Vomiting bearded dragon

RE: Vomiting bearded dragon

Mark Rowland — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 19:59:49 GMT

Marie is right imo The owner is more likely to be wrong This looks like there is ovarian activity to me too Bloods will show high ca and phos indicating ovarian activity. But most likely other stuff too. Renal would be high on my list. Px fairly bad as stated

RE: Vomiting bearded dragon

Luca Poddighe — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 19:54:08 GMT

The owner is adamant that is a male... I haven't enough confidence in sexing beardies to argue on it...

RE: Vomiting bearded dragon

Marie Kubiak — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 17:55:46 GMT

That looks suspiciously like a female with follicles causing the circular opacities on the right. There is increased soft tissue in the midcoelom that is poorly defined and may be ovarian, hepatic or gastric. It also looks thin.

The follicles are large and relatively radiodense so are likely abnormal (follicular stasis/oophoritis) but vomiting is an odd symptom for this so it is likely you have other concurrent pathology. Bloods (even just a glucose reading and pcv if nothing else is possible in house) will help and ultrasound scan to assess ovaries and increased soft tissue plus assess other viscera (especially liver for lipidosis/neoplasia).

I agree with Gillian- vomiting tends to be a pretty grace prognostic indicator in beardies.

Marie

RE: Vomiting bearded dragon

Luca Poddighe — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 17:35:34 GMT

I have taken one DV xray, I haven't taken a lateral because the machine will not allow me to perform horizontal beam. This is the image. At the palpation the abdomen appears extremely empty. He's very lethargic too.

RE: Vomiting bearded dragon

Gillian Mostyn — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 14:26:15 GMT

'vomitting' or regurgitation is usually a very bad (often pretty terminal) sign in bearded dragons. If the animal looks well enough to attempt investigation, and the owner is willing to invest their time and money (and they frequently don't) then I would start with bloods (ventral tail vein...pretend it is a mini cow) and radiographs. What you do with that information, though, will depend on what knowledge you have of reptiles.

If the owners are looking for a quick and cheap fix, or your exotics knowledge is basic and referral isn't an option, then euthanasia might be needed.