Dragon w/ bleeding eye

[beknluke]

Hi Guys
I have 2x central beardie juvies (6mths) who appear to have poked their eyes on one of their branches. That's not my big issue though - the prob is that this happened on Thurs night. Luke came home and spotted SPLATTER all over the glass and walls of their tank. I was SURE I would find a dead one somewhere.
What appears to be bleeding is their third eyelid. Whenever they are cold, there is no bleeding. But give them a heat lamp and their eye (from what I can tell from the blood pattern) has blood that almost explodes out of it!
Either way, I have kept them cold since Thurs night - no blood. Just put a really crappy 60w lamp in there, and by the time the tank had raised a few degrees, there was A FOOT length of blood, starting from the beardies eye, all across the floor and up the wall!
Other than that, the one that bled this morning is fine. Using that eye, running around etc etc. The vets are closed so I an't take her today - but has anyone heard of a similar prob before?? Where it appears that it has not healed in 36hrs and SPRAYS out of them??
I will attach a pic of the innitial lot of blood:

Now let me just say that that has NOTHING on the blood just before.
I am booking them in for the vets next weekend since there is no blood when there's no heat. But I am just curious to see if anyone has experienced this before?? ie, their deficient in blah, or it a brain tumor etc etc.
Thanx guys, and sorry if anyone was icked out with the blood
Bex

 

[NoOne]

Can you get a pic of where the blood is coming from? Is it actually coming from the eyeball?

Are both of them doing it or just one? It's seems unlikely that it would be from a branch, more likely a claw from the other.
Have you checked it for any other wounds?
Are they acting normal otherwise, feeding drinking etc?

Steve.

 

[beknluke]

No cuts or bruises anywhere on either of them.
Their eyes are perfectly fine until they close their third eyelid and you can see a vein (on one of them)
I would take a pic of their heads, but you can't even tell that there is anything wrong until you sit them under a heat lamp
I don't want to offer them food coz it's not warm enough for them to digest it, but drinking and acting normally.
Shorty has her right eye, Charlie has the left. Neither of them are acting strangely towards each other, let alone agressively - they seem so NORMAL.
Shortys eye has bled 3 times, Charlies: twice.

 

[BROWNS]

Wow never heard of anything like it...squirting blood from the eye is done purposely by one type of lizard which i can't recall the name of.Have you rung any vets and explained these symptoms and asked for advice?Some vet should be able to tell you something,reptile vet that is!!!Maybe pm Danny Brown aka geckodan?

 

[beknluke]

No, I haven't contacted danny, but I have tried a few in melb and they're all closed for the e/end..
It's VERY strange!! They're both just sittingin the cold tank right now looking at me - damn they're cute!!
But I am keeping a very close watch on them either way.
It's just so bizaare how it literally appears to squirt (with great force!) out of their eye! I haven't been able to witness it, but going from my 'watching CSI' training, I would say that it is definately from the heat.
They have no blood on their toes, each other, nothing!! We actually padded their feet the other night so that they couldn't scratch and STILL blood went everywhere.
Any other takers??

 

[instar]

ouch! if the heat makes it happen, stop feeding, keep cooler and get to the vet! very weird, sounds like a blood vessel burst? hope they recover for ya, best wishes.

 

[Jenny]

Hello Bex,

To stop bleeding, blood needs to be able to pool and congeal. In humans and large animals, we applied pressure. That?s a bit hard on a lizard?s eyelid.

Blood vessels expand in the heat and contract in the cold. So, what you have done by cooling them is just right. You have stopped the blood from flowing and given it a chance to pool, and it should now be congealing and scabbing up.

Now that it?s been a day or so, I think that by this afternoon, it is worth trying a light globe the next size up, (80W) and see what happens. If that is OK, leave for another couple of days and try 100W. These slow increments will let the blood vessels expand gentle and any resulting blood flow should be minimal.

It's odd that they have the same injury in the same place so I still think a vet check is worthwhile to check that it is an injury rather than an illness.

 

[beknluke]

Thanx Jenny
I am going to wait for a couple of days before I add heat again since Shorty went for a day and a half w/o any, and yet it still bled.
I WILL try that slow increase of globe wattage though.
I am actually considering making a bucket to put around her head (like you see on dogs w/ stitches) just to make sure that she's not helping the blood along by rubbing.
Bex

 

[nuthn2do]

That is serious arterial blood loss for a 6 month beardie, waiting till next weekend could be a big mistake.

 

[beknluke]

It COULD be - but when you don't drive, you live at least 30mins for a herp vet, your local vet is useless, your partner works shift work and can't drive you, AND your family point blank refuses, you don't have much choice
Oh - add to that leaving for work when the vets haven't opened and getting home after they close. Aren't 12hr days fun :?

 

[Nome]

I haven't heard of a vet closed on weekends, usually they are open all weekend as a lot of people work. And usually they have an emergency number you can call and meet them there after hours. Maybe one close by could offer that?

It doesn't sound like your beardie would survive another week of bloodloss. Maybe you could put her in a shoebox, take half a day off work or the day and jump on a bus?

 

[beknluke]

Yep - vets here are closed
Unfortunatley, they are only open for 3 hrs on Saturdays which are booked out from all the full time workers.
She is not bleeding constatntly - if that were the case, she wouldn't be around right now. No, only on the first night when she had heat, and yesterday when I tried her out with a heat globe again.
She's sitting quite happily on my shoulder right now using that eye and drinking etc etc. Her tank is sitting on about 20 degrees and she has been fine in that so far. However, I am keeping a very close watch on her. Am looking at setting up the video camera so that if it happens again, I might get an idea as to what's going on.
I HAVE called their emergency number and when I mentioned that it was a lizard, they said that I would be 'far better calling the zoo this afternoon, or get it to a herp vet during the week'. They also asked me 'when' she is bleeding and said that she should be fine in cool temps until I can get her to a herp vet, but that was closely followed by their disclaimer of 'though I don't see reptiles, so you may be better talking to the zoo'.
Like I said, she is under close observation, and I am doing that best I can with what I have. I was just hoping that maybe someone else had had a similar experience that I could get some advice from.

 

[Jenny]

Hello Bex,

The bucket thing is a great idea ? good luck making it.

I think the first aide you are trying is appropriate and it sounds like you have brought the blood loss under control. If there isn?t ongoing blood loss, things should be fine and nature will take over. Animals are surprisingly resilient.

Anyone who reads this site can be in no doubt that you care about your animals and would never treat them negligently or without due care.

Good luck.

 

[nuthn2do]

No one can diagnose these sort of things over the net and nobody is questioning the care. However I can offer you the information that with arterial spray like that it could bleed out a beardie in under 10 seconds and if it does happen the animal will die.