Lil Spike, Rescue 200

This little buddy came to me in very, very bad shape yesterday. :( He's not eating, he's not moving, he's not healthy. He's been force fed for the last week without any improvement.

One look at Spike's picture told me the problem-- he has SEVERE Metabolic Bone Disease. I can feel at least one broken rib on him.

The biggest impact of MBD is brittle bones (which this guy has). A secondary, less known, symptom is poor gut motility. Without calcium, a reptile's digestive system stops working properly and they easily become impacted. Another MBD symptom is muscle loss which prevents the beardie from completely emptiness put their bellies. I can still feel sand in this baby's belly, even though he's been off sand for months. 

I gave him a saline injection to rehydrate his tissues and some calcium. He's already been in the sunshine today for an hour and is now I under a brand new UVB light. Now we just wait and see how he does. Direct sunlight is the BEST treatment for MBD (and it's FREE!!!) 

He looked pretty poor last night and I didn't know if he'd still be with me this morning. 

Hooray! He was! I gave him another saline injection, some calcium, and then I got him to lick some watered down baby food squash off a syringe too. All good signs! The experience exhausted him and I'll leave him alone for the rest of the day. 

Now we just keep doing Baby Steps forward to hope he can pull through. 

The last Two Weeks in One Post

Derek had surgery to have her eggs removed a week ago today. She seems to be doing okay! 

The same day Derek went in for surgery, Justice tried to die on me. It was touch and go for a couple days, but now he is doing great. It's as though nothing ever happened.

I let Norman go to a new home where he can be an educational animal and live in a palace tank complete with a waterfall & wading pool. :)

The Savvy I rescued a couple weeks ago is doing fantastically in his foster home. He's waiting for his adoptive owner to finish building a big cage for him. The top pic is of him this week and the bottom pic is of him the day before I got him.

Poncho attended our local city parade with me and did great. He will make a great Emotional Support Animal, but will always need help eating because he can't catch his food well due to his enlarged corneas. My vet checked him out and declared him to be in good health. I'm now actively working on adopting him.

I got pics of the last two baby beardies I rescued in their new home. Tank & Raptor are owned by a 8 year old girl (and her mom) and are adored beyond belief. These are pics of them on their pet horses. I love it!

I did it again! Rescue 187, Tank

I made a mistake of looking in my local Facebook's Marketplace. Ugh.

Found a juvenile beardie in a small tank with NO UVB light. Never had one. And to make things worse, the heat bulb broke and the owner didn't want to buy a new one.

Ugh.

Remarkably, this little guy's bones are still pretty firm.

I asked if he'd been fed greens. Yep! Once. Papaya & green onions.

One time only in 3 months.

And the owners wanted him gone so they could go camping for the long weekend. And since they paid $70 for the beardie alone, they wouldn't come down on the price.

I paid $100 from my "Blood Money" or "Bail Money" account to get him into a good tank with two lights and good food.

Ugh!

I grumbled all the way there and back. I just couldn't walk away from this little one and leave him with no lights for a long weekend.

I need to take a break from searching ads so I can regain my niceness towards people.

A BIG THANK YOU to all who sent money to help build back up my Blood Money Savings account. You helped me get this guy! And if you'd still like to donate, please click HERE.

Sweet Silkie

This morning, my silkie baby appeared to be more dehydrated and in worse shape than before. Even though I've been giving her intramuscular injections of saline to help rehydrate her, her body has still been suffering.

I ran her over to my vets' office and had Dr Echols look at her. He found a particular spotting pattern on her belly that shows up when a reptile is septic, or fighting an infection. :(

I went with my gut feeling and decided to allow Dr Echols to put Silkie down. She's been declining very fast since Monday afternoon and it was time. :(

Sorry, Sweet Baby. Fly high!

Why I should NOT be allowed in Pet Stores, part 4

I can't remember if I've actually posted about not being allowed in pet stores-- pretty sure I have. Just in case, I'll add "Part 4."

I gave in to temptation today.

I bought a baby silkie bearded dragon.

I've never had a baby silkie before and it seems important to have that skill base. Right?!? ;) No name yet. I'll post more pics when I think of a name.

Also, I bought another tree frog.

I originally bought 3 tree frogs for my little terrarium, but 2 of them died. Then I just had one lonely frog. Last week (or the week before), I bought another frog. And today, I bought a third. Now I have 3 frogs back. The pic shows 2 of the 3 resting. 

I have been avoiding the local feed stores because I LOVE baby chicks! I end up buying baby chicks when I see them. Now I'll have to start avoiding the cool pet stores that have unusual pets (like frogs & silkie babies). 

Drinking Babies

Raptor & Delta are *finally* eating good on their own. And slowly putting on weight!

PHEW!

I've been force feeding them for 6 weeks with zero weight gain and little interest in eating. It was a relief when Delta (especially) decided to start eating.

This morning, I filled up their water dishes and flicked my fingers lightly in the water until they started drinking.

Here's Delta. She weighs 14 grams now.

Raptor is at 8 grams and preferred to drinking water droplets off my finger tip until I put him right on his water bowl and flicked my fingers.

A HUGE Relief & Success

Today, for the first time in over a month, Delta ate on her own!

I don't know whether to collapse in relief or cheer. She's been one of the most stubborn beardies I've ever had. I've never had a baby refuse to eat for this long.

Phew!

Dr Folland tells me that when they are so young to keep force feeding them until they eat on their own or die. It's been a battle of the wills with Delta to keep her alive and nourished.

Sun Therapy

The sun is shining brightly in Utah today! Woo hoo! I'm using the opportunity to give the two baby beardies some direct UVB. I'm hoping that the sun will help perk them both up.

Instinctively, they both flattened out and turned their bodies to the sun when they felt it.

Here's Raptor:

Here's Delta:

Sunny Babies

In the few moments of sunshine coming through my morning windows, my two babies got to bask for a little bit.

Delta in the sun:

Raptor in the sun:

Switching It Up or "I Don't Even Know What to Do Next!"

I've had Delta & Raptor for almost a month now. They are force fed almost daily and offered greens and insects too. I've preemptively dewormed them and given them extra supplements.

It hasn't made a bit of difference.

Raptor is still 5 grams. This little guy devours greens too! And poops daily!

Delta is 11 grams. She's being a pill and not eating.

I've consulted with my vet on them and tried just about everything. I don't know what else to do to get them to start growing!

Today, I decided to move my 3 gecko tanks together into my bedroom so the geckos can have more natural lighting. There are pieces of paper between the 3 tanks so they can't see each other, by the way.

I figured I might as well move the babies too and see if that helped. I put them on the top shelf that gets the most morning sunshine. Of course, not today since it's supposed to rain and snow here all week. But my bedroom is south facing and gets a lot more light than the north facing craft room they were in.

I upgraded both tanks to make them less of a "sick" tank. I got rid of the towels on the bottom for substrate and put in paper towels. Then I gave them both a branch to climb on (not pictured). For now, they have to share a UVB light until I get another one in the mail. I also put a piece of paper between the ends of their tanks so they can't see each other either.

I don't know what else to try or add to help them so I'll just keep plugging along with this set up and hope they start improving.

Yes, I now have 8 tanks in my room. Yes, my husband is very patient! ;) And let's just pretend my bed is made. :D

A Tale of Two Babies

A couple weeks ago, I took in Baby Raptor because he was losing weight and not eating on his own. I've been force feeding him almost everyday since then. Luckily, he learned to drink on his own and some days I can get him to eat a worm or two. Plus, most days, he loves to eat bits of greens. He was the first time pet of a cute family near me and was way more sickly than they could handle. 

A few days after taking Raptor, I took their second baby beardie, Delta, in because he had stopped eating and drinking too. Both babies came from the same pet store, both are definitely "Failing to Thrive." Delta will drink on his own, but has refused to eat bugs or greens for a week now.

Raptor has been with me for 3 weeks and is still stuck at 5 grams. He is THREE months old and weighs 5 grams! Delta weighs 11 grams and isn't putting on weight either. They get Carnivore Critical Care mixed with a vitamin supplement almost daily and they are not gaining weight. They poop normally and run as fast as they can away from me, but they are not gaining weight.

Poor Raptor sits in his tank like this almost all day. Eyes closed, head up. Thankfully, Delta is a little bit more active.

It's a waiting game. You keep doing what you are doing and wait for them to turn a corner and go up or down. They are either going to start thriving and growing or they will sicken and die. :( It's a crappy waiting game-- especially when you have a cute family waiting for their babies to come back home. Thankfully, 4 years of rescue has perfected my art of force feeding babies-- the right amount of mix put into a 1 cc/mL syringe with the tip of a Tom Cat catheter on the top to make a small enough tube to put in a tiny mouth.

I'm seeing and reading about a LOT of babies being sent to the national chain pet stores here in America that have this same problem-- Failure to Thrive. It must be a genetic component or something. My guess is sloppy husbandry and sloppy breeding practices are creating inferior, genetically messed up babies. :( Poor things.

For now I will keep on keeping on as I help these two. I'm still force feeding Kiwi, the chameleon, and there's not much difference between force feeding two or three or four.


On a brighter note, this fatty girl, Gen, who tipped the scales last week at 758 grams, was a "Failure to Thrive" baby who was force fed twice a day for THREE months! She was 15 grams forever! She finally got over it. :) There is hope for Delta & Raptor, but it's a long & hard process.

"Come at me, Bro!"

Baby Raptor has started sleeping standing up in a corner. Last night, he looked like a tiny little thug trying to take on the world! 

From another angle, he looked like he was practicing ballet. 

Baby beardies are frequently odd sleepers. It's fun to watch them and wonder how on earth they can sleep standing up. 

Helping Rescues

Sometimes I will help someone with their sickly bearded dragon with the goal of reunification instead of surrender. I have been helping two of those in the past week/month.

Lilly had the start of MBD and hurt her back. I've been helping get her calcium back up and watching to make sure her injury didn't cause bigger problems. Lilly has done great and yesterday she went home. Her owners are thrilled to have her home and they reimbursed me for my costs and the supplies I sent home with them.

I'm always happy to teach owners how to be better owners. Lilly is a cutie too. She will be fine now even if she doesn't actually ever get much bigger or always has a bit of a bump on her back.

I'm also trying to save Baby Raptor, a "fancy" bearded dragon baby from a national chain pet store. He's definitely a "Failure to Thrive" baby and I'm not sure if he's going to pull through or not. I force feed him twice a day and he has more energy to fight my tiny syringe. He's pooping normally and moves around to regulate his heat. He's just so TINY!

I wish I could get him to eat on his own again, but so far he's not interested. I just will keep doing what I'm doing until he either starts eating on his own or his body shuts down and he dies. If he survives, he has a family at home who is anxious to have him come home. I offered to take him because I've got so much more experience feeding tiny babies. He's the size of the Color Babies I tried to save a couple years ago.

Sweet Baby Sawyer

I'm sad to report that Baby Sawyer didn't make it. His broken spine and paralyzed legs made it impossible for him to poop on his own and his belly got more and more bloated last week. My vet and I decided that the kindest thing to do was to put him down. :( 

My only regret was that I was sick at home with the flu and couldn't be there with him when he died.

Poor Baby Sawyer. Run free, Lil Man. 

At the Vet again- Part 2- Baby Sawyer

Baby Sawyer's vet visit was sad. Dr Folland says the baby obviously has a broken back and is completely paralyzed from the waist down. He has ZERO feeling in his legs, feet, or tail. :( It's possible the spinal column will regenerate some so he regains some movement, but it is not likely. 

There wasn't even a need to take an x-ray. At some point after being hatched and arriving at a pet store here, Baby Sawyer's back was broken, most likely through being dropped.

I'll keep feeding Baby Sawyer and watching him to make sure that he can poop. The biggest problem with paralysis is constipation that causes an impaction that causes death. If he can continue to poop normally, he should be okay leading a fairly adjusted life. If he can't poop, then the most humane thing we can do is to euthanize him.

I brought him home and taught him how to drink out of his tiny water bowl. He picked it up right away.

Now we watch and wait. If he does okay, I'll take him back for a recheck in a month. If he starts to struggle, I will take him in sooner. I'll keep you posted. 

Baby Sawyer, rescue 167

Baby Sawyer was given to me by someone who didn't want to see him euthanized because of his handicap. There's more details to it, but I'm staying purposely vague to make sure that "I protect my sources." ;)

This is a little fireball of a baby! He can't use his back legs much, but he's got some serious upper body strength.

He has a lump on his spine that will be checked out tomorrow morning by my awesome vet and we'll get an x-ray to figure out what's going on. I wonder if he has a form of bearded dragon spina bifada where his spine didn't fully develop. Or it's possible he has had some sort of injury.

He's eating and pooping fine. He moves around when he wants to move around.

The little wound on his belly looks like a pressure sore from dragging himself around.

Tomorrow, once we have an x-ray to show us what is happening internally, Dr Folland and I will decide what the best treatment is for this guy. The fact that he is super strong and active is a great sign and a definite star in his favor. Hopefully we can get him fixed up some and not just put him down because his legs don't work right.

The Hazard of Waiting

I'm sad to say the little baby Beardie died on the way to my house. 

The paperwork shows the pet store employees had been trying to treat it for a month. It seemed to be failing fast and so they decided to send it to me. 

The stress of the journey was too much for the baby. There was nothing I could do for it. :( 

Baby beardies have no wiggle room when it comes to sickness or injury. They have almost no fat reserves, a tiny blood volume, and little health reserves. They can go from fine to dead very quickly. If you suspect a problem with a baby Beardie, don't put off getting vet treatment. 

Getting Ready for an Intake

Got a message from my rescue sister-- dehydrated baby Beardie, very likely dying. Can I take it? 

Of course! 

This is how I get ready. 

I grab a 10 gallon tank from the garage. If it were a bigger Beardie, I would get a 20 gallon. 

I bring the tank inside so it can warm up and then line it with white hand towels. I want it soft for the sickly and plain so I can easily see fluids/poop. 

I don't want anything hard so I fold a washcloth up and then cover it with another washcloth for a basking spot. 

Then I find the lights. A black light will keep him warm tonight and then tomorrow I'll swap out the black bulb for a low wattage white bulb (probably around 40 watts) for a day lamp and use my new T-5 UVB bulb. 

While the tank warms up, I make my own Pedialyte. I decided to make a half recipe: 

1 pint warm water, 1/2 Tablespoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt. Mix well. 

Just in case I need to give a saline shot for extra hydration, I pull out my saline supplies. These I bought from my vet. 

Oral fluids are usually enough, but a seriously dehydrated reptile will do better with saline injections. A critically ill reptile needs hydration first. For the first 24 to 72 hours, fluids and saline injections are the focus. It helps to show you if the kidneys are still working too and prepares the body to absorb real calories. 

I had to step around my buddy Otis who sees me in the kitchen and comes to visit. Luckily, he found the warm air from the heater vent and stayed out of the way. 

I sterilized the tiny syringe by dipping it in boiling water and drawing the hot water in and out a few times. 

Now that the tank is warm, I need to calibrate the temp in the basking spot. A sick tank should be at 85 degrees. I raise or lower the heat lamp to adjust the temp. Closer = warmer; farther = cooler. 

There goes Otis! 

So now I wait for little baby to show up and then I see how bad he is and decide what to do next.