A Day in the Life of My Zoo

There's a program in the Mormon church where church members are assigned people/families to visit/check in with each month. Men are called "Home Teachers" and women are "Visiting Teachers."

We have a new Home Teacher that we adore! But he comes from a 100% non-pet home. He and his companion teacher came over last night and walked past an open cage with a 20 pound tegu lizard in it, past 6 tanks with 2 pound lizards and a 4 pound snake, and sat in the living room where our two dogs played with each other and our friendly tortoise Otis wandered around. I had to pop up every often to make sure Otis wasn't "visiting" Kreature, the tegu, resulting in a bloody bite. And I was baking cupcakes. And letting the dogs in and out- like 4 times.

You know, just a normal day in our "Zoo." (Seriously, we were just happy that nothing was "mating" with something else- that is a successful visit in our book.)

Our friend sat in the rocking chair with a look of amused bewilderment on his face. Poor petless guy. ;) It was cute and amusing to watch. Our other friend has dogs so it doesn't seem to phase him.

#welcometothezoo #becarefulwhereyoustep

Fierce!

The owner warned me that Neville was "aggressive." 

Can you tell? 

My Fatty Boy is Back!

Here's some good news--

my fatty boy Kreature, the Argentinian black and white tegu, came back today. I am so happy to see him. My rescue brother & I share custody and it's my turn. ;) 

He was asleep the whole time he was with Joe and got woken up for the ride here. Now I can see if he wants to play with me. I doubt it, but it's fun to dream of him.

Sweet Lobo

Sweet Mr Lobo had a colossal seizure about a half hour ago and died. I found him on his back and righted him. A few minutes later when I checked on him, his mouth was open and his eyes were glazed.

Too little care, too late. :(

Sorry, Sweet boy. Run free now. Find your angel wings and fly high.

Over the First Hurdle

I admit I was SHOCKED to find poor Mr Lobo alive when I returned to the vet at 2 pm. He had moved from his spot where I left him and had pooped out a nasty dry poop with thick, sticky urates.

I brought him home and put him in a sick tank.

His pupils are dilated and he is off-center when he walks. :( His prognosis is still very, very poor. I'll continue with supportive care and fluids through the weekend. I have a vet appointment already scheduled for Monday afternoon and, if he makes it, Lobo will come with me then.

It's ironic because I woke up this morning thinking that it had been awhile since I had been on "Death Watch" with a beardie-- that uncertain time when I end up checking for breathing at night and in the morning. Well, here I am.

I'll keep you posted.

The Agony of Knowing when to Try and when to Let Go

My vet, Dr Echols, had the Parrish Creek clinic secretary call me this morning. A bearded dragon was brought in for an appointment this morning in very bad shape. The owners were willing to surrender it, but I was willing to try to save him?

I drove over to the vet after quickly getting ready to go. Honestly, the whole time I drove, I prayed that I would know what to do-- to try or to let go. I prayed to know if the beardie had what it took to make it or if the kindest thing would be to let him go.

Lobo was in BAD shape. It broke my heart to look at him.

I did my basic "life check" tests on him. I gently turned him over on his back, I offered him water, I felt his belly. He didn't like me messing with his plugged femoral pores or trying to pry his mouth open. His bursts of spunk reassured me that he wasn't all the way dead. 

I had a quick consultation with Dr Echols and we decided I'd try through the weekend. Yes, Lobo was bad, but there were some signs of movement. The big unknown factor, as always, is his kidneys. Have they shut down? Are they still working? The stress of drawing blood would have been too much for him so we had to move forward without that information.

I warmed up my corn bag and got Lobo ready to transport home. Once he was in my carrier, I noticed he did not look even a tiny bit lifelike. I pulled him back out and gently flipped him over (the easiest way to check for death). Lobo did not move. His head flipped back and he lay unresponsive. One of techs put the doppler probe on him and we detected a heart beat still. That was when Lobo decided to move himself upright.

Crystal, one of my favorite techs, gave Lobo a saline shot and we put him back into a warmed up brooder. The stress of taking him home surely would have killed him. We decided to leave him to sleep in the brooder until later this afternoon. That would give his body time to assimilate the saline injected directly into his abdominal cavity.

I don't expect to find Lobo alive when I return at 2. I think he made it fairly clear that he is ready to be done with life. :( He is yet another example of "Too Little, Too Late." Poor diet, inadequate care, no handling, no UVB, zero research on care-- I don't know if it even matters if one of these reasons is how he got this bad. There are always lots of reasons & justifications. In the end, it usually results in a death.

Pets MUST be a DAILY thing. Daily checking on a pet helps you learn what behavior is and is not normal. Check the temperatures. Check for poop (or lack of poop). Check for movement. Check for alertness and movement. Check for clean water in the cage. Check. Check. Check.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard "He/she/it was fine last week."

Um, no.

This level of neglect does NOT happen overnight. EVER. But if you aren't checking daily, you are missing the subtle ways your animal -- especially your reptile-- is trying to communicate with you.

Through his eyes, through his movements, through his poop, through his aggression, through his coloring, through his sleeping position-- your pet is trying to communicate!

Are you listening?? 

Snake Leggings

One of my best friends from college, Laura, just opened a LulaRoe shop on Facebook and sent me a message asking me if I'd like to join her site. I haven't actually worn leggings since the 1990's when I was in high school. I said sure! (especially since she asked me instead of just adding me). When she asked if there was a particular type of legging I'd like to look at, I randomly asked her if she had any leggings with snakes or lizards.

This girl delivered!!! I did not think she could!

She networked through other LulaRoe consultants until she found them for me. :) Score! And she beat out someone else who wanted them. Double score!


They are adorable and I can't wait to wear them.

Yesterday she showed me hedgehog leggings for Valentine's Day! :O They are super cute too!

Anyways, if you would like a chance to look at LulaRoe leggings & outfits, check out Laura's link HERE on Facebook. Click on the link and hit the "Join Group" button. She's amazing and I'm blessed to call her one of my besties. Tell her "The Beardie Lady" sent you.

Neville in the Window

One of my favorite things about rescue is giving beardies a new & happy experience. Today I put Neville in a sunny window. I bet that this was the first time he has ever been in a sunny window.

And he loved it.

We are all dreaming about spring & summer arriving when all the critters can go back outside.

Ziggy, Before & After

I came across the first picture I ever saw of my boy Ziggy. I found him on a local classified ad for sale for $25. His picture didn't convince anybody else to buy him. But his picture spoke to me.

Look at his tail-- it was SO swollen that the scales weren't even touching each other. :( No wonder he was mad and feisty. He was in major pain. A friend of mine went and picked up Ziggy and brought him to me. His tail had obviously been chomped off by another beardie, was left untreated, and had gotten seriously infected. The tissue was dead.

The original owner of Ziggy had built an outdoor greenhouse and finished it off by adding 6 bearded dragons that he brought up from the Las Vegas area. The six beardies were left largely alone in the greenhouse and soon became over 36 beardies. All the other beardies were sold except Ziggy. No one wanted him and he was the last one to leave.

Ziggy went to my vet where he had just over an inch of his tail amputated. He also had to have a finger removed because it had been bitten off and died. Because Ziggy was basically raised as a wild beardie until he was between a year or two (the owner had no idea how old any of the beardies were because he didn't know when the eggs had hatched), he did not like people. 

To this day, Ziggy is my least friendly beardie. He's not mean at all; he's just very much a loner. He likes his tank where it's at, with all the pieces in the same place, and he doesn't want a blankie or hammock or to be held or pet. I once tried to move him to a tank by a sunny window area. He was so stressed out by the move that I moved him back to his original tank area within 24 hours. 

Ziggy will stay with me for the rest of his life. He wouldn't be an easy one to adopt out since he avoids human interactions. He's fine here, and I don't mind taking care of him. Sometimes I pet his head and he will tolerate it for two or three strokes. After that, he shakes his head or moves away. It's okay. We have an understanding that he needs very little from me to be happy. And I'm totally okay with that. 

Plus, he's pretty adorable, if I do say so myself. :)

Kiwi and Noel at the Vet

On Monday, I took Noel and Kiwi back to the vet for checkups.

Kiwi still has soft bones from the MBD but is making progress. She has put on some weight (thankfully since I'm still tube feeding her everyday). Dr Folland gave her another shot of calcium and another shot of Calcitonin (a steroid that helps pull calcium back into bones). He thinks she'll be good in the long run. Her back legs are still very rubbery and she has little to no control over them. That should change as they become firmer and she gains strength.

Eventually, Kiwi will be shipped to my friend in California who adopted Newt and Akime & Lotus and Hazel and my baby tortoises. It's a chameleon rescue that I absolutely adore! Kiwi will be given a specially made "handicapped" play stand that she can be on indoors and outdoors. California sunshine is a great cure for MBD.

She will go back for another check up in a month or so to see how she's doing. It will be March or April before it's warm enough to ship her. That gives me lots of time to get her strong again.

Noel was 62 grams when I rescued him right before Christmas. On Monday, he was 95 grams. He is doing SO much better. They took an x-ray to see what is in his belly and didn't find any hard substrate. For some reason, he has a soft tissue mass in his belly. But we are going to leave it alone for now and watch it.

Noel is finally starting to shed and has the most beautiful yellow coloring starting to show through. His beard is streaked with yellow instead of that crap brown staining. I'm so excited for his body to fully shed so I can see how beautiful he is.

This little guy has so much spunk and personality! He LOVES food, but hates when roach legs touch his mouth (he spits them out). He loves to be held but he can't hold still. He likes to stand up on his two back legs to try to catch food (I keep trying to take a pic, but he doesn't hold still for me). He's spunky and attacks the syringe when I feed him Critical Care (for extra calories). He LOVES that syringe! It's funny to watch.

"Come at me, Bro!"

Baby Raptor has started sleeping standing up in a corner. Last night, he looked like a tiny little thug trying to take on the world! 

From another angle, he looked like he was practicing ballet. 

Baby beardies are frequently odd sleepers. It's fun to watch them and wonder how on earth they can sleep standing up. 

Gen at the Vet

I took Gen, my only female beardie, in today to make sure she was healthy and didn't have any eggs. She was mellow the whole time from the ride there to the exam to driving home. She just sat in her box and watched everything.

I've been regulating Gen's diet since last September to help her lose weight. Apparently, it didn't work because she has put on 100 grams since then! Whoops! She was 652 grams on 9/28/16; she was 758 grams today. The vet asked "How's her activity level?" Um, she's a slug. "How's her appetite?" She goes crazy when she sees food.

Time to break out the beardie treadmill and play "Eye of the Tiger" for her on my iPod! ;)

Gen is a BIG girl. Which is hard to believe because her rescuer (a good friend of mine) force fed her as a baby for the first 3 months of her life. It took a lot of convincing & stress & coaxing to get Gen to live. The vet was surprised to hear that since she obviously is very healthy now.

You can see how long Gen is so she's not morbidly obese or anything. She's just a big girl! And there are no eggs! Dr Folland thought at first he felt an egg, but it was merely a fat pad that was floating in her belly. She has quite a few fat pads. :)

One of the reasons I had Gen checked today is that I have someone coming to meet her tonight. With her being my only female, I am very protective of her at my house. Her presence makes all my male beardies go CRAZY! And the presence of hormonal males will make her more likely to lay eggs. So I don't let her out much. If she is the only beardie and gets a ton of attention, I think she'll slim down some and be more happy. My house is good, but I'm not so arrogant that I think my house is the ONLY good one. Gen is a great beardie and I adore her, but I realize she's one of 10 here (3 of which require daily force feedings) and there's not a lot of time & attention for her.

Gorgeous, huh? Not too bad for a "Failure to Thrive" beardie who has asymptomatic adenovirus too.

Helping Rescues

Sometimes I will help someone with their sickly bearded dragon with the goal of reunification instead of surrender. I have been helping two of those in the past week/month.

Lilly had the start of MBD and hurt her back. I've been helping get her calcium back up and watching to make sure her injury didn't cause bigger problems. Lilly has done great and yesterday she went home. Her owners are thrilled to have her home and they reimbursed me for my costs and the supplies I sent home with them.

I'm always happy to teach owners how to be better owners. Lilly is a cutie too. She will be fine now even if she doesn't actually ever get much bigger or always has a bit of a bump on her back.

I'm also trying to save Baby Raptor, a "fancy" bearded dragon baby from a national chain pet store. He's definitely a "Failure to Thrive" baby and I'm not sure if he's going to pull through or not. I force feed him twice a day and he has more energy to fight my tiny syringe. He's pooping normally and moves around to regulate his heat. He's just so TINY!

I wish I could get him to eat on his own again, but so far he's not interested. I just will keep doing what I'm doing until he either starts eating on his own or his body shuts down and he dies. If he survives, he has a family at home who is anxious to have him come home. I offered to take him because I've got so much more experience feeding tiny babies. He's the size of the Color Babies I tried to save a couple years ago.

Eye Bulging

It's pretty normal for some reptiles to "bulge" their eyes out. They have a little blood vessel flap they can open that releases blood into their eye sockets, forcing their eyes to push out into their eye lids. When they are done, the little flap opens again and the blood returns to the vessel.

The first time you see eye bulging, you might be creeped out. It looks like their eyes are going to explode.

I've seen it on bearded dragons, chameleons, and iguanas.

They do it if their eyes are itchy or if their skin is shedding or if there is something in their eyes or if they are bored or whatever. My beardie rescue Dory had a malfunction with the blood vessel flap behind one eye and so her eye was perpetually swollen. Turbo, my sweetheart iguana, developed an aneurysm behind one of his eyes and it was a mess every time he rubbed the eye and it ruptured. That poor iguana lost SO much blood. He eventually had to have is eye removed because it had died after being shoved up into his eyelid for so long.

So next time you see your beardie (or iguana or chameleon) and it looks like their eyes are going to bulge out of their heads, don't panic. It's totally normal. :)

Sweet Hermy

Today I say goodbye to my oldest and most wonderful pet-- my desert tortoise Hermy.

We got Hermy in May 2008 and she has been a delightful addition to our family. We suspect she's between 50 and 80 years old.

Poor Hermy has been very sick with a nasty respiratory infection that hasn't responded to 4 courses of antibiotics. Plus she has a massive urate (bladder) stone and an undefinable mass in her belly. She had a near death experience a couple summers ago where she got herself flipped over on her back in the middle of a hot summer day on our concrete pad out back and she's never been the same since. 

It's time to let my sweet girl go.

Rest in peace, Sweet Hermy. I'll love you forever. 

Hammocks!

My friend Mary has been sewing hammocks for me to sell in my Etsy shop and they are SO soft. Today I added two more hammocks to my tanks-- one for Smaug and one for Neville. Dash & Noel have their hammocks already.

 Smaug on his chevron print:

Neville on his brown hammock:

Dash hardly moves out of his. He's been very happy to lounge on his all day & all night.

I think I'm going to try giving one to Max and Tiger too. They are super soft and machine washable. It's one of the best things in my shop.

Click HERE for more info.

Update on Gumby

Gumby is my poor little Leopard Gecko with severe MBD. His bones were RUBBER when we first rescued him. It was tragic-- and 100% preventable!

Gumby just shed two days ago and did it all on his own! That's fantastic news for him. He was able to pull off all the shed off his toes too except one toe I helped him with. His bones are getting really strong too and he's eating much better.

Pictures don't seem to really show how distorted Gumby's body is now. He has several spinal lumps on his back and he walks on his elbows. His wrists and ankles are folded flat against his arms. He's very pathetic looking. He does get around though and he's fast when he wants to get away from me! Gumby will just always be a very special Leo.

Poor Broken Kiwi

While I had the flu, my husband took Kiwi the chameleon and Baby Sawyer to the vet and dropped them off for me.

Kiwi's assessment was bad. :( She has severe Metabolic Bone Disease which has caused multiple long, lateral fractures in her arms and legs. She has limited mobility currently because her legs are so broken. Poor baby! Because her bones are so empty of calcium, every climb and movement broke them further.

Kiwi got a shot of calcium and a shot of Calcitonin (a miracle med that helps pull calcium back into the bones). The vet also measured a tube for her so we can tube feed her nutrition daily.

Here at my house, Kiwi is in a 10 gallon tank. I had her in a screen cage, but she wouldn't stop climbing the walls. She mostly just sits on her belly or side during the day. I'm sure it is almost impossible for her to walk without pain.

She has a long road of recovery ahead of her. It's going to take awhile for her bones to heal and for her calcium levels to become normal again. So far she's not eating on her own, so I'm still tube feeding her.

Her last owners provided a UVB light for her, but it was a coil bulb and not very effective. Young chameleons particularly need a high powered, quality bulb to help them metabolize calcium as they grow so much in the first year. Perhaps an adult chameleon with strong bones who is done growing would be okay with a coil UVB, but never a baby. Kiwi will be handicapped for the rest of her life and will not likely grow very big either.

Kiwi has really struggled the last few days and I've found myself wondering if we did the right thing by keeping her alive and trying to help her heal. I'll keep watching her and discussing her with my vet. If it becomes unkind or unfair to keep her alive, then I will let Dr Folland put her down. To force her to live because I want her to isn't humane at all. Without my intervention, she would have already died, but that doesn't mean I now have to keep her alive at any cost.

Poor Kiwi. :(

Sweet Baby Sawyer

I'm sad to report that Baby Sawyer didn't make it. His broken spine and paralyzed legs made it impossible for him to poop on his own and his belly got more and more bloated last week. My vet and I decided that the kindest thing to do was to put him down. :( 

My only regret was that I was sick at home with the flu and couldn't be there with him when he died.

Poor Baby Sawyer. Run free, Lil Man. 

Type A

It's official-- I have "Influenza Type A." It hit me hard on Monday night and I've felt like trash ever since then.

I had to have my hubby drop off my two sickest reptiles at the vet this morning since I couldn't get out of bed.

Will post updates soon.

Sweet Sunny

I'm sad to announce that Sunny, my wee little baby ball python who was recovering from surgery, died tonight. She was having a hard time pooping after the surgery (because she kept prolapsing, the vet surgically attached her intestines to the abdominal wall). She pooped shortly before she died and it appears her belly started bleeding inside.

Poor Sunny.

I'm sorry I couldn't do more to save you.

Just added! Valentine's Day Blankies!

I love Valentine's Day decorations! I love the pink & red & white & love & roses & bears and ALL of it! I love that it's my Mom's birthday (shh! don't tell her I told! ;) )

What could be better for your beardie than a Valentine's blankie??

Nothing!


So here's a new item just listed HERE:

Beware! He's Super Fierce & Ferocious!

Here is Neville who I was warned was "aggressive." ;) It must have been because he didn't have a blankie to snuggle in! 

I think beardies are as aggressive as we allow them to be. Neville huffed and puffed at me when I first got him, and I just laughed at him. When I reach into his tank, he puffs up and takes a defensive pose, and I laugh at him. When I hold him, he kind of thrashes around and I talk to him nicely and pet his head. The first time I held him, it took him two hours to relax enough to go sleep. The second time, he was asleep within minutes. Last night, as soon as I wrapped the blankie around him (shh, don't tell him it's a pink blankie for girls! ;) ), he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Changes for Kiwi

The stress of moving Kiwi and putting her into a bigger tank has really taken its toll on her. Poor baby has even worse coordination in her back legs than before. I feel so bad that I didn't start off putting her into a short, sick tank in the beginning.

I took her out of the tall Reptibreeze cage and put her into a small one with no climbing branches. This is the same thing I had to do with Newt years ago because his coordination was so bad.

While I was swapping out the cages, I had my girl hold Kiwi. Kiwi is super happy to just sit, curled up in a ball. It's very adorable, but very tragic. 

I added in a tiny bed that Newt used to love for her. She wasn't thrilled with it and tried to climb the mesh instead. At one point, she even reached out flailing with her front arm and latched on to her eyeball instead. It looked just like Newt! So sad! 

I've been chatting with my chameleon expert friends so I can get a better idea of what to do with Kiwi. Until today, she didn't seem that bad. Her legs were a little wobbly yesterday, but I thought she was okay. Today I can see how bad it is. Our guess is that she has poor coordination and mobility due to Metabolic Bone Disease and possibly some nutritional deficiencies. 

She's got a brand new Mercury Vapor bulb on her tank and today I gave her some carnivore Critical Care mixed with Repashy's Calcium Plus powder. I'll keep doing that every day for awhile so we can get her calcium levels back up. I may or may not take her to the vet this week. 

I know people think chameleons are cool, but they are HARD! Especially in Utah where it's so dry. I'm glad this little girl is with me now. I'll work my hardest to get her all better and then she'll go to my friend in California who has Lotus, Akime, and Hazel (the last female cham who I never named). California's climate is much better for chameleons than Utah's is.