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.

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.

Fundraiser for Junior

Junior is still having surgery tomorrow (even though he pooped a bit today). He still has a grape sized mass in his belly that is obviously putting pressure on his digestive tract. I'm determined to give this little buddy every chance possible, but I need help with the vet bills. So as much as I hesitate to create a GoFundMe account, I did. 

Here is the link to his GoFundMe campaign: HELP JUNIOR 

Even if you can't donate, please share. :)

Update on Junior

I took my silkie baby beardie and Junior to the vet today. I managed to take only one blurry pic of Junior and nothing of the silkie (who Dr Folland said is "odd" by healthy).

Junior is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday. Dr Folland will remove the lump/mass/whatever in his digestive tract and clean him out. There is a risk that he won't survive the surgery, but, based on how spunky this little Savvy is, I think it's worth the risk. He's so much more active and alert than he was before. We just need his guts to move and they can't move when they are plugged.

Because his surgery is Wednesday and I'm leaving out of town on Thursday, I'm going to board Junior at the vet for the week that I'm gone. Between the boarding fees and the surgery, I'm looking at at least $900 for him. :( But I have to try. He has too much spunk to just put him down.

If you can zoom in on this pic, you can see the "Low End" Estimate and the "High End" Estimate. If he ends up doing well after surgery, I have the option to have a good friend (who knows Savvys take care of him and that will save me $$ per day).

I'm going to start a GoFundMe campaign for him tomorrow morning and hopefully that way I won't end up sticking it all on my credit card. He's developed quite a following on Instagram and I'll share the campaign then.

As I've said before, I take asking for money VERY seriously. I am always willing to provide copies of vet bills or let you call the office manager of my vet. I realize there are a lot of fake people out there collecting money for animals they will never treat. I want to make sure that anyone who donates to me KNOWS that their money is going to pay off a vet bill. It's for the animal.


For instance, here's today's vet bill:

Parrish Creek Vets' number is 801-298-2014. Anyone who answers the phone can verify that I am there at least once a week and pay all my bills off the same day. Feel free to ask if you'd like. Really! It won't offend me. My name is Sarah Southerland. :)

I'll post info tomorrow on the GoFundMe campaign. Even if I don't get the full amount, it's less that I have to put back on my credit card and that helps.

Thank you! And please KEEP praying for Junior.

An Update on Norman

Norman finally came out of his box today. He didn't really eat his scrambled eggs, but he did poop for me.

Until his hands & tail heal up, he'll be stuck in a 40 gallon tank with towels as a substrate. That way I can see if he's bleeding and there's nothing hard to tear at the stitches.

He huffed & puffed at me a little bit, but then stuck his tongue out at me to smell me. He kept shaking his one hand behind him. I'm guessing it's because it hurts so bad. Time to give him more pain meds. He was super nice with his old owner and even liked the owner's kids. I'm hoping that he'll go back to being nice and cuddly once his pain levels decrease.

Norman Post-Surgery

My vets ended up having to fully anesthetize Norman to be able to work him. Even after having him out for an hour and with several people working on him, they were not able to pick off all the dead skin and old shed off his hands & feet! Ultimately, he lost about 3 to 4 inches of his tail and 2 toes. There are a couple toes that may still fall off on their own or start to die, but they felt there was still a chance for them to recover. I'll still be soaking him and working on his toes when I can. 

For some reason, my camera did not want to focus for my pictures and the close ups of his hands and feet ended up blurry. :( 

His tail should regrow but it will always look a bit odd on the end.

So here starts the beginning of his recovery. He'll be in a sick tank until the sores on the bottoms of his feet & hands heal. He's also on pain meds to help him be less ouchy and grumpy.

The vet bill just for today came to just over $425. I think I may do a quick fundraiser to earn some extra cash for him. I have tanks I'm trying to sell, but am not having success so far. I'll keep you posted.

You can always donate to Norman's care through PayPal:

paypal.me/SarahsBeardieRescue

Update on Sunny

Sunny ended up having surgery to reattach her colon to her abdominal wall. 

She has an inch long incision above her vent. 

The success rate is usually about 75 to 85% and I'm hopeful she will be fine. 

Mater at the Vet

Mater is a recent rescue by one of my friends. He and his "girlfriend" lived together in the same tank since they were little. Both were surrendered with nasty bites on their tails. Yes, they bit each other's tails off. :( 

Mater's tail is the worst off. 

I've been coaching my friend how to do wound care for the past week, but when I saw the tails in person yesterday, I knew Mater needed immediate vet attention. 

In order for the tail to heal, Dr Folland decided to amputate about an inch to an inch & a half of it. That meant putting Mater all the way under and doing surgery. The other option was to do nothing and let the rot spread and slowly kill him. :( Luckily, there was room on the surgery schedule for Mater. 

He's in recovery now and I'll go pick him up at 4 pm. His owner will take him home tonight. He'll get pain meds for a week and stitches out in a month. I think he will feel SO much better now. There were nerve endings and tendons sticking out of his tail end! Ow! 

Here's a close up of his tail. It's gross. I apologize if it's too much. 

This is why adult beardies should NEVER EVER cohabitate!!!!!  

Lotus this Morning

She's up getting a drink. Walking pretty stiffly. She seriously lost half her body weight when they removed the mass of eggs and ovum. 

I'll give her some Critical Care today since she hasn't eaten for awhile. She'll also start pain meds and antibiotics. 

Drinking and moving are both really good signs. :) 

Poor Lotus

I picked up Lotus today. Poor baby. Her eyes are sunk in because she's stressed and in pain. 

Her belly looks ouchy! 

She's on her favorite rope perch. 

I'll start her pain meds and antibiotics in the morning and give her the night to relax. 

Lotus Surgery Update

My vet ended up doing surgery and found to a lot of undeveloped eggs that had gotten stuck in her ovaries-- they hadn't even dropped down to her oviducts. There's no way she ever could have laid them. If we had left them, they would have killed her. 

Several of them had started to decompose and so she'll be on an antibiotic for 3 weeks. I'll force feed her a couple times to build her strength back up. She weighs half of what she did before. 

There's no way to know why the eggs got stuck, but she's been spayed so she'll never have eggs again. Her first eggs were her last eggs. 

I'll go pick her up in an hour. 

Akime & Lotus back at the Vet

I took both chameleons back to the vet this morning for check ups.

Akime's arm has been wrapped for a week and looks great. Dr Folland put a specialized wrap on it that will help it stay moisturized and will heal quicker. She'll go back in for a checkup and wrap replacement (if necessary) in two to three weeks.

Lotus has not laid her eggs yet. That's not necessarily the problem though. The issue is that she isn't eating, won't dig, and is becoming more lethargic in her cage-- all signs of distress. Being egg-bound (where the eggs can't be laid) can kill a female chameleon within hours and I've been trying my best to avoid that.

We started off the visit by a physical exam (yes, the vet felt the eggs) and then an ultrasound (yes, the eggs are in there) and then an oxytocin shot to try to spur egg laying. I left her at the vet in a brooder because if the shot induced egg laying, it would have happened within a couple hours. Sadly today is the only day my favorite vet has to do surgery and so we decided to try the oxytocin and then do surgery if that didn't work.

Yeah- a $40 shot or a $500 surgery.

I hadn't heard anything yet, so I just called. No eggs.

Ugh.

I'll keep you posted.

Click Comes Back

Click was in my second set of beardies to be tested for adenovirus and I had planned to contact his owners when I got back from vacation. Randomly, they contacted me on the last day of my vacation. 

It turns out that Click has had a swollen leg and I insisted in he be seen by my vet. We wondered if perhaps Click had broken his leg somehow. 

Today I took Click in and an X ray showed a massive infection that had started to eat away at his bones. :( There was a fracture amid all the lysis (bone infection). There was only one option to save his life: amputation. 

Thanks to a cancellation, Dr Folland was able to operate today. And I got to watch! 

I watched as he did a necropsy on the leg too. There was a massive pocket of pus that would have never been removable. We don't know, though, if the 

fracture caused the infection or if the infection weakened the bone and then it broke. We'll never know at this point. Oh-- and I won't post pics of the actual surgery. :) 

It took a couple hours for Click to recover from the anesthesia. He was alert and awake when I showed up at 4 to pick him up. That's a first! 

He's back at my house now in a soft tank    He's had pain meds and will soon get his first antibiotic injection. He even ate 3 roaches for me! It's exciting to see him so alert right now. I think he'll be just fine. 

Dex at the Vet

Dex was spayed today. Her belly was filled with undeveloped eggs! More than any other surgery I've seen. 

While in surgery, the vet noticed that Dex's liver is very pale and has quite a few places where it's bleeding. He took a biopsy of it to figure out if it's related to the stuck eggs or to her adenovirus. 

It's very possible that even without her eggs, Dex will still remain unhealthy because of liver failure. :( 

She's home now and sleeping off the anesthesia. Poor girl. I hope she's able to recover from this. 

Dex at the Vet

YDex had an ultrasound today that should a lot of bundled eggs (or egg follicles) high in her belly that haven't dropped down through her oviducts. Her bloodwork showed a high white blood cell count which says she's fighting an infection so chances are good that the eggs are rotting in her belly. 

She needs surgery to be spayed. A $500 surgery. 

Dex also has adenovirus (ADV+) and there's no way to know how she will respond to the surgery or if she will ultimately recover. 

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. 

Update on Nova

With all the emergencies this week, I haven't stopped long enough to post on update on Nova. 

He ended up with about an inch of his tail being amputated on Monday. 

He's had a hard time adjusting. I can get him to eat, but he won't open his eyes all the way and is lethargic. It's possible the infection in his tail spread into his bloodstream. I'm going to start him on antibiotics to see if that helps. 

I may give him Critical Care too when I tube feed Raydan to see if I can help him get extra nutrition. 

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.