Puff ate an entire mouthful of sand...

[Cheline101]

So I just ordered a different substrate this morning, and I came home and fed him, and he looked like he was already full on the veggies from last night, so he wasn't too interested in his crickets. Then he did a nose dive into the sand (on purpose!) and got a whole mouth full of sand! I ran over to him and picked him up and tried to get it out of his month, but he'd already swallowed most of it. He looks fine now, but I know he's not gonna be here in the next few days... What can I do now to try to help him pass it? So far the plan is to mist his food with water every day to try and lube it and bathe him every day and rub his tummy in the bath. He's not a huge fan of baths though. Is there anything else I can do?

 

[Unknownhope]

Go get some squash or chicken baby food. Mix in a little bit of olive oil, and syringe feed it to him. The olive oil helps them go when they're constipated, and you want to avoid impaction at any cost.

Also what do you mean he's not gonna be there in the next few days? I don't believe he will die from this if you take the proper precautions now...

Edit: Also - Paper towels are a great temporary substrate, I'd get rid of the sand as soon as possible and replace it with paper towels.

 

[Cheline101]

I meant that he looks fine now, but he's probably not going to be looking fine soon. He had a HUGE mouthful! I'm working on taking the sand out now, and I will get to the store for the baby food when I'm done... I don't think I have a syrenge... to do you think the grocery store would have one? Any tips on getting him to open his mouth for the syrenge? When I tried to get the sand out, he was getting pissed and wasn't letting me.

 

[DragonsNDoodles]

The baby section should have some oral syringes, or any local drugstore. I don't know how you could get him to open his mouth, but don't pry it open with the syringe because you can mess up his jaw that way.

 

[Cheline101]

see that's what I figured... should I feed him the baby food instead of crickets and worms? He normally has pretty runny poop, the vet said it's just flagellates and he doesn't have any parasites or anything, so it's fine... do you think that'll end up being a good thing? how much olive should I put in the baby food when I get it? What kind of squash too, he's never had squash... he's had zuccine...

 

[Jess]

Credit cards! LOL
I just stick the syringe in their lips on the side of their face (If that makes sense... You can seperate their lips near the corners of their mouths really easily) and squirt a little baby food in there. Once they taste it, they usually start licking it up on their own.

And yes, the baby food is all he gets right now. No solids. Just a couple drops of the olive oil, but personally I prefer to use apple sauce. It's always worked better for me.
They usually dont specify the kind of squash used in the baby food... Its just "Winter Squash" usually, or Ive seen a few kinds that say they are butternut. Make sure there is no added sugar, or anything funky. Just water and squash.

 

[Cheline101]

K still workin' on gettin' the sand out... There's about 100 pounds of sand in here to cover the bottom (the tank is 6 feet long) so we'll see...

 

[coastergirl946]

K still workin' on gettin' the sand out... There's about 100 pounds of sand in here to cover the bottom (the tank is 6 feet long) so we'll see...

:idea:
shop vac!

 

[Cheline101]

That's a good idea... I'm gonna go see if Dad's got his little one in the garage... I'm still working on scooping it out with a broom scooper thing, and I found some kind of larval thing lol I think it is a Phoenix worm in the pupation stage... I think It's still alive... haha that's horrible... no more sand... my living room is all dusty and my cat keeps trying to eat Puff's veggies from his dish... it's a nice change though, he's usually trying to eat puff, today he just sniffed him and stole his food! I think Puff's happier watching it go... he wanted to help me catch the rest of his crickets Now he's chillin on his log under his light watchin' me.

 

[Cheline101]

That shop vac was going to be my new best friend till it stopped sucking! now I gotta do It by hand... Puff likes the shop vac though... he jumped on the hose when I turned it on....

 

[Cheline101]

he pooped. It wasn't very much, and it was really runny. He still looks like he has to go some more though... I'm off to get baby food... I'll keep you guys posted.

I'm still a little weary about that fly larval thingy i found... I wonder if it's alive... I havn't fed him phoenix worms is probably 2 months... hemm...

 

[Jess]

It takes them a couple days to digest things, so he hasnt pooped out the sand yet. :| In 2-3 days he probably will though.

 

[fez09]

I wouldn't try to force the syringe into his mouth, if you just drop some on the tip of his nose he should lick it up...

 

[Cheline101]

I couldn't find a syringe at the store, I'm thinking we might have some, but if we do, they've probably been used to medicate the cats, and I don't know that I'm comfortable feeding him with a syringe that's had flea meds and oral antibiotics in it... doesn't sound like a great idea lol... I did put some baby food with some olive oil in his dish and he's been eyeing but so far, no luck... if he gets hungry enough, he'll probably just eat it out of his dish. I want see what happens first though because he's still all fat like he needs to poop, and I don't want to force more in there. I've tried dropping water on his nose before to get him to drink... he just looks at me like i'm stupid, so I don't know if he would take it off his nose, but I'll try it now.

 

[Cheline101]

He doesn't take it from on top his nose... I put some at the very tip and some under his nose and he started lickin'. His pupil gets bigger and smaller depending on how far the food is away from his face. when i brought the food closer to his nose it got bigger and when I pulled it away it got smaller... i kept moving the spoon farther and closer and his pupil dialates and retracts... I thought it was pretty cool...