Hi everyone!
I'm afraid, as many people probably do, my first visit to your brilliant forums, is in Flynn's hour of need. She is 1 Yr. old, and has always been a very inquisitive, lively and lovely natured girl, until getting on for a couple of weeks ago.
Here's Flynn's setup in as much detail as possible:
Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything!!
Next, her diet:
Finally, here's the rundown on my girl so far:
I'm sorry this is such a massive post, but I wanted you guys to know exactly what she's been doing, and had done, and what I've attempted to try and help her. Any further advice would be totally amazing - especially on this sudden bloating from being so skinny, and if I'm over-feeding her with the syringe (both food and water).
On behalf of Flynn,
thanks for reading!!
*big lick*
I'm afraid, as many people probably do, my first visit to your brilliant forums, is in Flynn's hour of need. She is 1 Yr. old, and has always been a very inquisitive, lively and lovely natured girl, until getting on for a couple of weeks ago.
Here's Flynn's setup in as much detail as possible:
- Tank size - 4 feet by 2 feet tank, 3 feet high (don't know what gallon tank that equates to, sorry!)
Substrate is that crushed up corn cob, as it's fully digestable, therefore shouldn't lead to impaction, although is now newspaper since she began to get poorly
Basking heat lamp (100W I think, although it's difficult to read the numbers on the bulb!)
UVB bulb - Unfortunately an Exo Terra Repti Glo 10.0 26W compact/coil bulb, which since reading numerous posts here I have found out may be adding to her illness, so I turned it off yesterday
Basking temperature is 105, with the cooler end NORMALLY at 70-75, although because it's rediculously warm over here in the UK at the moment, it won't go below 80... However her illness started before this heatwave, so I'm not sure the two are related.
Temps measure with a digital thermometer probe
Viv furnishings - She does have branched to climb normally, but I have removed them since she became weak as I didn't want her falling off and breaking anything!
Bathing - I will admit I haven't been great at bathing her, as to be honest I didn't really know about this from the book I purchased, and the care sheets I had read. It's no excuse, I know, but since she got ill she has had a bath every day (you'll see below)
Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything!!
Next, her diet:
- She loves crickets, but she doesn't get them every day as I didn't want her to get fat, or for their exoxkeletons to cause her any impaction. Instead I limit them to around 4-5 every 2-3 days (seemed a good compramise from all the care sheets I read!)
She eats her greens well, and gets; Kale, spring greens, pea shoots, red peppers and tomato (sparingly). I know it's not a massively varied diet, but I have tried her on other greens and she won't touch them! I'm still in the process of finding more!
She has her calcium dusted on her food each day, apart from the days I put her Nutrobal on (2-3 times per week)
She does have a bowl of water available, but she seems to like to dip her foot into it instead of drink it
Finally, here's the rundown on my girl so far:
- Saturday, 19th June - notice she didn't seem her 'normal self': not really eating much, slobbing out under her lamp (although she does this from time to time). Didn't poop.
Sunday, 20th June - moved her to my parents' as they were keeping an eye on her whilst I went on holiday for 4 days in the coming wekk. She was still quiet, although ate 4 crickets and a miniscule amount of veg. Again, on her lazy days this is fairly normal, but you KNOW in your gut when something isn't right, don't you? Didn't poop again.
Monday, 21st June - ate about 4 crickets, but still hadn't pooped. Although she has gone 3 days before without pooping, the last time she had gone there was very little, so I becane to get concerned.
Tuesday, 22st June - ate 2 crickets from what I can remember. Very still and quiet. STILL no poop! I left for my holiday after she had gone to sleep.
Wednesday, 23rd June - rang my parents, who said she wasn't herself and hadn't even shown interest in the cricket box (normally she goes crazy at the sight of them in the box and tries to scrabble out of the tank to eat them. They said she just turned away She still hadn't pooped, so I was getting very worried, and asked her to bathe her. I asked my parents to take her to the vet, but by this time it had closed and to be honest, they wanted to wait anyway...
Thursday, 24th June - rang again, still no poop, no interest in food and her weight was dropping off her. I said take her to the vet, which I did, but the reptile specialist wasn't there, so they saw they a less experienced vet, who felt her belly and said he couldn't feel an impaction, but to come back when the experienced vet was in... However, she DID poop, although it was extremely tiny, when they were in the way to the vet. He had a look at it, and said he could see bits of insect (legs, wings, etc.) and wondered if she wasn't digesting her food properly.
Friday, 25th June - rang again, no poop today, still no interest in food, still losing weight. I payed to use the internet and found out about brumation, and although it was technically the wrong time of year, I thought it could be a possibility (as I hadn't seen her since Monday). Mum and dad bathed her again. I set off home.
Saturday, 26th June - arrived home early morning, got a couple of hours sleep, and got up to look at her. I couldn't believe how thin she looked!!! I just cried buckets, and said she needed to go back to the vets asap, but NOWHERE IS OPEN ON A SATURDAY... Got an appointment early Sunday morning. I went out and bought her a brand new UVB bulb (Repti Glo... I know...) as I wasn't sure how old the current one was, checked and rechecked all her temps, re-cleaned out her viv, etc. She was already in newspaper from Tuesday. She did a tiny tiny poop in her bath, which I tried to collect for the vet trip, but it was watered down so much I struggled. It also looked quite purple and slimey. She hadn't eated anything for so long now (or drunk), so I syringe-fed her some baby food and a squirt of water. She wasn't a fan of this way of eating, but I didn't know what else to do, and many posts on forums suggested this. Gave her another bath.
Sunday, 27th June - vet appointment!! Yes!! He examined her, and her poop, but couldn't get anything from it. Her listened to her breathing, felt her tummy properly, and said she needed to come back Monday morning and be admitted for the day for them to x-ray her, and take a blood sample. He gave us a bottle for a new poop sample if she managed one, so they could also look at this. Bathed her (this time adding some re-hydrating electrolyte to the water), and she did poop - which we weren't expecting! Was quite a lot larger than the last couple of times, and a more normal colour, so we bottled it!
Monday, 28th June - she had everything done, and when we collected her at 5pm, the vet went through her x-ray and poop sample tests. He said her skeleton was in excellent health, so she had been getting the right does of calcium, etc. There were no blockages to be seen, her lungs looked healthy, and so on. Great! He did say there looked to be some gas in her intestine, and said she may have to have a Barium x-ray thing done, but she's been through enough today. Her poop had slightly elevated levels of something (which I can't remember what he said), so they had given her some wormer. Great! So why was she still totally listless and not eating? He said continue to syringe-feed. Blood tests back on Thursday.
Tuesday, 29th June - another poop in the bath! Lots of bubbles too, so the gas in her intestine must have released. Things were looking up! Getting better at syringe-feeding, so more was going in, but she was very weak by now, and in her tank looked to be constantly dozing off and waking up again. Not moving around at all. No interest in food. Gave another bath today to try to keep her hydrated. HOWEVER, when doing research about how much to syringe-feed her (as I'm worried I'm over-doing it) I read about carrot being massively high in Vitamin A... and the baby food I used was flipping carrot based!!! AAARGH!!!! Went out and bought banana and mango, as the only other choice at the shop was rice pudding.
Wednesday, 30th June - a very very scarey start to the day. Put her in the bath around 10am, and she wasn't even holding her head up herself any more. If I had let go, she would have drowned. Didn't move in the bath, didn't seem to be moving her back end at all - in fact it floated in the bath - and seemed very very lifeless. No poop. Put her back under her lamp in her tank and scoured the internet. Noticed that the top of her head was very sunken, and the inside of her mouth very pale (although I know it's not mouth rot). Read that she was extremely dehydrated, so I got the syringe and pumped a few squirts of water (with electrolyte solution) into her. Managed to give her a few syringe-fulls of the new baby food aswell. She seemed happier to eat this one... but then it's not poisoning her, so yeah. Stupid me.
Second bath of the day, no poop, no change in her staying awake. Had to hold her head again. She was so floppy by now I was really panicing. As the day went on, she stared blackbearding constantly (not puffed out), and was constantly closing her eyes, as she had been since I got back. Then I read about the UVB bulb, so I turned it off. Also gave her some more water.
By the afternoon, she looked like she had perked up a little. I took her out for half an hour and gave her cuddles. Her beard started to return to its normal orange colour and she was holding herself up a little. Gave her a third bath, and this time she scrambled about a bit to try and get out, and held herself up! Was much happier!!!! Still no poop though.
When I got back from work though, at 10pm, she was still awake and looked very bloated. So I was concerned I had over-fed her with the syringe, or that her kidneys aren't functioning properly (get results tomorrow for blood).
I also called the vet to find out the dosage of her medicaition, which was 0.3ml of the Panacol (although the guy telling me didn't know the strength)
Thursday, 1st July - Got up and she was up before her light popped on. Still looking bloated, but seems to be more alert. UVB bulb still off. About 30 mins ago, she did a poop, on her own accord without being bathed (first time since Saturday)! Looks a little less bloated now, and it sounded like a lot of gas was released. She's holding herself up constantly, and not drooping her head all the time like yesterday. The top of her head is still sunken though, so I'll give her some water very soon.
I'm sorry this is such a massive post, but I wanted you guys to know exactly what she's been doing, and had done, and what I've attempted to try and help her. Any further advice would be totally amazing - especially on this sudden bloating from being so skinny, and if I'm over-feeding her with the syringe (both food and water).
On behalf of Flynn,
thanks for reading!!
*big lick*
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