arsanatomica:

Check out my new bearded dragon dissection!

You guys see how there’s tons of follicles in there?

Follicles are not eggs, they are bubbles of yolk. So in other words, her body started making eggs, got all half-assed and never finished making real eggs and just made yolks instead.

This kind of thing is really common in pet lizards. They get lots of nice rich food, and like people with tons of disposable income, they start putting those nutrients into frivolous stuff they don’t really need. Like egg yolks for future eggs.

So they make tons of these yolks, and the body comes back and says it’s not really the right time to breed. Conditions aren’t right and they need to wait. So now they are stuck with all these with these super fragile bubbles of egg yolk with NO SHELLS.

They can’t make them into eggs, they can’t lay them because the yolks have no shells, and they can’t reabsorb them because there’s nowhere else to put those nutrients when the liver is still busy making more yolks. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
So the yolks just sit there…… they pile up.
They get larger and like a stretching balloon, the bubble gets thinner. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Then one breaks, and leaks all around the organs. Infection sets in and the animal dies.
This is called Yolk Peritonitis, and it is super SUPER common in bearded dragons, but also lizards in general.

I get a lot of bearded dragons…. the ones with novice owners mostly die of nutritional and care related problems. The ones with experienced owners die of THIS. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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