Echoezra
Established Member
Okay,
I apologize in advance for my long detailed babbling.
So - I cleaned & rearranged my little guy's cage a couple hours ago, and as I was putting him back in I noticed a dark spot on his bum, so I lifted him out to check him out and there was what was probably dried blood on his tail below his vent. I also noticed a weird looking spot/sore (not open wound) I didn't notice before on his upper inside rear right leg, hoped maybe blood was from that, but after some awkward finagling with a warm wet paper towel, i was able to gently clean the blood off and just as i finished, there was a tiny bit of fresh red blood you could see beginning to show on the vent. I don't know if that little bit of fresh blood was due to maybe me pulling at the dried blood that was stuck to the vent? or from something else.
Anyways, At that moment i could feel he was just way way too stressed and needed a break (closed eyes, grip getting looser) so I quickly put him back in his cage.
I hadn't noticed this blood or sore before, as I have not handled him in about a week (only had him 12 days), and that was quickly, just to move him, plus the cage is pretty full of plants so I don't get that detailed of a view when he's sitting/climbing much either. (He may have had sore when I got him, but the dark stuff wasn't there before, I would have noticed that the first night as I had to handle him twice.)
On the bright side, he was happy to be back in his cage, perked up, I misted, he drank off some leaves, crawled around & checked the place out. Seemed happy. I put a cricket in there, to see if he was interested in food, and he was, he eye balled it a little, but it fell off the wet leaves before he positioned himself, put another, same thing, so I put a superworm on a vine , he got very excited and ate it right away. So, still moving around fine (grip back), still drinking, still hungry & eating fine.
I decided to just let him settle down first, I went and looked up some phone numbers of the vets, called one to see if they were even open today (snow storm)
I searched on here quickly for blood, bleeding, pictures of prolapse, etc. to be prepared. Couldn't find anything quite the same.
I misted and even turned the humidifier that sits next to his cage and pointed it into the cage to try and keep the plant he was on moist, in case something else did come out maybe it wouldn't dry up on him.
Well, he just loved that, crawled over to it, almost fell of his leaves. I misted again, and put another vine in there lower so he could be supported by it if he ventured too far on the leaves again. He used it to reach the screen side and perched right in front of the humidifier blast.
I then noticed that he had a little tiny dark pokey thing protruding from his bum area, and freaked out a little. I first thought oh no, a prolapse, then thought no, it's probably a parasite..
So I took him out to get a better look.
So actually this tiny dark poking sliver looking thing was attached to the end of a small creamy coloured gelly looking blob that wasn't even right at his vent but kind of stuck to his tail a little lower like it swung there from a little strand and stuck. I took a picture and put him back cause I wasn't sure if more was coming.
I went to look for pictures of sperm plug, etc. but it wasn't all dark and hard-looking like the pictures I found. Kind of more like the pictures of sperm stuck to vines though.
I went back and checked him again nothing new, so I wiped it off of him to get a better look. His grip was back just fine, so he's not weak or anything.
Now that it's dried up more, it is clear that that pointy dark tip thing is reddish (dried blood I imagine, from that little fresh bleeding that just happened) and the rest looks much more yellowy now that it's dried. Maybe it's just a tiny little urate??
Nothing is protruding, all body parts are inside where they belong.
I have only noticed about 4 poops so far since I got him, they all seemed pretty normal I believe, part brown, other part white - but - with a tiny little kind of seperate looking "tail" of more of a golden colour, I was going to ask you guys about that. I'm sure that some of his excrements are getting lost in the plants. I cleaned all the ones I found away, so I have none to show you guys, or a vet unfortunately.
It's after 5pm now, so I'm not able to see a reptile vet today anyways. In the morning maybe if we don't get snowed in tonight like they're saying. Can they even check for parasites without a fecal sample to offer them??
I'm wondering if you guys can tell me some of the possible causes for the blood.
Being WC, I am sure it's a distinct possibility/probability that the bleeding could be related to parasites, that was my first assumption.
Could bleeding also be related to eating feeders bigger than he should be eating? I was just happy he was eating something, and drinking often and seemed to be relaxing and enjoying his new home.
I'm slightly concerned about possible impaction from his insects - he wouldn't acknowledge the small silkworms, or butterworms. All he's interested in is crickets or superworms. I had picked out a few of the smallest out of the medium crickets bin we had at my store, as well as the smallest superworms we had when I first brought him home. He took them down like a champ. I got more crickets from my supplier, but he like me was thinking small, and brought me very very tiny small ones. My guy won't touch them. They're too small, he won't even look at them. So I could only find a few more acceptable (though bigger than the first ones) sized crickets and supers (still bigger than the first ones) from work. He seemed to not have a problem eating those sizes, wasn't intimidated, chomped them right down, but I was worried about going too big. I got proper sized crickets yesterday from another store, so the crickets should be fine now, but the all but one of the rest of the supers I have are almost near normal sized so I'm worried about those. He seems fine eating them, but he's just not a very big boy. I mean they're not size large, big honkin ones or anything, just still bigger than I thought he'd want.
Without any of the squishy juicy bugs I was counting on mixing in there, just crickets and supers seems kind of crunchy. I'm gutloading well, (collard greens, dandelion greens, romaine, acorn squash, carrot, orange, kiwi, plus a little sprinkle of hemp hearts since I haven't gotten a dry mix together yet) but still.
I think he's really hungry. Have only been giving him 2 or 3 bugs a day. Usually 2 crickets, one superworm. There were a couple days there where he had 2 supers.
Not entirely sure of his age, probably somewhere in the range of 4 to 6 months according to the forum's estimates, so didn't want to skip a day yet, but also didn't want to over feed.
The other thing is, he also doesn't really bask near the heat lamp. Which, I mean, if the cage is comfortable I guess he doesn't really need to, but if he's hardly ever getting his body temp up nice & warm, doesn't that make it even harder to digest things? Basking spot was low to mid 80's, room stays above 70. Maybe two basking spots? Especially now that the cage is longer. Right now he's dark, under the uvb light, but not the basking light.
Anyway, that was just something I was worried about, the bug thing.
Let me know your thoughts.
Update since I started writing this message:
he pooped - yay!, so he CAN (I was worried, since the blood) - so now I have a sample for a fecal
2 seperate brown blobs and a slightly smaller white blob with about a third more yellow. no blood that I could tell on any of it. I transferred that right into a baggie with a piece of moistened kleenex in it. Should I refrigerate that?
Picture attached is with the dried blood. More to follow, along with info form.
Thanks for your help and advice guys.
I apologize in advance for my long detailed babbling.
So - I cleaned & rearranged my little guy's cage a couple hours ago, and as I was putting him back in I noticed a dark spot on his bum, so I lifted him out to check him out and there was what was probably dried blood on his tail below his vent. I also noticed a weird looking spot/sore (not open wound) I didn't notice before on his upper inside rear right leg, hoped maybe blood was from that, but after some awkward finagling with a warm wet paper towel, i was able to gently clean the blood off and just as i finished, there was a tiny bit of fresh red blood you could see beginning to show on the vent. I don't know if that little bit of fresh blood was due to maybe me pulling at the dried blood that was stuck to the vent? or from something else.
Anyways, At that moment i could feel he was just way way too stressed and needed a break (closed eyes, grip getting looser) so I quickly put him back in his cage.
I hadn't noticed this blood or sore before, as I have not handled him in about a week (only had him 12 days), and that was quickly, just to move him, plus the cage is pretty full of plants so I don't get that detailed of a view when he's sitting/climbing much either. (He may have had sore when I got him, but the dark stuff wasn't there before, I would have noticed that the first night as I had to handle him twice.)
On the bright side, he was happy to be back in his cage, perked up, I misted, he drank off some leaves, crawled around & checked the place out. Seemed happy. I put a cricket in there, to see if he was interested in food, and he was, he eye balled it a little, but it fell off the wet leaves before he positioned himself, put another, same thing, so I put a superworm on a vine , he got very excited and ate it right away. So, still moving around fine (grip back), still drinking, still hungry & eating fine.
I decided to just let him settle down first, I went and looked up some phone numbers of the vets, called one to see if they were even open today (snow storm)
I searched on here quickly for blood, bleeding, pictures of prolapse, etc. to be prepared. Couldn't find anything quite the same.
I misted and even turned the humidifier that sits next to his cage and pointed it into the cage to try and keep the plant he was on moist, in case something else did come out maybe it wouldn't dry up on him.
Well, he just loved that, crawled over to it, almost fell of his leaves. I misted again, and put another vine in there lower so he could be supported by it if he ventured too far on the leaves again. He used it to reach the screen side and perched right in front of the humidifier blast.
I then noticed that he had a little tiny dark pokey thing protruding from his bum area, and freaked out a little. I first thought oh no, a prolapse, then thought no, it's probably a parasite..
So I took him out to get a better look.
So actually this tiny dark poking sliver looking thing was attached to the end of a small creamy coloured gelly looking blob that wasn't even right at his vent but kind of stuck to his tail a little lower like it swung there from a little strand and stuck. I took a picture and put him back cause I wasn't sure if more was coming.
I went to look for pictures of sperm plug, etc. but it wasn't all dark and hard-looking like the pictures I found. Kind of more like the pictures of sperm stuck to vines though.
I went back and checked him again nothing new, so I wiped it off of him to get a better look. His grip was back just fine, so he's not weak or anything.
Now that it's dried up more, it is clear that that pointy dark tip thing is reddish (dried blood I imagine, from that little fresh bleeding that just happened) and the rest looks much more yellowy now that it's dried. Maybe it's just a tiny little urate??
Nothing is protruding, all body parts are inside where they belong.
I have only noticed about 4 poops so far since I got him, they all seemed pretty normal I believe, part brown, other part white - but - with a tiny little kind of seperate looking "tail" of more of a golden colour, I was going to ask you guys about that. I'm sure that some of his excrements are getting lost in the plants. I cleaned all the ones I found away, so I have none to show you guys, or a vet unfortunately.
It's after 5pm now, so I'm not able to see a reptile vet today anyways. In the morning maybe if we don't get snowed in tonight like they're saying. Can they even check for parasites without a fecal sample to offer them??
I'm wondering if you guys can tell me some of the possible causes for the blood.
Being WC, I am sure it's a distinct possibility/probability that the bleeding could be related to parasites, that was my first assumption.
Could bleeding also be related to eating feeders bigger than he should be eating? I was just happy he was eating something, and drinking often and seemed to be relaxing and enjoying his new home.
I'm slightly concerned about possible impaction from his insects - he wouldn't acknowledge the small silkworms, or butterworms. All he's interested in is crickets or superworms. I had picked out a few of the smallest out of the medium crickets bin we had at my store, as well as the smallest superworms we had when I first brought him home. He took them down like a champ. I got more crickets from my supplier, but he like me was thinking small, and brought me very very tiny small ones. My guy won't touch them. They're too small, he won't even look at them. So I could only find a few more acceptable (though bigger than the first ones) sized crickets and supers (still bigger than the first ones) from work. He seemed to not have a problem eating those sizes, wasn't intimidated, chomped them right down, but I was worried about going too big. I got proper sized crickets yesterday from another store, so the crickets should be fine now, but the all but one of the rest of the supers I have are almost near normal sized so I'm worried about those. He seems fine eating them, but he's just not a very big boy. I mean they're not size large, big honkin ones or anything, just still bigger than I thought he'd want.
Without any of the squishy juicy bugs I was counting on mixing in there, just crickets and supers seems kind of crunchy. I'm gutloading well, (collard greens, dandelion greens, romaine, acorn squash, carrot, orange, kiwi, plus a little sprinkle of hemp hearts since I haven't gotten a dry mix together yet) but still.
I think he's really hungry. Have only been giving him 2 or 3 bugs a day. Usually 2 crickets, one superworm. There were a couple days there where he had 2 supers.
Not entirely sure of his age, probably somewhere in the range of 4 to 6 months according to the forum's estimates, so didn't want to skip a day yet, but also didn't want to over feed.
The other thing is, he also doesn't really bask near the heat lamp. Which, I mean, if the cage is comfortable I guess he doesn't really need to, but if he's hardly ever getting his body temp up nice & warm, doesn't that make it even harder to digest things? Basking spot was low to mid 80's, room stays above 70. Maybe two basking spots? Especially now that the cage is longer. Right now he's dark, under the uvb light, but not the basking light.
Anyway, that was just something I was worried about, the bug thing.
Let me know your thoughts.
Update since I started writing this message:
he pooped - yay!, so he CAN (I was worried, since the blood) - so now I have a sample for a fecal
2 seperate brown blobs and a slightly smaller white blob with about a third more yellow. no blood that I could tell on any of it. I transferred that right into a baggie with a piece of moistened kleenex in it. Should I refrigerate that?
Picture attached is with the dried blood. More to follow, along with info form.
Thanks for your help and advice guys.