possible cricket impaction

[ErinMeetsMachine]

I earlier posted this in the feeding forum, but now I'm realizing that it needs to be here.

I've been having a difficult time getting crickets in southwest michigan. None will ship and stores are running out for the same reason. The only crickets the store had left were larger crickets. They looked about the size between my bd's eyes so I got them. When I brought them home she ate 18 immediately. That was two days ago. She has had two bm's since then. One was mostly uraites. In the past two days she hasn't eaten anything at all. I have felt her tummy and it feels pretty soft, aside one or two small but definite "bumps." I'm worried that she might have become impacted due to the crickets possibly being too large. Today she became pretty sluggish and sleeping a lot. Through all of this.. she is showing bright color, no stress marks and no black beard.
I only got her two weeks ago, but the past week and a half she has had a very healthy diet.. besides the past two days. I took her to the vet last week for just an inital visit and everything turned up perfect.

She is 5 mo old.
She is in a 29 gallon
reptisun 10.0
temperatures of 99-105 in basking and 85-75 on cool side with night temps around 70
i gutload my crickets and dust them with calcium and multivitamins
I bathe my bd daily.

 

[ErinMeetsMachine]

I'm a super worried pet owner. I ran to the store to get a siringe and some applesauce, but I'm going to wait a day to see if I NEED to stress her out. Further information... while I was at the store she had a BM, so I'm guessing it might not be impaction. Maybe early brumation late in the year??

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

It is not likely, at 5 months old, that she is in brumation. She could possibly be trying to slow down a bit due to the colder weather though.
Also, you have not had her for very long either which comes into play. She may still be adjusting just a little bit to her new home as well.
I understand the difficulty of not being able to get proper feeders. Just be careful with feeding crickets the size of between the eyes because that is borderline. Do try to make sure they are smaller than that to avoid impaction issue.
If she has been going to the bathroom, she probably is not impacted. If you want to help her out in the case she could be partially impacted, then you can give extra oral fluids with some babyfood squash & sugar free applesauce via a plastic dropper or a plastic syringe. Bathing her helps alot as well.
What substrate do you have her on?

Tracie

 

[ErinMeetsMachine]

right now I have newspaper and a bit of repti-carpet. Will be that way until she grows and I get a bigger tank.

 

[ErinMeetsMachine]

update:

it has now been 3 days since she has eaten anything. She is still having daily BM's somehow though. Because of that I'm not extremely worried, although I'm not completely at ease either. I force fed her a tiny amount of baby turkey and sweet potato to put me to ease a bit, but I felt guilty.

I don't really know what to do. I don't think she needs to go to the vet, she seems healthy. Beardies are harder to read than the opposite sex!

 

[msmaui]

Beardies are harder to read than the opposite sex!

And that's saying a lot!!!!!! LOL