The Anatomy of a Really BAD Tank

Today I rescued a "really healthy" bearded dragon. Well, "really healthy" according to the owner who also felt like the set up and price were a "really good deal." Um, not so much.

I realized when I got this sweet little beardie that her tank would make the PERFECT example of what a really, really, really, really nasty-bad-inappropriate-gross tank is.

 Exhibit A: This tank has one single light-- a regular light bulb. No UVB.

Exhibit B: Fish tank decorations and plastic plants. Not even big enough to use as a hide or climb on and super dirty.

Exhibit C: A piece of old 2 by 4 wood as a ... decoration? This kind of wood is treated with chemicals that can be very hazardous to your reptile. Use non-treated, pesticide free wood in your tanks.

Exhibit D: I couldn't actually figure out what this is-- like a piece of vine or rope? It was filthy.

Exhibit E: Massive piles of runny, sticky poop. Never cleaned up; never wiped off. The poop itself shows a poor diet and parasite infestation.

Exhibit F: Calcium sand that had never been sifted or replaced or cleaned. It was filthy. I need to use a putty knife to actually scrape the sand off the bottom of the tank.

Exhibit G: Slimy water dish with no water in it. This is a terrible dish anyways for beardies as it is too shallow for them to drink well out of.

Exhibit H: There were piles of dried iceberg lettuce, shredded carrots, and purple cabbage spread all over the tank. WORST DIET EVER!!! No. No. No. No. NO!

Exhibit I: There were at least 18 inches between the heat source and the closest basking spot. This is a 30 gallon tall tank and is one of the worst kinds you can use for bearded dragons. There was no way for her to get anywhere close to the very dim, very dull bulb above her head. I'm guessing she was never able to get her basking temperature over about 82 degrees.

Exhibit J: This little beardie is a stunted, dirty mess. She was very dehydrated and very underfed. :( Her nails have never been trimmed and she hasn't been held for a long time.

Exhibit K: The inside of the glass was *filthy.* It was hard to see through parts of the glass.

Exhibit L: An under-tank heat (UTH) mat without a thermostat control or without a piece of tile on top of it to help spread the warmth around. UTH mats can get over 125 degrees and will heat up the sand enough to burn your bearded dragon. There are better ways to keep a tank warm. If you can't use a thermostat control, please don't use a UTH.


No lights, no hide, not enough heat, no cleaning, not good food, no clean water, no poop cleaned up-- honestly, I can't think of anything that I actually LIKE about this set up. :(

This is a perfect of example of someone who got a pet because it was "cute" and quickly lost interest in it without doing any research. A simple Google search would have given the owners better information about diet, lighting, and tank set ups. I had to explain to a surprised owner that UVB is necessary for metabolizing calcium and without it, the beardie would have slowly and painfully died. They had never even heard of that.

DO YOUR RESEARCH!! 

I just think we are past the point in society where we can blame it on the pet store (which I still hear way, way, way too often). It is not the job of the pet store to tell you *everything* you need. Their job is to make money. Your job is to be responsible for your pet by providing the best and most appropriate habitat & diet & care for your new pet. Research, research, research.

Some other pics from the tank:

Her New Tank: 

I ran out of paper towels and put down towels until I can get to the store. She has a clean substrate, a 100 Watt heat bulb, a brand new ZooMed 10.0 UVB light hanging inside her tank (less than 18" above her), a basking spot that she can climb up on or hide under, and an actual water dish that she can drink out of. 

So much better! She doesn't even know what to do with all the room and the heat. 

She acted like she had never been in the bath before. I can honestly believe that. I was so relieved to see her drinking it up. 

Blackberry Beauty

Nubs must have heard blackberries are an important part of a morning beauty ritual. 

January Roll Call

My rescue is FULL! And by full, I mean PACKED!!  

It would take too long to do an individual roll call so I'll do it instead by area. 

Front room-- (normally just tortoises). Front to back: Smaug (beardie), Rafe, Heidi & Georgie & Lil Foot, and T-bear (Tiny Tim Two) & Half Pint. 

Entry Hall--  Front to back: Nubs, Lucy (python), Gen, Max

Living room-- Ziggy (top) & Tiger (bottom)

Sparky (iguana) 

Hospital wing -- aka "my bedroom" 

Left to Right: Dragon, Simba, Dory, Peanut, Lucky

Upstairs-- Junie aka "The Beast" 

Milo

Everywhere: my dogs 

And Pixie, the hedgehog, and Thing 1 & Thing 2, the axolotols. 

I think I stopped counting numbers a half dozen critters ago. When people ask how many I have, I say "A lot." 

Smaug, rescue 115

It took quite a bit of planning to get Smaug here. Luckily, he was living in a city an hour away from Simba's city and Simba's owner's brother was willing to pick up Smaug. 

Smaug became too unruly for his owners and they couldn't handle him enough to keep him from being a brat. 

Smaug is a gorgeous and BIG boy!! 

He was tired and stressed when I finally took him out of his carrier at the vet. I trimmed his nails and then held him. 

We got him home and into his tank. Once he warmed up, he took a nice long drink and ate. 

Smaug will be available for adoption pretty quickly and I suspect that a new set up and situation will break him out of his bully habits. 

Plus, his intimidation techniques don't work on me at all. Once you've tackled a full grown Savannah monitor or an antisocial iguana, "aggression" means something different. Smaug can be grumpy and I'll just laugh at him. 

Simba, rescue 114

Simba hasn't gotten any better or gotten any worse in the past week and so his owner had her brother bring him up to me today. It was a 4 hour drive and I got him and drove him immediately to my vet.

The good news is that Simba's belly is soft and he's not constipated like we feared. The bad news is that he's super dehydrated. 

I'm going to spend the next 3 days getting him hydrated and trying to get enough of a poop sample to run a decal test on him. 

On Monday, I'll take Simba back in and we'll reassess how he's doing. We need to figure out why he's got diarrhea and fix that. Luckily, he's got fat pads in reserve so we don't have to stress too much about his weight. 

Hydration, fecal test, and then maybe a blood test to find out what's going on. 

Simba's sleeping now since he had a hard day. He got his saline injection and now he's back in his tank on his comfy blankies. 

Here he is going on a walk about at the vet. :) Overall Dr Folland felt very good about his prognosis and his current condition. 

Hooray!!! 

Gen-- then & now

3 years ago-- 

Last week-- 

Kudos to Kaitlund who force fed her for months and kept her alive. This little baby seemed determined to die. Now she's a gorgeous & spoiled thing. 

Truth!

Saving Simba

About a year and a half ago, I ran an ad on our local classifieds saying I'd take in sick or unwanted beardies or answer questions. I ended up getting a text from Maria, a lady who lives in my same state but 4 hours away. I helped her as she tried desperately to save the life of a tiny baby beardie. We got to talking frequently.

Eventually the little baby had a severe hemorrhage and started bleeding out of his nose and mouth. He died shortly after that. It was so tragic. Maria and I mourned together. 

Two weeks ago Maria texted me again (I love doing "text" support!) because she was concerned her boy Simba hadn't pooped. I gave her some suggestions and told not to worry too much. He looked okay and was probably just trying to bruminate. Unfortunately, her local vets are not good with reptiles. 

Two nights ago, she found blood on his reptile carpet. Last night, she sent me this picture: 

I could tell immediately Simba was in distress-- the black beard and flat eyebrows. Through texting, I walked her the process of giving him an enema. The result was what I expected-- more blood. 

And then Simba's beard got really black and he was really lethargic. At that point, I was in tears. I told Maria I had lost two that day and was heartbroken to think she might lose her's too. I recommended she put him to bed in a warm tank and asked her to let me know how he was doing in the morning. 

I was SO relieved when I got this pic this morning-- 

He made it through the night! I was almost in tears again. I had her give him some Pedialyte to hydrate him. Now the goal was to find a reptile vet. It seemed very likely he was constipated and that the blockage was causing a bowel perforation. Beardies can develop such large urate plugs (they look like pieces of chalk) that it's hard for them to pass them out through their vents without ripping the tissues & bleeding. Bowel perforations can cause internal bleeding which leads to death within a matter of days. :( 

Maria found a reptile vet just over an hour away and off they went. 

The vet was able to give Simba medicine to help him poop and calm his tummy down. If he's not able to poop soon, they'll follow up with an x-Ray and possibly bloodwork. But overall, Simba is doing better than we thought. 

I was SO SO happy to hear that. He's not totally out of the woods yet, but he's got the help he needs now. 

Plus it helped me realize I need to be a little bit more serious about helping my big boy Max poop soon. He hadn't pooped when he decide to bruminate a few weeks ago. I don't want to risk him causing bowel perforations himself. His belly is soft but I can feel the urate stone with my fingers. That's tomorrow's goal-- to get Max to poop. :) 

This is Max. He ate two raspberries today and was quite happy with them. 

Regular pooping is important for bearded dragons and "regular" is different for each beardie. I have every day poopers and every other day poopers and once a week poopers. I've had poop painters which are the worst!! You just need to know what's normal for your guys. 

Also remember that in the winter, most beardies eat and poop less. That's totally normal. But if you know your beardie and know what he's like, then like Maria you will know when he is not normal and you can intervene. 

Sweet Gary

Poor baby Gary Dean, the baby Savannah monitor with severe MBD, had to be put down today. 

It so sad but it also angers me. His death was completely preventable. Had his owners done 10 minutes of basic research on Google, they could have learned how to feed him appropriately. He could have been healthy and strong. 

Instead because of their lack of education, he had several intestinal prolapsed, full body seizures, crooked limbs, and a bent spine. The last week of his life was horrible. :( There's nothing we could have done except let him be put out of his misery. 

I'm thankful to my rescue buddy Joe who has loved on and cared for Gary over the past month. 

Metabolic Bone Disease is, 98% of the time, a lazy owners' disease. I wish people would do their research before they buy any pet. It would make my life in rescue less painful. 

Sparky, rescue 113

Sparky is an 8 month old iguana who is the size of a 2 month old. She was in a cage with no heat or UVB for a couple days before I unexpectedly bought her. I couldn't leave her there. 

Her cage started to fall apart when we moved it. I was afraid she'd escape into my van. 

I need to redo her cage so there are more perches and climbing branches, but I've been letting her be alone in her cage. She is crazy active and spooks easily. 

Once Verde Hissy Pants is rehomed on Monday, I'll be able to put Sparky in the extra large Reptibreeze and Midori in the large one and give them both a set up with lots of branches and perches. 

Then I'll see what I can do to help Sparky start growing to a normal size.