Sweet Blaze

I'm sad to report that Blaze, the sickly Savannah monitor fire victim, died this afternoon. He laid down on a super soft blankie this afternoon and passed away very peacefully. 

He will be buried in my flower garden with the other sweet lizards that I've lost over the past few years. 

Sorry, Baby, that I couldn't save you. I tried so hard.

Poor Baby Blaze

My heart is very sad this morning. I found Blaze, the sickest Savannah monitor, on his side with his eyes unfocused and his neck turned in a weird way. I honestly thought he was already dead. He moved when I picked him up but not much. His eyes wouldn't focus. 

Poor buddy has never been healthy; he was severely malnourished and underweight (no obvious trauma from the fire). We've tube-fed him and force fed him since we got him-- he's never eaten or drank on his own. He's been to the vet twice with another vet visit scheduled tomorrow. I'm not sure if he'll make it through the day. 

I held him and loved on him for awhile before putting him into a special "Sick" tank that is filled with super soft blankies. He'll stay there for now. If he makes it through the day, I expect tomorrow morning my vet will recommend we let him be out of his misery. :( 

Poor Blaze. I know I can't save every critter, but I sure tried hard to save you. I really didn't want to lose any of the fire victims. I'm sorry I couldn't save you. :`(

Sickly Blaze

This poor Savvy looks terrible today. :( He's out of his hide, but limp and lethargic.

Vet visit on Monday to see what we can do for him. 

The glass is wet because I gave him his morning spray. He usually loves it, but today he just laid there. 

I took this pic after I published this post:

Blaze, the sickly Savvy

Blaze was out tonight when I turned off his lights and so I decided to try something. 

I pulled him out and wrapped him in a blankie. He loves it!! 

He loves having his head rubbed! He's so cute!! 

Now if I can just get him to eat on his own. I'm still having to tube-feed him every few days. 

He goes back to the vet on Monday. He's had a month of tube-feeding, but isn't getting any better. 

Surprise!

Look who was out today when I got home from church! 

Yay! A very good sign. 

Blaze is in a very empty "sick" tank right now. Once he starts eating on his own, he'll get an upgrade to a 40 gallon tank with dirt & greenery & such. 

Blaze Update

Right now, Blaze is the sickest of the fire victims. He's very lethargic and has to be tube fed.

When we first got him, he couldn't even lift his head up. He definitely more active than that, but he's got a ways to go. 

His bones are pretty soft all over. They aren't as bad as Gary Dean's were, but far softer than they should be. That may explain why he's not eating. 

Today he got another tube feeding and then some sunshine therapy. 

I expect him to recover, but I plan on it taking a month or more.

Fire Victims at the Vet

Today we took four fire reptile victims to the vet:

-Kindle, female Burmese python

-Flame, bearded dragon

-Blaze, Savannah monitor

-Phoenix, blood python 

Kindle is staying at my rescue sister's house and today was the first day I got to meet her. I had so much fun holding her that I forgot to take pics of anyone else! 

She crawled into my shirt. 

And I took a selfie with her! 

She held on to my leg tightly. 

And then she pushed her head near my neck and took a nap. 

Kindle has burns on her mouth and eyes. She also has a respiratory infection. She has antibiotic eye cream and antibiotic shots. Then then techs tube fed her because this sweet girl is only 15 pounds! She should be over 60. 

The blood python and Savannah monitor got tube fed too. 

Flame the beardie has slightly dry eyes (from the smoke) and got antibiotic eye cream too. I just need to fatten him up and give him extra care. He's super underweight too (180 grams instead of 240+ grams). 

The antibiotic eye cream and antibiotic skin cream will be used to treat the other snakes too. If they show signs of a Respiratory Infection, we'll put them on antibiotics too. But we should now be able to focus on giving the reptiles nutritional care and wound treatment without any further vet visits. 

Morning Roll Call

I'm happy to report that all the sicklies survived the night. Yay!! 

Blaze -- after his daily saline injection. He did NOT like it. 

Flame- woke up looking better and pooped. 

The Noodles-- were out and exploring. 

And Phoenix, the fire snake, is well. Vet visit in less than an hour.

It's always a good day when all the rescues wake up. :) 

Nighttime Update

The two fire survivor King snakes are well. The big one are three pinkies. The little one didn't. 

The Savannah monitor was a bit more active and had enough strength to hold his head up. 

The beardie is NOT well. At all. :( 

He's not able to lay down flat at all. I'm not sure if he'll make it through the night. If he does, he'll go to the vet in the morning. 

I also now have the worst burn victim- a blood python that was the lone snake out of a wood tank of three that survived. He's going to the vet at 9:30. I'll post his story tomorrow. 

Hopefully, they all make it through the night. There will be another round of Fire sicklies to go to the vet Monday morning. That will be at least one of the 12 foot pythons. 

Blaze, rescue 135

Oh look! Another Savannah monitor! Ha! That makes 4 in the past 3 weeks.

This little buddy survived the house fire too and is very weak and emaciated. 

Last night, he hardly had enough strength to lift up his head. I have him a saline injection to rehydrate him and then gave him some carnivore Critical Care. He was not crazy about the syringe. 

That's him with him mouth clamped down on the tip. I wasn't even holding it. It took him almost a minute to let go enough so I could pull it out. 

He was ice cold (for a Savvy) and now he's glorying in the heat. 

He appears to be okay with no burns, etc. He's just in poor shape overall which is why he had just been rescued. 

Blaze, rescue number 71

I had two open tanks this weekend which, in the rescue business, invites new critters. 

Blaze was brought to me last night. He is a now retired breeder with LOTS of aggression issues. 

I am letting him settle in today since he went to sleep in a familiar environment and woke up in my strange house. Then we'll start working on calming him down.