Hunched over and twitching

[Damieboo]

About 2 hours ago, my bearded dragon came out of her hide and was basking like usual. Then an hour after that, she moved to sit in front of her hide and got this hunched over appearance, with her stomach seizing up every time she exhales. It looks almost like she's having abdominal cramps. She closes her eyes like she's in pain and her beard is a little dark. I'm wondering if it's impaction but she hasn't eaten much in the past week. I took her on a 4 hour car ride Friday afternoon to visit my relatives (had her outside in 90 degree temps most of the time) and she only ate 3 superworms on the last day of the trip which was Sunday afternoon. She's been having small sized poops since then, mostly white urates but a little brown mixed in. I'm not 100% certain she's not about to lay eggs...

She has a 100w powersun in a 40 gal with a basking temp of 106. The cool side is 83. She drank a little water last night and she doesn't look dehydrated. I guess it could be the superworms passing through but she's never had a problem with them. They were pretty small, too. Linking to a video I took of her stomach twitching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6zlhgXtWB8

She was shuddering as I was typing this so I reached out to pet her chin and she followed my fingers like she's hungry. She usually mistakes my nails for being banana pieces. But I don't want to feed her right now if she's cramping up. I'm going to try to soak her in a warm bath after I post this. When I carried her from her cage to my bed, she was stiff and didn't move.

 

[Damieboo]

UPDATE: It's been about an hour and a half. I gave her a bath and massaged her belly as best I could, she's all tensed up so I'm not sure what's just her organs and what's her ribs. She flinches every time I touch her. She's able to move her back legs though, she looks a little weak but she was circling around in the bathwater. Her beard is starting to go back to normal but she's still hunched over and her belly is twitching and straining. I really don't trust the vet in town to make a proper diagnosis after what happened with my other bearded dragon. Would an x-ray pick up on a food-related impaction?

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....I'm wondering if maybe she is holding eggs that she didn't feel comfortable laying ion her trip ? You could ask your vet if an X-ray or an ultrasound would give the best picture. I wouldn't think that she'd be impacted from a few superworms....and some beardies go weeks without pooing and show no signs of distress. It may be egg related, and if there are eggs ready to be laid a vet could administer Oxytocin at their discretion. If you want to try giving her some canned pumpkin, baby food prunes pr applesauce with a few drops of veg. oil or honey, then an extra warm bath that should clear any impaction. Hopefully she didn't eat something harmful [ rubber band, paper clip, a coin, etc ] while she was out + about. Hopefully there's a simple solution !

 

[Damieboo]

I can't feel any eggs, but I wouldn't really know what they're supposed to feel like I guess..I can sort of feel something long and hard in the lower left side of her abdomen, right up against the ribs but I'm not sure if it's just a tendon or something else. She's not flinching when I rub it so I don't think that's it. I got her to drink about 1cc of water and she ate a tiny piece of leaf that I offered, and refused the rest. Right now it's almost like she's doing push ups. She'll lay flat with her eyes closed, then push herself upright and strain her belly. Every now and then she relaxes for a few minutes and will move around like nothing's wrong. I'm starting to wonder if she swallowed a hair and it got caught in her intestines. I've had to pull hairs out of her throat before and once she struggled to pass a hair for a week. Could only pass half of it :S I'll call around and see how much an x-ray or ultrasound is.

 

[AHBD]

Infertile eggs can't always be felt. It does seem like she's straining to push something out....probably would be good to get her in to a vet pretty quick if she doesn't pass anything tonight, especially if she seems distressed. So far she doesn't seem too stressed but that could change quickly. I hope she'll be fine though !

 

[KahliLizard]

How is she doing?

 

[Damieboo]

Back to normal, apparently. Towards the end of the night I was getting ready to phone the vet because she laid there with her eyes closed constantly straining. But I put her in her hide and turned out the lights, and come morning she seemed to be perfectly fine. No bowel movement, but she's running around and eating like normal. Her belly feels soft again with no lumps. Not sure what it was...Can they get gas? Not sure how she'd get it but it's the only thing I can think of. I gave her a little bit of vegetable oil and olive oil last night so I'm surprised she didn't pass anything today but we'll see tomorrow.

 

[Damieboo]

She had a bowel movement this morning. A little small and soft but I think that's because of the oil. Still have no idea why she was in so much pain. If it happens again, I will have to look into stomach ulcers or an intestinal tumor perhaps..for now though, she's back to being healthy and normal.

 

[AHBD]

Well, that's strange but it is good to hear. There are a variety of things that might be the culprit [ like the ideas you stated ] and possibly even a hair or something else that has shifted and no longer causing discomfort. Hopefully she'll stay trouble -free.

 

[Ofthelime]

Maybe it was like when you're at a party and eat too much from the cheese table but feel embarrassed to use your friends bathroom.

Anyways on a serious note, still keep an eye on it in case anything comes back up.