Skye's Stitches are Out!

I forgot to post these pics from Monday. 

She lost quite a bit of weight when she had her eggs removed, but has gained all but 4 grams back. Skye prefers to be chubby! 

Her stitches- 

She was not amused by the stitch removal. 

Skye is an incredibly mellow beardie. I think she'll be a great "Emotional Support" lizard. 

Vet Visit

I think maybe I should have a permanent Monday morning opening since I'm pretty much always here. ;) 

Today Skye's tummy stitches are coming out. 

And Baby Foot has an open wound on his leg where his shell scrapes against it. I think we'll just need to file the edges down. 

Hopefully it will be a cheap and easy visit. 

Beardie Roll Call

Skye-- basking like a Queen

Katy-- healthy and ready to go home

Nova-- really not well  :( 

Dragon-- the cutest thing ever

Nubs- Fear him! He's adorable! 

Smaug-- looking SO much better 

Max- not amused with the picture 

Ziggy-- very up close & personal 

Tiger-- about to shed his milk mustache

Gen- gorgeous girl 

Clack-- still not well 

Update on Click & Clack

When I got these two last weekend, I was pretty sure that Click would take longer to heal than Clack. This week has proven me wrong. 

Click has be in active and alert. He's even got a little belly. He's not really into being held because he prefers to run around and explore. 

Clack has become really mellow and not interested in eating. He's discovered he LOVES being swaddled in his new blankie. :(  Not sure what's going on with him. 

They are in my bedroom with my other babies and Skye & Katy. It's my sick room & nursery.

Top shelf-- left to right-- Click, Dragon, Remy. 

Bottom shelf-- left to right-- Clack, Skye

Off to the left out of sight-- Katy. 

Sicklies Update

Skye is doing great. It's been a week since she had her egg follicles and oviducts removed. 

Clack is doing great. I have had few concerns about him. 

Click is still struggling. I've been feeding him baby food squash with very little protein. Tonight I gave him a saline shot so he has some extra hydration in his body. He's not bad, but it will be awhile before he's healthy. 

Katy has had a few up times, but is mostly pretty still. She looks a little better. Her skin is so thin and fragile that it's hard to give her saline injections. She finished her first deworming treatments and has had 3 antibiotic shots. It still is unknown if we'll be able to improve her kidney functions enough for her to go home. 

Skye's Surgery

Skye had surgery today to remove her undeveloped eggs (technically called "ovum") and to remove her ovaries and oviduct. This same surgery happened to Fat Lucy last July but I had foot surgery that day and couldn't watch. Today I got to watch. 

Skye did NOT like being weighed. Or poked. Or moved. ;) She just wanted to stay all wrapped up in her blankie. 

It took awhile to get her to go to sleep. 

After about 15 minutes, she appeared to be out. 

The actual surgery took 20 minutes. And, no, I won't post close up pics. 

I cannot believe how many egg sacks she had in her. No wonder she was huge. Each ovary had a cluster of 20+ ovum attached. Normally the ovum would form and then drop down into the oviduct. For some unknown reason, Skye's body collected the ovum around her ovaries. They would have stayed stuck there until they started to decompose. The rotting ovum eventually would create a toxic infection that would kill her off. 

Often, the only way to tell a female beardie is plugging up with undeveloped eggs is that they stop eating. Fatty Lucy went to the vet for a respiratory infection and that's when Dr Folland discovered the lumps in her belly and did an X-ray. Fatty Lucy had as many ovum but some of hers had started to rot. 

Here's Skye's "eggs." They are all perfectly healthy. I can see why she weighed 600 grams before surgery! 

I asked my vet a TON of questions about eggs, etc. as he operated. I will, in the next day or two, write a blog post on bearded dragon eggs. 

Skye's previous owner was so upset to learn Skye had eggs and needed them out. I told her there was no way she could have known. I didn't know about it before I rescued Fatty Lucy and took her to the vet-- and I didn't even take her because she was fat! She went for a check up because of an upper respiratory infection! Without that reason to be seen, I never would have known. 

But I will say this-- Dr Folland says the biggest symptom of becoming egg bound like this is not eating. Skye was also really fat and bloated. 

More egg info soon! Promise!

Skye is home now. I can tell her belly hurts. She's on a good pain medicine and will be for the next 10 days. I think she will feel so much better without all that in her! 

She's in a soft sick tank so she won't hurt her belly. 

I expect her to be up and moving around in the next few days. 

Skye's Tag-Along Visit

Skye is one of my newer beardies and, quite possibly, is the fattest beardie I have ever seen. When I felt her belly, it appeared that she had eggs inside, but I wasn't sure. Since I was going to the vet anyways, I figured she could go along.

Dr Folland couldn't tell exactly either and so he did a quick ultrasound on her. Yep. Eggs-- technically, they are ovum because they are undeveloped eggs. And they are "stuck" way up high in her belly. 

Skye will go in on Monday to have the eggs surgically removed and to be spayed. Since we know she produces ovum and we know she doesn't lay them, the chances are high she will do this again and again. 

Fat Lucy had the same surgery in July. Dr Folland removed over 30 egg follicles from her belly, some of which were infected. 

See? They never fully developed and could never pass out of her body. 

Miss Skye will feel MUCH better and be less fatty once those ovum are gone. It will be a fairly quick recovery too. 

Stormy & Skye

Stormy-- 

Skye-- 

Stormy & Skye, 124 & 125

These two were surrendered to me by their very tearful owner. I can't really call them rescues because they are in excellent health. They'll be here with me for awhile. :) 

Stormy-- (was Shorty) 

Skye-- 

I'll take close up pics tomorrow. In still letting them get settled in and adjusted to their new set ups.