Health Issue?

[beardie parents]

Hi all. I am not sure what the problem is. We soaked Speedy yesterday for about 15 minutes. Today Bill soaked her for 20 minutes. When Speedy pooped today, he said that her urate was harder than it should have been, but yet there was liquid surrounding her poop. Her poop color was normal. Also, no orange in the urate.

I would like to know why her urate was harder than normal and yet there was liquid with the poop. Is this a problem? Should I worry? I'm trying to not worry until there is a reason for it. With my track record with keeping beardies for 2 years (it hasn't happened yet - The longest time we had a beardie was Redrock and that was only 1 year and 11 months) I tend to worry a lot more than I guess I should.

thanks for your opinions.

Lori

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

I had one have the same issue. I soaked everyday for about a week then it never happened again.

 

[diamc]

Hi Lori, sorry to hear that Speedy is worrying you. How often do you bathe her? It's possible that she had a urate plug that was blocking things and once the plug was passed, everything else came out, including the brown part and some liquid. Is Speedy eating greens well? How often are you using calcium?

Sabrina went through something similar when she was about 1 1/2 yrs old. I bathed her 2 times a day and gave her very warm baby food applesauce while she was soaking. In about a wk of doing this, she became more regular and has been ever since, unless she doesn't eat as many greens. Just some thoughts, hope it helps a little.

 

[beardie parents]

Thanks, Diane. She does eat greens, she wasn't eating a lot because I guess she was tired of Collards and bok choy. I got some romain lettuce yesterday and she ate several pieces. I have bought mustard greens and turnip greens but I couldn't get my girls to eat them. About the only thing I can get them to eat is the collards, bok choy and romain lettuce. I know the romain isn't all that good but I guess that will be good for now. She did eat some hornworms. I don't think they like them as much as Redrock did. Zoom only ate a total of maybe 2 hornworms. Speedy ate one on Saturday but she didn't on Sunday or Monday. I'm not sure about today as I wasn't home and I haven't asked my husband about those yet. We have been soaking her every day since Sunday, for 15 to 20 minutes. They don't like to stay in much longer than that. It has been hotter this week than previous. We are in the normal range which is mid 90'sf It was 93 at about 5:45pm so that is probably part of her hard urates. I guess it could have been a urate plug. I didn't see it. Bill said it wasn't rock hard, but harder than normal. Neither one pooped today, even tho they were soaked.

 

[dolcedragon]

Maybe just a tad too much calcium? I don't think it's anything to worry over unless it keeps happening. It's wonderful though that you take notice of every little thing; I think she will live a long life.

 

[diamc]

Hi Lori. Have you ever tried escarole, endive or dandelion greens? Those are all favorites here. Once in a while, I sprinkle a little bit of Cilantro on the top and that really does the trick. They definitely do get tired of the same greens, so is a good idea to change them around to keep them interested.

If you could fit 2 baths a day in, that would be a good idea. Gee, it's hard to have yours stay in for 15 to 20 minutes, I'm lucky if I can cut each bath down to an hr here. :mrgreen: Wow, you're getting some hot weather, is finally supposed to be like summer here on Thurs and in the high 80's. Do they drink while in the bath? If not, perhaps you'd like to try some diluted 100% juice like cherry, grape, apple or cranberry and see if they will lick some of that off. Not all adults poop daily though, but if the harder than normal urate happens again, longer soaks and an increase of fluids would be a good idea.

 

[beardie parents]

Yes, that is our normal temps here. We have trouble getting the viv humidity at anything higher than 35% and that % is in our monsoon season which is supposed to be now, but we don't get a lot of rain until after July 4th.

We tried dandelion greens (had to buy them in Tucson, 100 + miles away) and Redrock wouldn't eat it. Bill (my husband) tried a piece and said "I know why she won't eat them, they taste bitter". I think I can find cilantro (If I remember correctly, that's a spice mexican's use). The escrole and endive, I will have to see if it's available locally. I don't recall seeing it, tho. I do know I tried Mustard Greens on our current two and they didn't like it as much as the collards. The problems with collards here this time of year is that they are hard and kind of bitter. They taste better and our beardies (even our first two) ate them more readily in the winter.

Just to let you know, we now have t-rex's on our girls and they do get their tank a little to hot at the regular height from their basking spot. We got a couple of adjustable hook things to hang the lights from and that helps. What is the max distance that the 100 watt t-rex's should be. We wanted to get the 60 watt eb mega ray's (because of the AZ summer heat) but that would cost us $85 each plus shipping and that wasn't possible at the time.

Bill gives them at least an hour of sun every day, but we must get them out by 8:30 or 9:00 am because if we have to wait untill after 10:30 it's already to hot for them and they stay in the shade most of that time, in between wandering our 4+ acres of land. We have to watch them closely, because a lot of the time they seem to want to explore the area close to the road in front of our house.

Lori