Sub-Adult suddenly not eating, being aggressive

[YoungMasterPo]

Po is a year and a half old, we got her when she was about 2 months old. She's never been fussy about being handled. I would go as far as to say she loves to cuddle and she loves the attention. But today she gave us a scare.

Sometimes when she's near a shed she won't eat for a couple days but usually starts eating again quickly. She had a small shed last week so we were a bit concerned that this was the third day she's gone with no interest in worms or veggies. She's also been quite restless during this time. Glass dancing, burrowing into the carpet, climbing and jumping. We let her run around the house and explore, and after a little while she's worn out her energy.

Today she still had no interest in worms. When we went to pet her and see if she wanted to run around before we went to work, she went BALLISTIC. She did not want us touching her. She would twist around to try and get out of our reach, puff her belly and her beard up and started hissing at us. We have NEVER seen her do that before, even when she was a baby and we were trying to break her in to being handled. It was really startling to see her behave that way, when shes been consistently mellow.

Since her poops are still healthy looking, I'm not sure if it could be any kind of parasite that's making her act this way. I also wonder if she could be getting ready to lay eggs? We just aren't sure.

 

[YoungMasterPo]

We got home this afternoon and Po was nice and calm, like nothing happened. We had some cuddle time, then I noticed her nail.

It appears that while burrowing and clawing around in her cage this morning, the live tissue from the nail got ripped from the black pigment/dead tissue and had bled a little bit. Kind of how us humans if a piece of our nail rips off or breaks.

This is a diagram I took a look at from another post:
http://www.anapsid.org/adambritton.html#claw

My best guess is that when she was being defensive and hissing at us was right after it happened, and she wouldn't let us near enough to take a look to see what happened.

We're going to call our herp vet tomorrow and see what should be done.

 

[MissT]

You can bathe the foot in a weak betadine solution - just add betadine to warm water until it looks like weak tea. You can then apply neosporin to it to help with the healing. Do you have a photo of it?

 

[fez09]

Her behaviour sounds alot like she may be gravid as well, I would feel for eggs and keep an eye on her if she's digging and scratching...just in case!

 

[YoungMasterPo]

Here's a picture of her little nail. It doesn't seem to bother as much tonight, except if you handle her hand (obviously).

I've never really checked for eggs before, but feeling around her belly and pelvis I'm feeling no obvious bulges that could be eggs. She's old enough to my knowledge (about a year and a half old) and 19 inches long.

Do they usually lay eggs every once and a while even if they haven't mated?

 

[YoungMasterPo]

Sorry about the image, here it is:

 

[jewl495]

Do they usually lay eggs every once and a while even if they haven't mated?

Yes they can and I was told by our breeder if you don't catch it early enough it can cause them to become egg bound. You can get a box with sand and put in there. Ive never had to deal with this myself but I know others on here have.