Has not pooped in days... Impacted?

[dolphinangels]

It has been 5 days since my beardie has pooped. There are several things that I could guess could be the cause of this but I am not positive. I will share my theories.

1. Everybody keeps telling me that the sand that I have as his substrate is no good. Okay, okay. I get it now. Sand is not good. I got him from a breeder, and the breeder gave me all the necessary materials along with my beardie to help me get started. One of the things that he gave me was the sand. He stated that there was nothing wrong with it, and that my beardie should be fine with a sand substrate. I have had my beardie for 6 months now, and up until this point, I have not had a single problem with the sand. I trusted this breeder because a lot of my friends used him to get their beardies, and he has been breeding for over 10 years.

2. I purchased crickets from flukers almost 2 months ago. I got the 4 week old (or 1/2 inch) crickets. That seemed to be fine with him. He ate many of them a day (up to 50 a day). As time went on, and the crickets got bigger (I think the biggest ones were just under an inch long) he still seemed to be enjoying them and eating many a day (I think it went down to about 23-30 a day). I just purchased more crickets 2 weeks ago, and I have gotten slightly smaller ones, hoping that by the time they are all gone, they dont end up being up to an inch long. He has slowed down his intake of these smaller crickets drastically over the last week and a half. He was fine eating up to 30 of them a day, but now I cant seem to get him to eat even 10 a day.

3. My other theory that I believe to be a factor in all of this is that he has been stressed out over the last two weeks what with the wildfires we have had here in Horry County and I have constantly been moving him from place to place, with the evacuations and smoke and all. I was thinking maybe this could be a factor because either of the stress from moving, or the amounts of smoke he has been inhaling over the last couple of days. Finally last night we got a nice enough rain that has all but stopped the smoke completely for the time being. Could the large amounts of smoke inhalation caused this as well?

Other than that, he seems to be healthy. He is very energized. There has been a few times that when I take him out, if there is no immediate warmth around him, the first thing he wishes to do is sleep, but it is not often. I have been bathing him daily for the last couple of days, hoping that that will help him. He has lost a little bit of weight, but not much. He has lost a lot of weight over the last month and a half, reason being, my brother bought him large, large crickets to feed him and they were so big that he started to become chubby and obese! But he has finally managed to rid himself of that excess weight.

I am trying to find whatever alternative that I can to help him out because I have been on unemployment checks for the last couple of months and I can not afford to go to a vet. It is bad enough I have maxed out two of my credit cards for my cat. I have spent almost 1500 on her alone for vet bills.

Please, if there is somebody out there that can help me out, I will really appreciate it. I am desperate to get this little fella back to his normal, overeating and over pooping self again.

Thanks.
Marie

 

[TazzysMamma]

Hi Marie,

Ok, the two things that immediately caught my eye when reading your post was

1. The sand.... no, it is not good. They often ingest it, and it can cause impaction which can lead to death. Has he pooped recently? If so how did it look?

2. The crickets - it sounds like you were feeding him just whatever size you had? Its so important to never feed him anything that is larger than the space between his eyes. This can also lead to impaction.

I highly recommend you bathing him several times a day for 20 minutes to get him well hydrated and to poop. If he still doesnt poop, then dab a small amount of olive oil on his nose and see if he' lick it off. Continue with the baths, and while he's in the bath, gently massage from under his right armpit down his side, and to his vent in gentle circular motions. This will also help him to poo.

Is he eating veggies?

What sort of lighting does he have? Does he have UVB? If so, what brand and style?

What are the temps in his viv? How are you measuring them?

Please let us know so we can help more.

HUGS

Sandi

 

[dolphinangels]

Yeah like I said before, he has been very good about not ingesting the sand, but maybe once or twice here and there. But its been six months without a problem, why would it happen now?

The crickets I have been feeding him before this time has been approximately the length between his eyes. There would be one or two that would be a little bigger than that size that he would ingest but it has never been a problem. I have taken him off the big ones and put him back on smaller ones, but it seems the small ones are TOO small for him. There has been a few times that my brother would get those crickets you use for fishing bait, those large ones, and has fed a few of them to my lizard before. Could that be part of the problem? That was almost 2 months ago when that last happened.

I have been massaging him multiple times today. This is actually the first time I have noticed the lack in appetite, but I did complain to my boyfriend over the last couple of days about the lack of poo. So bathe him several times a day? Okay, I think I can handle that.

He refuses veggies. I have tried everything from mustard greens, to dandelion greens, to a small, small, small piece of carrot, but none of those seem to work. When I first got him, I was able to feed him a little bit of greens, but once the crickets came into play, that was the end of that. He will eat a green here or there once in a blue moon, but not often. Now I have been able to get him to eat a dandelion flower maybe twice a week, but nothing else.

The lighting is an eco terra 100w 120v bulb. I have noticed early on when I had him that he likes the larger wattage bulbs better than the smaller ones. The temps are usually a constant 107 basking, 94 hot side, and 77 cool side. I take the temps with a temp gun, but recently my brother has taken it from me so I have not checked properly in the last couple of days.

Is there anything that I could be doing different for his viv?

 

[dolphinangels]

Before he got chubby, about 2 months ago.

When he was chubby, about a month and a half ago.

Him now.

I hope these pictures help out a little.