Let's talk about Egg Laying in Bearded Dragons

Let’s talk about females and egg laying. Female Beardies can/will lay infertile eggs. I’ve had females who lived with males who have *never* laid eggs. I’ve had females who have *never* seen a male who laid excessively. I’ve had females who laid 1 egg once and females who laid 20 a month. It is 100% random, all based on genetics. 

Every female will make egg follicles from their ovaries. The follicles then drop into their oviduct and come out through their vent as an egg shape. Infertile eggs look like giant yellowish-white Tic Tacs; fertile eggs are tiny egg shapes. Not all egg follicles will drop off the ovaries and if they don’t, they will start to rot inside the female’s belly. 

The first pic shows healthy follicles (round, similar size, bright yellow) and the second pic unhealthy follicles (abnormal, dark colored, lots more blood). One of the most common causes of deaths with females is rotted eggs. Which leads to the next question— but how do you know??? You don’t by yourself. Yearly check ups are the only way. Egg follicles can’t be felt by a vet; they can be seen through an ultrasound though. Sadly, a female with rotting eggs will act totally normal until she’s too sick to save. 😩 

If you have a female, I highly highly recommend that you get her spayed by an experienced reptile vet. I’ve had most my females spayed before I adopted them out. There are risks to surgery but they are less than the risks of having ovaries and eggs. My vet charges around $500 for a spay surgery. The last pic is Dorothy having her stitches removed a month after her surgery. She is guaranteed to have a longer & healthier life without her ovaries & eggs. See next post for how to tell if your beardie is a boy or girl! 

Mystery Solved!

Problem solved!!! I took Derek to the vet today because since I got him 12 days ago, he's not been eating or pooping. I started to worry.

Well, Derek is a GIRL! 😱😱 And she's not fat, she's pregnant (sorta)!!! Derek is making infertile eggs and has a lot of ova growing around her ovaries.

Not eating, not moving, not pooping are all bad signs in males, but totally normal in egg laying females. I'm going to wait a couple weeks to see if she lays them. If not, I'll spend the money to have her spayed (about $400) so we don't have to deal with eggs again.

I've had 4 female beardies spayed and it's been fabulous. Undeveloped eggs start to decay in the belly and the resulting infection will kill them.

Gen at the Vet

I took Gen, my only female beardie, in today to make sure she was healthy and didn't have any eggs. She was mellow the whole time from the ride there to the exam to driving home. She just sat in her box and watched everything.

I've been regulating Gen's diet since last September to help her lose weight. Apparently, it didn't work because she has put on 100 grams since then! Whoops! She was 652 grams on 9/28/16; she was 758 grams today. The vet asked "How's her activity level?" Um, she's a slug. "How's her appetite?" She goes crazy when she sees food.

Time to break out the beardie treadmill and play "Eye of the Tiger" for her on my iPod! ;)

Gen is a BIG girl. Which is hard to believe because her rescuer (a good friend of mine) force fed her as a baby for the first 3 months of her life. It took a lot of convincing & stress & coaxing to get Gen to live. The vet was surprised to hear that since she obviously is very healthy now.

You can see how long Gen is so she's not morbidly obese or anything. She's just a big girl! And there are no eggs! Dr Folland thought at first he felt an egg, but it was merely a fat pad that was floating in her belly. She has quite a few fat pads. :)

One of the reasons I had Gen checked today is that I have someone coming to meet her tonight. With her being my only female, I am very protective of her at my house. Her presence makes all my male beardies go CRAZY! And the presence of hormonal males will make her more likely to lay eggs. So I don't let her out much. If she is the only beardie and gets a ton of attention, I think she'll slim down some and be more happy. My house is good, but I'm not so arrogant that I think my house is the ONLY good one. Gen is a great beardie and I adore her, but I realize she's one of 10 here (3 of which require daily force feedings) and there's not a lot of time & attention for her.

Gorgeous, huh? Not too bad for a "Failure to Thrive" beardie who has asymptomatic adenovirus too.

Lotus Surgery Update

My vet ended up doing surgery and found to a lot of undeveloped eggs that had gotten stuck in her ovaries-- they hadn't even dropped down to her oviducts. There's no way she ever could have laid them. If we had left them, they would have killed her. 

Several of them had started to decompose and so she'll be on an antibiotic for 3 weeks. I'll force feed her a couple times to build her strength back up. She weighs half of what she did before. 

There's no way to know why the eggs got stuck, but she's been spayed so she'll never have eggs again. Her first eggs were her last eggs. 

I'll go pick her up in an hour. 

Akime & Lotus back at the Vet

I took both chameleons back to the vet this morning for check ups.

Akime's arm has been wrapped for a week and looks great. Dr Folland put a specialized wrap on it that will help it stay moisturized and will heal quicker. She'll go back in for a checkup and wrap replacement (if necessary) in two to three weeks.

Lotus has not laid her eggs yet. That's not necessarily the problem though. The issue is that she isn't eating, won't dig, and is becoming more lethargic in her cage-- all signs of distress. Being egg-bound (where the eggs can't be laid) can kill a female chameleon within hours and I've been trying my best to avoid that.

We started off the visit by a physical exam (yes, the vet felt the eggs) and then an ultrasound (yes, the eggs are in there) and then an oxytocin shot to try to spur egg laying. I left her at the vet in a brooder because if the shot induced egg laying, it would have happened within a couple hours. Sadly today is the only day my favorite vet has to do surgery and so we decided to try the oxytocin and then do surgery if that didn't work.

Yeah- a $40 shot or a $500 surgery.

I hadn't heard anything yet, so I just called. No eggs.

Ugh.

I'll keep you posted.

Sickly Dex

In the last few weeks, Dex has been very lethargic. I took her in yesterday for bloodwork and got the results back today. 

Dex has a very high white blood cell count (sign of an infection) and a high calcium level (possibly eggs). 

My guess is that I have another female with undeveloped eggs that are starting to be toxic. :( I'm taking her in for an ultrasound on Monday and we should be able to see if she has eggs. 

Dex tested positive for adenovirus (ADV+) and so the idea of surgery becomes a complicated option. ADV+ beardies are much more susceptible to infection and stress. I'm not sure she can handle the trauma of having her eggs, ovaries, and oviducts removed. 

I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it next week. 

Stella's Necropsy

I had Dr Folland do a necropsy (an animal autopsy) on Stella. He found a mass of very infected ovum (under-developed eggs). 

Remember Fat Lucy's egg removal? See the dark colored and misshapen ones? Those had started to decay and rot in her belly. 

Then there were Skye's eggs. See how they were all orange and round? 

Stella (like Fat Lucy & Skye) had ovum develop in her ovaries, but, for some reason, they never dropped into her oviducts and down into her lower belly to be laid. Over time, her eggs rotted and became a toxic mess inside of her. The eggs mutated into one large mess that wasn't distinguishable on an ultrasound. 

This leads to the question-- could her death have been prevented? My best answer is "I don't know." Stella had laid eggs before, but stopped. That's totally normal. A yearly check up might have allowed a vet to feel eggs/lumps with his fingers. I say "might" because my vet felt Stormy & Fatty Patty for eggs and felt none. Three days later, Fatty Patty laid 11 eggs after arriving at her her new home. Two weeks later, Stormy laid 18 eggs at her new home. 

If you have only a one or a few beardies, I highly recommend yearly exams with an experienced reptile vet. At least every other year, have a full blood panel done. Because Nubs is my beardie and because he had such a rough beginning, I had a blood test done last year. It came back normal and now I have a base line to compare things too in the future. 

Reptiles hide their illness very well. Knowing your reptile's habits will help you spot changes in behavior more easily. Budgeting in a yearly exam and blood work (around $200 to $300 for both) can help insure your beardie stays healthy. 

Skye's Surgery

Skye had surgery today to remove her undeveloped eggs (technically called "ovum") and to remove her ovaries and oviduct. This same surgery happened to Fat Lucy last July but I had foot surgery that day and couldn't watch. Today I got to watch. 

Skye did NOT like being weighed. Or poked. Or moved. ;) She just wanted to stay all wrapped up in her blankie. 

It took awhile to get her to go to sleep. 

After about 15 minutes, she appeared to be out. 

The actual surgery took 20 minutes. And, no, I won't post close up pics. 

I cannot believe how many egg sacks she had in her. No wonder she was huge. Each ovary had a cluster of 20+ ovum attached. Normally the ovum would form and then drop down into the oviduct. For some unknown reason, Skye's body collected the ovum around her ovaries. They would have stayed stuck there until they started to decompose. The rotting ovum eventually would create a toxic infection that would kill her off. 

Often, the only way to tell a female beardie is plugging up with undeveloped eggs is that they stop eating. Fatty Lucy went to the vet for a respiratory infection and that's when Dr Folland discovered the lumps in her belly and did an X-ray. Fatty Lucy had as many ovum but some of hers had started to rot. 

Here's Skye's "eggs." They are all perfectly healthy. I can see why she weighed 600 grams before surgery! 

I asked my vet a TON of questions about eggs, etc. as he operated. I will, in the next day or two, write a blog post on bearded dragon eggs. 

Skye's previous owner was so upset to learn Skye had eggs and needed them out. I told her there was no way she could have known. I didn't know about it before I rescued Fatty Lucy and took her to the vet-- and I didn't even take her because she was fat! She went for a check up because of an upper respiratory infection! Without that reason to be seen, I never would have known. 

But I will say this-- Dr Folland says the biggest symptom of becoming egg bound like this is not eating. Skye was also really fat and bloated. 

More egg info soon! Promise!

Skye is home now. I can tell her belly hurts. She's on a good pain medicine and will be for the next 10 days. I think she will feel so much better without all that in her! 

She's in a soft sick tank so she won't hurt her belly. 

I expect her to be up and moving around in the next few days. 

Chameleon Eggs are Cute!

I think there were more, but I'll leave them to fertilize my plant. 

Eggs!

This may be hard to believe but I have never had a female rescue lay infertile eggs for me before. The girls I've rescued have laid eggs before coming to my house or after leaving my house, but never AT my house. 

Until today. 

Chomps decided to lay me some eggs. Oh boy. This reminds me why boys are just easier to handle. :)