Friday, September 30, 2016

Remember Phoenix?

Phoenix, the blood Python, was the worst of the fire victims. He pushed his way out of a burning wood crate that killed three other snakes. Half of his face was charred and we weren't sure if he'd make it. 


Today Phoenix is a champion! He eats great and is healthy. His face continues to clear up too. 

This is what he looked like when he left my house this summer. 


This is him now. 


He has FULL use of his eye. We feared it has been burned out. Nope!!! SO glad to be wrong. 

And look how chunky he is! 


He was very underweight when he had him because he hadn't eaten for over SIX months! 

Phoenix finally looks like a normal blood Python and is absolutely adored by his owner. 

Remember Nova?

Nova in March of this year. 


Nova today in his new home in Florida. 


I can't even get over it! He's tripled in size!!! 

Such a HAPPY update!! 

A Blank Space


This one is a bittersweet "blank space." Smaug, my gentle giant, found an amazing foster-to-adopt family tonight. He will get so much more attention now, but I'll miss my "Smoggin" boy. 


Mortimer or "Morty," rescue 155 (?)

I ended up taking in a very unusual reptile-- a Madacasgar Collared Iguana. The owner was afraid that their soon-to-be Ex partner would hurt their reptiles. 

Morty is definitely more of a cousin to the desert iguana found in Southern Utah and a distant cousin to Midnight & Junie. 


My vet had never even heard of one. He asked me to bring him in for "Show and Tell." 


I'm still learning about his personality and such. He's adorable and very fast. 



Thursday, September 29, 2016

Lock Up!

On Sunday, Midnight was roaming around the living room like normal. Without warning, he jumped up on the rocking chair were my hubby was napping and chomped his arm. Ouch! My son, trying to be helpful, grabbed Midnight and tried to pull him off, not realizing Midnight's mouth was still clamped down on flesh. Double Ouch! After a very long minute, I managed to get Midnight's mouth open and pulled him off my hubby. 

Ugh! Thankfully my hubby was pretty gracious about it and there wasn't a need for stitches. 

I decided to get Midnight a bigger cage and, luckily for me, my friend had a ZooMed Iguana cage I could have. I went and got it yesterday. 

Midnight was NOT happy to be contained. 


Today, he tried all day to escape the cage. :( By 3 pm, he has rubbed off all the scabs on his mouth and was bleeding. 


When I got home from running all my errands and picking up kids, I let him out so his mouth could have a break. He let me give him loves and then I put antibiotic cream on his mouth. 

Tonight I'm letting him sleep in his tree since he's content to be there. 


He has a vet visit Monday morning because the spot on his foot where his broken toe was amputated has been swelling. 


I'm not sure what's going on, but we'll get it checked out. And I'll have Dr Folland check to make sure Midnight's not permanently messing up his mouth. 





Updates on the others from the Vet

Akime got her special bandage off today. Hooray! Her skin is all healed over for arm. Because the skin is so fragile, we put a simple wrap cover on it to protect it from her grabbing. When she gets stressed, she grabs at the bandage with her good arm and can't let go. 

She and Lotus are going to a their new home at a Chameleon Sanctuary next week! Woo hoo! We've just been waiting for the bandage to come off. 



Drake appears to have defective or blocked tear ducts that prevent his eyes from draining properly. He will always have weepy eyes that need wiped frequently so they don't get crusty. 

He's been shedding off the nasty sand stained skin too which is making him into a handsome Beardie. I'll start looking for a home for him soon. 


Georgie got an injection of antibiotics to help with her runny nose and goopy eyes. She was not happy to be examined and eventually outlasted the vet who wanted to look in her mouth. 


Baby Foot got his nails clipped since they had curled up and under his feet. We did get to see that he is for sure a boy. Until now, his shell has been too deformed to tell. Definitely a boy. :) 

The next vet trip will be for Midnight the iguana. Everyone else -- so far-- is healthy. 






Sweet Henry

This poor baby. He's breaking my heart. He's wrapped in a blankie, tucked under my chin. After much discussion and a physical exam that revealed 4 baby infected toes (one with a protruding bone) and a deep cut on his leg, my vet and I opted to let Henry be free from his pain. :( 


While we were examining the other critters (since Henry was first), I'd look over at him and he looked tired & weary to me. He seemed to want to tell me he has done and he trusted me to make that hard but right decision for him. 


I've been loving on him as he dies and telling him to be free. 

Poor sweet Henry. 

Rubber Henry

Henry is the worst case of muscular dystrophy in a Beardie I have ever seen. He's has little to no control over his limbs, can't eat well on his own, and often gets stuck upside down.  


He was found wandering around a neighborhood. We were told he must have escaped from his owner. We believed it-- until we saw how poorly he walks. Poor guy was probably dumped. :( His scales and feet are all roughed up and he's missing two toes. 


I posted a video of Henry walking a couple weeks ago and he's grown a little worse. You can tell when you look at him that he's tired. Everything is a struggle for him and nothing comes easy. I don't think my vet will give him a good prognosis-- especially when he sees the scabbed up, infected, bone sticking out toe that I discovered yesterday. 


Henry is the worst beardie I have ever had. He hurts my heart! :( I wonder if we are doing any favors by prolonging his misery.   

Sigh. 

He will be a hard and painful discussion with my vet momentarily.  



Field Trip to the Vet

It's another big vet visit today. 


I have Georgie (runny nose) and Baby Foot (nail & beak trim). 


Drake still has runny eyes. 


Akime needs her arm bandage off. 


And Henry is a new guy who is a mess. 


Luckily, they scheduled me a full hour. I'm going to use it! 

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Babysitting

Since a good friend of mine is having surgery today and will be in rehab for a week or so, I am babysitting her two Beardie boys. 

Hunter 


Preacher 


To keep them away from my other beardies, I have them in the front room with my tortoise box. 


Next week the two chameleons, Akime & Lotus, will be going to their new home which is a chameleon paradise. That will free up some more room for me. Woo hoo! 

Drake is on a round of antibiotics and then he should be ready to be adopted out. He's a sweetie, but has a hard time eating food. I think it's because his eyes are still weepy. He's starting to shed so he's not such an ugly stained orange color. And he's putting on weight so he's not so stick-like. 






Sunday, September 25, 2016

Broken Heart Emails

One of the hardest and best parts of running this blog is receiving the many emails from people all over the world. A lot of the times, the situation with their beardie is too dire and they are too late emailing me so I can't help. The most common email starts off "I think my beardie is dead."

Sometimes I am actually able to help people with their beardies and, as we email back and forth, I feel like I'm making Pen Pal Friends. :) When the beardies I am helping with die, my heart breaks with their owners.

I'm happy to help you when and if I can. There's no point to knowing what I know if I can't help others. :)

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

"Let me Help!!!"

I was printing off shipping labels when I heard scratching. 


Midnight wanted up! 


He licked my shirt a few times. 


Then tried to take a bite. 


Then kept climbing up to see what I was doing. 



He licked my computer a lot! 


He pushed a lot of buttons and brought up screens I've never seen. 


What is this screen?!?! 


Okay, time to get down! 


He licked my foot a couple times and then I put him in the window to bask. 

Midnight is like a reptile toddler. He has his moments of extreme brattiness and times when he won't anything I give him and times when he has to be wherever I am at. He's settling in and calming down though. I'm grateful for that. 



Two Super Soft New Etsy Items

A Mermaid Tail Snuggle Sack-- CLICK HERE

These will come in three sizes and three solid colors.




And a super soft minky fabric hammock with adjustable suction cups. These are one size but in three prints. CLICK HERE!



I loved shopping for this fabric! So soft! It made me want to take a nap! 

These will be up in my Etsy shop later today and then I'll post a link. 





Sunday, September 18, 2016

Photo Op

Midnight leapt on the back of the rocking chair and held himself majestically in the setting sun streaming in through our windows. 

I got up to take a picture of him. 


Yep. That's as good as it gets. ;) 

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Tree Bed

Midnight has claimed this part of my ficus  tree as his own. He puts himself to bed every night around 6. And every morning I pull him off and put him under his heat lamp. 


I'm not sure what he'll do when he gets to heavy for that branch. He's growing very fast and I can't imagine it holding him up much longer. 

Friday, September 16, 2016

A Sneaky Video of Junie

Lately, Junie has let me rub his head and his "love buttons" and he gives me kisses (flicks out his tongue at me). But I can't get close to him with my phone because he hates it. So I set it up away from him and started filming. It's not the greatest quality, but it shows that he can be nice-- well, at least until I start cutting his razor nails.

And yes, it shows that I do adore the little brat. ;) Especially when he gives me "kisses."



His side jowl buttons are so big and fluffy now! I love them! I tell him they are his "Love Buttons" and I give them a good rub down. He loves his head rubbed and his flap stroked and his buttons rubbed. But the moment I move to his back, his niceness is over.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Muscle & Neurological Problems

Years ago, when I first started rescuing, I took in Squiggy and thought his lack of coordination and poor muscle control were caused by MBD (Metabolic Bone Disease).



But as I've gained more experience and rescued more bearded dragons, I'm realizing that something else was going on with him. I've rescued (or help rescue) almost a dozen beardies who have this same issue. It's like Muscular Dystrophy for dragons. I've even chatted with my vet about it, and there's not on the vet literature sites yet. I imagine it will be.

Unfortunately, most of the rescues with this problem come to us without a good history so it's hard to pinpoint what is the cause. I know of one beardie who was the only survivor of his clutch after they all ate poisoned crickets; she had this problem badly. The rest appear to be genetically messed up through poor breeding practices. There is no fix, no tests to run, no medicine to give. It is permanent. You can help them gain a bit more strength through swimming, but there's not much else you can do. They often are malnourished because they can't chase their insects down.


My rescue partner and I have taken in two beardies recently with this problem. Let me tell you about them.

This is Tristan, a juvenile beardie who is slowly learning to control his limbs enough to chase food. It's sweet and tragic at the same time to watch him. He's come a LONG way with my rescue partner who has him swim in the bath to gain arm & leg strength.  It's hard to say how much more he will grow.


This is Harry. He was "Found" in a neighborhood near here. When we watched him walk, we realized there was NO way that he escaped. He had to have been dumped. Poor thing. He's really struggling to walk. We have to tong feed him so he can catch the roaches. :(  He is fully grown, but because we have no history, we don't know if he has always had spastic muscles or if he recently developed it.




Eventually, we will be looking for special homes for these two. They will always need a great deal of care because of their muscles, including handfeeding. I suspect they will have shortened lifespans if their conditions continue to deteriorate. If you are interested in adopting a very special needs dragon, please contact me using the form to the right side of my blog. I can discuss the possibility with you.






Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Dragon Made It!!!


He doesn't seem to be too affected by the trip. That's his usual "Grumpy Face." 


Clack is still looking for his forever home. He is positive for Adenovirus so he can only go to a home without other beardies. Let me know if you're interested. I'm able to ship overnight within the continental US only.