Impacted Bearded Dragon

I ran the Charm City Reptile and Amphibian Rescue for 14 years (no longer in operation). 

It started with a phone call

I received a call from a friend. She worked with a woman whose kids had two bearded dragons. One had died, and the other was not doing well.

I knew the animal wasn’t healthy, but didn’t know what the problem was. It was back when we were just getting started, and I didn’t have much experience with sick animals.

The unfortunate bearded dragon could barely even lift its head. I noticed two important things right away. The first was that there was no water bowl in the cage. Not good! Second, the animal was on sand. That is a bad combination. If you use sand, either the special reptile calcium sand (which I don’t recommend) or regular play sand, you should always have a water bowl. If it gets sand in it – clean it! Bearded dragons are often kept without water bowls. That is a really bad idea. A good rule of thumb is, every living thing needs water. Bearded dragons need water and they like to soak in their water bowls. The bowl should be adequate in size to accommodate their entire body.

This sad little dragon had not had a bowel movement in a month or more. The woman said the dragon wasn’t eating. No kidding! The animal could barely lift its head, let alone chase down crickets. Actually, the crickets were probably chewing on the bearded dragon, especially since they were being dumped into the enclosure with nothing but sand.

Information is available

There is a ton of information on the internet and many books written about bearded dragons. They are the number one reptile pet, and there is more information written about them than most other species of reptile. There is no excuse for people letting their animals get into horrible condition like this one. By the friend taking it off the owner’s hands, she let this person off the hook.

I was extremely angry. Bearded dragon care is easy, and if you are going to commit to buying an animal, a large enclosure, food, lighting, a heat source, cage decorations, etc., why can’t you also buy a book? There is so much information out there. You should be ashamed if you let this happen to your pet. It sets a horrible example for your children.

If you decide to keep a bearded dragon on sand, you should feed it in another container. If you don’t, it will end up eating a lot of the sand. I don’t care what kind of sand you use or what people say, if your animal eats a lot of sand and doesn’t have access to water, it’s going to have some serious problems. And, it is probably going to die.

A visit to the vet

I took the bearded dragon to the vet. We decided to give it an enema. 

Yeah, the good times are rolling now! Kids, don’t try this at home. A catheter tube filled with slightly warm water is inserted in the cloaca (also called the vent, also called the butt) of the animal. Then the waiting begins…

For several minutes, the bearded dragon contorted into some awful-looking positions. The vet was holding the dragon above the metal table. PING! A hard piece of urates shot out of the dragon like it was a cannon. A few minutes later, hard feces came out too. 

When we left the vet’s office, she gave me instructions on how to care for this bearded dragon. For example, soaking encourages crapping. In addition, I had to hand-feed the lizard patient because it was still unable to walk.

My vet came over to my house, usually every week, to check on the many animals in my care. Many rescues arrived in poor condition. She got out of the office for a little while, and I got house calls.

Every time she came over, we talked about this bearded dragon. It definitely improved a lot in the beginning. I think we either dewormed the animal and/or gave it antibiotics. I remember some kind of medication after the enema. 

More bearded dragon information

Bearded dragons are omnivores, so I was giving this dragon vegetables, insects and a variety of foods. After several weeks the dragon seemed to stop improving. Sometimes that happens. The worst thing is that sometimes they seem like they are steadily getting better and one day they just crash and die.

If an animal goes for a long period of time without water their organs shut down. That is probably what happened to this bearded dragon. Every time the vet would come over, I would practically beg for more time. She thought we should put down this animal. It was wishful thinking that the animal was getting better. Eventually, I had to let it go. The bearded dragon was put down. It was a horrible experience. I feel like this animal suffered greatly due to the ignorance of its owner. Luckily for the other animal, it died much more quickly.

Lessons learned

I learned a great lesson from this bearded dragon. Sometimes there is just nothing to do but to let go. It’s a hard lesson. In the rescue business, it is something I had to deal with a lot more often than I’d like to admit.

I wish that after being mistreated for a long time and finally an animal gets to me, I can help it. But that’s not always the case. Most of the time, our rescue animals can be saved. I try to focus on them, and not on what I can’t do. But there are occasions when the organs are damaged beyond repair and the neglect is so severe that there is nothing to do but to put that animal out of its misery. 

Sometimes, putting an animal out of its pain adds to my own.

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Read more by Holli Friedland.