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!

Sickly Silkie

Buying a Silkie (scaleless beardie) baby was a bit of an experiment for me-- to see what it would be like to raise a silkie and take care of it.

I hate to say it, but my experiment is failing faster than I ever expected.

She's gone downhill very fast in the last 24 hours. She even went to the vet yesterday and got a positive check up. :(

She didn't eat yesterday and won't touch anything today. I gave her some Critical Care slurry and that didn't help. I'm about to give her some Pedialyte and soak her. I don't have enough confidence to give her a saline injection because her skin is so paper thin.

I've been chatting with several silkie owners on Instagram and getting their suggestions. It's SO frustrating because she was doing SO well and I've been doing a good job of taking care of her. :( At least I thought I was.

Phooey.

Poor thing is not very alert right now. I don't think I can save her.

Junior, rescue 175 or "How my Rescue can be Relabeled 'In & Out'"

Jinzo died this morning, leaving me with an empty tank for 8 whole hours. Tonight I took in Junior, a baby Savannah monitor with severe MBD.

When I tried to gently pry open Jr's mouth, his bottom jaw folded in half. :O Yes, that is really really horrifying and very very bad. He has no strength or form to any of his bones. Poor little guy.

He's got a weird face shape too and I wonder if there's some amount of genetic problems with him too. His bones are so soft though that he will not recover without the intensive MBD treatment that only my vet can provide-- a calcium injection and a Calcitonin shot to help draw calcium back into his bones.

This guy is in bad shape, but I'm hopeful that I can save him. I've not had a great success rate with savvys before, but I'm willing to give it a try.

Sweet Mango

Lil Mango pooped normally once this afternoon and then passed a very large (considering his body weight) a blood clot. He died shortly after that. 

Obviously something very bad went wrong internally. Poor baby. 

He was warm & toasty & at peace when he died. 

The Second Saline Shot

The second saline injection really took its toll on Mango. He looks dreadful again. :( 

It's such a roller coaster of ups and downs. 

Rescue is not for the faint of heart. 

Mango made it through the Night

Mango made it through the night. I'm making a warm steam tent for him for a bit to bring up the humidity. 

His colors look better too. 

Peaceful Mango

I found Lil Mango limply hanging onto the towel in his cage earlier and I thought he was gone. 

But when I picked him up, he still responded to me. 

Now he's sleeping peacefully on his side and looking like he's already died. 

But when I touched him lightly, he still responded. He is less dehydrated looking which is good, but his colors are still bad and his eyes are super sunk in. 

I'm not sure if he'll still be alive when I wake up in the morning, but I'm very grateful he's in a warm, cozy, and soft place. He is peaceful and I am happy for that. 

Mango

Today I was asked to help try to save the life of this poor little baby. Mango is a jackson's chameleon. 

Yes, he's in very bad shape. I gave him a saline injection and have him in a special 10 gallon sick tank. It's just going to be a waiting game now to see if he has enough fight left to make it through. 

Mango is severely dehydrated and malnourished. It could be a genetic problem or it could be from being in a bad environment. At this point, it's hard to say. 

Sometimes reptiles fight for so long to survive that when they don't have to fight their bodies just quit. Sometimes their bodies react poorly to nutrition and hydration and they die. It's all a waiting game to see.