constipated beardie

[souldoubt]

Hey everyone,

I have a beardie in care at the moment, it was previously being force fed hills a/d through a stomach tube and more recently a dosing needle due to a few jaw fractures, and I have only just started offering her soft food like snails and crickets recently which she is still eating small amounts of. She is in an open air enclosure with a heat lamp at one end (being open air it keeps the warm end at about 2 degrees hotter than the cool end) however she is a local animal. She does have a basking spot available all the time that is 40 degrees.

She was previously defecating normally but has not defecated for 7-10 days now, she definitely defecated 10 days ago and I think she also defecated 7 days ago but I forgot to record it.
There is no chance that it could be an impaction because she is on newspaper and has only been fed hill a/d (the soft emergency care food) diluted with water. Anyone have advice on getting a beardie to defecate?

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Kyro]

Let him soak in luke warm water for a bit, this pretty much always gets their bowels moving especially if they puff up & float around a bit.

 

[souldoubt]

Thanks for the super quick advice, shes in a luke warm bath now.

 

[Kyro]

Keep us updated & make sure the water doesn't go too cold

 

[Defective]

apple juice and prunes mixed together make for a natural laxitive

 

[souldoubt]

She still hasn't defecated yet, I kept her in the warm water for about 40 mins or so (and kept the water warm of course). The bath was therapeutic if nothing else haha she seemed pretty content in there.

Might give the laxative a go tomorrow, she doesnt have heaps of food in there at the moment but I still think she should have defecated by now

 

[SYNeR]

Liquid paraffin worked wonders for my bearded dragon.. Although it gave her the runs quite a bit.
I'd only recommend doing it under a vet's direction, though.