And for the last three days, I've been reminded of the struggle I had two years ago trying to keep Nubs alive.
This was Nubs two years ago today:
And:
This was Nubs last week:
And last night:
Amazing, huh?
Nubs taught me more about saving critically ill beardies than any other rescue. I learned how to give saline shots and how to use baby steps of progress. That knowledge has been so useful in helping to save other beardies. Or to at least give them a better chance. JoJo & Mushy made it; Andy & Rico did not. And within the last week, I was able to help save Henry (a bearded dragon in AZ).
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Here's my Nubs' Critical Care Steps-
1- Focus on hydration for the first 48 to 72 hours. Use homemade Pedialyte (1 quart warm water with 2 Tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt) and squirt 5 - 10 mL/cc's into his mouth daily.
Saline shots are a better way to go, but you'll have to have your vet help you with that.
Give a warm bath at least once daily.
My vet says if they can't go 48 more hours without eating, they are probably too sick too survive.
2- After hydrating, give the beardie baby food squash in a syringe. 1 mL for babies, 2 mL for juveniles, 5 mL for adults. Break up feedings into two times.
Give basic veggie baby food for two days. If the beardie starts to get worse with food, go back to hydrating him for a day and then start over with less baby food.
3- After 2 days of eating the baby food squash with no problems, give the same amount of baby food but this time use Chicken & Veggies or Chicken & Squash. Do that for a few days.
If they don't do well with the protein, then go back to straight baby food squash for a day.
4- After about a week, offer bugs (wax worms or roaches).
The point with Baby Steps is that you take small steps forward so you can quickly back track at the first sign of distress.
My biggest mistake was putting him immediately on Critical Care and shocking his system with too much protein. His kidneys & liver immediately started to fail. It's a miracle we were able to bring him back from that.
