Hi.

First time poster here.

I've a 6 yr old female Beardie who appears to have become inactive.

She's still responsive to handling, basks, her appetite stills seems to be there, her eyes are clear, there's no sign of any mucus build up and her body functions seem to be ok.

The only recent change in her environment is that I've had to fit an new UV light and controller and from reading previous posts on similar topics, think i may have fitted the UV light too high up in her viv.

Am I worrying over nothing or is a trip to an rather expensive Vet needed?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Martin

The UV needs to be within 6 inches of her. How close can she get to it and what kind/level UV are you using?

What are your temperatures like?

MissG,

Thanks for getting back to me.

I've lowered the UV and it's a Reti-Glo 10.0 (25w, 30 inch tube).
Temperature is a 'lovely' 84 degrees.

She looks a little bit more lively this morning. Do you think give her a luke warm bath might help?

M

That's perfect. That's a good output level of UV, I use that one too.

Is that temperature from your hot end, or basking temp? I would up that to around 105 under the basking lamp.

Has she been going to the toilet normally? Warm baths can help them to poo, so this could help. It's worth a shot anyway, won't do her any harm.

MissG,

The temperature I quoted was from near the heat lamp end (ceramic bulb). I've just given her a warm bath however I notice that she seemed to be going to the toilet earlier this morning but nothing seem to come out.

She is moving around the viv however when I picked her up for her bath, I felt what seems to be a hard lump/mass on her abdomen, roughly cylinderical in shape. Constipation? Eggs?

If there's not an improvement in her bowel movement tomorrow, then I'm going to take her to the vets. Too important and too loved to lose!!

M

Usually if they are with eggs they get quite tubby, has she been near a male! When my female was preg she was anything but still....she just dug about everywhere like a nutter!
My male beardie is very lazy sometimes doenst move for days as he conserves energy but he has been constipated afew times and when he is like this he gets very grumpy looking and stays in the same spot...he doesnt seem to brighten up either!
Would look at as mentioned temps, if you think she might be constipated then apple sauce and plenty of baths work or it may be that she is brumating? Is she normally very lively! x

Just a quick update. She went into surgery yesterday after numerous attempts by the Vet to 'ger her going'.

Bassically, it appears that she has eaten some of the plastic foliage that's been in her viv for years (long time before I actually owned her). This foliage has compacted in her gut and she has tried to eat her bedding (wood chip) in order to move the blockage along.

Vet says that she has seemed to make a good recovery after the surgery and I'm picking her up tonight.

Thanks to you both for the advice and assistance in this awkward time.

M

I hear a lot of people use Repti Glo's for beardies. What about the length? As in how far away are the lights? I don't think I read that part. I use zilla lights from their desert 50 series which work good for me. The box says that at 12 inches (for example) they get 50microwatts. Farther they get less and closer they get more. So just look at whatever the packaging says. Although I hear standard is 12 inches (don't know how much 12 inches is in the metric system). I say this because when beardies, which depend a lot on UV lighting, will become sluggish and eat poorly when they don't have the vitamins they need.

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To my understanding the light must be 12" away.