Hi! This is going to be a very long post i apologize in advance.
I have a 4-5 year old beardie who’s always been a handful! She was bought from PetSmart (terrible I know) she always had digestion issues and has had to be treated for parasites multiple times throughout her life. Most recent (around March) fecal test came back saying she had isospora oocyts and she was treated and was tested again and came back saying they were gone. I had gotten her blood work done while she was there also because she was extra lethargic and I just felt like something was off, but everything came back normal (even though they suspected liver disease because her plasma was very yellow when they spun the blood), besides her white blood cell count being slightly off, they suspected an infection from the parasites so they had us give her a round of antibiotics aswell.
She was much better after the parasites were gone. She’s always been very lazy but she seemed to be doing better than ever and had a lot of energy and very normal bowel movements and no constipation, which she’s struggled with alot throughout her life. I changed a few things in her diet as well. Everything was going good until I noticed about two weeks ago she started pooping less often and seemed to be a little lethargic. I wasn’t too worried because this has happen many times before and her appetite was still good. I started to worry when it seemed like she was barley moving around all day and bloated from constipation but I thought maybe she was going to brumate or possible be egg bound. Mind you she has never had eggs before but I suspected this because she started digging and hiding more. Anyway, my mom is a vet tech at the place we take all our pets so I had her ask our vet and she recommended we treat her for the parasites again since this has happened many times before. Aswell as another round of antibiotics. She was doing okay but still constipated and bloated.
Things seemed to get worse around last Sunday I noticed she was very lethargic and her eyes were sunken in and her eyebrows had gone flat which has never happened and was very scary to see. She was also visibly very dehydrated. I’ve been soaking her daily since then and they do perk up a little after but go back to sunken in after a while.
we also went in vacation and I didn’t plan on bringing her but i couldn’t leave her with my grandparents like that. She did seem to be doing alright in the hotel, her appetite had decreased slightly but she was still eating and wasn’t constipated any more. She started pooping daily again. She showed much less interest in her veggies though mostly just her feeders.
Got her home yesterday and she had a lot of energy and got her to eat some greens and she was very excited for her bugs. But still sunken eyes and very dehydrated. I had my mom take her to work with her today to get an X-ray and blood work redone and to get fluids.
They found fluid in her abdomen which I know is not good at all I will attach her X-ray and a picture of what the fluid looked like after we drained some of it. Very very yellow. I’ll also attach a photo of her eyes and belly.
They said this could mean a number of things possibly liver failure, heart failure, even cancer. I started doing my own research because they’re knowledge with reptiles is limited because they don’t specialize in exotics. I read about yolk peritonitis and pre ovulatory follicle statsis which I was concerned about because of the color of the fluid almost looked yolkish. And since there was fluid in her belly they couldn’t really see her organs and what was going on beneath the fluid. It’s very strange because she still has an appetite and now pooping normally and has more energy than before it’s just the dehydration and sunken eyes that won’t go away. And they didn’t give her fluids because they thought it would just add to the fluid in her belly. Im now waiting on her blood work to come back, we’re also testing the fluid in her stomach, but I’m just hoping it doesn’t take forever because I’m scared she will take a turn for the worse if it is something to do with her ovaries.
So I guess my question is, is it possible for her to have these issues if she never laid eggs before? Or should I be worried about her liver ? And should I wait for her blood work and fluid test to come back before going to see a specialist or should I just go now? Regardless I was planning to go because she’s never been tested for adv and that’s definitely another possibility. I’m just hoping someone can give me some information I feel like I’m going crazy, I don’t want to lose my girl any advice would help thankyou for reading this veryyyy long post.
I have a 4-5 year old beardie who’s always been a handful! She was bought from PetSmart (terrible I know) she always had digestion issues and has had to be treated for parasites multiple times throughout her life. Most recent (around March) fecal test came back saying she had isospora oocyts and she was treated and was tested again and came back saying they were gone. I had gotten her blood work done while she was there also because she was extra lethargic and I just felt like something was off, but everything came back normal (even though they suspected liver disease because her plasma was very yellow when they spun the blood), besides her white blood cell count being slightly off, they suspected an infection from the parasites so they had us give her a round of antibiotics aswell.
She was much better after the parasites were gone. She’s always been very lazy but she seemed to be doing better than ever and had a lot of energy and very normal bowel movements and no constipation, which she’s struggled with alot throughout her life. I changed a few things in her diet as well. Everything was going good until I noticed about two weeks ago she started pooping less often and seemed to be a little lethargic. I wasn’t too worried because this has happen many times before and her appetite was still good. I started to worry when it seemed like she was barley moving around all day and bloated from constipation but I thought maybe she was going to brumate or possible be egg bound. Mind you she has never had eggs before but I suspected this because she started digging and hiding more. Anyway, my mom is a vet tech at the place we take all our pets so I had her ask our vet and she recommended we treat her for the parasites again since this has happened many times before. Aswell as another round of antibiotics. She was doing okay but still constipated and bloated.
Things seemed to get worse around last Sunday I noticed she was very lethargic and her eyes were sunken in and her eyebrows had gone flat which has never happened and was very scary to see. She was also visibly very dehydrated. I’ve been soaking her daily since then and they do perk up a little after but go back to sunken in after a while.
we also went in vacation and I didn’t plan on bringing her but i couldn’t leave her with my grandparents like that. She did seem to be doing alright in the hotel, her appetite had decreased slightly but she was still eating and wasn’t constipated any more. She started pooping daily again. She showed much less interest in her veggies though mostly just her feeders.Got her home yesterday and she had a lot of energy and got her to eat some greens and she was very excited for her bugs. But still sunken eyes and very dehydrated. I had my mom take her to work with her today to get an X-ray and blood work redone and to get fluids.
They found fluid in her abdomen which I know is not good at all
I will attach her X-ray and a picture of what the fluid looked like after we drained some of it. Very very yellow. I’ll also attach a photo of her eyes and belly.They said this could mean a number of things possibly liver failure, heart failure, even cancer. I started doing my own research because they’re knowledge with reptiles is limited because they don’t specialize in exotics. I read about yolk peritonitis and pre ovulatory follicle statsis which I was concerned about because of the color of the fluid almost looked yolkish. And since there was fluid in her belly they couldn’t really see her organs and what was going on beneath the fluid. It’s very strange because she still has an appetite and now pooping normally and has more energy than before it’s just the dehydration and sunken eyes that won’t go away. And they didn’t give her fluids because they thought it would just add to the fluid in her belly. Im now waiting on her blood work to come back, we’re also testing the fluid in her stomach, but I’m just hoping it doesn’t take forever because I’m scared she will take a turn for the worse if it is something to do with her ovaries.
So I guess my question is, is it possible for her to have these issues if she never laid eggs before? Or should I be worried about her liver ? And should I wait for her blood work and fluid test to come back before going to see a specialist or should I just go now? Regardless I was planning to go because she’s never been tested for adv and that’s definitely another possibility. I’m just hoping someone can give me some information I feel like I’m going crazy, I don’t want to lose my girl
any advice would help thankyou for reading this veryyyy long post.
also keep us posted most all of us worry about ever single beardie here.
