Katy is Looking Better

Yesterday Katy decided she was hungry and ate a bunch of Bearded Dragon Bites. That was a great and surprising improvement! 

This morning she's having a long drink in her bath. 

Overall, she's so much more alert than she has been. She walks around her sick tank and watches things more closely. Today was her 4th antibiotic shot and she's not needing force feedings or saline injections any more. Her tummy is a bit pudgy now too. 

All great signs!! 

Roscoe Update

Roscoe is doing pretty good. He's still pooping on his own and has a little pudgy belly. :) 

He gets calcium and Critical Care twice a day along with frequent water drips to keep his mouth moist (since it doesn't shut tight). 

He's so sad looking. But he gets himself around by dragging his body with his elbows. I'll take a video of it soon. 

The tip of his tail is crispy dead. When he gets a bit stronger and more comfortable, I will have the vet amputate it so the infection stops spreading into the healthy tissue. 

Here's another pic to show how small he is. 

Baby Steps and Poop

Sometimes the most exciting (and most common) part of rescue is poop! 

Last night, Roscoe pooped out more walnut shell in his own.  This is a great sign because it means his intestines are still working. 

This morning, he pooped even more and was able to pass more of the walnut shell out. His hips are so deformed now that I worried he'd not be physically able to poop. I'm glad to see he can. 

It took a couple tries, but I finally created a soft & safe tank for him where he can move around to regulate his temps without getting his claws stuck or falling off anything. 

He's getting 1 cc/mL of Critical Care every morning and night. Along with .05 mLs of calcium syrup. Throughout the day, I dribble Pedialyte on his mouth with a tiny syringe to keep him hydrated. 

Baby steps forward. :) This is the second step in his rehab: getting his calcium & nutrition levels up. 

Baby Steps

Baby bearded dragons are HARD! They are so small that there is no room for error. A big beardie with some fat could go a few days or weeks without the risk of a dying. A baby beardie doesn't have that luxury- malnutrition, dehydration, and poor lighting have an immediate and profound effect.

I've lost more babies than any other age of beardie since I started my rescue. Sometimes we try to save babies that are genetically unable to survive to adulthood and end up prolonging a life that would have ended quickly in the wild. It's so hard to know when to actively rescue or when to provide "comfort" measures. 

Usually, I tell my beardies (especially the babies) that I won't quit until they do. 

Xena seems determined to stay alive and I'm just as determined to help her. She's had 3 doses of Lefeber's Critical Care carnivore formula given to her in a syringe. She has pooped twice and appears to be more active. 

Today she is 8 grams. I didn't weigh her yesterday because so was letting her adjust to her new environment.

It is a matter of baby steps forward now, trying to keep her warm and hydrated and fed. Hopefully the extra high-quality nutrition is all she needed to start to thrive. 

Nubs' Next Hurdle

Nubs is putting on weight-- he's up to 240 grams. He eats great and is enjoying food. I still give him Critical Care formula once a day to help boost his nutrient levels back up. 

Every chance I get, I take him outside in the sun. The Critical Care has enough calcium for him and the direct sunlight helps him metabolize it. It honestly amazes me that he doesn't have more symptoms of Metabolic Bone Disease.

These are outside pictures from Sunday when he loved sitting on my black skirt and soaking in the heat and light.

Today I gave him a bath to see I could get him to poop. Instead he took a nice long drink of water.

Then I took him outside to dry and to warm up.

The white towel wasn't warm enough so I moved him to a soft blanket on the grass. 

He immediately decided he wanted to walk on the grass so I let him.

It's been almost a week since Nubs started eating again and it's about time for him to start pooping. If he doesn't, it could signal some intestinal distress or problem. I don't think  I've ever been so anxious for a beardie to poop! :)

I plan to ask my vet at what point I should be worried and if there is something I can do to help inspire him to go. Until then, we'll do daily baths since most beardies love to go potty in water.

Nubs Walking-- 2 videos

Nubs Eating Greens

Nubs gets Food today

Three days ago, I didn't think we'd make it to today. But we did! This morning I gave Nubs 1 mL of LaFeber's Critical Care Omnivore formula-- a vet only liquid diet for the most severely malnourished and sick animals that vets treat. I gave him some of this on Saturday but he was so malnourished that the nutrients shocked his system and his kidneys immediately started to fail. So we backed way, way off and did the saline injections for three days. 

He's supposed to have 5 mL (or 1 teaspoon) of Critical Care every day, but that seems like it would flood his system again. This morning around 9 am I gave him 1 mL. He seemed to handle it fine.

This afternoon, I took him outside to give him another 1 mL while getting some sunshine. But, sadly, at the last minute, a cloud covered the sun so we didn't stay out there for very long.

He does NOT like to be force fed and does a really good job of cracking my syringes by biting them so hard. He bit my thumb on Saturday and it just barely started to heal. Ouch! That's one of the worst beardie bites I've ever gotten.

The biggest change I've noticed in Nubs is he's far more alert than normal. His eyes track me as I walk into my room. He doesn't move his head a lot, but he does follow things. For 4 days, he was in a near-death stupor and had no response to anything. So this is good, good news.

Here's a short video of him looking around him outside. He doesn't move much or fast, but he MOVES! and that, my friends, is a MIRACLE!! 

"Slighty Dead Looking" is an Improvement over "Mostly Dead Looking"

We're all about baby steps here.... Perhaps tomorrow we'll have "Sorta Dead Looking"??

Keeping a sense of hope for Nubs is HARD! I feel like I'm grasping at straws. I wake up in the middle of the night and have to check to see if he's breathing. I can't help myself. I have poured so much of my heart & soul & wallet into him that I can't fathom him still dying and I can't believe he'd even live. I was hoping for a quicker fix yesterday at the vet, but to no avail. In the end it comes down to me and Nubs and a sssssssssssssllllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwww battle back towards life.

But this little baby step of him looking more beardie like with less sunk-in eyes makes my heart's hope flutter a bit.

And I'm still going to poke him gently to make sure he is breathing.