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.

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.

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).