Urates only?

[traceyb73]

We got Zoey exactly a month ago today (Aug. 1). The first couple weeks she did great, pooping 2-4 times a day (yes they were smaller if it was 4 times!) but 2 weeks ago today her belly started to bother her. Turns out she was about to go into a full body shed. There was always urates, but often mucus instead of stool. Now she has a new schedule, but I need to know if the pros think this is normal. She poops once early in the day, then from there after goes, but only leaves urates (sometimes a small, almost minute, amount of mucus. I took a pic (sorry at least it's only urates!) and put it next to my wedding band to give you a good perspective as to the size of it. I know they don't "pee", that it comes out with the poop, but is it normal for her to just push that out??

She has been a little neurotic since her belly is bothering her, but we just put her in her new 40 gallon 2 weeks ago tomorrow (in a different room too). So she has alot going on, but other than the full body shed (the majority of it came off in one huge piece earlier this week and she is almost done except for her head and I just noticed her back legs now too), she should be used to her new location by now. She does seem a bit ho hum lately. In between being a wild woman that is. :? Now, mind you, she tried for a good 20 minutes, almost nonstop, to get out of her soak tonight (at one point she learned to tolerate and was even doing well with her soaks.) then ran around on the bed like a wild woman after I dried her off. So she is still active, just acting differently. Do you think maybe its because this is the real her and she's finally settled in? I don't mean to make it sound like she is this crazy, mean little thing, she is very much a sweet little cuddle bug (we are cuddling now), but the mopey looks I get and the neurotic behavior is just different I guess. I can post some of both (tired/mopey and crazy) if you like, but I figured since this is a pooping question (I guess), I would stick with that. lol

I guess I should go over what she eats...she eats crickets. Depending on the size, anywhere from 25-30, sometimes more, each feeding (twice a day) now she will have about 40 a day, average of course, there have been I think 2 days where she ate no crickets, but she has been eating baby food (turkey and veggies is her favorite, squash and the applesauce/oil combo if she is constipated) to keeps something in her. She is 13 weeks old and not the fattest little thing you've ever seen. Here is a pic I took tonight so you can see how small her belly is. She also has salad, fresh every morning. Lately we have been doing collards (and the occasional carrot since it's the only thing I know she really likes. I know they are not a staple and I even PMed Tracie to make sure I wasn't over doing it and she said it was fine....she just loves them!)I give her a soak every night (I know I don't have to do it that often, but I have too much time on my hands), I offer her water at least 3 times a day by putting a drop on her nose and keep going until she doesn't want anymore. Yes, my lights are right (reptisun 10.0 TUBE and clear house bulbs), I am dusting the crickets 5 times a day, the other 2 days are the multivitamin. I just can't put my finger on this...any advice would be very much appreciated.

Tracey

 

[Yaaeee]

Bump (curious as well)

 

[traceyb73]

Thanks for the bump me. She is still doing this usually once a day. In fact she did this again about an hour ago. :?

 

[jsnsan]

When is the last time she had a normal poo? I would be worrying about impaction at this point....of course, I do that (worrying I mean)
What kind of substrate is she on? What are her temps?

 

[traceyb73]

When is the last time she had a normal poo? I would be worrying about impaction at this point....of course, I do that (worrying I mean)
What kind of substrate is she on? What are her temps?

I hope my list form helps to make things easier than just rambling on. I tried to remember everything.

1) Reptisun 10.0 TUBE
2) Basking lights are regular clear house bulbs
3) She is on newspaper with paper towels over it (the print freaked her out and I do plan on putting tile down soon)
4) She is in a 40 gallon
5) Basking spot gets up to 105 (since she is young I was going up to 107-108 but she was shying away from it, so 105 seems to be idea for her).
6) Basking light is 7-8" away from basking spot.
7) She is 14 weeks old and I did get her from a reputable breeder.
8 ) I feed her crickets (she will eat over 60 in a day on a good day and princess has to be fed by hand, only one at a time or she closes her eyes. LOL)
9) Greens right now are collards for the most part, fresh greens every morning.
10) I do calcium powder 5 times a week, vitamins twice a week and I talked to Tracie to make sure I have the right kind and am doing it right.
11) I feed the crickets Fluker's orange cubes.
12) I have a probe thermometer.
13) She did go through her first shed that started about a week or two ago and she was on baby food for a few days.
14) As suggest by one of the mods, baby food is 1-squash, 2-turkey and veggies and I also got applesauce baby food incase of constipation.
15) She poops once normally in the AM, and it's always a good one. By that I mean, nice size (quite large), wet but formed and plenty of urates. Her morning bowel movement is like clockwork...as soon as she wakes up she goes!
16) She is bathed every night (I have too much time on my hands and I worry about dehydration) and is offered water no less than 3 times a day by putting a drop on her nose/mouth. I continue to offer it to her until she is done. I do NOT have a water bowl in her viv. I did in the beginning but I was worried about humidity and she never bothered with it anyway. I do spray her greens when they look like they are drying out and I take the dish out of her viv to spray it.

Since I have been at this site and learned I had everything wrong in the beginning, after countless trips to pet stores to exchange everything, I FINALLY have everything right. I do have a thread I started over a month ago that explains what happened when we first decided to get a reptile (the links are below if you are interested...first few pages are from the first beardie that died, the rest are from Zoey's). My 18 year old thought it would be good idea to get a beardie from Craig's List. She died 2 days later. Neither of us knew anything about reptiles. As soon as I realized that the first one was sick (the day after we got her), I became a member here and since I am home all day, if I am not tending to Zoey, I am here reading. I should tell you, I am a very protective and VERY neurotic bearide mom. If anything, and I mean anything, is abnormal I start posting and freaking out. lol At this point, because everything else is normal, I'm not as worried about it as I was when I first posted this. But it is strange.

I will give you the links if you are interested, but the first 10 pages or so are heartbreaking. I then started a link in beardie tales and that one is MUCH happier! I am one of those that started out with sand and a fish tank thermometer (the woman who helped us at the pet stores said she has beardies and that would be fine. We started out with food from a bag (the kind you have to soak in water before you feed), a COIL UV light...I could go on and on, but you get the idea. It all makes me cringe when I think about how far off I was on everything in the beginning. At this point, over a month later and alot of research thanks to this site, we FINALLY have it right. I wish I had kept track of all the times I took things back. It's sickening.

I actually think you and I talked a few times since I've been here.

First link ever here "New to this and need help!!!"...viewtopic.php?f=1&t=174003

Second link "Zoey's tales and pics"...viewtopic.php?f=49&t=175282

I should warn you, there has not been a single day that I have posted a few stories of her tormenting me and/or posted pics. lol Some are quite comical! She is a sweet little girl, (yes, she is def a girl.) and she's a real cuddle bug. She is very attached to me and responds when i say something she recognizes. She runs to me when something scares her (which I have to say I really love about her!) She always has a good amount of urates, especially whens he has her actual poop in the morning and even when she does this during the day. When the weather is nice I take her outside for no less than 30 minutes to get some real UV!! She is spoiled rotten (and knows it!). lol

Sorry this message is so long, I just wanted to make sure I remembered everything and give you an idea of everything we have been through.

 

[traceyb73]

Oops, accidentally posted twice.

 

[jsnsan]

I would definitely be worrying that she's backed up...especially if she is eating good. I'm just going to throw a few things out there that "I" would try.
Have you tried syrine feeding her some extra fluids or pedialite lately? How about pumpkin or canned prunes?
When is the last time you had a fecal done? As I'm sure you know..They can pick up parasites from their feeders...unfortunately.
Everything you are doing sounds great hon. So, this is a tricky one.... :?
Oh, has she snuck off during play time (outside the viv)? You know they lick everything. I've seen some beardies on here trying to pass some odd things through their bowles. Not trying to scare you. Just grabbing any ideas that fly by.

 

[battlenation]

If impaction is going on a few drops of olive oil could help and a nice warm bath. if your dragon is eating and only urates probably is impaction. hope this helps

 

[traceyb73]

That is what makes this so confusing. She goes NORMALLY, EVERY morning. It's the other time(s) during the day that it's either just urates or urates and mucus. If she would just pick one, it would make life so much easier. I have done the applesauce and oil to get things going each time she goes and I've done it as recently as yesterday. She will STILL only go one single time with normal stool. Personally I think she is messing with me and trying to make me worry (it's working too), but what do I know.

 

[Burra]

It's ironic that I just got back from the vet with Archimedes and we were talking about this! I asked about bringing a stool sample in to be checked for parasites and he said if he goes all at once, bring it in. If he goes small amounts multiple times a day, try to bring them all in because parasites may be in one section but not another. So what I'm trying to say is that pooping multiple times a day in small amounts is normal, per the vet. Hope this helps ease your mind!

 

[traceyb73]

It's ironic that I just got back from the vet with Archimedes and we were talking about this! I asked about bringing a stool sample in to be checked for parasites and he said if he goes all at once, bring it in. If he goes small amounts multiple times a day, try to bring them all in because parasites may be in one section but not another. So what I'm trying to say is that pooping multiple times a day in small amounts is normal, per the vet. Hope this helps ease your mind!

Thank you so much for telling me that! When your little one goes more than once is there actual stool in it? last night in her bath, she crawled up my arm and decided to "poop" on me. (She loves to share these special moments with me :roll: ) It was urates and some mucus. It didn't smell like much. Her normal poop of the day (the one in the morning where there is a good amount of stool) doesn't smell as bad as it did...it was smelling like anal glands on a dog, now it smells like, as my daughter puts it, "an old person's house". lol I was told by one of the mods that stress will increase smell and it's not necessarily parasites. (When I got Zoey she had just had a fecal done that was negative for anything plus she gave her some wormer, just to be safe.) I have noticed the smell is nothing like it was when I moved her to her new, larger viv, in a different room. I did take a pic of what she was nice enough to poop on me during her bath. I will post a pic (lucky you who gets to see it!! LOL ) so you can see what I mean. She is so funny about not wanting to poop anywhere near where she hangs out. Yesterday afternoon she was standing on a blanket in front of the glass door and she started goign NUTS, running from side to side, trying to jump off the blanket. She wanted to poop somewhere else. I have heard I am very lucky. She has NEVER painted, infact she wants to be as far away from her poop as possible! She is such a good little girl.

 

[battlenation]

Hopefully that info they provided from what the vet said helped. If your seeing regular brown parts of the stool daily that's good. Having the poop checked for parasites is a good thing to have checked. You said doesn't smell low chance of parasites but I think worms are seen in the poop. Are you feeding a lot of calcium like butterworms and still dust your cricket or other feeder. Sometimes to much calcium in a dragons diet causes just pooping urates. Hopefully this helps with peace of mind. You can try the cc of liquid calcium for the grams of how much your dragon weights daily. Then you don't have to dust with calcium and see if the urate problem stops. Just a suggestion

 

[Burra]

Archimedes always goes all at once, and refuses to poop in his viv! He glass dances every other morning to be put in his tub to poop in the water. He's 5 so doesn't poop every day. Socrates is 10 months and poops at least once, if not 3 times a day. One normal, then the other can be urate and/or poop, depending on what he ate. Hornworms always give him bigger, grosser poop!

 

[traceyb73]

Now THAT makes me feel better!! Zoey didn't poop first thing when she got up, so instantly I start to panic...I was pumping her fully of oil and applesauce as we were sitting outside in the huge box (sunshine makes her go too). She was on my lap, eating from the syringe and all of a sudden, applesauce all over her face, she ran down my legs and jumped onto the bottom of the box from my foot and RAN over to the corner. I'm thinking she's going to do her little jumping act (it's about 2 feet high and she insists if she does it enough she will bounce to the outside. lol) Instead, in the corner, she poops (a nice one I might add) and runs back up onto my lap. I love this little thing. She's only 3-1/2 months old and HATES being near her poop.