- Beardie name(s)
- Devlyn
Hopefully in 5 days or so I will have an answer, but I thought I would put this up before the weekend.
Devlyn has been having a mystery illness since June this year. Overall she is acting fine. Stable weight. Active and basking. Good appetite. Happy coloring. The symptom is loose and watery stools, basically a water poop with a formed white urate. There is only distress around when she poops, she runs from the poop and seems to hold poop in until she gets time out of the enclosure (when she can hold it). Stool sample in late June was clear of parasites, none seen.
So we monitored her and I increased Bene-bac, alternating with Bee pollen. Once per week for each.
Symptoms continued so we got bloodwork. Azurophilic monocytes were off the charts high, indicative of a chronic infection. We got a new fecal smear earlier this month, also negative. No parasites of any sort seen.
Her vet suspects she may have a bacterial infection. We are calling it gastroenteritis right now. A culture is in the works from her stool which we will get in 5 days or so. With the veteran's blessing I have upgraded her to human probiotics. It is hard to measure exactly how much she eats and what falls down. My estimate is she is getting 2.5 Billion CFUs (colony forming unit) for her weekly serving of probiotics. 70/30 percent split of Lactobacillus/Bifidobacterium strands. Suspended in potato starch and acacia root powder. I dislike the reptilian probiotics have no measurement for CFUs. What good is Bene-bac if I don't know what is really in it? I could try calling them or something...
Anyway. Poor Devlyn is overall okay but with a mystery intestinal issue. She can't seem to fight it off herself and needs some help. This is not brumation because she will not brumate until October.
Devlyn has been having a mystery illness since June this year. Overall she is acting fine. Stable weight. Active and basking. Good appetite. Happy coloring. The symptom is loose and watery stools, basically a water poop with a formed white urate. There is only distress around when she poops, she runs from the poop and seems to hold poop in until she gets time out of the enclosure (when she can hold it). Stool sample in late June was clear of parasites, none seen.
So we monitored her and I increased Bene-bac, alternating with Bee pollen. Once per week for each.
Symptoms continued so we got bloodwork. Azurophilic monocytes were off the charts high, indicative of a chronic infection. We got a new fecal smear earlier this month, also negative. No parasites of any sort seen.
Her vet suspects she may have a bacterial infection. We are calling it gastroenteritis right now. A culture is in the works from her stool which we will get in 5 days or so. With the veteran's blessing I have upgraded her to human probiotics. It is hard to measure exactly how much she eats and what falls down. My estimate is she is getting 2.5 Billion CFUs (colony forming unit) for her weekly serving of probiotics. 70/30 percent split of Lactobacillus/Bifidobacterium strands. Suspended in potato starch and acacia root powder. I dislike the reptilian probiotics have no measurement for CFUs. What good is Bene-bac if I don't know what is really in it? I could try calling them or something...
Anyway. Poor Devlyn is overall okay but with a mystery intestinal issue. She can't seem to fight it off herself and needs some help. This is not brumation because she will not brumate until October.