis and was a bottomless pit of feeders, eating 30 crix or phoenix worms 2x a day with proper dusting schedule of vitamins and calcium. About a month ago or so, he completely stopped eating ALL vegi's. (He used to eat 2 bowls of vegis a day!) He still goes after crix but not with much enthusiasm. Thought he was possibly going into early brumation, so I had a fecal done and it was negative. He only poops in his
bath so he gets daily baths. Used to poop everyday, but now we are down to once every 3d and that is with daily baths and belly massaging. I noticed the last couple of times that his urates have been very yellow at one end, with stringy thing connecting the urates to the poop. I have pictures if you want. I did the paper towel squish test and was suprised to find the urates were rock hard and chalky. Todays urates were nice and white, but still very hard and chalky.
I noticed a moderator, Goonie, said that they had a dragon who just didn't absorb water through his vent despite daily baths, and had to syringe feed water. Pray tell...how the heck do you do that? And how much do you give? I have had some experience in syringe feeding, since Mustashio was very very ill when we first got him as a baby and had stopped eating due to a huge parasite load and calcium deficiency due to no UVB lighting in the pet store. But he (and I) hated the syringe feeding. I have tried giving plain greek yogurt which he will lick a small amount off his nose, but thats it. I gave him a little bit of pumpkin on his nose today, and he had a little bit, but not enough in my opinion for his size. He definitely is not acting himself over the past month, but again, I thought maybe brumation, had a negative fecal and chalked it up to that. But now....
This is my first dragon, but I feel like I'm pretty well educated about stuff, and when I don't know I look to this board or hit the books. As I said, we were not given a great prognosis in his early days, but we nursed him back to his hefty self and now he is giving us something else to be worried about! I also read somewhere that yellowish urates might mean kidney problems and/or too much calcium. What's up with that?
Dang beardies! What would we do if they didn't give us something to stress about, right?
Any insight would be appreciated!
~Jill