Runny stool, please help.

[rogerioyamamoto]

Hello I have a quick question.
But first let me tell you my setup. I have a male bearded dragon around 7 months old (19 inches) and he is in a 40 gallon tank with Reptsun 10.0 tube and 100W UVA light bulb for the basking spot. For substrate I am using non stick shelf liner. His staple diet consist in dubia roaches, collard greens, butternut squash. He has grown so quickly, and he is super active, bask all the time, likes to hang out with me on my shoulder.
Lately, I have noticed his stool is a little bit runny, and some wings were found on his stool ( male dubia roaches wings) and I have been doing some research online to find out the cause, and one of the forums said that it could be low temperature on the basking spot. So I decided to check and it was around 90 – 95 degrees. I believe it is a bit low for a basking spot, so I am gonna try to raise the basking area so he can get closer to the light ( unfortunately I cant do now because I am at work atm), or buy a stronger basking light, maybe 150W. What are your thoughts on this? Does the information I found seem to be accurate? What other health issues can we see due to basking low temperatures? Thanks in advance

 

[CooperDragon]

Low basking temps can cause digestive issues. I'd shoot for 105-110 right at the basking site and maybe high 90s around it. You can first try to get this by raising the basking spot as you suggested. If that doesn't help, I'd try a 150w bulb and put it either on an adjustable lamp stand (those are great to have) or a lamp dimmer so you have a bit more control over the adjustments. If the runny stool has just been recently and you don't see any other odd symptoms like lethargy or dark beard, it may just be that he's having a temporary digestive problem or is a bit over hydrated. Try adjusting the temps first and see if that helps though. Please keep us posted on his progress.

 

[rogerioyamamoto]

I will definitely make the necessary changes today, and I will be back to report how it goes. Thanks for now.

Yuki

 

[rogerioyamamoto]

Hello Hello, I am back again with update.
I made the necessary changes and raising the temperature to 105-110 degrees since the last time I posted, and the last 2 days after the changes on his cage, I still see running stool, and to be honest, it looks like it got worse than before.
Forgot to mention, his staple food is dubia roaches, and 3 days ago, I gave him some wax worm. Can this be a reason his running stool got worse? Can wax worm upset bearded dragon stomach/intestine?
I know the next step is to do a fecal exam? But before that, Is that another option I should try before doing the fecal exam?

 

[jjatdvs]

this morning my little guy ha his first runny stool as well... theres tons of different reasons as to what can be the cause. he doesnt drink water. no matter how much i try and offer him water, even in the bath he still doesnt drink. i occasionally use a small eye dropper and get water in his mouth so he can drink. i give him a bath everyday so make sure he is getting water and beign hydrated. recently i been tricking him to drink water, i been giving him a few baby hornworms every night in a small dish of water. as he goes to eat the worm he misses a few times and gets a few mouth fulls of water. i had bought 50 eggs and a some food. so over the passed few weeks they have been hatching and slowly growing. once each one gets to a certain size im feeding them to him. but hes been eating them for a few days now, and this is the first time this has happened...

this website sells a fecal testing kit. (they also do tests for you for 10 dollars)

http://www.beardeddragon.co/index.php?route=product/product&path=68&product_id=201

you can buy it for 17 bucks and just have it in the house for emergency's. they give you a print out of what to look for. i purchased one for times like this when i can quickly just inspect it on my own and see what im looking at it. what can possibly be a cause for him getting sick... this only happened this morning. so tonight when im back ill see if he had went again.. or how it progresses. a visit to the vet will be made if this continues...

 

[rogerioyamamoto]

Hello everyone again. Thanks for all the replies.

I had my appointment setup for this week, and 3 days ago, my beardie had a nice solid poop with white part, just like a regular awesome poop ( never thought i would be so happy to be so proud of a poop shape, lol ), and yesterday he pooped again with a nice solid consistency ( pic posted). So 2 solid poop in a row.

I noticed his poo got really bad and watery when i fed him waxworm, does anyone know if runny stool can happen from feeding wax worm? maybe the high fat worm made hard to digest?

Also if it was parasite reason, is it possible that the parasite be gone without any medicine?

 

[npgeorgeuw]

It could be diet related or it could be parasites. Some may carry various parasites, eat and gain weight like there's no tomorrow then one day stop eating and have constant diarrhea. Many of these parasites are intermittent shedders. Meaning their populations go up and down and sometimes there are a lot and sometimes there are little, sometimes you'll see eggs (shedding) sometimes you won't. Some of that up/down might be diet or stress, etc...

-If you can afford it a fecal is never a bad idea..--That goes for any and all of your fur or scale babies, unless you pro-actively de-worm (the fur-babies).