Holding onto a Dying Beardie

Drako just started his "death gasping." I thought he was dead this morning, but when I went back to take pictures of his body, I found that he was breathing! I was SHOCKED!! So I gave him a saline injection and put him under warm lights.

His breathing has been slow & steady all morning. I've been checking on him every 30 minutes all morning. And he just started his death gasps.

And so I have sweet Drako, wrapped in a clean towel, on my chest. I am talking to him and telling him to let go. I am loving him and wishing him happiness in the fields in heaven. I am telling him he is safe to die. I am assuring him he is loved.

No matter how bad his life may have been, his death was peaceful and filled with love. That is why I do rescue-- to be part of beardies' "Happily Ever Afters." Even when their "Happily Ever After" starts the moment they leave their frail bodies behind.

RIP, Drako.

One More Reason Why I HATE Sand -- Drako, rescue number 37

I woke up early this morning in anticipation of a sickly beardie being dropped off at 6 am. I had talked to his owner last night about Drako, and we decided that her husband would bring him to me if he was still alive this morning.

Drako in the bath last night

9 year old Drako spent the last few years of his life in a tank filled with sand and no UVB light. He was given to his current owner and slowly started to fail, growing skinnier and more lethargic. Finally last night, he passed a large blood clot.

This morning, he was breathing shallowly and his owner's husband brought him to me on his way to work. I put Drako in a sick tank to warm him up while I got a saline injection ready for him.

But I was too late. When I picked him up, I noticed blood on the paper towels in the tank and blood coming out of his vent. All I could do was wrap him in a clean washcloth and hold him gently.

I HATE SAND!

I've read the bags of calci-sand and repti-sand and I know the "experts" claim that sand is great for beardies, but I've seen too many die because of it. A beardie on sand will eventually swallow the sand and not all of it will pass through them. All it takes is a few grains of sand stuck in their bellies to start catching bits of digested food. Over time those bits of food and sand snowball into a bigger and impassable clump.

Drako's intestines were filled with clumps of sand and partially digested food and because of the clumps, he felt "full" so he stopped eating. Eventually, his body attempted to pass the clumps and when he did, the clumps ruptured his insides. He passed a blood clot last night and then continued bleeding internally.

Draco this morning 

Internal ruptures are not repairable. A small tear can sometimes be survivable, but in a dehydrated, emaciated 9 year old beardie even a small tear would have been catastrophic. And it was.

Drako is still barely alive. Because he's not willing to quit, I'm not willing to quit on him. I did give him a saline injection and now all that I can do is wait. He's in a nice warm tank, on soft, clean towels. His breathing is slow and steady, but he is largely unresponsive. I expect he will pass away, but until he actually does, I'm going to keep loving him and keeping him comfortable.

UPDATE-- 

Draco has now died. I held him in my arms as he gasped his last. Here is a picture of his vent with the blood coming out of it. His legs are discolored and his pores are enlarged-- all caused by being stuck on sand for years with improper lighting and heating. 

Penny & Lizzie, rescues 14.2 & 15.2

"The Girls" came back to me last night.

Even though they have spent their entire lives together, they had to be separated last week because they started attacking each other. One more reason you shouldn't house beardies together.

This is Lizzie, the snuggler. She adores being held and carried around. One of her fingertips was hanging by a thread and I had to remove it. Tomorrow she'll go the vet to have the bone filed down so the finger can close.

This is Penny, the curious & fun one. She loves to explore and look around. Her colors are amazing!

Both girls are in great condition and eat well. They will both come with a 40 gallon set up and some food. Penny can be adopted at any time, but Lizzie will have to wait till her finger is healed.

Message me if you're interested in adopting one of these girls. :)

Sometimes a Different Person is a Better Fit

I finally gave in and asked for help with Pickle. After months of him attacking me and trying to bite me (often succeeding), I knew I was getting nowhere.

I traded Pickle to my friend for one of her rescues, Snowflake. I got a text an hour after the trade: "Pickle is eating out of my hand."

Huh? What? Really?

CRAZY! and Amazing all at the same time. You have to see it to believe it:

Sometimes it just helps to let a different person try to work with a difficult beardie.

Here's how he was for me-- just so you can SEE the difference.

Update-- and look at this amazing pic:

Beardies Loving their Blankies!

Nubs has loved warm corn bags since I first got him 

"A picture? Really? I want to go to sleep!"

This was her first time on a corn bag and she loved it! 

All ready for bed!

Gem in the sun with his blankie

Toothless with his buggy blankie

He has a small blankie since he's so tiny still 

Iguana Rescue

I helped with an iguana rescue tonight. The poor little guy was stuck in a small, dirty cat carrier and left in an abandoned apartment. The guy who is taking him in brought him to me for a wellness exam on his way home. I was expecting a mean & nasty iguana.

Instead I got this guy. Isn't he adorable? He looks like he's smiling. I pet his head and he fell asleep.

He is severely underweight, but I saw no evidence of metabolic bone disease. Phew! He does have a toe that will need to be amputated-- it looks like it was a compound fracture and still has an open wound. He is missing all but one claw on his front feet so he'll never been able to climb like a normal iguana. Poor little dude.

How can someone just abandon him? or ANY pet for that matter? How can they sleep with themselves at night?

I'm super grateful I could help get this guy fixed up and am glad he is now in a situation where he will be loved.

Happily Ever After Updates

I love seeing pics of my adopted out beardies! I love to see them fat & happy & loved. Here's a few I got this week:

SQUIGGY!!! ---Look at how big he is! He looks like a normal beardie!

Ziggy-- now "Jack"--

Nubs-- Look at that belly! He's so cute! 

Beardies Need Blankies-- my next fundraiser for rescue

I love giving my beardies softy blankies and warm corn bags! It's one of my favorite parts of rescue is watching a sad, neglected, or sickly beardie snuggle up into a warm blanket and sleep.

So to raise funds for rescue (mine and others), I've been making special softy blankies with matching corn bags to sell. You can buy just the blanket or just the corn bag or both. I'll even figure out how to ship them cheaply & safely.

The blankets are made out of soft flannel with very little outward stitching so there is less for your beardie to catch his nails on. They are machine washable too.

They come in small (for babies) and large (for adults) sizes. Eventually, I'll make some jumbo sizes for big beardies.

Large blankies

Small blankies

 The corn bags are made out of the same soft flannel and will come with simple instructions on how to heat them up for your beardies. The corn bags aren't machine washable. Sorry! The corn will sprout in the wash! ;)

 You can buy them separately or in a set and pay for them via my PayPal account and I'll ship them out to you. I'll get more details up via my blog and my rescue Facebook page in the next few days.

Fishies make great blankies!

All the proceeds of these goes to fund rescue efforts for me and for other organizations. Recently, I donated $10 to help rescue a whole tank full of reptiles in Illinois.

Stay tuned!

GO HERE for the prices & patterns & shipping info!!! 

Gem, rescue number 36

I actually paid $20 for Gem yesterday because he needed to get out of the home he was in. His owners weren't bad, but they didn't know better and honestly expected their 8 year old to take full responsibility for Gem's care. And in this case, what the child didn't do and what the parents didn't know hurt Gem. 

At Kaitlund's house until I could get him

He was kept in a 20 gallon tank filled with crushed walnut shell (I HATE!! that stuff), with no UVB bulb, and with a weak basking light (maybe 80 degrees at best). For the past few weeks, they fed him bananas. 

Yes, bananas. Nothing else. 

He was COLD! It has taken 24 hours to get his temperature back up. He freaked me out because I brought him home and he went totally black. I've seen beardies get black before, but never like this. He was doing much better this morning. 

I put him on a warmed rice bag and that helped him a bit. Then I left him alone in my room so he could calm down while he warmed up.

Mmmm, a warm rice bag on the bottom & a heat light on top

This morning, he was back to normal colors and is doing better. He ate some greens and some wax worms. I'll take him out in a bit and see how he does with me & my kids. 

This is his normal coloring

Once I have a good idea of how his health is and how social he is, I'll place him for adoption. 

Update on Spike: "there you see it, now you don't"

I took Spike in for a follow up this morning. He's back up to 500 grams (when he was super sick he dropped down under 400) and looks great! He was so happy that he left the vet a present on the floor! ;) 

Dr Folland said the beard looked good and, at this point, the tube was doing more harm than good. So he snipped it out and now Spike's a free man!