There are no words...........................

I don't even know how to write this post. I can hardly even see the words on my screen. I went to feed Junior and found that he had died. 😭😭😭😭😭I'm sorry. I have no words. Thanks to all of you for everything. For loving him, for helping to pay for his chance, for praying for him. 💔💔💔💔 I'll need time. I'll be back. It will just be awhile so I can heal.

Junior's Back Home (and so am I!)

I picked up Junior from the vet today. He looks good and is much more active than last week. He has even started lifting up his body and walking on all 4 legs! :O Wow! He's not actively pooping which is a concern for us, but we'll watch that for now.

He's still being tube-fed daily, getting calcium syrup twice a day, is on antibiotic shots, has twice a day baths, and will also get as much direct sunshine time each day as I can get him (hopefully Utah's weather will cooperate).

Hopefully, he starts getting better & stronger now. Metabolic Bone Disease creates weakness in the muscles and since there are a lot of muscles in Junior's digestive tract, Dr Folland thinks Junior's gut muscles are too weak to poop normally.

Here Junior is in basking in the sunshine. He is very active and alert when he's outside. I love it!

Junior made it through the Night!

Just got off the phone with one of my favorite vet techs and Junior made it through the night. He's moving around some and will be tube fed later this morning. He's on pain meds, antibiotic shots, and calcium syrup. 

If he does well with one tube feeding a day, then they'll increase it to 2 feedings a day. He'll be at the vet's office for medical boarding through the next 4 days so he gets specialized care to help him recover.

Tonight's Update on Junior

Because my vet is awesome, he went back to the clinic tonight to check on Junior and sent me a text. :) 

I made bread today for my in-laws who are in town and took Dr Folland & his wife a loaf right out of the oven. After today, I owed him one! :D

Junior is in the Intensive Care Unit at the Vet

Right after I got off the phone with Dr Folland, Junior tried to die. :( He stopped breathing and his heart rate started to plummet. Thanks to the quick thinking of the staff and a little tube-to-mouth resuscitation by a tech, Junior started breathing again and his heart rate stabilized. I saw him in the ICU.

He's hooked up to a Doppler monitor so they can listen to his heartbeat and he has his head in a tube with a small amount of oxygen. They are waiting for him to wake up more and become responsive. So far he's not responding to any touch or pinching of his hands. :( Because of his Metabolic Bone Disease, he's not processing the anesthesia out of his body quickly. So they just have to keep watching him until he really wakes up.

Dr Folland said he'd let me know how Junior was doing later. I couldn't stay because I have family in town. I gave him some kisses, stroked his head softly, and told him to feel better.

Update on Junior

I FINALLY got to talk to the vet! Junior made it through surgery just fine. They are currently waiting for him to wake up.

He had a massive ball of coconut fiber trapped in his stomach that would not have moved on its own and was preventing him from absorbing much calcium or nutrition. They were able to remove that and flush out the rest of his digestive tract.

Tomorrow they will start tube feeding him Critical Care to build up his nutrition and give him high doses of calcium to help him get over his Metabolic Bone Disease. I'm having him medically boarded at the vet for the next 5 days to make sure he gets the highest level of care while he's recovering.

The next goal for his to start pooping normally. So keep praying for poop! :)

I'll go over there later this afternoon so I can take pics of him and say hello. I'll share them when I get them.

THANK YOU to all who have donated to his surgery fund! We are halfway there. THANK YOU!

We are still accepting donations HERE.

Junior at the Vet

This is when I had Junior loaded up for the vet and when I left him at the vet.

His surgery didn't start until after 1 pm (Utah time) and so I don't expect to hear back yet.

Fundraiser for Junior

Junior is still having surgery tomorrow (even though he pooped a bit today). He still has a grape sized mass in his belly that is obviously putting pressure on his digestive tract. I'm determined to give this little buddy every chance possible, but I need help with the vet bills. So as much as I hesitate to create a GoFundMe account, I did. 

Here is the link to his GoFundMe campaign: HELP JUNIOR 

Even if you can't donate, please share. :)

Tiny Poop = HUGE Progress for Junior!

I woke up to find Junior had pooped a tiny bit! YAY!

And then I saw that Junior himself was no longer bloated and puffy!

His belly has been so bloated & full that he had no extra skin showing. He looks NORMAL!

Then he looked up at me after he took a drink!

This baby Savannah is the BIGGEST fighter I have ever ever had! I'm SO amazed by him!

Update on Junior

I took my silkie baby beardie and Junior to the vet today. I managed to take only one blurry pic of Junior and nothing of the silkie (who Dr Folland said is "odd" by healthy).

Junior is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday. Dr Folland will remove the lump/mass/whatever in his digestive tract and clean him out. There is a risk that he won't survive the surgery, but, based on how spunky this little Savvy is, I think it's worth the risk. He's so much more active and alert than he was before. We just need his guts to move and they can't move when they are plugged.

Because his surgery is Wednesday and I'm leaving out of town on Thursday, I'm going to board Junior at the vet for the week that I'm gone. Between the boarding fees and the surgery, I'm looking at at least $900 for him. :( But I have to try. He has too much spunk to just put him down.

If you can zoom in on this pic, you can see the "Low End" Estimate and the "High End" Estimate. If he ends up doing well after surgery, I have the option to have a good friend (who knows Savvys take care of him and that will save me $$ per day).

I'm going to start a GoFundMe campaign for him tomorrow morning and hopefully that way I won't end up sticking it all on my credit card. He's developed quite a following on Instagram and I'll share the campaign then.

As I've said before, I take asking for money VERY seriously. I am always willing to provide copies of vet bills or let you call the office manager of my vet. I realize there are a lot of fake people out there collecting money for animals they will never treat. I want to make sure that anyone who donates to me KNOWS that their money is going to pay off a vet bill. It's for the animal.


For instance, here's today's vet bill:

Parrish Creek Vets' number is 801-298-2014. Anyone who answers the phone can verify that I am there at least once a week and pay all my bills off the same day. Feel free to ask if you'd like. Really! It won't offend me. My name is Sarah Southerland. :)

I'll post info tomorrow on the GoFundMe campaign. Even if I don't get the full amount, it's less that I have to put back on my credit card and that helps.

Thank you! And please KEEP praying for Junior.

Praying for Junior & my Vets

Junior is headed back to the vet tomorrow. His bowels are still blocked. 😞  He's getting stronger and his bones are becoming firmer, but if we can't get his digestion to work, there's not much hope for his ultimate survival.

 😫Please join me in praying tonight that my two awesome vets will be inspired to know how to best help Junior now. Thank you! I believe in miracles and I believe God cares about all His critters and can help heal Junior through Dr Folland and Dr Echols.

Wide Awake Junior

I walked into my bedroom today and saw this:

Junior's eyes were open and alert. He watched me for awhile, looked around him again, and then crawled to the back of the tank where he went back to sleep.

Whoa! I was not expecting to see him alert. But I'm glad I did!

A Video of Junior Crawling

• Look at this wee lil' baby go! Such progress. Love him! SO happy to see him moving-- even if I have to stop working to make sure he doesn't fall out of his box. 

Our Yearly Tortoise Checkup

Spring means "Tortoise Checkups" and so I made an appointment to take all 5 in today. And then Junior went along to get his second Calcitonin shot. It took two laundry baskets to transport them all. Thankfully, my daughter went along with me to carry one of the baskets. 

Here's a line of torts-- Sissy (box turtle but honorary tortoise) at the top, then Leo the Russian, Curly Q the desert tortoise, and Otis the cherry head (red foot) tortoise at the end. 

All of them got weighed and checked. Otis & Leo & Sissy got beak trims.

Leo took some persuasion to come out of his shell so we could trim his beak. He was not thrilled. See?

Otis wanted to mount all the other tortoises and we had to keep pulling him off of them.

Curly Q peed all over the counter & floor & Dr Folland's tie. I told him he should keep a backup tie in his office on days I come. The last visit with Norman started with Norman projectile pooping onto his tie too. ;)

Sissy got a few dead spots of shell scraped off and we checked her nails. She's missing most of her toe nails on her front feet. And she obviously got bit by a dog at some point in her life too. She's a very sweet box turtle. I don't normally like box turtles, but I really like her. She fits in the zoo well.

Georgie has tripled her weight since last year. She's my leopard tortoise who stayed in the laundry basket for most of the visit. She is not social and doesn't like to interact with anyone. I didn't even get a picture of her.

Junior got his second Calcitonin injection which will help pull calcium back into his bones. I watched him poop out urate pieces this morning but no fecal matter. He still has a lump in his belly, but it is actually smaller and on the opposite side of his belly than it was before. So strange! He's a lot more alert and aware than he was before. But his bones are still rubber. He'll have a long road to recovery.

The vet's staff blocked out a whole hour for me so we could get everyone checked in, examined, and treated. We stayed right on time. It was great!

While it was expensive to have them all checked (just over $500 for all 5 & the shot), it's important to me to keep my regulars updated in the vet's system. They become established clients and we can track weights and such.

Update on Junior

No poop yet for Junior and so I've only done a once-a-day tube feeding. Today he was a lot more active and his movements were more coordinated as I fed him. Good signs!

Junior's X-ray

Look at this picture of Junior's Belly. I circled and annotated the spine because it's almost impossible to see: 

 Now look at an X-ray of the belly of a healthy Savannah monitor:

Healthy & strong bones almost glow on an x-ray. The calcium in them shows up bright and the edges are clearly defined. Junior's bones are a mess-- you can't see his spine and his ribs are hardly visible. Poor baby Junior. His body didn't get enough calcium and his body robbed it from his bones, leaving his bones a rubbery mess.

Junior pooped a Wee Little Bit!

Junior pooped this morning, a tiny pea-size nugget. Yay!

I have been super worried that the mass in his belly was blocking his digestive system and that tube-feeding him would cause lots of problems. Phew! He pooped so that should be okay.

I gave him another tube feeding this morning and will give him some this afternoon. I waited two days before repeating it because I was terrified of giving him a lot of Critical Care and having it create problems. Now that I know his guts are mostly working, I can give him more food. Hopefully with more food & calories, he'll be more active.

He did wobbly walk around his tank today. He fell over onto his back and laid there for a few seconds until I righted him. I took out the washcloth I had folded into a basking spot so there are no longer uneven ledges he can fall off of. I hope that helps until he gets more strength back.

So today's rollercoaster is a bit more up than down.

Tomorrow? Who knows!

Junior's Hard Day

Junior is having a down day. He's very lethargic and not opening his eyes much. I'm SO grateful that the sun is shining and I can give him an hour of sun therapy.

Rescue is a rollercoaster- up & down and up & down! Some days, you think "Alright, we got this; he'll pull through;" other days, you think "What am I doing? Am I just making him suffer longer?"

It is exhausting. And heart breaking.

Dr Folland told me yesterday that if Junior does die, it will be quick. That is a comfort. There are so many praying & pulling for him, but his poor little body might not have the ability to continue.

For now, I'll focus on his sunshine time. In an hour, I'm dropping off one of yesterday's rescued savvys to another rescue who will rehab him and rehome him. Tomorrow the female will go to a foster home.

An Update on Junior

Junior saw Dr Folland today (my primary vet). Dr Folland didn't think the lump in Junior's belly responds like a poop plug should and so he had an x-ray taken. Poor Junior's bones barely showed up on the x-ray. :( They are faint outlines instead of bright, white lines.

There was no mass at all that showed up. A fecal mass would have had distinct edges and shape.

Curious.

But the thing is-- Junior is not strong enough to survive a surgery right now. So for his sake, we need to pretend as though it's not there and go back to feeding Junior. He needs the calcium and calories right now. I tube fed him as soon as I got home.

Junior got a shot of Calcitonin to help pull calcium back into his bones.

On the way home, Junior was quite active! I think he enjoys Ray LaMontagne too! ;)

Now we wait. I tube feed him twice a day and see what happens. If he has a bowel obstruction, then we will know soon. If there is a mass somewhere in his belly, we will deal with it later when he's stronger. He's got a lot of spunk in him and that helps.

As Dr Folland was leaving the room, I asked him if I was doing the right thing by keeping him alive. He said "yes, at this point." He then warned me to not put a lot more money into Junior because the chances of his survival are still low because of how bad off he is.

That's the hard thing in rescue-- you just never know. $5,000 couldn't save a $60 chameleon named Lotus. But I've saved other reptiles without a single vet visit. You do the best you can given the information you have.

So as long as Junior keeps fighting & trying, I will too.

Waking up Junior

I turned on the lights on this morning and didn't have to move Junior to make sure he was still with me. Instead I found his head up and his eyes open! Woo hoo!

Vet visit at 4:45 pm today to deal with the poop issue.