He did move around and open his eyes some while they were driving. That was a good sign that he was active once he warmed up.
The first thing I did was weigh him so I knew how many cc's of sterile saline to inject in him. 62 grams! SO tiny.
The second thing I did was offer him a drink in a warm bath. I held his head up because he didn't seem to want to. I dripped water on his nose and tickled his lips to get him to drink. It didn't work. Every so often-- especially when I touched his feet-- he would launch himself out of the bath. When he had his mouth open, I quickly dripped water into it. But it still didn't inspire him to drink on his own.
I pulled some dead lettuce out of the corner of his mouth. It still had some amount of spit on it which is a good sign that he's not totally dehydrated.
I gave him a saline injection into both of his upper shoulders. It made him look like he had shoulder pads! It's almost impossible to take a pic of that.
A saline injection between his muscles and skin will help rehydrate the cells of his body more quickly. I will give him one every 24 hours for the next 3 days before I offer him food. The primary focus for critically ill reptiles is always hydration. Once they are hydrated, their bodies can better tolerate food. Giving food (especially protein) to a critically ill bearded dragon is a sure way to kill them quickly.
Poor little Noel didn't even flinch when I put the needle into his back a couple times. :( His movements were all reactionary and largely involuntary. He was obviously in severe stress mode and not able to handle the changes.
While I was waiting for him to arrive, I set up Drake's old tank (completely sanitized, of course) for him. I put Noel onto a newly washed & warm hammock under a light.
Now we leave him alone and wait to see how much fight he has in him still. I will limit my interaction with him so he's less stressed. I will check on him frequently to make sure he's not dead. I call these "death checks" and I do them a lot with critically ill beardies (especially in the middle of the night). Tomorrow around 1 pm, I'll give him another saline injection and see how he does. Two doses of saline will help me know if his kidneys are still functioning or if they've shut down. If the malnutrition and dehydration have shut down his kidneys, then it is only a matter of time before he dies. There is no way to bring back dead kidneys. :(
He has a chance of survival if he can survive the stress of being moved today and if his body starts to process the fluid. But there's no way to know what chances of survival he has. It's just a wait and see thing. There's no other option.
This is the hard part of rescue. Waiting and wondering if you've done enough or if you're efforts qualify as "Too Little, Too Late."
I'll keep you posted.
