The Hazard of Waiting

I'm sad to say the little baby Beardie died on the way to my house. 

The paperwork shows the pet store employees had been trying to treat it for a month. It seemed to be failing fast and so they decided to send it to me. 

The stress of the journey was too much for the baby. There was nothing I could do for it. :( 

Baby beardies have no wiggle room when it comes to sickness or injury. They have almost no fat reserves, a tiny blood volume, and little health reserves. They can go from fine to dead very quickly. If you suspect a problem with a baby Beardie, don't put off getting vet treatment. 

Getting Ready for an Intake

Got a message from my rescue sister-- dehydrated baby Beardie, very likely dying. Can I take it? 

Of course! 

This is how I get ready. 

I grab a 10 gallon tank from the garage. If it were a bigger Beardie, I would get a 20 gallon. 

I bring the tank inside so it can warm up and then line it with white hand towels. I want it soft for the sickly and plain so I can easily see fluids/poop. 

I don't want anything hard so I fold a washcloth up and then cover it with another washcloth for a basking spot. 

Then I find the lights. A black light will keep him warm tonight and then tomorrow I'll swap out the black bulb for a low wattage white bulb (probably around 40 watts) for a day lamp and use my new T-5 UVB bulb. 

While the tank warms up, I make my own Pedialyte. I decided to make a half recipe: 

1 pint warm water, 1/2 Tablespoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt. Mix well. 

Just in case I need to give a saline shot for extra hydration, I pull out my saline supplies. These I bought from my vet. 

Oral fluids are usually enough, but a seriously dehydrated reptile will do better with saline injections. A critically ill reptile needs hydration first. For the first 24 to 72 hours, fluids and saline injections are the focus. It helps to show you if the kidneys are still working too and prepares the body to absorb real calories. 

I had to step around my buddy Otis who sees me in the kitchen and comes to visit. Luckily, he found the warm air from the heater vent and stayed out of the way. 

I sterilized the tiny syringe by dipping it in boiling water and drawing the hot water in and out a few times. 

Now that the tank is warm, I need to calibrate the temp in the basking spot. A sick tank should be at 85 degrees. I raise or lower the heat lamp to adjust the temp. Closer = warmer; farther = cooler. 

There goes Otis! 

So now I wait for little baby to show up and then I see how bad he is and decide what to do next. 

Feeding Kreature

Feeding Kreature is an interesting experience! He prefers meat! Tonight was "Fish Friday" for him and I gave him cod and shrimp. He picked out the shrimp before eating the fish.

When he's eating, I keep my fingers far away from his mouth. I've seen those teeth!

To get him out I blow on the food towards his cage so he can smell it. 

Once he comes out, I keep blowing the odors towards him. 

I make him come all the way out before he can eat.

He tries the fish first. Not too bad. 

He tries the shrimp.

He starts picking out the shrimp.

He eats all the shrimp first. 

Then he finishes the fish. I use the tongs to help him with the smaller pieces.

He looks around on the towel for anything he missed.

No more food. He's done. 

Back to sleep. 

Dash, rescue 162

Dash is a 9 year old Beardie! NINE!! 

He's an old gentleman. I am so surprised that someone could let him go after that many years! Poor guy! 

He learned to drink immediately! I loved it! 

He is loving the heat lamp in his tank. He spends most of his day flattened out underneath it. His caretaker said he didn't eat greens, but he ate some for me. He needs some good food in him to help him put on weight. He's a bit too skinny. 

Beardies usually live (normally) between 8 and 13 years. I've heard of a 15 year old Beardie and that's a record. Sadly most are poorly cared for and live less than 8.  Dash will be needing a forever home- somewhere he won't be bounced again. I'll let ya'all know when he's ready to go. 

Curly, rescue 161

Curly is a 3 year old male Beardie who came in yesterday. 

I tried to teach him how to drink today, but he was more interested in the greens. 

I'm still trying to figure out his personality. His previous care takers said he's rather squirrely. I haven't seen that yet. 

He did somehow manage to poop three times on the glass. I've never had a Beardie skilled enough to poop on the glass, several inches above the floor. :/ It was all cricket parts too. I will get him on a healthy diet now that he's off sand before I run a fecal test on him. 

Six Snakes at Sarah's

I currently have six snakes, all ball pythons. Lucy (my one and only), Bones (my son's), Sunny (the baby), and three cool morphs that I've been babysitting for my rescue brother. 

There is a caramel morph, a pinstripe, and an albino. 

Don't let that last sentence fool you. I really have NO idea what I'm talking about. I've never learned morph types for snakes or beardies. Morphs aren't important to me- just their health level. 

4 Years!!!

I LOVE Facebook! And my favorite part is the "On This Day" feature. I love to see what I posted over the last few years. 

Today Facebook reminded of a VERY important anniversary! 

Four years ago today, I rescued my very first bearded dragon!! 

Nigel was free. This is, of course, why he cost me over $1,000. ;) 

Nigel was #1. Today I rescued #161 and #162! Wow! 162 in 4 years. Let's not even talk about how much money it's cost me. I am positive I am over the $15,000 mark at the vet easily. Thank heavens for a prosperous Etsy shop that's helped me not be $30,000 or more in debt!! 

Four years! That's crazy to me! I have learned SO much in 4 years. I've ended up taking in turtles, tortoises, monitor lizards, chameleons, snakes of all kinds, iguanas, geckos, a frilled dragon, frogs, a tarantula, and all kinds of bearded dragons. 

I've had tanks in every room of the house -- "had?" I *have* tanks in every room! ;) I had to put a tank on the kitchen counter today because I don't have room for it on my shelves yet. I think I've bought at least 60 UVB bulbs too. Amazon and PetMountain LOVE me! 

I've been bitten by many beardies, a couple tortoises, a grumpy box turtle, a few small snakes, and a 10 foot long Burmese python. I've buried more critters than I ever thought possible. I've met people all over the world and helped dozens of people improve their beardies' lives. 

Thanks to all of you!! You're the best! 

Here's to another four years! 

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Taking in New Rescues

Today I took in two beardies and took pics of what I do when I take in a new Beardie. 

When a Beardie comes in with supplies, it usually looks like this in my front room-- like someone threw up supplies! 

These two tanks had walnut shell in them! Yuck!! 

That had to be the first thing to go-- after I picked out the crickets that weren't being eaten. 

I use a small dustpan and scoop the nasty stuff in the trash. I found old poop, cricket parts, weird things I couldn't recognize, pieces of shed, etc. As I breathed it in, I wondered how a Beardie could survive when inhaling all the dust while digging in the walnut shell. 

Once it's clean, I wipe the whole tank down with a lemon antibacterial wipe. I want to kill any and all germs or parasites that bred in the walnut shell. I let the antibacterial wipe dry on its own. Then I wipe the whole thing down a couple times with a clean, wet washcloth. 

I had pieces of linoleum already cut to a 40 gallon tank so I put that in the bottom of the tank. 

When I pulled the first Beardie out, I cut his nails. Oh! They were long!! 

He did not like it! 

Once his nails were trimmed, I let him run around the room while I cleaned. Teddy and Kreature watched. 

I washed off all the logs and branches in the sink to wash off all the dust. Then I repeated the process with the second tank and Beardie. The whole cleaning process took just over an hour. 

Once the two tanks were set up, I moved them farther away from Kreature's tank. He was a little too interested in them. 

Luckily I had just ordered extra UVB bulbs and had brand new ones to put on their tanks. 

Using two zip ties looped around the light fixture and each other, I hang the UVB lights on the back of the tank with two plant hooks. 

I didn't quite get the lights hung because I had to run to the vet to pick up Sunny, but they are at least on top. 

Both beardies had coil UVB lights. The long tubes hanging inside the tank (not being filtered by a screen) are the best way of getting UVB to a Beardie. 

Thankfully, both beardies came with names! :) It's always a relief when I don't have to pick more names. I'll post about them tomorrow. 

PS. I keep my tanks pretty empty. When you have 15 tanks to care for, it's much easier if you keep them plain. These two will probably get a hammock added in and a few more dishes. I just used what they had so there was familiar objects for them. 

Update on Sunny

Sunny ended up having surgery to reattach her colon to her abdominal wall. 

She has an inch long incision above her vent. 

The success rate is usually about 75 to 85% and I'm hopeful she will be fine. 

Sunny at the Vet

It took 2 weeks, but Sunny, my baby ball python rescue, finally prolapses again. She pooped last night and the end of her intestines came out of her vent. :( 

Dr Folland will gently push her prolapse back in and then put a stitch or two on the sides of her vent to prevent it pushing out again. If that doesn't help, then he will surgically attach the end of the intestines to the inside of her belly.

UPDATE at 9:32 am: 

Dr Folland just called. The best bet for Sunny is to surgically attach the colon back to her abdominal wall since the stay sutures along the vent are not likely to work. The fibers holding her colon inside her body have broken down and don't appear to be reconnecting. 

If the surgery doesn't work, then the only remaining option is euthanasia. 😞