Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well last thursday i noticed he stopped eating. then he wouldn't pooh for a few days. sunday i was home and i seen he pooh but it was a VERY little amount of pooh and it was pretty much clear thicker but it had blood in there. i scooped it out and the next day took him in for the first available appointment. The doctor took X-rays and tested the very little stool i had. all covered up with sand because he pooped in the sand and it got in there from scooping it up.

The vet said he has very little sand inside of him. she could some spec's in there but not enough for impaction. but his stool she found no parasites and a extremely high red blood cells. her opinion was he must have swollowed some sand and it irritated his intestines. that's the cuase of the blood. she suggested i give him some medicine 2 times a day(it's at home i forgot the name) it would coat the intestines and heal the bleeding. but since he wasn't eating i should give him some chicken baby food and keep offering the normal(crickets and greens)

well the first night(monday) i gave him about 3 cc's of food and 1cc of the medicine. tuesday i did that 2 times.

now the sad part.
today i went home for lunch to give him his first dosage for the day. i walked in and he wasn't moving at all. he was laying there with his mouth open... and it was draining out clear like water liquid. his eyes were sunk in and wouldn't open. i watched to see if he was breathign but very little signs of breathing. i took him out and tried to get him moving... no luck. but he was breathing. just kept dripping out this clear fluid. now i noticed out of his over swellen vent also was leaking some of this clear fluid. he wasn't moving, but again i could see he was breathing a very little. if i moved his tail it was like he was tring to poop and he would move it back up.

i put him back in his cage under the heat light where he wasn't before. i left him for 5 minutes, came back and he was still laying there with his mouth wide open, (as if gravity opened it) and the liquid still draining out. but this time i moved him. he opened one eye for a second. then that was it.

since he stopped eating and was unable to pooh his vent has swollen up and it's like he tries to pooh but a 1/2 a grape sized pooh comes out and that's it. all liquid with blood. except one after the 2nd time i feed him food. he poohed quite a bit but it was almost exaclty as it went in. just baby food. no blood. although this may have been vomit. i don't know it looked in an area he would pooh.

any ideas?

he's just less than a year old. got him around haloween. always active and healthy. sand substrate. ate mainly crickets fed with fluckers feed mix and fluckers orange squares, he liked mostly collard greens so that was his primarary with a few wax or meal worms.

i have 2 others, all eat the exact same and no other problems with the 2 of them. all seprate cages.

the only 2 things i can come up with is 1.) impaction. but xray said no... could it be plugged up around his vent and the xray not see.

or 2.) well last week... a few days before this all happen. we noticed he had his mouth open. as if he was panting. so i checked and his temp was much higher than normal. normally it's right about 100 - 110 tops. well this time it was in the 120's i have no idea what happen. because this is the same light he's had for about 6 weeks. and no problems at all with it. i took him out. turned off the light for the night(it was bed time anyway. gave him alittle dip to cool him off. he seemed fine so i put him to bed and changed to a lower bulb. this one was only in the 80 - 85 range. so after multiple tests i put the other blub in. for a few days still 110... then back up to 120. so i pulled that light out and not using it anymore. who knows maybe the cone is just to small and directing to much heat.

sorry it was so long i just wanted to make sure i covered everything. i'm pretty sure he's not going to make it but i can't figure out what to do to prevent this from the other 2. i'm taking the play sand out... i hear it's safe but the vet said no matter what get rid of it on all 3. back to kraft paper for those 2 now.

thaks for any help!

i have a second vet appointment. a diffrent vet but it's today at 4:20 so i'm hoping that this guy will come up with something that the other one missed. but it's not looking all that good.

offer him alot of water, all that drainage had dehydrated him (hence the sunken eyes etc). However, something is deffinitely wrong. I suspect it could be respiratory infection but deffinitely not sure about that. Did your vet do any blood work on him? X-rays may have cleared him of impaction but blood tests would show if he has any infections. Sorry that is the only things I can suggest.

respatory? humm by feeding him with a seringe do you think there's any chance that me injecting the food in his mouth it could have went down the wrong way. yes might sound nieve. but you konw how some times humans will eat/drink something and it goes in wrong?

thanks for the tip on the water him. i'll let my gf know right now. i'm at work.

There breathing tube(dont know techinical name) is in the front of their mouth so if you were injecting the food into his mouth in the front then he could have got it in his respitory system like that.
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My Leo's
1.0.0 Normal
0.1.0 Tremper Albino
My Beardie
0.0.1 Red x Gold

I'm not saying this is the cause or has anything to do with your beardie's problems. I just thought you should know the history of the manufacturer you're using to feed your crix. Check out these two links:

Link I

Link II

I also seem to remember there was a gutload that was clear that, when the crix ate it, may not fully digest and expand in the beardie causing problems.

I hope your beardie gets better.
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Rob Talkington

You are referring to the cricket water gel.
It is my understanding that it drys on the crickets
then gets ingested by the dragon. Dragon gets water.
gel expands causeing impaction.

I would take the dragon off all sand. to be on the safe side.
That isn't Calcium sand is it? Impaction risk.
But the liquid coming out mouth makes me think
respitory, pnuemonia.

Not good. Hydrate, Keep tank from dropping to low in temp, even
at night. I am new to dragons. But not animals.
And that is just a common sense thing to me.
Hope the vet gives you some good news.
Radena

Well i set up the second appointment and he passed away before i got there.

I'm thinking that originally he did have some issues from sand. but then i'm thinking that when i fed him with the syringe that i did it wrong and forced the food and medicine into his lungs killing him. kinda [bleep]ty feeling that i killed him. but i'm thinking that is what might have happened. because the day before he seemed ok. then i feed him and he dies...

if most think it's respatory... then maybe that's what happen.

Yeah, if you forced the food down into him that very well could have been the problem. Did you try to just put some on the tip of his nose first and see if he would take it? How long did you wait before giving up on this technique?

These certainly are delicate creatures in some ways and it's hard to tell exactly what to do if you don't have much experience with them in particular.

Sorry to hear he died and thanks for posting that you may have force fed him and caused the problem.
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Rob Talkington

well he stopped eating days before. and he ALWAYS had a monster appietite. the doctor said to give him food out of the seringe she gave me. one for medicine and one for food. i tried on the nose. but he just didn't want anything. well i have learned my lesson now... to bad it's late.

it's going to take a few days before i can mention this to my girlfriend. she's already broken up about the loss. but i don't know if i even want to mention that it was our faults. we were just following what the doctor said to do. Man i feel like an ass. i don't think i'm even going to mention it to her. shes haveing a hard enough time as it is.

Well I feel for ya'. I guess I'd just wait a while until she's not so upset about it and then tell her what happened. I'd also tell the vet too.

I'd also chime in here if you see anyone [bleep] about the people, on this forum trying to give good advice, not being veterinarians. I'm all for taking your animals to the vet but I think vets and these forums compliment each other in both directions.

Take care,
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Rob Talkington