Amazing Difference

Normally when I take Mooshy out to snuggle at night, he stays in his blankie and sleeps. 

Tonight he felt strong enough for an adventure! Look at how good he looks now! 

After 10 minutes, he finally settled in to go to sleep here: 

I can't believe how much he's improving now. He has really perked up with me giving him baby food mixed with a little Critical Care. 

I hope that Mooshy becomes one of my best success stories. :) 

The Three MBD Amigos

Peanut who has the most rubbery bones and moves the least. He walks on his wrists and army crawls. 

Lil Bit who is the most active, eats the most, and has the most personality. He walks and moves totally normally. His bones are still soft. 

Saphira who is the oldest and the smallest. He has soft but not rubbery bones. 

Saphira, rescue 101

Another MBD baby came today. He'll fit right in with the other two. :) 

Saphira is supposedly 8 months old but he's tinier than LilBit who is 5 months old. 

He walks on his wrist and has a little hump on his back. 

His bones are soft but not rubbery. He'll get extra nutrition and love. That should help him heal. If I can, I hope to get all three of these babies a Calcitonin shot soon to help pull calcium back into their bones. 

Snuggle Time

Mooshy prefers to be on my shoulder to sleep. He's such a sweet boy. 

Happy Dance for Mooshy

Look what I found Mooshy doing this morning! 

He drank for several minutes. 

And he looked much better. 

Sad Sicklies & Bad Junie

No real change for my 3 sicklies. :( Dory will go in next week for another check. 

Mooshy is hanging on but I keep finding him in awkward positions where his body is half off the hammock. He got his 2nd saline shot today. 

 Peanut hardly moves and won't eat at all. I force feed him daily. He is gaining weight though; I guess that's a good thing. 

I did give Mooshy & Peanut a mixture of baby food mango mixed with Pedialyte today to give them something very digestible. I'll get some baby food squash next time I go to the store too. 

So we just keep plugging along. I check Mooshy several times a day to make sure he's alive. In the evening, he and Dory get kangaroo care with me (I wrap them in a blankie and tuck them in my shirt for a few hours). 

And in other news-- Junie tried to burn down my craft room today. :( He knocked his Mercury Vapor Bulb off and it burned the sheet under his "perch" area. I found the room filled with smoke as he sat calmly on the curtain rod. Bad Junie. 

This was around 11 this morning. I was supposed to leave the house at 10 for a couple hours but didn't sleep well last night and was being pokey. I feel sick inside when I think of what could have happened had I not been here. :( 

Bad Day for Mooshy

Mooshy's just not doing well today. :( I gave him another saline shot and will back off the Critical Care for a few days and focus on hydration. I don't know if it will help. He's so sickly and weak. 

"Rescue" is Messy & Harsh Work

This is my "Rescue" blog. And I have a "Rescue" Facebook page. And the key word is "Rescue."

Rescue means taking in abused, neglected, sick, & dying reptiles. It means missing limbs & toes & tails. It means massive quantities of snot and stinky poop and blood. It means the odds are always stacked against me and death is always an option.

Rescue is NOT fun. It is not pretty. It is not cute and adorable. It is heartbreaking and shocking and disturbing.

Rescue is hard work. 

There are many many blogs & pages & groups out there that focus on cute animals, adorable reptiles, unique breeds, etc. You never have to worry about seeing blood or death or anything disturbing. Those are NOT "Rescue" pages.

If the harshness of rescue work is too much, I invite you to check out "Cuteness Overload" and similar websites. If the harshness of rescue work is too much, you are welcome to unfollow my blog and unlike my FB page.

But "Rescue" is my reality. So please don't fault me for showing what it is really like and not painting a rosy picture of sunshine and rainbows and happy endings. If that was "Rescue," then no one would need to do it.

Critical Care Mornings

I tried to feed roaches to all 4 of my sickly beardies this morning but only 1 of them ate well. Lil Bit gummed down 3 small roaches. Dory was only able to catch and eat one. Peanut & Mooshy didn't even show interest. 

Back to the Critical Care routine I go. 

Lil Bit gets 1 cc. Peanut gets 2 cc's. Mooshy gets 6 cc's of Critical Care and 6 cc's of Pedialyte.

 All of them are gaining weight slowly. Peanut's jaws are still too rubbery to actually chew roaches. Mooshy doesn't seem to have the strength to chase the roaches. Until they are strong enough to eat on their own, I'm going to continue to force feed them. 

Dory at the Vet

Dory finally got to go see my awesome vet today. But unfortunately he was left baffled by her eye. 

He started by aspirating the lump around her eye and drew out a lot of clear fluid and then some blood. When he was done, her eye was flat. She was also very mad. 

Within a few minutes, her eye started swelling up again. 

And by the time my vet came back in the room, it was back to its big size. 

The bizarre thing is that there is NO infection in the fluid. He's not sure why her eye is so swollen. 

Since I am still paying off Fat Lucy's surgery and the vet bills for the last 5 rescues, I don't have the $350+ to pay for an exploratory surgery on her eye. It's not infected and it's not bothering her. So I'm going to see if I can find out more history on her this week. And maybe crowd source among my rescue friends to see if anyone else has dealt with this.

My vet says this is another head scratcher from me-- a new situation with new symptoms that he's never seen before. I'm doing a great job of bringing him cases that help him learn. ;) Two gold stars for me. 

Sun time Treatment

I love my vet! If you read my blog at all, you know this is true! His favorite advice to me has always been to give my sick reptiles direct sunshine time. Best & cheapest treatment available.

Windows filter out UVB so your beardies can get light and heat, but no essential UVB. UVB helps them metabolize calcium and feel better. Plus it makes their colors brighter. 

Mooshy-- 

The Babies-- 

Lil Bit--

Peanut-- 

Slimming Down and a New Sick Area

12 bearded dragons, 6 tortoises, 3 iguanas, 2 snakes, and 2 dogs was a bit too much. Fat Lucy, Moose, MuShu, Squirt, Voldetort, and Turtle Boy all went home (either to their new home or their regular home).

Now we have 8 beardies, 4 tortoises, 3 iguanas, 2 snakes, and 2 dogs. Much more manageable. 

The sick ward is now in my front room instead of my bedroom. :) 

There's Teddy photo-bombing my pic. 

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-- 

100!!!

I can't believe it!! 100 rescues in less than 3 years. Thousands & thousands of dollars spent at the vet. What a wild ride. 

I thought it would take longer to reach 100, but the need is great. My closest rescue was within a few miles of me; my furthest was one in LA I picked up on vacation. I don't even want to count how many I've lost. At least a dozen. They all hurt. 

But it's the success stories that keep me going. The pics of beardies and reptiles in the worst possible condition looking fat & happy 5 months later are what fuels me. 

Mooshy, rescue number 100!!!!!!!!

I saw this pic on as this morning:

I knew I had to intervene. I had my rescue friend Joe pick him up. And he is as bad as the pics look. :( 

This beardie is a German Giant size beardie who should be at least 550 grams. Instead he is barely over 200. :( 

His skin is stained with red sand. And his tail is a triangle with zero fat. 

Joe got him to drink and soaked him in the sink. I gave him a saline injection. He is so thin & dehydrated that it took 4 times to get all 10 mLs of saline in him. 

He did raise his head up a couple times. He doesn't move much but his eyes are alert. 

Tomorrow he'll get another bath and another saline injection. On Sunday I'll try him on some baby food. 

I don't think he's as bad as Andy & Rico and I'm hoping he can pull through. I would love to see him fat & happy again.