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.