Ouch!

8 beardies swabbed and one had blood drawn. 

And that was with a discount! I don't even want to do the math. 

Test results will come back next week. 

I know there are cheaper tests out there, 

but the culture swab test my vet uses is the most accurate. It tests for the specific polypeptide chains in adenovirus and is so sensitive it can pick up even one or two viruses. There's no chance there will be a false positive or false negative. 

"Biting the Bullet" or "Trying not to Bawl my Eyes Out" or "I can't even Cope"

The Atadenovirus test results came back today for four more beardies (Dex, Flame, Nova, & Dragon).

They are all positive.


My brain can seriously not even process this right now.

Since my kids are home from school, I'm going to take in all the remaining beardies today for swabbing. I suspect they will all be positive too. But I need to know.


Ugh.

So my rescue is in further lock down than before. I'm not even sure what to say or do or anything.

It feels like the end of rescue for me.


I'll keep you posted.

Outdoor Dining

We collected the tortoises from the backyard and gave them greens to eat. 

Then my boys collected strawberries and sugar snap peas from our weak garden to feed them. 

Otis and LilFoot went CRAZY when we brought over the strawberries. 

LilFoot ate his so fast that I couldn't even get a pic. 

4 Months of Derp at my House

Derp is my buddy's sulcata tortoise who has grown crazy fast! 

This is Derp on February 10, 2016. 

This is Derp today less than 4 months later. 

She is almost bigger than Heidi now. Sulcatas grow FAST!!! 

Guess Who Ate Last Night?!?!

Phoenix!!!!

Cue the HAPPY dance!!! 

This guy truly is a Survivor! 

Guess who ate a Strawberry? or "Why I have a tortoise problem!"

T-bear had a strawberry picked right from my garden. Isn't he adorable? He/she is getting SO big! 

My Last Post for Today....and it's BAD News.....

I just discovered that a second of my 14 bearded dragons have Atadenovirus, a highly contagious and deadly virus. I'm heartbroken. My first beardie with it, Nubs, was put down last month after his internal bleeding wouldn't stop.

My rescue is on total lockdown. I cannot take in any reptiles and can't send out any reptiles until they are tested by my vet. Each test costs $65 each. Today I was able to test 4 of the 12 (the ones who I'm in the process of adopting out and it cost over $250!!) It's going to take awhile to get all of them tested. But I can't adopt out any beardies until I know they are not carrying the virus. My two beardies that were to be shipped tomorrow are now on hold-- I will not knowingly or ignorantly spread this disease. I'd feel horrible. 

I'm not going to be able to take in or adopt out any more reptiles (especially beardies) for a couple months. I don't know what I'll do if more test positive. I won't be able to adopt them out. It's a bit of a nightmare. It started last month with Nubs and I've tried really hard to avoid it, but today I got back Milo's results and there's no avoiding it. As far as I know, none of my other reptiles are susceptible to it (I'll doubecheck with my vet though), but since I'm already overloaded and now can't adopt out any, I just need to stay at the level I have.

Click HERE to read more about Atadenovirus. 

(I just reread this post. Not my best writing. Ugh. Sorry! I'll still post updates and such, but there won't be any newbies for awhile.) 

:(

A Year with Heidi

Here is a picture of Heidi taken one year ago today. 

Here's a picture of Heidi today. 

She's tripled in size and weight. 

A Year with Georgie

Here is a picture of Georgie taken one year ago today.

Here's a picture of Georgie today. 

She's growing up nicely. 

BEST News E.V.E.R.!!!

I got the BEST news today. Phoenix, the worst of the fire victims, will actually be able to SEE out of his burnt eye (the one we thought was dead). The burnt skin has healed up nicely and he is doing great. He'll always have a white head without scales, but he's healed like he should. 

Our next goal is to get him to eat on his own. He's lost a lot of weight, but once he starts eating, he'll be fine. 

Last week's vet visit didn't go well at all and I was prepared to choose to have Phoenix put down. Instead I got the best news ever!

This is the piece of skin that was burnt the worst. You can see how charred it was. 

Truly, this snake is a Survivor!! He literally crawled out of the ashes to grow again.