Fundraiser for Junior

Junior is still having surgery tomorrow (even though he pooped a bit today). He still has a grape sized mass in his belly that is obviously putting pressure on his digestive tract. I'm determined to give this little buddy every chance possible, but I need help with the vet bills. So as much as I hesitate to create a GoFundMe account, I did. 

Here is the link to his GoFundMe campaign: HELP JUNIOR 

Even if you can't donate, please share. :)

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.

Tiny Poop = HUGE Progress for Junior!

I woke up to find Junior had pooped a tiny bit! YAY!

And then I saw that Junior himself was no longer bloated and puffy!

His belly has been so bloated & full that he had no extra skin showing. He looks NORMAL!

Then he looked up at me after he took a drink!

This baby Savannah is the BIGGEST fighter I have ever ever had! I'm SO amazed by him!

Shedding Norman

Norman has been shedding and I soaked him yesterday. He actually let me pull off a lot of the skin that was hanging on him. So exciting!

Norman stayed in the bath for over an hour. I kept adding warm water. He did not want to get out. Look at this video of him soaking in the warm water.

Oh, the Irony of a "House Pig"

I'll just be flat out honest-- we couldn't take the house pig. Seriously. He was TOO hard. He was potty trained, crate trained, food trained, kind, SUPER noisy, and fun. And he was TOO much.

We made it 24 hours with him before all of us were done. My dogs-- especially my old dog Belle-- were a mess. By the time the pig left, the two dogs had started nipping at him. 

Between it being Spring Break week and having a sick Savannah monitor and a shedding tegu and a shedding silkie beardie and insomnia, I reached my breaking point.

I felt SO guilty admitting that I couldn't handle the pig. We had dreams and ideas of what a house pig would be like and we are all completely wrong.

PLEASE do your research before committing to a house pig. Borrow or rent one if you can before you buy. Cisco was used to going to different houses and was okay going back home, but some pigs are heartbroken when they get bounced again and again.

We loved Cisco, but he wasn't a good fit in our zoo.

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.

Pig Sitting Cisco

We are watching a 5 month old "house" pig for the next few days. He's adorable!

The first 10 hours were great.

After that, it became difficulter and difficulter. 

House pigs are like toddler beauty queens on drugs-- hyperactive, stubborn, adorable, demanding, adorable. Our house is filled with grunting. 

The dogs aren't too crazy about him. Teddy feels neglected by the lack of attention to him. By the end of the evening, he was spent. See? 

My old lady dog is terrified of him. :( She's not eating or acting normal. Poor thing hasn't eaten since he came. I was hoping she'd be better this morning.

Nope.

Poor Belle. 

After all the critters we've had (including a nasty Savannah monitor, a 10 foot long starving Burmese python that sent met to Instacare bleeding profusely, and the toddler tegu Kreature to name a few), this one is the HARDEST!!

Seriously.

It takes a special kind of soul to have a house pig.

Enjoy this adorable video of him scratching his bum on the stereo though. It made us all giggle! Sorry it's sideways!

Praying for Junior & my Vets

Junior is headed back to the vet tomorrow. His bowels are still blocked. 😞  He's getting stronger and his bones are becoming firmer, but if we can't get his digestion to work, there's not much hope for his ultimate survival.

 😫Please join me in praying tonight that my two awesome vets will be inspired to know how to best help Junior now. Thank you! I believe in miracles and I believe God cares about all His critters and can help heal Junior through Dr Folland and Dr Echols.

Wide Awake Junior

I walked into my bedroom today and saw this:

Junior's eyes were open and alert. He watched me for awhile, looked around him again, and then crawled to the back of the tank where he went back to sleep.

Whoa! I was not expecting to see him alert. But I'm glad I did!

Tickle's Singing & Selfies

We are bird-sitting Tickle, a male cockatiel, for our good friends this week for Spring Break. I love having a bird around! I grew up with cockatiels and so Tickle is a great buddy for me for a week. 

He rode around on my shoulder this morning until he saw the most handsome bird in the mirror! Then he sang passionately to it to woo him. ;) 

I tried to teach Tickle how to take selfies, but it didn't work so well. He was only in to the *extreme* closeups!

This afternoon, we watched the broadcast for General Conference for the LDS Church and Tickle got a little too excited to sing the closing song-- he started 15 minutes early! He sang directly into the bottom of my husband's foot until he saw the camera come out. Then he came over the camera to sing to it.

Tickle has a lot of personality and can sometimes be a brat when he's not getting what he wants. He likes to scream too when we aren't paying enough attention to him. Having him around for a week at a time, twice a year, is the perfect amount of time to get my bird fix. Then I'm happy enough to send him home and go back to my quiet reptiles.