Remembering Simba

Simba's owner had me cremate him and paid me back for it. His little box of ashes came back today. 

Brought a few tears to my eyes. 

Sweet Simba

Fly high, sweet boy! You have so many "fans" who prayed for you and wished you well. You were such a fighter! Now your soul can be free and happy. 

You will be loved forever! 

Bad News for Simba

Simba's blood work was worse than before. :(

Now I have to decide what to do next. My vet could do an exploratory surgery to see if there's something obviously wrong and take a liver biopsy. The surgery will be $500+ and there's a chance he won't survive it. Or that we still can't fix him. 

The other option is to let him go. :( My vet can euthanize him as I hold him and we let him be free of his sickly body. 

Crummy. Crummy. Crummy. :( 

Sad & Sick Simba

Poor Simba hasn't looked so good lately. :(  He was doing pretty good until about a week ago. 

I'm taking him back to the vet tomorrow and we will repeat his blood tests to see if there's been any improvement with him being on antibiotics for the past 3 weeks. 

He's still able to drink on his own, but he doesn't eat. Or move much. 

On sunny days, I put him in my windows to bask. He loves it. 

If his bloodwork is the same or worse, I think it will be time to make that terrible decision to let him go, to stop his suffering. :( 

If there's an improvement then we'll keep on keeping on for now. Maybe we can add in an additional antibiotic or something. 

Random Pics from this Week

I have three times as many pics of my critters than I do of my kids. Mostly because my kids hate pics and run away!

Here's some pics from the last few days. 

Lucky was having his own dance party-- 

Heidi was sunbathing--

Lil Foot was trying to hide--

Pixie actually let me take a pic-- 

My dog is adorable-- 

Simba got a lot of sun time today-- 

Fred is modeling my new line of snake hats-- 

I bought a 4 foot stuffed giraffe at my favor gut thrift store. It fits perfectly in my zoo! 

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

It's not such a good day for Simba. :( 

His belly is hurting him again. Whatever is wrong is in his guts. We just don't know what. 

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. I may go back to giving him saline injections so he's hydrated without having food in his belly. 

Simba & Smaug at the Vet

On my way to the vet this morning, driving through high wind and blowing snow, I saw a transformer explode a half mile down the road from my vet's office. It took out the power in the entire neighborhood and I got to have my appointment by the light of a work lamp powered by a generator.

Simba looks much better and is more alert. I'll keep doing what I'm doing with him until next week when we retest his blood. Hopefully he'll continue to improve! 

Smaug was in a mood! He was angry at everything and stayed puffed up and hissing through the visit. 

Dr Folland quickly snipped off the dead part of his tail, put a dab of superglue on the end, and it was done. He didn't even flinch once and there wasn't any blood. 

That's also where I picked up the water turtle. Pay for 2 appointments, get an RES free! ;) 

Beautiful -- Active-- Boy

Simba woke up this morning more alert and active than I've ever seen him. He's been following me with his eyes and moving around his tank. He had a normal poop with no blood and a nice drink. 

I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I am!! 

Easy Peasy..... Or Not So Much

The last few rescues were supposed to be "easy." 

Uh huh. 

After 3+ years of rescue, I should know that anything that's "easy" is guaranteed to be not. Like this post-- I wrote it this morning and right before it posted, Blogger froze and I lost the entire thing. Ugh! Irony! This is my 2nd rewrite. 

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Spike the 3rd-- 

He was healthy and friendly, right? 

Nope. He hid under the paper towels for two days straight and he pooped, it had quite a bit of blood in it. Now I'm waiting for his next poop so I can do a fecal test. 

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Fatty Patty--

This girl was supposed to be at her new home already. She is a B.R.A.T.!! I can't even touch her. I'm so busy with my Etsy shop and the sicklies that I've just been letting her chill. 

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Lucky--

This little guy went from a friendly (?) little guy to a monster. And he's taken to hiding in his hide all the time. And he won't eat on his own. 

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Jessie-- 

This girl has discovered her independence and her love of food. She hates being held and is happiest being left alone. She has an adoption pending but the owner doesn't quite have enough money yet. 

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Smaug-- 

He was supposed to be wild and difficult. He was a spaz for two days and then calmed down. I discovered two infected cuts on the tip of his tail that have become necrotic (dying). He'll have to have about a half inch of his tail amputated on Monday. Maybe that will make him happier. 

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The rest--- 

Dragon-- His bones are still rubbery and he won't eat on his own and he hides all the time. :(  He's not doing well. 

Simba-- Poor guy is hanging in there. He has a vet check on Monday. We'll see if he's improved any. I don't want to prolong his suffering, but I don't want to give up on him. 

Peanut-- His adoption is all set up but it's  too cold to ship him out of state. 

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So I have 12 beardies. 6 are permanent; the others can't be adopted or shipped. 

Easy peasy? Not so much 

Beautiful Boy

John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy" song plays in my mind when I look at this pic.

Simba is still hanging on. He's keeping his food down and pooping normally with very little blood. 

So at least for today, he looks good. 

Simba at the Vet, part 2

Simba's blood work came back and the results were very dismal. All signs point to some massive internal problem, severe anemia, and an extremely high glucose rate. Plus, his white cell blood count is very elevated and showing signs of toxic mutations (like Sami had). 

The prognosis for him is not good at all. 

I've already started him on antibiotics and will continue that. Dr Folland and I decided I'd continue to provide supportive care for the next week to see how he does. We'll reassess him on Monday. 

Simba is so weak that the blood draw exhausted him. He looks very very bad tonight. It hurts my heart. 

Phooey. Poor baby. My heart is heavy tonight. 

Simba at the Vet, part 1

This little guy is making slow progress. He got 4 days of saline injections to rehydrate him along with an anti-coccidia med. I also started him on antibiotic shots and small amounts of baby good sweet potatoes. 

Today I'm taking him back to the vet so we can figure out what's going on. 

We just went to the vet to get his blood drawn so the results be ready for this afternoon's appointment. 

It was nice to see his beard black because he was mad and not because he's sickly. 

On the way home, I let him perch on my shoulder in the sun. He loved that. 

The vet & his staff all know that most of my beardies are carried in. They are usually wrapped in a blankie and tucked into my shirt. If they are really sick, I'll carry them in a box. Otherwise, my shirt is the perfect carrying case. :) 

Simba, rescue 114

Simba hasn't gotten any better or gotten any worse in the past week and so his owner had her brother bring him up to me today. It was a 4 hour drive and I got him and drove him immediately to my vet.

The good news is that Simba's belly is soft and he's not constipated like we feared. The bad news is that he's super dehydrated. 

I'm going to spend the next 3 days getting him hydrated and trying to get enough of a poop sample to run a decal test on him. 

On Monday, I'll take Simba back in and we'll reassess how he's doing. We need to figure out why he's got diarrhea and fix that. Luckily, he's got fat pads in reserve so we don't have to stress too much about his weight. 

Hydration, fecal test, and then maybe a blood test to find out what's going on. 

Simba's sleeping now since he had a hard day. He got his saline injection and now he's back in his tank on his comfy blankies. 

Here he is going on a walk about at the vet. :) Overall Dr Folland felt very good about his prognosis and his current condition. 

Hooray!!! 

Saving Simba

About a year and a half ago, I ran an ad on our local classifieds saying I'd take in sick or unwanted beardies or answer questions. I ended up getting a text from Maria, a lady who lives in my same state but 4 hours away. I helped her as she tried desperately to save the life of a tiny baby beardie. We got to talking frequently.

Eventually the little baby had a severe hemorrhage and started bleeding out of his nose and mouth. He died shortly after that. It was so tragic. Maria and I mourned together. 

Two weeks ago Maria texted me again (I love doing "text" support!) because she was concerned her boy Simba hadn't pooped. I gave her some suggestions and told not to worry too much. He looked okay and was probably just trying to bruminate. Unfortunately, her local vets are not good with reptiles. 

Two nights ago, she found blood on his reptile carpet. Last night, she sent me this picture: 

I could tell immediately Simba was in distress-- the black beard and flat eyebrows. Through texting, I walked her the process of giving him an enema. The result was what I expected-- more blood. 

And then Simba's beard got really black and he was really lethargic. At that point, I was in tears. I told Maria I had lost two that day and was heartbroken to think she might lose her's too. I recommended she put him to bed in a warm tank and asked her to let me know how he was doing in the morning. 

I was SO relieved when I got this pic this morning-- 

He made it through the night! I was almost in tears again. I had her give him some Pedialyte to hydrate him. Now the goal was to find a reptile vet. It seemed very likely he was constipated and that the blockage was causing a bowel perforation. Beardies can develop such large urate plugs (they look like pieces of chalk) that it's hard for them to pass them out through their vents without ripping the tissues & bleeding. Bowel perforations can cause internal bleeding which leads to death within a matter of days. :( 

Maria found a reptile vet just over an hour away and off they went. 

The vet was able to give Simba medicine to help him poop and calm his tummy down. If he's not able to poop soon, they'll follow up with an x-Ray and possibly bloodwork. But overall, Simba is doing better than we thought. 

I was SO SO happy to hear that. He's not totally out of the woods yet, but he's got the help he needs now. 

Plus it helped me realize I need to be a little bit more serious about helping my big boy Max poop soon. He hadn't pooped when he decide to bruminate a few weeks ago. I don't want to risk him causing bowel perforations himself. His belly is soft but I can feel the urate stone with my fingers. That's tomorrow's goal-- to get Max to poop. :) 

This is Max. He ate two raspberries today and was quite happy with them. 

Regular pooping is important for bearded dragons and "regular" is different for each beardie. I have every day poopers and every other day poopers and once a week poopers. I've had poop painters which are the worst!! You just need to know what's normal for your guys. 

Also remember that in the winter, most beardies eat and poop less. That's totally normal. But if you know your beardie and know what he's like, then like Maria you will know when he is not normal and you can intervene.