Red-orange in poop? Is it blood? Infection?

[jenn4turtles]

Hello, everyone! Looking for some help/advice.

Smauggie made poop this morning, and I noticed some red-orange stuff at the end of the white urate (or maybe that's the beginning? Not sure.) I've seen a little of it before from time to time, but not this much. It's more like a reddish-orange, with little lumps in it.

She's been eating Phoenix worms, and otherwise appears healthy and alert.

I called the vet, but they are booked until Tuesday. I asked if I could just bring the sample, since he didn't have time to see her, and he could at least look at/check the sample for now, but he said that it wouldn't do any good because he still needs to examine her. (Did I mention that I don't like this vet very much? And he's the only reptile vet within an hour's drive!)

So I'm looking for advice from y'all!


I hate to post pics of poop, but I don't know how to describe it properly, so here's some pics:

 

[jenn4turtles]

I should probably add:

Her diet (other than the Phoenix worms) consists of yellow squash and mixed greens (turnip, mustard & collard) so there's nothing in her diet that could be responsible for that color.

 

[AHBD]

Hi Jenn....how old + big is Smauggie ? What are the P. worms stored in ? I'm sure that's not blood, but it could be related to whatever supplements you use. What powders do you use + how often ? Has she been out roaming and possibly eaten a little something off the floor ? I actually do think it's possible that the squash could contribute to that color.

I don't think it's anything serious though, and sometimes they just produce a strange poo.

 

[jenn4turtles]

She is 19" from nose to tip of tail, and roughly 1 year and 4 months (give or take a couple of weeks).

I do a reptile vitamin 2x's a week and her calcium (w/ D3) about 4x's a week, maybe a little less b/c the worms are supposed to have calcium themselves.

The worms are kept in the containers they are shipped in, and I use a styrofoam ice chest for storage, and swap out frozen bottles of water to keep them chilled. To get the worms out of their packing material, I just put a couple spoonfuls of them into a small bowl of water to get the packing material off. Worms float; most of the packing stuff sinks.

She hasn't been out too much lately roaming. Mostly he's just on one of us or on a pillow.

What I though was weird (other than color, of course) was the way the orangey stuff looked, like little lumps of something.

 

[AHBD]

Yeah, I see the lumpy part. Possibly just a strange consistency that won't repeat, I don't think it's a health problem and I'm sure she'll be fine until Tuesday.

 

[jenn4turtles]

The vet's office called me and said that they had a cancellation for tomorrow, so I don't have to wait until Tuesday! I've bagged the sample to bring, but it'll be right at 24 hours. Hope they still can use it for testing. When we took her last year, they used a q-tip to dig for a sample, and I didn't like that. Neither did she. She didn't eat for DAYS after her traumatic visit.

 

[AHBD]

That's good, you don't have to sit around wondering. Hopefully they won't have to perform the Q-tip maneuver !

 

[jenn4turtles]

So we went to the vet today, with yesterday's sample.

The vet looked at it under the microscope and said that he can see the lumps, but the particles are not part of the urate, and that he really didn't know what they were. I explained that she had been eating Phoenix worms, and that maybe it was part of the packing material, and he said that it could be. As far as color, he says that sometimes greens will, for whatever reason, cause there to be orange.

Personally, I'm not sure about any of it. But he did a fecal test on yesterday's sample, as well as the sample she so kindly provided while we waited :lol: , and he said there were no parasites and a much smaller amount of the orange. (In her defense, we had an 11:15 appt and did not get out of there until after 1:00, so ...)

 

[AHBD]

Well that's all good news ! I wondered if it might have been the packing material as well, and I know their poo can be a variety of colors at different times. But I know you're relieved

 

[shunter8965]

My beardie will only eat yams right now, and only on rare occasion, shes still pretty young so she mostly eats the repti maggots. but when she does eat yams i can tell because her next poop will be partially or almost all orange, since you feed yours squash i wouldnt be suprised if that was it

 

[jenn4turtles]

Well that's all good news ! I wondered if it might have been the packing material as well, and I know their poo can be a variety of colors at different times. But I know you're relieved

I am relieved, but the fact that I had to make the packing material suggestion to the vet, along with the fact that he didn't know from experience what Phoenix worms came shipped in, didn't give me a lot of confidence. How can a reptile vet NOT be familiar with a reptile staple? Am I being too hard on him? I really didn't want to go back to the guy after our visit last year, but the other reptile vet left for parts unknown, and so I didn't have a choice, especially since I was concerned and thought this may be time-sensitive.

 

[jenn4turtles]

My beardie will only eat yams right now, and only on rare occasion, shes still pretty young so she mostly eats the repti maggots. but when she does eat yams i can tell because her next poop will be partially or almost all orange, since you feed yours squash i wouldnt be suprised if that was it

The yams are orange-colored, so that wouldn't surprise/scare me as much. But squash is yellow, and the Greens Trio that I chop for her (that's what it's called, in a bag, at Walmart) are .... Well, green. And truth be told, that little girl doesn't even eat any of it most days. You would think, since she's over a year, she would, but she eats less greens and veggies than she did as a young dragon, despite all my best efforts. She's a mess! She's so darn cute though ... Can't do anything but love her!

 

[BeccaBeardedLover]

My bearded dragon just had similar poop

http://imgur.com/a/wyhZ1


and i am very worried about him---how is your bearded dragon? did you ever find out what it was?