Update on my Sicklies

Nova is the most concerning. He hardly moves and almost never opens his eyes all the way. He no longer eats on his own and so I force feed him daily. He goes back to the vet on Monday morning. 

Clack is still really lethargic. He eats well though even if he hardly moves. I can't tell if he's sickly or lazy. 

Smaug is better though not back to his feisty self. No more throwing up and totally normal pooping. 

Nubs is still having completely liquid poop. :( No idea what the issue is. He doesn't have parasites. 

I think Nubs might go to the vet too next week so we can find out what's going on with his guts. 

Sweet Baby Okie, rescue 132

This little guy didn't really have a chance. He was too young and too weak. We tried hard and he tried hard, but in the end, it was too little, too late.

Little Okie died peacefully this afternoon. 

I believe there was a genetic abnormality in him. His head shape was not normal. He was hardly bigger now than when he hatched a month ago. 

Beardie Roll Call

Skye-- basking like a Queen

Katy-- healthy and ready to go home

Nova-- really not well  :( 

Dragon-- the cutest thing ever

Nubs- Fear him! He's adorable! 

Smaug-- looking SO much better 

Max- not amused with the picture 

Ziggy-- very up close & personal 

Tiger-- about to shed his milk mustache

Gen- gorgeous girl 

Clack-- still not well 

Tank Sale

This is where (and when) I get most of my tanks. 

PetCo's $1/gallon tank sale. I buy their 40 gallon tanks for $40 plus tax. Great price. 

Sweet Raydan

Poor baby Raydan died in the middle of the night. I suspect he was yet another victim of sloppy breeding practices by the breeders who sell to national pet stores.

Raydan was loved by his owners who fought hard to save him. They surrendered him to me with the hope that I could do more for him. Poor little baby was probably doomed before his egg was even laid. 

He will be buried in my flower garden under a beautiful tree. His life will help create beauty for years to come. 

I Love My Lucy

Lucy is my baby. She always will be. I just love this girl! 

She's the only snake I have since I let Buddy become a class pet. She's been pretty mellow this winter. I'm excited for her to be more active now. 

Tonight I took her out to show my nephews and now she's hanging out on me. 

She put her head near my ear and I was listening to her breathe. 

I love this girl. :) She's my Sweetie Pie Snake. 

Snuggling with Smaug

Smaug has looked better today. 

His eyes haven't been as sunk in. I took him out to night to give him some love and he fell asleep on a comfy part of the couch. 

I'm glad he looks better. Nova, Raydan, and Clack don't look that great. :( Nubs has started acting sickly too. 

Rearranged

Thanks to 2 adoptions and 1 fostering placement I was able to get more tanks off the floor today. I still have a lot, but it looks less crowded. 

Front Room- 

(Georgie & Baby Foot, Heidi & Derp, Raydan, a Savannah monitor)

Entry Way- 

(Smaug, Max, Nubs, Lucy the snake)

Living Room- 

(Ziggy, Tiger, Gen) 

My Bedroom- 

(Katy, Skye, Dragon, Clack, Nova-- the baby nursery & hospital wing) 

All My Little Sicklies

Smaug is completely lethargic this morning. :( He hardly moves and doesn't want to open his eyes. He freaks out when I touch him so I've been leaving him alone. 

Raydan has the sad half-eyes he's had since he came. He does move around some, but he's far from healthy. 

Nova is making the same expression. He hangs himself off the side of his bridge so his tail is not touching anything. He's on antibiotics now. I'm wondering if the infection spread from his tail into his bloodstream. 

For some Good News-- 

Click was adopted today and I have potential adopters for two others. :) 

Disheartened

Losing Spyro hurt because it feels I collect credit card debt and buried beardies in my garden the most. I was feeling very discouraged, but felt much calmer after a nice dinner and drive with my husband. 

<Insert Deep Breath> 

But then I came home to find Smaug had thrown up all over his tank and looks as bad as Spyro did last night. He was perfectly fine all day. I have no idea what happened. 

I tried to hold him after I sanitized his cage, but he wasn't having it. I had to just let him go to bed and hope he's still around in the morning. 

Now I'm laying on my bed typing this post on my phone and crying. Nova is sick. Raydan is sick. Nubs is having diarrhea. I have a monitor that won't eat. There are 16 beardies total in my house. I've been working on downsizing and hope two of them will go home this weekend. It all feels overwhelming right now. 

I'm reminded of a line from my favorite books/movies "Anne of Green Gables:" 

Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it. 

I'm sure I'll feel better and more capable of shouldering the burden of everything in the morning. This can just be my candid insight into the harsh reality of rescue. 

Sweet Spyro

I'm sad we couldn't do more to save her, but at least she was really cared for in her final days. 

$150+ trying to save her. $58 to let her go. :( 

This Poor Baby

The agony in Spyro is obvious. My heart aches for her. When I checked on her around midnight, she was puffed up like a big beach ball. She's still bleeding and getting worse. 

I think it's time to let her go. :( I plan to take her to the vet in a little bit and let them put her down. 

Poor Spyro. I'm sorry we couldn't do more for you. 

Update on Spyro

It's a hard day for Spyro. Her belly is very bloated and her eyes are really sunk in. She's only passing urates and blood when she tries to poop. 

I'm about to give her the afternoon doses of pain meds and dewormer. I hope she's able to pull through.

Update on Nova

With all the emergencies this week, I haven't stopped long enough to post on update on Nova. 

He ended up with about an inch of his tail being amputated on Monday. 

He's had a hard time adjusting. I can get him to eat, but he won't open his eyes all the way and is lethargic. It's possible the infection in his tail spread into his bloodstream. I'm going to start him on antibiotics to see if that helps. 

I may give him Critical Care too when I tube feed Raydan to see if I can help him get extra nutrition. 

Raydan, rescue 131

I got this little baby beardie today. He's another "Failure to Thrive" baby. :( His owners loved him & cared for him as best they could. But he won't eat. 

I will see if I can get him healthy through the vet care products I have. I'll try tube feeding him Critical Care. He's very weak & lethargic. 

Poor boy! I hope he can pull through. 

Tiny Dinosaur

Can't seem to get away from baby monitors... 

Update on Spyro

There was Good News & Bad News from Spyro's vet visit today. 

The good news is that she doesn't have eggs. The bad news is we have no idea why she prolapsed so badly. I am treating her with medicine that will kill off any coccidia or pinworms she may have. Because she has been unable to poop, we couldn't do a fecal test to check for parasites. 

For now, she's back with me and I'll keep her calm and warm. This morning, she was still straining to push though I have no idea why. I'll go back next week and the vet & I will figure out what to do next. Hopefully I can do a fecal test between now and then. 

Here she is tonight. I'm not sure why she appears to be in pain. :( I gave her pain meds. All we can do now is wait & see. 

Spyro, rescue 130-- Graphic Pictures!!!

Spyro, a 5 to 6 year old female beardie, suffered a nasty prolapse today. It's one of the worst I've ever seen. Her owners surrendered her to me so I could take over her care. A prolapse is when part of their intestines get pushed outside of their body through their vent. 

This was the picture I saw-- 

I told the owners to immediately soak the end of the beardie in warm sugar water. Sugar water causes the tissues to shrink. Do NOT let it get dry or dirty. Keep soaking and get to a vet ASAP. 

When I arrived at the vet, this is what it actually looked like-- 

Horrible! She was in SO much pain!!! It was much bigger than I thought. 

I had to force her into a warm water dish to clean her off. And then I had to hold a gauze soaked with sugar water to her prolapsed for about an hour. 

Dr Echols, my second favorite vet, really struggled to get the tissue back in. He almost wasn't successful. 

Look at her eyes and beard. If she could scream, she probably would have. After about 10 minutes, the tissue went in. There was quite a lot of blood. 

Let me educate you for a minute--- 

Vets have two goals in treating prolapses:  1st, fix the prolapse and 2nd, find the cause & fix it. 

Dr Echols is pretty sure he feels retained eggs in her belly. That can easily be a cause for a beardie to push so hard in an attempt to get out eggs that she ends up pushing out her guts. :( 

Other common causes of prolapses in beardies are parasite infestations or impacted guts. Coccidia can overload the guts of beardies and, in an attempt to get the full feeling out, a beardie will push and strain until the guts fall out. 

It's the same effect with an impaction (constipation). Instinct makes a beardie push and push and push to empty its bowels-- even if it causes a prolapse. This is why it's so critical to test for parasites if your beardie strains to poop or has nasty poop. And to make sure they are not on a loose substrate (sand, walnut she'll, etc). 

Time is CRITICAL with a prolapse. The vent squeezes the intestines and cuts off the blood flow. A long prolapse will actually kill the intestional tissue and the dead tissue will have to be surgical removed and the bowel rebuilt. As you can guess, most beardies do NOT survive that process. A red prolapse still has some blood flow; a purple or grey prolapse is very bad. 

YOU MUST GET VET CARE ASAP!!!! 

Spyro came home and got some pain meds. For awhile, I wasn't even sure she'd make it through the night. I put her in a warm sick tank and let her sleep. She already looks a little better. 

Tomorrow morning she will go back to the vet for an ultrasound. We need to figure out if she does have eggs and then we'll decide what to do. Preventing a prolapse was one of the goals for having Skye's surgery last month.

I'll post more tomorrow. I'm pretty sure she'll make it through the night. I'm sure a good night's sleep in a soft & warm tank will help a lot.