Beardie constipation

Question
QUESTION: I have a 10 year old female bearded dragon which I have raised since she was a hatchling. She has not pooped at all for about a week, however this is not usual for my beardie so I was not concerned until 2 days ago when she started squirming her rear end a lot and straining very much to poop. she has never shown this behavior before and it appears to be very uncomfortable for her. Finally she was able to pass something but it was only a large white urate(not hard). I tried putting her in a warm bath but she hates to be in water and this only seemed to cause more stress for her. I have made a vet appointment for this evening but they would like a stool sample to examine, however since she has not been able to poop there might not be one to provide. Although she is constipated and is showing signs of discomfort from it, my beardie is still quite alert, has been eating plenty of fresh green veggies daily and is not showing any other symptoms of illness. I know that I have been lucky to have such a healthy beardie for over 10 years ans she is likely reaching the end of her days so I want to be sure I am doing everything I can to keep her as comfortable and stress free as possible. Any advice? Thank you!

ANSWER:   An elderly beardie may need more liquid to pass her feces, so wetting her salad well and giving her a couple of berries may help.  A vet can manually make her poop to provide a sample as well as relieve her discomfort.  I have injected a favorite treat with a sweet edible oil that also has helped move "the mail".

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QUESTION: this is more of a folow up than another question. thankyou for your advice.  I took Bert to a highly recommended vet who is an expert in dealing with herps. After an x-ray revealed that she was impacted, they decided to admit her and perform an enema. Unfortunately, the enema was not sucessful in helping her to fully eliminate her bowels and the vet ran some more tests he found that the impaction had caused a bowel perferation. My poor baby had to have surgery to remove part of her bowel! Thank God she came out of it OK and is recovering now. And thankfully when the vet opened her up for the exploratory surgery, he found no other signs of disease and they were finally able to take a stool samople to rule out any parasite. it was opnly that she had a piece of substrate stuck in her bowel. So now I plan to start an internet campaign to worn beardie owners of the dangers of using coconut fiber substrate. Even though the label may say that it is safe for lizards to eat and easy to digest, it is apparently not so. God bless the great vets at Creature Comforts in Saylorsburg, PA!

Answer
 For several years now many bearded dragon groups have been promoting non particulate substrates.  I use a combintion of marine indoor/outdoor carpet and Duck brand non-adhesive shelf liner as a truly "green" alternative since they can be washed and reused.  On the shelf liner side would be where I place a water pan to bathe and drink one day, or a pan of sand to dig and exercise in, also where the beardie can poop and the poop easily removed with a baby wipe between washings.