Sickly Spike and his Adventures in Veterinary Medicine

Three weeks ago I took in Spike because he was struggling to breathe. We discovered he had two big abscesses in his throat that were constricting his airway. We put him on antibiotics and the abscesses cleared up. But then the infection spread to his beard. I tried treating him at home for the past two weeks, but the infection was more than I could handle. I even attempted to make an incision to drain the fluid & pus, but it needed more aggressive surgery. 

Today I took Spike back to Parrish Creek and Dr Echols used his surgery tools to clean out Spike's beard as best he could. Then he created a flushing tube out of a feeding tube that I could use to keep his beard open to flush it out twice a day for the next 4 weeks.

Spike is NOT thrilled with the new device. He keeps eyeing it warily. It will help me keep the area clean though. Poor beardie. He's had a tough life this year. Hopefully we can get him all healthy by the end of the year and let 2014 be a good year for him. 

Medical Supplies & Shots

Once upon a time (um, like last week), I only had one crate of reptile medical supplies. But then Mr Nubs came a long and I had to expand to two. 

Here's my two crates of supplies. One has needles, two sizes of syringes, a bag of sterile saline, and a bag for used needles. The other has antibiotic cream, antibiotic drops, Fluker's Repti-boost, calcium syrup, injectable calcium, and other random supplies. 

When things are calm, the crates go in a drawer. When there are sick or injured beardies in the house, I have them out and spread all over my kitchen and/or bathroom counters. 

With three beardies getting shots, I thought I'd show you a little about how I do it. Nubs got his last saline shot (hopefully) today. Nigel & Spike are getting antibiotic shots every 72 hours for at least another week.

The antibiotics have to stay frozen while I'm not using them. So I'm slowly learning how to set them out ahead of time to thaw them because holding them in my hand or putting them under my arm is NOT fun.

I take a sterile needle and draw out the right amount from each vial. Because Spike is slightly heavier than Nigel, he gets a bigger dose.

Then I flick the syringe with my nail so I push the bubbles to the top. I put the cap back on and repeat the same thing for the other shot. Once I get both shots "loaded" I put the antibiotic vials back in the freezer.

Today I had to give the shots by myself so there was no way I could wrestle an adult beardie and take give a shot while taking a picture. Nigel is the worst-- he HATES shots. Spike doesn't seem to mind the shots as badly as he minds me flushing his infected beard out twice a day. He hardly even flinches.

I've lost count of all the shots I've given. I usually keep syringes on hand so I can give calcium injections to severely sick beardies/reptiles. Every so often I slip while putting the lids back on and poke myself with a needle. Ouch!

Nigel has two more shots and then he is done. Spike will be on antibiotics for at least another month since his infection is not clearing up very fast. So shots will be part of the plan for awhile.

For Nubs' saline shots, I used a bigger syringe to draw saline out of an IV bag. Because the syringe is big and the needle is small, it takes awhile to fill it and empty it. I didn't take pics of that though.