bearded dragon choking is a serious problem because they can’t help themselves. It can lead to a medical emergency and lead death. There is no proper Heimlich maneuver available for them to clean its pipe. So the first thing is that you should remain calm and open their mouth to clean their throat… you can use the tweezer to remove the stuck food. But be careful; it’s a sensitive procedure for you!
Further detail to cope with this situation are mentioned below:
In this article, you will get complete help on what to do if your bearded dragon suffers from this situation. After this, you will know the signs and causes to solve the problem of choking quickly.
Signs of bearded dragon choking
First of all, you should know what choking is. It means the foreign body enters your airways or windpipe and blocks them entirely or partly. it can be anything like food or an object.
When bearded dragon chokes, it’s not easy to identify that they are choked, but you should notice a few signs.
- Coughing
- Gagging
- Difficult to breathe
- Continuously open or close mouth
- Color changing
- Struggle to swallow
- Behave differently
- Trying to vomit
- Twitching
These are the significant signs that directly tell us something stuck in the airways.
Causes of bearded dragon choking on food:
Common causes of choking are as follows:
- A big chunk of food
- Hard food that difficult to swallow
- Eat something wrong, like sand
Quick Solution:
If you see some of these signs, Now you should immediately help them throw out the food and other objects if stuck in their mouth. You may need sunlight or a torch light to see inside the mouth what happened…
Please DO NOT use your hand or finger to get out of the object in his mouth; it’s hazardous. You cannot even use any sharp objects. It will cut his throat and start bleeding. So you can take the help of a tweezer or cotton very carefully.
After cleaning the throat, if the condition is the same and you feel your dragon is lazy, go to the vet as soon as possible. Because At home, we don’t have enough medicated tools that can help us to treat them properly.
Things to do After:
- Make sure that food should be small in size and easy to digest.
- Food should be, at most, the size of its eyes.
- It should be soft enough to eat like silkworms.
- Keep an eye on him when a bearded dragon is eating.
- It would be better if you use hand feeding
- Check its container, cage, or living area and make sure there is nothing solid thing they can chew or swallow.
bearded dragon choking on water:
Choking on the water is something different from choking on food. It’s easy to handle. Choking on the water quickly to identify as compared to food. Mostly it happens when drinking long. Secondly, when they take a bath, water can goes into their airways accidentally.
A sign of water choking is you can hear a watery sound and coughing. The color of the bearded dragon also changes, like food choking.
In this situation, keep calm. You can treat it at home. Hold the bearded dragon in your hand gently and put his head downward. Open his mouth water will start coming out. after a few seconds, do this again until his lungs drain entirely out.
After this, you should go to the vet; they will check the lungs properly. Lungs are a susceptible organ of the body, especially in little pets.
bearded dragon gagging:
Gagging helps to prevent choking. Gagging is different from choking. In gagging, the airways are not blocked. But once it triggers, it forces the back of the throat and feels tight.
Gagging related to respiratory infections. When your bearded dragon experience gagging, you will notice they start coughing and trying to clean out its throat. So a vet can better treat gagging. It’s different from food or water choking.
Conclusion:
I hope you understand the difference between food, water choking, and gagging. Causes, symptoms, and solutions, everything accurately and briefly describes. This is the complete information. Now you can quickly identify and solve the health problem of bearded dragons if you need further help comment below.
FAQ:
It happens when they intake an extra amount of water through the mouth or during taking a bath. Signs are they turned into black color and water comes out of mouth and nostrils.
Usually, they are not choking on food. Death happens when they eat the wrong or large size of food. You have to be careful when they are eating.
A common cause of death is eating foreign objects for a long time. It will harm their digestive system and lead to death.
Yes, they can choke on the water quickly. Bearded dragon start coughing and making choking sounds in this situation.
These are the symptoms of respiratory infections sneezing, lack of appetite, runny eyes, and nose, bubble discharge from mouth and nose, slow breath, lazy.
Yes, they can choke on big-size crickets.
In the early stage, if you treat them with the help of a vet, they can survive. But if left untreated, it causes death.