The Price of Otis

Proof that my kids have the same weird sense of humor that I do. I found Otis, my male cherryhead tortoise, walking around the house looking like this: 

I started laughing! "Otis!," I said, "you are way under-valuing yourself! You're at least worth $10!"

Ha ha ha!

Welcome to the Zoo.

A Selfie with Kreature

 Such a handsome boy!

An Update on Norman

Norman finally came out of his box today. He didn't really eat his scrambled eggs, but he did poop for me.

Until his hands & tail heal up, he'll be stuck in a 40 gallon tank with towels as a substrate. That way I can see if he's bleeding and there's nothing hard to tear at the stitches.

He huffed & puffed at me a little bit, but then stuck his tongue out at me to smell me. He kept shaking his one hand behind him. I'm guessing it's because it hurts so bad. Time to give him more pain meds. He was super nice with his old owner and even liked the owner's kids. I'm hoping that he'll go back to being nice and cuddly once his pain levels decrease.

A Kreature in my Clothes

I have a bag of clothes in my closet that I plan to give to my local thrift store. For some reason, Kreature has decided these are HIS clothes and this is HIS new napping spot. He grabbed a brown skirt with a silky lining down from my closet shelf and he wraps himself in that too some days.

He's got a thing for silky soft women's clothes. I've even moved them both out of the way, and he finds a way to pull them down. Once, he had the Target bag on his back and he was carrying it around like a tortoise shell.

When I can't find the lizard (which is surprisingly easy even though he's a big guy!), I usually check under the clothes in my closet. He's never happy when I wake him up by moving the bag aside.

Here's a video of him in my clothes bag: 

Norman Post-Surgery

My vets ended up having to fully anesthetize Norman to be able to work him. Even after having him out for an hour and with several people working on him, they were not able to pick off all the dead skin and old shed off his hands & feet! Ultimately, he lost about 3 to 4 inches of his tail and 2 toes. There are a couple toes that may still fall off on their own or start to die, but they felt there was still a chance for them to recover. I'll still be soaking him and working on his toes when I can. 

For some reason, my camera did not want to focus for my pictures and the close ups of his hands and feet ended up blurry. :( 

His tail should regrow but it will always look a bit odd on the end.

So here starts the beginning of his recovery. He'll be in a sick tank until the sores on the bottoms of his feet & hands heal. He's also on pain meds to help him be less ouchy and grumpy.

The vet bill just for today came to just over $425. I think I may do a quick fundraiser to earn some extra cash for him. I have tanks I'm trying to sell, but am not having success so far. I'll keep you posted.

You can always donate to Norman's care through PayPal:

paypal.me/SarahsBeardieRescue

Norman, rescue 173

Norman went to the vet this morning. It was a visit for firsts! First vet visit with a tegu, first vet visit wrestling a large lizard into and out of a box, first vet visit leaving with my clothes & the exam room splattered with blood. Yeah, it was that kind of visit.

But before that, let me introduce you to Norman. He's a 3 year old Golden tegu who is actually quite nice-- if you aren't touching his feet or tail.

While we waited, I snuggled him and kept him calm. Sweet baby. I know he's in a lot of pain because of his feet & tail so I was patient with his struggling. Plus, he lived his whole life with one person and now he's with me in a new place, a new tank, and a new area. Super stressed.

Norman's owner got busy and overlooked his shedding. The old skin stayed stuck on his toes and started to cut off the blood supply. The result is nails and toes that are in various stages of dying, dead, and falling off.

Here's his right foot:

Here's his left foot.

The tips of some of his toes will have to come off, but he shouldn't lose too many of those.

His tail had a major cut in it and is almost completely detached. While we were examining him, he snapped his tail and broke open the scabs. The tail started bleeding as he snapped it back & forth like a whip, leaving me and the room splattered with blood. Then he peed all over me and my shoes and the floor. Not my best vet visit.

I opted to leave Norman at the vet to have them sedate him and work on each of his toes. They will pull off old shed and then snip off the toes/nails/tips that are dead or dying. I had the option of trying to soak him myself and removing built up skin, but I didn't want to do that. It would make me the bad guy for him and it would take forever and be the most painful. This way, it will all be over quickly and with the least amount of pain.

I don't even want to think about the vet bill at this point. I'm guessing I may do a mini fundraiser for Norman to help pay off the bill and help me get him an appropriate set up when he's ready to leave his sick tank. More details on that to come.

Bring home Norman

I picked up Norman, a 3 year old golden tegu. Poor guy is super stressed being moved. I'm going to let him take his time in his new sick tank and hide all he wants.

He's got a vet appointment on Monday morning at 10 with my vet. His feet are in BAD shape and we are definitely looking at amputations. :( Poor baby. He's adorable and very snuggly. I'll post pics when he decides to come out.

Somewhere along the way.....

I think back to the dreams I had for myself and my life when I left high school.

Somewhere along the path to growing up, those dreams totally disappeared.

And here I am now- standing in my bathroom, holding a 15+ pound lizard, taking a selfie while sticking out my tongue to show him how he should do it.

And tomorrow?

I'll be picking up another tegu that needs help.

Because who knew I'd grow up to be a middle aged, slightly pudgy Mormon mom with three kids and a house that's a zoo who has more than one tegu? Not me! ;) I was thinking of being an elementary school teacher.

Nope.

Instead I'll have a Kreature in my closet and a tegu named Norman to entertain me.

Welcome to the zoo!

the Kreature in my Closet

Kreature disappeared today. It took awhile to find him. Actually, it was a moving bag of clothes that gave him away. ;) 

For some reason, he loves the weight of the clothes on top of him.

He made himself a nest in my favorite brown skirt that had fallen on the ground and pulled the bag on top of him.

He was NOT happy when I pulled the bag off. I'm thinking he needs a bean bag to burrow under and he'd be happier (and safer without the plastic on him).

the Kreature Under the Bed

Guess who is hiding under the bed because I tried to put him in the bath?

Kreature is shedding and super irritable as he's rubbing on everything trying to get the shed off. I picked him up to carry him into the bathroom. He hated being held, scratched me to get down, and then hid under the bed. 🙄

Like a toddler! 

It took almost 10 minutes for him to come out. 

I stood there wondering when exactly I had lost control of my life. :P 

Today's Vet Visit

Today was a BIG trip to the vet. I took Kiwi the chameleon, Noel, Tiger, and the female gecko who had been chomped on by her mate.

Kiwi passed her exam with flying colors! Her bones are strong, her casque is firm, and she gained 4 grams. She is ready to move on with life. Woo hoo! Even Dr Folland said she had an amazing transformation. :) I didn't take a single pic of her. I mostly left her in her ice cream bucket because she hates being held & looked at.

Noel has doubled his weight since I took him to the vet last and tripled his weight since I rescued him. He's such a handsome boy. He's already getting ready to shed again.

Noel decided to poop while we were waiting for the vet. OH BOY! It smelled SO bad! I let them do a fecal test on it and it turns out that Noel is loaded with coccidia. We'll be treating him for that. He has an eyelid defect that makes his eye get really goopy and I'll give him two different eye drops for a week to see if that helps.

The female gecko actually looks good and acts good. Hopefully she'll start eating on her own soon. No pics of her.

Tiger did NOT like his vet visit at all. Poor guy is very miserable & sickly. His breathing is labored, his mouth is yellowing, his eyes are swollen, his nose is dripping, and he has severe diarrhea. We have exhausted almost all possibilities with him except for the $500 CT scan. Even that is not likely to show us anything that can be actually fixed. My daughter adopted him after her beloved beardie, Lizzie, died and she's loved on him ever since.

After Dr Folland examined him thoroughly, Tiger looked terrible. He folded his arms across his chest and kept his eyes shut tightly. :(

By the time we left, Tiger was looking less deathly.

It's hard to know what to do with him. He had a really bad beginning and was practically dead when I rescued him. This is what he looked like: 

Sometimes it's just not possible to ultimately overcome a bad beginning. I'm not sure what we will be able to do with Tiger next. I'm honestly going to have to pray about it and talk to my husband and daughter about it. $500 is a lot for a test that is not likely to show us something we can fix. 

Another hard part of rescue. 

Sickly Tiger worries Teddy

I had Tiger out tonight so I could see how his breathing sounded. He's been sick lately though we haven't been able to figure out what is wrong with him. He sounds worse tonight than he ever has. He's got a vet appointment in the morning and I'm hoping maybe his symptoms are more obvious now that we can figure out what is happening.

Every time Tiger took a wheezing, gurgly breath, Teddy (who had to sit on my lap too) showed deep concern.

I tried to take a video of Tiger's breathing, but he stopped gasping and gurgling every time I had the video feature on. Hopefully he'll do it tomorrow for Dr Folland so we can figure out what is wrong and how to fix him.

Tiger's eyes are hugely swollen and they leak tears/fluid. His nose leaks fluid too. His mouth seems abnormally red. His breathing is labored. This will be the 4th time we've taken Tiger back to the vet in the past 3 months. His blood work and physical exams have all been fine. Perhaps he had an early onset respiratory infection that wasn't showing up yet?? I'm stumped. Dr Folland has been stumped. Tiger is worse now and I'm hoping that will make it more obvious what we should do now. We've tried antibiotic shots, antibiotic eyedrops, flushing the eyes with saline, flushing his nose with saline, anti-inflammatory eye drops, etc.

I'll update you tomorrow.

Noel is also going back in because his eye never cleared up, and Kiwi will hopefully get an "All Clear" report for her MBD and broken bones.

Jinzo & Jazz, leopard geckos

These two leopard geckos were surrendered to me last week after they had stopped eating and stopped being active. They had lost a lot of weight too. I'm currently force feeding them Critical Care to get some extra calories and nutrition in them. The female shed last night and the male ate a superworm on his own. I'm hoping they'll start gaining weight again quickly.

Kreature's Holiday

Kreature had a big day yesterday with lots of exploration. We had to switch out his cage for a bark free one (the bark was irritating the hubby's allergies) and this boy needed a bath.

At first, he fought me. After he relaxed, he spent an hour soaking with his eyes mostly closed!

Then he went for a walk about while we kept cleaning the front room.

After the carpet was clean and dry and the room was ready, Kreature checked out his new cage.

At first he wasn't sure about it. I had to run a couple errands and when I came back, Kreature wasn't in his cage. When I asked my boys where he was, they told me Kreature was sleeping in Belle's dog crate.

I moved him back to his own cage (he wasn't happy). But soon discovered that an upside down dog bed makes a very comfortable hide. His cage is temporary until I can get him a bigger one, but considering how often he is out and about, I think he'll be okay.

Hemipene Prolapses versus Intestinal Prolapses and some other "Interesting" Boy Beardie Facts to Know

I randomly ended up helping a blog reader with a problem on a Facebook group for bearded dragons tonight and thought "Hey! Blog Post!" So here it is what I told her.

Raging hormones in male bearded dragons make them into crazy, messy, spastic monsters. It can also drive them to mate with everything and anything (and even nothing). My beardie Tiger once mated with a brown corn bag. It was quite unexpected, but fairly brief.

Dexter must have decided to mate with something tonight and got one of his hemipenes stuck outside of his vent. It's called a "Hemipene Prolapse." Hemipenes are about the size of your pinky finger and pink-- just like the one below. There's two of them in a male beardie-- one on each side of the vent.

At first Dexter's foster mom feared he had a bowel prolapse (which is very serious) and she treated it as one. She soaked him in warm sugar water and kept the area damp. If a beardie pushes out part of his/her intestines while pooping, YOU MUST GET THEM VET CARE IMMEDIATELY! The longer the portion of bowel is out of the body, the more likely it is to become infected, diseased, or to die. Until you can get in to see a vet, keep the prolapse in warm sugar water (sugar helps it to shrink). Don't let it get dirty or dry. Get a vet to get the bowel pushed back in and then you must discover what caused it. Most common cause of prolapses is parasite infestation. 

This is what a bowel (or intestinal) prolapse looks like: 

A hemipene prolapse can be soaked in warm water too. If you are comfortable, you can lubricate your smallest finger (a pinky is preferable) with KY Jelly or mineral oil or even olive oil, and gently push the hemipene back into the vent. To get it to stay in, you have to push it up over the flap of skin making up the vent and then push it down. Don't shove it in. Don't force it if it won't go. Don't stick more than about the tip of your pinky into the vent. If it comes back out, go see a vet.

KEY- IF YOU DON'T FEEL COMFORTABLE DOING THIS OR CAN'T GET IT BACK IN,

DON'T DO IT! SEEK VET HELP ASAP!! 

Sometimes hemipenes will have to be amputated because the tissue has died. Not a big or traumatic deal, but definitely something that your vet should do.

Also, another word for male beardie owners. Sometimes the hemipenes release seminal fluid that builds up and forms a sheath or covering around itself. Those sheaths can sluff off and get pushed out of the vent when your beardie poops. So the poop will be left behind but there will be a greyish yellow or tan tube hanging out. It's not a big deal and it's not even a problem. Soak your beardie in warm water for 10 minutes and then you should be able to gently (but firmly) pull the sheath off and throw it away.

The first time I had a male beardie with this kind of "thing" sticking out of his vent, I panicked. I thought he had prolapsed or had a worm coming out or something. Nope. Just dried up seminal fluid. I soaked him and it came right off. Sometimes you don't even have to remove it and it falls out the next time he poops. 

Flame's Boot

I love when older beardies shed because they do it one part at a time. Flame's leg has been shedding and it looks like he's wearing a boot or a knee high stocking. 

Kiwi's Upgrade

Kiwi has been eating on her own and getting around in her sick tank more lately so I decided it was time to put her into a small screen cage. I moved her over tonight. 

I'll watch her closely for the next few days to make sure she's not falling or struggling to hold on. I think her broken bones have knit together enough now that she is ready to go back to being more chameleon like. Today alone she spent most of the day on the small ladder turned sideways in her cage instead of sitting on the towel on the bottom of the tank.

Hopefully she'll start to get stronger and more active in a more normal chameleon environment and then I can upgrade her back into a large screen cage with lots of room. My goal for her is to become like a regular chameleon again.

The "Kreature" ON the Stairs

I had to run a couple errands this afternoon and planned to be away for at least two hours. Like normal, I locked Kreature up in his box so he would stay contained while I wasn't home to supervise.

Imagine my surprise when I came home today and my youngest attempted to run upstairs to his room.

There was Kreature, chilling on the TOP step. I didn't think tegus could or would climb! But he did. No idea how he got out of his box, but he did. He was nice enough to poop on the kitchen floor instead of the front room carpet which I really, really appreciate. :)

I picked him up, carried him downstairs, and helped him into his box.

Apparently the tegu wants to roam upstairs and down. Crazy guy!

Geckoes, rescues 171 & 172

I'm super lame. I can't even think of names for these two. But I want to count them and make a blog record of them. :)

The female hasn't been doing that great. She did shed, but it ripped off all the scabs off her feet and made them bleed again. Plus, she stopped eating on her own. She has a very severe case of Enigma syndrome which is a neurological disorder that gives her a head tilt, makes her alligator death roll when she's stressed, and prevents her from tracking her food well.

The male is doing great. He needed some help shedding last week, but is great now. Very active and loves to eat. 

These guys were a mated pair that attacked each other one day. They were covered with bite marks and blood when their owner dumped them off at the pet store where my rescue sister works.

Upping my Sign Game

For the longest time, I had a sign on my door that warned sales people not to ignore my "NO SOLICITING" sign or I would feed them to the evil iguana that lived upstairs.

Well, it's been months since I've had an evil iguana and the sign needed an upgrade. I kept "meaning to do it" for weeks until today when I came from to find police cars surrounding my next door neighbor's house. Someone broke in to her house today while she was there. :(

That was motivation enough for me. I retyped my "WARNING" sign. I'm quite pleased with it.

I love the irony of my front door "LOVE" sign and the fact that it has a bunch of glitter hearts taped to it. It works great with the "WARNING" and "No Solicitors" signs, I think! ;)

Here it is up close:

Kreature, on the other hand, isn't overly impressed with his new duties as "Guard Tegu." Can you tell? 

NOTE: "Argentinian tegu" just sounded better than "Argentine" tegu but either would have worked.