Blood in Stool

[jemjdragon]

When I gave Spiky a warm bath today she made a very diarrhea looking stool with what looked like blood. She did this twice during her bath.

Currently I am cleaning her cage really well before I put her back in it and I will call the vet tomorrow.

In the mean time what can I do? I feel like a really bad owner because I know that I haven't given her the care she needs lately because I am in the middle of transferring colleges and finding a new place to live but I know that is not an excuse.

How do I get a fecal sample from her while she is sick?
Should I line her tank with paper towels while she is sick?
What can and can't I feed her while she is sick?

Info On Her Tank/Food:
Substrate: Slate Tile
Heating: Under-tank heating mat and basking bulb
Veggies: dandelion greens, cactus pad leaf, collard greens, mustard greens
(my step dad feeds her lettuce from our yard even though I tell him not to)
Live Food: crickets and mealworms, sometimes wax worms and super worms
Fruit: (fruit is only fed as a treat) bananas, strawberries, papaya
Supplements: calcium w/ D3 powder, Calcium w/o D3 powder, Bearded dragon vitamins powder, spray-on calcium for veggies
Warm bath: 1-2 times a week

If you need any other information to help me, please tell me

 

[Mastercarth]

I would suggest taking her to the vet as soon as possible. She just must have ate something bad.

 

[jemjdragon]

I am about to call the vet.


I just fed her some mealworms and superworms dusted with calcium powder and crickets dusted with vitamin powder. She seemed kinda interested in food but didn't seem to really want to eat. She did eat 2 crickets. I noticed her toung look a bit yellow. I heard that could be a liver problem? I hope the vet cangive me more info.

 

[jemjdragon]

I just found out that my vet that I go to does not work at the veterinary hospital that I go to anymore, so they don't take reptiles. Great. Now I have to go to someone I don't know.

Anyways the nice lady on the phone gave me a number to a different vet hospital to take her to. I just made an appointment for 3:40pm.

 

[jemjdragon]

I just came back from the vet.
I now know for sure Spiky is a she.
She apparently has eggs. I don't know how to deal with this. Will she reabsorb them like a leopard gecko or do I need to provide a lay box?
He took the stool sample to check for parasites, I will have the results tomorrow.
In the mean time, Spiky has a prescription to Tribrissen Syrup. 0.3cc orally once a day for 21 days.
He also says she is underweight, so I should hand feed her to monitor exactly how much she is eating.

If she keeps getting worse, he suggests a blood test to check her kidneys and liver.

Other than that, I am a little annoyed that when I came home my mom yelled at me because I spend over $100 on a vet trip for a "lizard".
In her mind a pet that was purchased under $100 is not worth taking to the vet because I could always get another one. But that is a rant for another day.

 

[jemjdragon]

So Spiky has pin worms.
I am going to go pick up more medication today.

Good news is that she made a more "solid" poop today. Other than that, I just need to keep hand feeding her and giving her medicine till she is better.

 

[katie_]

That's good news. Get well soon spikey

 

[AZdale]

I pet you love is worth every penny.

I have the sweetest little beagle, but when he was a puppy he was a terror. We were packing to move to AZ from IL and he got into a pin cushion he dug out of a box. Needles were spread everywhere. Two weeks go by and he is acting fine. Another week and we have the car loaded to leave and we notice a out beagle (Ratchet) acting beyond weird. The most this energetic puppy would do is crawl to the room my husband was in and stop.

We took him to the vet immediately and they did an X-ray. There was one straight pin in him. We discussed surgery and at first my husband said we couldn't afford it. We were tight on cash with moving. I was devastated at the idea of losing Ratchet for something as stupid as money.

Surgery cost $1000 and was worth every penny. (Luckily he only had to stay over night instead of three days observation. Basically, I think they didn't want to put up with the howling.) We saved about $400 because it surgery was shorter than planned and no complications and he came home early.

I can not imagine living without this little puppy. He was only six months old when this happened.

 

[Ghiya]

hey,

alright you only have 1 dragon right? if its a female she will produce eggs a few times a year they are not good since she is not with a male! she needs a egg laying bin! while they produce eggs they use alot of there own calcium so you want to make sure she gets more than normal! plus a few days before she is laying she wont eat so that is normal! give her bath she needs to drink ! after she layed the eggs give her a nice bath again and do so a few days! after she laied the eggs she will eat again dust her food! you want to cover the tank so she doesnt see you our dragons wont lay eggs if they see us is there instinkt! dont bother her much just take her out for a bath still put food in there if she doesnt eat it its fine since it is normal for females if they dont eat short time before they lay the eggs! pin worms are normal every dragon has them and they normaly can handel them themself only if they sick they can take over and get dangures! so deworming her is not a bad idear since she is underweight! if you have any questions feel free to pm me !!!

 

[katie_]

hey,

alright you only have 1 dragon right? if its a female she will produce eggs a few times a year they are not good since she is not with a male! she needs a egg laying bin! while they produce eggs they use alot of there own calcium so you want to make sure she gets more than normal! plus a few days before she is laying she wont eat so that is normal! give her bath she needs to drink ! after she layed the eggs give her a nice bath again and do so a few days! after she laied the eggs she will eat again dust her food! you want to cover the tank so she doesnt see you our dragons wont lay eggs if they see us is there instinkt! dont bother her much just take her out for a bath still put food in there if she doesnt eat it its fine since it is normal for females if they dont eat short time before they lay the eggs! pin worms are normal every dragon has them and they normaly can handel them themself only if they sick they can take over and get dangures! so deworming her is not a bad idear since she is underweight! if you have any questions feel free to pm me !!!

I think shes best to listen to the advice of her vet.
Its not responsible for you to recommend she not deworm her dragon. You are not a vet, nor have you even seen the dragon to make that assumption.

 

[Ghiya]

I think shes best to listen to the advice of her vet.
Its not responsible for you to recommend she not deworm her dragon. You are not a vet, nor have you even seen the dragon to make that assumption.

if you read my quate it says since she is underweight he sould deworm her!
and if the vet saw she has eggs he should know that she wont eat short time before laying eggs and thta he has to give her extra calcuim ! make sure you go to a good reptile vet!

 

[Ghiya]

Pinworms
Bearded dragons have a number of parasites and commensals, one of the most common is pinworms or Oxyurids. These nematodes are debatable parasites, since they cause no real pathology unless they super infect a captive animal that is over exposed to the eggs. Most veterinarians consider them to be pests, but mostly commensals rather than parasites. They appear as small, short, white, tapered worms approximately 5-8mm long, though rarely some may be over 10mm. These worms reside in the colon and cloaca, rarely venturing outside to be seen by the owner. They lay eggs ranging in size around 95 microns long with a roughly triangular shape and recognizably sculptured, brown shell.

The life cycle is fairly straight forward. The worms reside in the colon where they lay eggs. Eggs are passed in the feces. In the environment they mature rapidly into infectious eggs and are ingested where they hatch in the bowel and attach to the colon to mature into adult worms.


Treatment
The treatment of choice is fenbendazole, though in recent years this has proven to be largely ineffective in treating mammal nematodes due to resistance, and may be ineffective in treating reptile nematodes as well. Working with several breeders, I have noticed a significant decline in the effectiveness of fenbendazole (sold commercially as panacur). One population I have worked with has shown little or no response to fenbendazole treatment, showing that resistance has occurred in at least one population to the point of virtual immunity.

Currently there is no real treatment that is decisively effective. Ivermectins have been used with some success in reptiles, but the margin of safety is so narrow that it is too risky for most people to try. Ivermectins are another class of drug that has treated nematodes very successfully in mammals, but reptiles are extremely sensitive to it and can easily overdose and die. For that reason, it is generally considered better to live with the pinworms than to give ivermectins.
http://vetherppath.hubpages.com/hub/Bearded-Dragon-Parasites

 

[jemjdragon]

Thank you for your responses and sorry I have been absent for the past couple days. Spiky seems to be doing much better. She is more active now when before she was lethargic.

Like I said before in my posts, my previous reptile vet had either moved away or retired. The vet I went to is an exotics vet and is experienced with reptiles. I understand that pin worms are already present in bearded dragons, however, I also understand that bearded dragons can get overrun with too many pin worms.

I will place an egg laying bin in her tank. Is eco earth a good substrate for her to lay her eggs? Is a plastic shoe box container good for an egg laying bin? Should I place it on the warm side of her tank or the cool side?

 

[jemjdragon]

I have even more better news. She started eating by herself. (I was feeding her slurry before because she wouldn't eat anything and I didn't want to give her medicine without some food) She is still not eating a lot, but she did eat 5 superworms and a bit of veggies.

 

[jemjdragon]

I think the worst thing of owning a pet, is after you do everything to help them and they start getting better, they pass away.

Unfortunately, even though Spiky was getting better, she past away some time last night. RIP Spiky, I'm sorry I couldn't do more to help you.

 

[arianne]

Sorry for your loss!
What kind of UV bulb did you use?

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Deleted post - didn't read whole thread - sorry! and so very sorry for your loss

 

[jemjdragon]

I was using a Exo Terra Reptile Glo 10.0 UVB compact Desert Terrarium bulb. It was 13 watts.

I wanted to thank everyone who helped me with Spiky in this thread and any other threads that I posted with her.

(Spiky with banana on her face)

 

[gothra]

I'm sorry for your loss. R.I.P. Spiky