Noel, Before & After

Usually I wait at least 6 months to make a "Before & After" post, but I'm making an exception with Noel. This little boy is THRIVING! It's amazing to watch him.

Remember Noel? I rescued him two days before Christmas after seeing this photo of him.

He weighed a mere 62 grams and was at least 9 to 10 months old.

He has doubled his weight in 6 weeks! Woo hoo! And he's shedding!

He has the most beautiful & intense yellow & orange colors filling in on his face. I can't wait for him to shed off the nasty grey-stained scales on his feet & belly. It makes him look so sickly.

Noel still has a crusty eye build up that I'm watching. It's only in the one eye now.

He tends to think my fingers are food and he tries to bite them when he sees them in his tank. He tried to eat my finger as I took a close up with my phone. Sometimes he stands up on his two back legs and hops around as he tries to eat my fingers. Every time I get my phone out to take a pic, he goes right back to normal.

He's got lots of spunk and personality. He loves to snuggle in his blankies with me but he's so restless that he doesn't hold still for very long. He shifts his position every few moments until he's poked his head out, looks around, and wants to start playing. Silly Noel.

He truly is a joy to have. He's come so far in such a short amount of time.

Junie - Before & After

I found some of the first pics I took of Junie and matched them with the most recent pics I took of him. 

                   June 2015 

                   August 2016

                     June 2015

                    August 2016

I hadn't realized how much more "manly" he's gotten. He was pretty much a juvenile male when I got him. Now he's a man iguana with attitude and power. 

In June of 2015, Junie was left behind after a murder-suicide. He was given to a "rescue" (insert eye rolling) who kept him in a plastic crate for 2 weeks. When my friend rescued him from the "rescuer," she was told that Junie was angry because he had watched his whole family die. 

Um.... No. It's because you're a moron who shoved him in a plastic crate. 

I didn't want Junie, but I knew he'd die if he stayed in the crate with the other "rescuer."

Nubs-- Then and Now

My Facebook page shows me what happened "On This Day" for the past few years (it's my favorite feature about FB!) 

And for the last three days, I've been reminded of the struggle I had two years ago trying to keep Nubs alive. 

This was Nubs two years ago today: 

And: 

This was Nubs last week: 

And last night: 

Amazing, huh? 

Nubs taught me more about saving critically ill beardies than any other rescue. I learned how to give saline shots and how to use baby steps of progress. That knowledge has been so useful in helping to save other beardies. Or to at least give them a better chance. JoJo & Mushy made it; Andy & Rico did not. And within the last week, I was able to help save Henry (a bearded dragon in AZ). 

---------------------------------------------

Here's my Nubs' Critical Care Steps- 

1- Focus on hydration for the first 48 to 72 hours. Use homemade Pedialyte (1 quart warm water with 2 Tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt) and squirt 5 - 10 mL/cc's into his mouth daily. 

Saline shots are a better way to go, but you'll have to have your vet help you with that. 

Give a warm bath at least once daily. 

My vet says if they can't go 48 more hours without eating, they are probably too sick too survive. 

2- After hydrating, give the beardie baby food squash in a syringe. 1 mL for babies, 2 mL for juveniles, 5 mL for adults. Break up feedings into two times. 

Give basic veggie baby food for two days. If the beardie starts to get worse with food, go back to hydrating him for a day and then start over with less baby food.

3- After 2 days of eating the baby food squash with no problems, give the same amount of baby food but this time use Chicken & Veggies or Chicken & Squash. Do that for a few days. 

If they don't do well with the protein, then go back to straight baby food squash for a day. 

4- After about a week, offer bugs (wax worms or roaches). 

The point with Baby Steps is that you take small steps forward so you can quickly back track at the first sign of distress. 

My biggest mistake was putting him immediately on Critical Care and shocking his system with too much protein. His kidneys & liver immediately started to fail. It's a miracle we were able to bring him back from that. 

Tiger's Belly

This beardie was as thin as a board when I rescued him. He's obviously recovered from that. He was totally posing for my camera by looking up and then off into the distance. 

Here is the first pic I ever saw of Tiger: 

An Overdue Thank you-- no, a THANK YOU!!!!!

I realized that there were people who donated to Lucy's surgery in July via PayPal that I failed to thanks. :( No good!

So I've been fixing that this morning by sending out "Thank You" emails and cards to July donors and also to two amazing donors for this month.

But you, my readers, deserve a great big THANK YOU!!!! too. So here it is:

I saw Daisey yesterday

Remember Daisey, the sulcata last year with the prolapse? I saw her yesterday at her adoptive home. She's doing great!

Daisey last year-- 

Daisey yesterday--

With her turtle & tortoise family-- 

One year of Nubs!

Okay, it's not quite a year, but I'm too excited to wait a couple days to post these. Nubs was my hardest and most dramatic rescue.

This was Nubs a year ago:

This is Nubs today:

Woot! Woot!

Nubs' success makes me keep going even when I want to quit.

Tiger-- Before & After

BEFORE: 

AFTER: 

Update on Ziggy

Ziggy got his stitches out today! His tail looks great and healed up very nicely.

His hand built up some scar tissue, but appears to be fine now. Dr Folland is happy with how he looks and doesn't expect to need to see him again. I always love getting a clean bill of health for my reptiles!

Ziggy's next goal is to shed and get off some of those old, ugly layers of shed. Dr Folland gave me some good tips on how to help him with that I'll try. I'm thinking Ziggy will be ready to rehomed in the next month or so. He *loves* to snuggle and be swaddled in his fishie blanket. He still will occasionally puff up when he sees my hand reaching for him, but he's never bit me and has never been mean.

Ziggy's Surgery Success

Ziggy went to the vet today and had two X-rays done. The first showed the infection in his finger had eaten away the bone down to palm. The second showed the bottom three vertebrae on his tail were also basically dissolved by the tail infection.

Dr Folland removed the finger on Ziggy's left hand and about an inch of his tail. It went great! He is all stitched up and was ready to go home right away. I fed him some worms and some greens and am keeping him warm in his tank.

Ziggy this morning before his surgery

What his tail looks like now
 

Ziggy's finger 

I brought him home and he stayed all wrapped up in his blankie

POOP is a BIG, BIG, BIG deal in Rescue

And it is with GREAT excitement that I tell that you Steve/Rocky POOPED today!

Hooray!

That means he's taking in his food and fluids. That means he's not impacted. That means that his digestive systems did not shut down.

That means he is doing GOOD!!!

I remember the day that Nubs pooped after all his forcefeeding. I was 12 hours away from taking him to the vet to get an enema, but he did it on his own.

Eating is a big deal, but it's even better when it comes back out!! :)

Steve/Rocky has an iron will to live. He's going to make it barring anything crazy going on.

Picture of Rocky taken 12/19/13

Ziggy is Available for Adoption now!

My little buddy Ziggy is ready for adoption! He comes with everything you need set up wise to keep him healthy & happy till he is full grown (then you'll need to upgrade his tank to a bigger size). Just add food & water & greens! 

He LOVES to snuggle with me at night in his purple softie blanket. 

He has a kink in his tail-- that's why we call him "Ziggy." 

I got to see the Color Babies today!

Today I helped transport a black tree monitor lizard (see below) from Layton to Tooele. 

In Tooele, I went to RockStar Pets (one of my mostest favoritest pet stores EVER) and I got to see the three color babies they bought from me last month. They are SO big! And healthy!

Here's Purple, waiting by the door for his morning meal. He got too feisty to be with the other two, so they put him in his own tank.

Here's Pink & Yellow! One is on the front glass, the other is on the log (right under the exclamation point in the picture).

There's a good chance they'll go to new homes this week. Hooray!

Full Circle-- Nigel's Last Vet Visit

Isn't he gorgeous??  

Nigel had his last arm vet visit this morning. After a year of poking & prodding & scraping & infections & finally an amputation, Nigel's arm is healthy. He had his stitches removed on his stump. He's acting normal, he's eating great, and he's putting weight back on.

Nigel is where this whole crazy, draining, rewarding, expensive rescue process got started for me. He was my first "Free" beardie which means, of course, that he was the *most* expensive. :) He is gorgeous & healthy & loved to pieces now. He is a happy ending story, for sure.

Today he's hanging out with me while his momma is at school. He's going to be sunning himself in my kitchen window. Good thing it's sunny today!

His little stump- doesn't slow him down a bit!

Nubs is Going Home!

Two weeks ago today, Nubs looked this: 

Barely hanging on to life.

Today, on the day he is going home!, Nubs went back to Parrish Creek to meet two of the people who helped me to save his life:

It's hard to believe that it is the same beardie.

I can never say enough good things about my reptile vets at Parrish Creek Vets. 


Snuggling with Nubs while we wait for Dr Folland to come in.

Quick Update

Nigel went home and is doing GREAT! Yeah!

Volcano went to a great home today! Yeah!

Nubs goes home on Monday! Yeah!


Raji is still available for adoption. Tiny Tim is eating, but his eyes are still bad and his shell is still soft. Spike's tubes are working and I've been able to get a lot of pus out of his beard in the last two days. Hurley will be headed home next month too (been babysitting him).

And I honestly don't think I'm strong enough to give up Toothless. Several have offered. I don't think I can do it. I think he'll have to stay. Maybe one day if the perfect home comes along.... until then, I am as close to perfect as you can get for my little buddy. He's my "Toofers." He came to me at 60-something grams. He's now 99 grams. I can't wait for him to be over 100!

He played on my bed tonight before snuggling in my hoodie & falling asleep

Big Step for Forward for Nubs

Nubs ate 6 little dubia roaches today! It's his first "protein" for over a week. I only let him eat a few tiny ones so we could see how his digestive system responds to them. If he is still doing well tomorrow, we'll give him 6 more. The quicker he is eating on his own, the quicker he can be off the force feeding and the quicker he'll put on weight.

Weight = Health = Going back Home!!

I LOVE Beardie News Stories!

The firefighters put out a fire started by the beardie's light and gave him oxygen to help him feel better. Awwww....

Read the story HERE! 

Saying Goodbye to Squiggy

Getting him used to the shipping bag

With his box

One more cute picture

My daughter & I both gave him kisses. I cried. 

In his bag, in the box, ready to ship

After a LLLLOOOONNNNNGGGGGG night of anxiously waiting, Squiggy arrived at his new home this morning at 7:33 am Utah time (9:33 FL time). He was cool from traveling overnight, but was alert and curious about his new home. It will take him some time to settle in, but I have no doubts that he will adjust quickly and grow to love his new beardie momma.