Severe impaction aftercare help!!

[Qiqqi]

My bearded dragon juvenile is finally starting to pass her impaction, it has been about 3 weeks and she has much improvement. She is on a strict liquid diet of critical care for herbivores, instructed via vet. Also, syringe “fed” water. Would anyone know what I should do to start easing her way back into eating crickets and veggies again? She’s lost a lot of weight from not having any protein these last couple of weeks, but she’s hydrated and has all her nutrients, just not the protein aspect. Will her appetite just come back once she’s done passing her impaction? Many questions! Please help!

 

[KarrieRee]

Tracie our vet tech mod would be the person to help on this -- I will flag your post to her shes on late at nite

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Poor girl, that is not an easy thing for them to go through. How is she doing?
What caused her initial impaction? I think you could probably start slowly with soft
bodied worms, etc but go easy on crickets or other insects that are harder shelled.
The critical care & other oral fluids are good but definitely you will want to slowly start
integrating solid foods.
What type of worms do you have currently?

Tracie

 

[Qiqqi]

It’s been a tough road to go down, absolutely.
She was/is impacted by moss in her tank. She’s only about 5 months old.
I currently have wax worms. I was thinking of getting the critical care for omnivores in case she doesn’t have an appetite for real food yet. But I’m not sure what the right move is.

 

[Qiqqi]

I just gave her a bath and she was able to push out a soft lump of something. I’m assuming it’s just the critical care in her system now. The lumps she had in her belly have gone way down and now the lumps are just by the base of her tail.

Would it be safe to try feeding her one wax worm and see if she eats it on her own? And continue with the critical care and water. Or should I wait to start try feeding her worms until she has completely passed the masses in her system? She has been on a full liquid diet since she’s been to the vet 3 weeks ago.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Oh that had to be hard on her, passing moss through her system! At least she is doing a
lot better now.
It is certainly a good plan to be wary of feeding too much solid food to help decrease the
chance of a recurring impaction issue. The waxworms are very soft so I think it would be
fine to give a few per week, along with the critical care. Does she seem to like the critical
care?

Let us know how she is doing.
Tracie

 

[Qiqqi]

I put two small worms in her tank throughout the day and I do believe she ate them so that’s a good sign. She absolutely hates the critical care lol but she’s easy to feed via syringe. Would you recommend one or two worms per day? Or maybe another system?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That is great news she ate a couple of worms.
At least she takes the critical care easily then. For now, a couple of worms daily is fine,
along with critical care supplementation too.
Is she maintaining her weight right now?

Tracie

 

[Qiqqi]

I don’t have a scale to weigh her but she has definitely lost weight. She seems so much better today. She had 2 small crickets and a small amount of critical care. Getting her spunk back, she jumps out of her bath container now.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That is good news to hear she seems to be feeling better. Hopefully she is on the mend
but definitely keep up with her hydration & nutrition. She should start to gain some weight
back soon.

Tracie