New Phone App

My life has been more difficult since Blogger stopped updating their app for my iOS system and I can't blog from my phone! I end up doing most of my updates on Instagram and posting them to my rescue page on Facebook.

I bought BlogPress this morning, but it won't let me upload photos. Ugh!

So bare with me as I try to figure out how to blog from my phone.

If you want up to date info, follow me on Instagram and Facebook.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Baby Lolly

Yesterday, I adopted a baby red foot tortoise who is half blind. I've named her "Lolly" or "Baby Lolly." She's a doll, but has a genetic defect that made her eyes not work well. Poor thing! She eats and moves around great, but will always need special care to help get to her food, etc. 

8 Tortoises & Turtles

On Wednesday, I rescued 5 tortoises and 3 box turtles! 2 sulcatas, 1 cherry head/red foot, 1 Russian with an infected dog bite, 1 Greek tortoise, 2 3-toed box turtles, and 1 ornate box turtle. All of them have colds.

Yesterday I took the 3 boxies and the Russian to Idaho to give them to my friend who runs the Land Turtle & Tortoise Rescue.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

4 Geckos in One Night!

On Tuesday night, I took in 4 leopard geckos!! :O

3 of the 4 are healthy; one has severe MBD.

That brings my leopard gecko total up to 6!

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

An Update on the Wood Turtle

Come to find out the wood turtle I helped rescue last week is NOT a wood turtle.

Bruce is a very, very, very rare Jagged shell/Keeled shell box turtle. They originate from Asia and are extremely endangered! 

The rescue will get him all fixed up (he's got a skin fungus and some other issues) and then keep him. It makes me wonder what this guy's life journey has been.

For more info on Bruce, the Land Turtle & Tortoise rescue, or info on how to donate to Bruce's care, please CLICK HERE!

Another Enigma gecko, rescue 178

I have a baby leopard gecko now with *severe* Enigma syndrome. Because he's so young and gets stressed so easily, he is SPASTIC! He does the alligator death roll and can't walk straight or move forward. Poor thing.

Enigma syndrome is a neurological disorder caused by sloppy breeding practices. It's a genetic defect that can't be fixed or changed. The best we can do for him is get him into a stable environment where he feels secure and to limit his stress. He'll be going to my favorite leopard gecko foster home this week. She took my other Enigma leopard and has done great work with her.

Between baby leopard geckos struggling from stick tail disease, failure to thrive, and Enigma syndrome, it's becoming VERY hard to buy one from a national pet store chain that will actually survive to adulthood. :(

Click HERE to read a previous post about Enigma Syndrome.

Sweet Puddin' Pie

On Friday night, my latest baby Savvy Puddin' started throwing up coconut fiber. On Saturday morning, he threw up a huge chunk of it.

I gave him a saline injection to keep him hydrated and then I had to leave town for 24 hours. I had my husband checking on the baby every couple hours and he seemed to do okay.

Yesterday afternoon, I got home and found Baby Puddin's eyes were really sunk in. I gave him another shot of saline and then a bit of watered down Critical Care & calcium syrup.

He died about an hour later. :(

Poor Baby Savvy. I'm sorry I couldn't save you. I'm glad you were loved at the end.

Wood Turtle Rescue

Yesterday I picked up a wood turtle for a rescue friend of mine and got kissed by the most adorable baby goat ever!!

The wood turtle has had a really, really rough life. Poor little guy is so caked with dirt & dry skin that I couldn't even find his nostrils! :( Not a hot enough heat lamp, 4 inches of pebble rocks & river rocks in his tank, no UVB light, poor diet...... This guy is a survivor! and in BAD shape.

Today was sunny enough that I let him go outside in my baby tortoises' box. I highly doubt that he's ever been outside much. If ever.

He'll catch a dog transport tomorrow morning and head up to Idaho where the Land Turtle & Tortoise rescue is. My friend will have a big job ahead of her getting this guy healthy again.

Baby Puddin' Pie, rescue 177

Here's the tiny little Savannah monitor having some daily sunshine time. He wasn't too crazy about it, but it did make him run around like crazy! 

He's still being force fed Critical Care and he prefers to hide a lot. I'll try to offer him worms or roaches tomorrow to see if he'll start eating on his own.

Will you all Help me with Something? It will take 3 minutes or less.

I want my vets at Parrish Creek Vet to know how much we all love & appreciate them. I tell them they have an international following because of my blog, but I don't think they understand.

Will you take a couple minutes to thank them for their good care of Junior and my other critters. I can honestly say that many many beardies & reptiles across the world have benefitted from Drs Folland & Echols because I share what I learn from them as often as I can.

CLICK HERE! 

Just a quick note to let them know you are glad for what they did for Junior and while you are there, like their page too!

THANK YOU!! 

Junior's Legacy and Pet Store Rescues (?)

There are a couple of pet stores in Utah that have received in the last few weeks baby savannah monitors to sell along side bearded dragons, leopard geckos, and ball pythons. A recipe for disaster? YES!!!! Savvys and iguanas should NOT be sold as "run of the mill" or "normal" or "easy going" reptiles to beginners looking for impulse buys at the pet store. 

I've tried to follow the progress of the babies through reptile friends. Last night I received these pics of babies to the south of me (about 30 miles south). I took the two pics and combined them into one. That leaf thing in back is actually a baby in a separate tank! :O :( I know. 

Junior's death (not even a week old) still haunts me. I know that I did everything possible and then some, but I still wish.....

So this morning I went to check out the babies after I dropped my kids off at school. I almost always pray when I head out on rescues. I pray to know what to do and I pray that I can help the reptile if possible and I pray that I know when to "Break the Grip and walk away" if needed (that's a quote from Napolean Dynamite that I adore. 

It is SO easy to go into a pet store with guns blazing and mouth running and make a situation worse. It's SO easy to assume that the pet store employees are ignorant and unmanageable. I struggle to not stomp in and start throwing around hell-fires, big words, threats of social media shaming, etc. That's my inclination when something/someone needs rescue-- go in with your fighting pants on!

I am SO glad that I prayed before I walked in. I took a moment to walk around and find the babies. One was still in his tank, the other was missing. I didn't immediately find an employee so I took a potty break and then asked for help. After that, I asked for the store manager.

The second I saw her, I knew that taking the Honest approach would work best. And it did! Inspiration from on high, for sure. She & I connected immediately. I complimented on her on the niceness of the tanks and the setups (WAY better than my local pet store....grrr).  I explained who I was, why I was there, and what I wanted to do. She let me hold the sickest baby and admitted to me her deep concern over him. He's weak and not eating. She tries her best with the limits she has to force feed him and to keep him warmer in a sick tank in back. We watched the feisty other baby hunting crickets and trying to eat her fingers. I'm not worried about him at all. 

The sick one: 

The not so sick one - who worried me at first because he was in the same position as the pic I got last night, but I saw him running around. He just must like the view from there the best. 

The manager is AMAZING! I gave her my phone number and insisted multiple times that she could call me for any reason ever. She will call me if the not so sick one becomes sick and then I can go get him. But after watching him, I saw no need to immediately rescue him. 

Lil Buddy Savvy perked up as I carried him out to the van and held him up to the sun:

I let him sit in the sunshine on a warm corn bag while I got his tank ready.

And now he's in his tank where he can actually get hot enough to be happy. I think the pet store tank lacked a basking spot and he just couldn't get warm enough. It took me a few minutes to determine the height of the basking bulb; I finally got it to be 110 degrees in the central spot. When it was 120, he moved away quickly. As he gets healthier and bulks up, I'll increase the basking temp spot again. 

He's all settled in and I'll let him sleep for awhile before I try to give him some carnivore Critical Care formula which will be way better than the Reptiboost he had been getting. Reptiboost is OK, but Critical Care is MUCH better. Plus, he'll get daily sunshine time like Junior did. 

Some say there is NO such thing as a "Pet Store Rescue." When you get an animal in need, you are rescuing. That's it for me.

A NEW Etsy Adventure

I've expanded my Etsy career by creating a new shop!

Pampered Snakes 

This is where I will sell snake hats, snake bedding, snake emergency warming blankies, snake sacks, etc. I'm just getting it started, but I will continually be adding things. 

CLICK HERE to go to the shop!

An Empty Roll Call

My house is empty. My heart still feels a bit empty.

But it is sunny and I have my beardies in the windows and decided to take pics for a roll call. 

Ziggy

Norman

Flame

Max 

Milo 

Noel (will be available for adoption soon!)

Noodle, a foster corn snake 

Raptor (will be available for adoption soon!)

Not pictured (because I'm too lazy to walk around and try to take pics of them! ;) )-- 5 baby chickens, 1 hedgehog, 2 dogs, 4 tortoises (outside), 2 ball pythons, 1 crested gecko, a leopard gecko, and 1 box turtle (outside).

Sweet Tiger

Today I had decided to be brave and do what I've been putting off for weeks. I made an appointment to have our beloved pet beardie Tiger put down. He's been growing sicker and sicker and nothing we've tried has helped. Because he was adopted by my daughter, I hesitated to do it-- especially when I learned on her birthday that there was nothing else to try to make Tiger well. :(

Tiger has gotten really bad the last two days. And even though today has ended up being a super crappy day here, we decided we owed it to Tiger to stop his suffering.

I had hopes of putting up his first pic versus later and how we trained him to give us kisses and how he's been the best beardie ever. I'm not quite to the point of feeling numb, but I'm close. I can't do it. Two of my three kids have been crying over Tiger. So I'm crying for me because I am losing two in one day and I'm going to miss Tiger and I'm sad because my kids are losing another pet.

It's too much today.

Here's Sweet Tiger, wrapped in his Christmas blankie. Even though he feels terrible, he still had to bob his head at Ziggy. Silly Tiger. Fly high, my love!

There are no words...........................

I don't even know how to write this post. I can hardly even see the words on my screen. I went to feed Junior and found that he had died. 😭😭😭😭😭I'm sorry. I have no words. Thanks to all of you for everything. For loving him, for helping to pay for his chance, for praying for him. 💔💔💔💔 I'll need time. I'll be back. It will just be awhile so I can heal.

Junior's Back Home (and so am I!)

I picked up Junior from the vet today. He looks good and is much more active than last week. He has even started lifting up his body and walking on all 4 legs! :O Wow! He's not actively pooping which is a concern for us, but we'll watch that for now.

He's still being tube-fed daily, getting calcium syrup twice a day, is on antibiotic shots, has twice a day baths, and will also get as much direct sunshine time each day as I can get him (hopefully Utah's weather will cooperate).

Hopefully, he starts getting better & stronger now. Metabolic Bone Disease creates weakness in the muscles and since there are a lot of muscles in Junior's digestive tract, Dr Folland thinks Junior's gut muscles are too weak to poop normally.

Here Junior is in basking in the sunshine. He is very active and alert when he's outside. I love it!

A Crazy Time for a Vacation, but.....

My husband & I have been planning a vacation for months and it's finally here-- right in the middle of LOTS of chaos. Oy vay! This week has been beyond crazy, and I wasn't sure that I'd make it to today. Between Junior and now my little silkie beardie who wants to die on me, it's been hard to gear myself up for leaving!

I'll be adding updates of Junior as often as I can, but not as often on Blogger because the Blogger app no longer works on my iPhone. I will do the most updates on my rescue page on Facebook (CLICK HERE) and on my Instagram (CLICK HERE).

Luckily, I have great friends at the vet's office and can get frequent updates from them and an occasional picture. I also have a good friend who is taking care of my silkie beardie and my in-laws will be here to help my kids take care of my zoo. I am leaving all my critters in good hands and am looking forward to the break. Maybe I can even get caught up on some sleep!

Oh, and I'll be near a beach. How awesome is that?!?

I'll be sure to share a Vacation Slide show when I get back for you!

Sweet Silkie

This morning, my silkie baby appeared to be more dehydrated and in worse shape than before. Even though I've been giving her intramuscular injections of saline to help rehydrate her, her body has still been suffering.

I ran her over to my vets' office and had Dr Echols look at her. He found a particular spotting pattern on her belly that shows up when a reptile is septic, or fighting an infection. :(

I went with my gut feeling and decided to allow Dr Echols to put Silkie down. She's been declining very fast since Monday afternoon and it was time. :(

Sorry, Sweet Baby. Fly high!

Junior made it through the Night!

Just got off the phone with one of my favorite vet techs and Junior made it through the night. He's moving around some and will be tube fed later this morning. He's on pain meds, antibiotic shots, and calcium syrup. 

If he does well with one tube feeding a day, then they'll increase it to 2 feedings a day. He'll be at the vet's office for medical boarding through the next 4 days so he gets specialized care to help him recover.

Tonight's Update on Junior

Because my vet is awesome, he went back to the clinic tonight to check on Junior and sent me a text. :) 

I made bread today for my in-laws who are in town and took Dr Folland & his wife a loaf right out of the oven. After today, I owed him one! :D

Follow me on Instagram!

I've been doing a lot better at posting pics on Instagram lately. Are you on Instagram? Follow me there.

Click HERE.

Junior is in the Intensive Care Unit at the Vet

Right after I got off the phone with Dr Folland, Junior tried to die. :( He stopped breathing and his heart rate started to plummet. Thanks to the quick thinking of the staff and a little tube-to-mouth resuscitation by a tech, Junior started breathing again and his heart rate stabilized. I saw him in the ICU.

He's hooked up to a Doppler monitor so they can listen to his heartbeat and he has his head in a tube with a small amount of oxygen. They are waiting for him to wake up more and become responsive. So far he's not responding to any touch or pinching of his hands. :( Because of his Metabolic Bone Disease, he's not processing the anesthesia out of his body quickly. So they just have to keep watching him until he really wakes up.

Dr Folland said he'd let me know how Junior was doing later. I couldn't stay because I have family in town. I gave him some kisses, stroked his head softly, and told him to feel better.

Update on Junior

I FINALLY got to talk to the vet! Junior made it through surgery just fine. They are currently waiting for him to wake up.

He had a massive ball of coconut fiber trapped in his stomach that would not have moved on its own and was preventing him from absorbing much calcium or nutrition. They were able to remove that and flush out the rest of his digestive tract.

Tomorrow they will start tube feeding him Critical Care to build up his nutrition and give him high doses of calcium to help him get over his Metabolic Bone Disease. I'm having him medically boarded at the vet for the next 5 days to make sure he gets the highest level of care while he's recovering.

The next goal for his to start pooping normally. So keep praying for poop! :)

I'll go over there later this afternoon so I can take pics of him and say hello. I'll share them when I get them.

THANK YOU to all who have donated to his surgery fund! We are halfway there. THANK YOU!

We are still accepting donations HERE.

Only at my House

We have company in town and staying with us. I realized I needed to post a warning sign---

Junior at the Vet

This is when I had Junior loaded up for the vet and when I left him at the vet.

His surgery didn't start until after 1 pm (Utah time) and so I don't expect to hear back yet.