What happened? longish post

[jabronie]

Hi, so my mom just called me telling me her bearded dragon just passed away. But her death seems extremely unusual so I was looking to see if anyone could help inform me. warning, long post.

I'll start with her set up since thats what usually people look for, she was in a custom 4x2x2 melamine tank with a regularly changed 24 inch 10.0 reptisun uvb long bulb and her heat temps were 105 at the very highest point she could get to and around 94 on the floor right under the heat light and the side in the mid 80's or so with it open enough for her to go in and out as she pleased but not all the way open, and the temps i mentioned are with the door opened as so. slate tile floor, pretty standard setup.

she just moved into her new house 4 months ago and she said everything was going pretty normal, didn't eat much the first 2 weeks after the move(huge move for her, her beardy knew the old place real well inside and out, yeah outside as well, but thats another story) but then everything went back to normal, regular eating and stuff, would occasionally go out for a lap and come back.

then about 3 weeks ago my mom said she stopped eating. she was taking little bites here and there because she would still poop a little every once in a while and the poop was normal, just small. colors were always fine, she was never black and never even black beard, always a nice white. I even saw her this most recent weekend and except for what looked to me like slightly swollen eyes, she seemed normal.

today my mom calls and says shes not doing well at all, goes out and does a lap with her dogs and comes back and apparently she pooped with some blood and was bleeding a little out her vent and did the same thing a little later. she also sends me picks and she is all super yellow with a black beard. normally shes a tan with a little yellow, but she was extremely yellow, almost like she was a citrus beardy. my mom ends up wrapping her in a blanket and holds her for a little while until she started gasping for air, so she put her down and said she was doing it for over an hour until she passed. now her colors are back to her normal tan, no more extreme yellow and shes really warm.

any ideas? i really have no clue.

pic of her today to show color and bottom pic is her like 2 months ago.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Heartbreaking.... only way to know if for a vet to do a necroposy.

 

[jabronie]

my mom does not want to do an autopsy, she doesn't want her cut open and stuff.

was hoping for maybe just a generalish diagnosis or something. in the past like 5 years since I got my first beardy, I've never read about any beardy turning bright yellow and just turning so bad. my guess it has to be something in her family/genetics, really don't know what else it could be. she was given fresh greens, squash and superworms, every day, got plenty of natural direct sunlight + regularly changed UVB.

 

[SpacialCoogs]

With blood coming out the vent you can posit a few things but like king said you won't know for sure

Could have been a tumor that was growing in her abdomen, hence the not eating. Was she losing weight? Did she have a disease?

It's all just speculation, the only thing you know for sure was that s/he was well loved and will be greatly missed.

 

[Gormagon]

Well, this may not have anything to it but..... Was the house exterminated before she moved in to it? If so she my have gotten into some bug spray while running around licking new things(that's what they do when exploring a new place)!
I sure hate to hear that such a pretty creature was lost.

 

[jabronie]

She wasn't losing any weight, she looked pretty healthy in that sense.

Well, this may not have anything to it but..... Was the house exterminated before she moved in to it? If so she my have gotten into some bug spray while running around licking new things(that's what they do when exploring a new place)!
I sure hate to hear that such a pretty creature was lost.

that could possibly be it. they just moved in and redid all the floors and had to completely clean out the inside of a "sunroom" where she would often run around. I could see that as a possibility as my mom let her run around a lot outside her tank. I would hate to tell her that as a possibility that would crush her.

the only other thing thats changed is where the buys her worms, its a much much lower quality reptile shop than the one she was shopping at before, but i figure if it was parasites it would've been more noticeable as a possible cause and wouldn't kill her so fast right?

its just confusing, would be a lot easier on my mom if she just knew why. i just keep trying to tell her it was beyond her control and her beardie loved her. my mom would literally sit outside with her for hours, and when her beardie was over being outside, she would run from where she was basking to the stairs leading up to the back door, would jump up 3 stairs, walk through her kitchen and go inside her tank in the living room. she had no desire to ever leave my mom. i feel so bad.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Well, this may not have anything to it but..... Was the house exterminated before she moved in to it? If so she my have gotten into some bug spray while running around licking new things(that's what they do when exploring a new place)!
I sure hate to hear that such a pretty creature was lost.

That's certainly a possibility - she maybe was poisoned as mentioned , or even inhaled some residue fumes / vapours , or ate a poisoned insect she found ( and one reason why we never ever use flying and surface insect sprays in our house or around it outside - not since I started keeping rescued lizards and pet lizards).

Your mom must be heartbroken after loosing such a sweet girl. She'll need a new spikey child pronto to help her get over the loss and give her a new focus for all that love she lavished on her beardie.

I found getting Peppa and Toothless were huge helps after we lost our lovely sweet boy Puff.

 

[kingofnobbys]

She wasn't losing any weight, she looked pretty healthy in that sense.

Well, this may not have anything to it but..... Was the house exterminated before she moved in to it? If so she my have gotten into some bug spray while running around licking new things(that's what they do when exploring a new place)!
I sure hate to hear that such a pretty creature was lost.

that could possibly be it. they just moved in and redid all the floors and had to completely clean out the inside of a "sunroom" where she would often run around. I could see that as a possibility as my mom let her run around a lot outside her tank. I would hate to tell her that as a possibility that would crush her.

the only other thing thats changed is where the buys her worms, its a much much lower quality reptile shop than the one she was shopping at before, but i figure if it was parasites it would've been more noticeable as a possible cause and wouldn't kill her so fast right? <<<< if it's a bait shop, it may well be the bite enhancers they are coated with / fed may well be toxic if the insects intended for use as bait were used in large numbers as daily food for a lizard (they will accumulate and their toxicity will soon cause problems and organ failures).

its just confusing, would be a lot easier on my mom if she just knew why. i just keep trying to tell her it was beyond her control and her beardie loved her. my mom would literally sit outside with her for hours, and when her beardie was over being outside, she would run from where she was basking to the stairs leading up to the back door, would jump up 3 stairs, walk through her kitchen and go inside her tank in the living room. she had no desire to ever leave my mom. i feel so bad.

She sounds a very special dragon ....