Egg binding - Jam's surgery (Update 4 added!)

That's great ! She does seem to be a tough bird. I am certain that she will enjoy her reading material, one needs good literature whilst munching their locusts. I must say,as far as dragonkeepers/ owners go, you rank right up there with the champions, although a touch on the barmy side. All kidding + foolishness aside, I hope she continues to improve !

Glad the surgery went well for you. My girl had surgery for a big cyst and eggs forming the first of May. I almost lost her but the vet was great and she has pulled through and is doing well.

Saturday:

Gently fished Jam out from under her bed and parked her under the heat lamp. She hit about 31C and realised she was a little hungry. Omnomnomcrunchcrunchcruch.

I'll make sure she has a little more water today to offset the usage for protein. I sense she will be demanding many locusts over the next few days.



It appears she is unaware of her lack of reproductive ability, as she has been flirting outrageously with the boys gawping from their tanks. She has been having a good walk around and remembering not to run, even with free range dinner available. (Her appetite is still good, despite her first round of painkillers wearing off.)

Rich remembered some more information - she's actually had her entire uterus out, as there were many compressed, old and failed eggs throughout her system. That does explain the higher risk rate Michael the vet has been going on about!

She's also a titanium reinforced dragon - he used titanium clips to tidy off blood vessels and such. Fascinating stuff!

Before surgery:539g
After: 440g
She lost a fifth of her body weight.

Sunday:

Jam was happy to have breakfast (NatureZone beardie bites and butterworms), but grumped from the moment she got in the basket. We got to the vets, and she immediately cheered up again.



She's let me know that the stitches are a little bit sore this morning - but that's okay, that's what we are at the vets for; it is time for the next antibiotic and anti-inflammation shot.

Rob the Sunday vet is impressed, and she was good whilst she had her shots. She fibbed to me and told me it was her tail that hurt when we put her back in the basket. Made the nurse laugh, and call her a little liar - they didn't go anywhere near her tail. Jam grinned. Nurse says Jam's such a happy little lizard, it is always nice to see her. ?

We will be back again on Wednesday, hopefully for the last shots, then she's back in just over five weeks to have the stitches removed. Yes, that's a lot longer than mammals (reptile skin heals slower than human skin - but it is much tougher); it's explained quite well in this really interesting article on reptile skin from a vets perspective: http://www.anapsid.org/basicdermatology.html

I may enquire about oral meds, just in case she does still hurt after Wednesday's meds wear off.

Monday:
Point of interest - my teenytiny rescued Mocha has laid two batches since the start of this article. I don't know why, but Mocha is an egg machine, despite her tiny size. She NEVER has any problems. Jam's much bigger than she is, and always had trouble. Go figure!

Thank you for the update. Glad to hear that Jam is doing well. She shouldn't fib to her Mummy, though.

No kidding! Michael the vet was most amused when he heard about her tall-tails! (Get it, tall-tales? Fibs? Hehehehe.)

He confirmed that her injections had been via her forearms and definitely NOT her tail! She'd put up a bit of a fight this time - not that she'd stooped to biting, that'd be below her, but she grumped at him and wouldn't give him her hand. Understandably, as far as I'm concerned. She's had the last round of subcutaneous antibiotics, and didn't need any more anti-inflammatories.

She's continuing to do really well; she's put on a good 20 grams since surgery, all of her very own, as she no longer has eggs to fuel. She's also sitting properly despite the big row of stitches under her belly, and it's only the middle ones that are a little sore now.

It turns out that she has either 35 or 38 titanium clips inside her in total - there were a lot of vessels to close off. He also showed me the pics through surgery and has promised to email me them when he gets chance; they're really quite shocking!

She had bad abrasion sites and lesions from previous bindings (which we already knew) and had several failed follicles that had actually started rotting - she could well have succumbed to septicaemia had we not intervened. Other follicles were abnormal and both ovaries were in full production, which is quite unusual.

I'll be attaching pics once he's got round to sending them - he's confirmed that I have medical privacy consent over the images, and he's happy for them to be distributed online for educational purposes. "They're yours, so, you know!"

We're back in five weeks to have the stitches removed - I'll keep everyone updated of anything interesting in the meanwhile.

wow, glad everything went ok for you. Glad you caught everything before it was to late to save her. Also nice to have a great vet. I have a great vet too, now 2 hours away but I don't mind the drive if either of my girls need to go in.

A good vet is always worth it.

Jam's continuing to do really well - she's always been bright enough to know how to look after herself properly. She's keeping a sedate pace (even in the face of temptation such as her favourite foods) and staying in the warmer sections - unlike Jac, who preferred to go to the cold end when he felt poorly and had to be repeatedly put back in the warm.

She has started to rev up for shedding along her belly, but we were expecting that and the vet has advised me not to worry if she sheds out some of her stitches - so long as it's still sealed or healed, we're golden.

Apologies for the graphic images - Michael the Vet sent through the surgery pics.

In this first picture - don't worry, that's not blood around Jam, that's mostly iodine solution for sterilising and cleaning. Dragons have surprisingly few blood vessels in their abdominal skin - and can tolerate a remarkable level of blood loss.



She has got a respirator in her mouth to maintain her breathing and anaesthetic levels - anaesthesia stops a reptile's diaphragm functioning properly, so the machine both breathes for her, and prevents her lungs from collapsing.

She's also got a pulse monitor attached to her ankle, and some iodine staining that brings out her "stress marks" on her belly - white patches with black edges like leopard spots. Thankfully, she's unaware of it!

In the second pic, the scalpel is a standard six inch long surgical model - so that gives you an idea of just how many follicles were activated. Only one ovary should be in production at any given time. From throat to bottom, she's only six inches long herself!



You can also see how BIG some of the eggs are getting too - unusually so, Michael informs me. He also draws our attention to the dark cluster in the middle of the left side bunch; these are failed, old follicles that have started to rot inside her. If we'd have left it much longer, she'd have been at risk of septicaemia. Also, at the top of the left cluster, you'll see little white circles... More eggs getting ready to develop!

Surgery was absolutely the right choice.

She's currently eating peas and butterworms, and doing very well, continuing to put on weight at an admirable rate - she's now 490.1g (slightly high, as pooped two days ago and has been eating and eating!)

What a blessing that she had the surgery when she did! Glad she's doing so well.

Hello,

Absolutely amazing & so wonderful that you got her in when you did.
I am glad the vet was so good & caring.
That is great she is doing so well also! Egg binding has a lot to do with genetics also. At least now she doesn't have to worry about more binding!

I am happy for Jam's success, bless her.

Tracie

Her headfats have decreased over the last couple of days, but her newly developed armfats are pretty good. Her tail is nice and chunky, and as she's in the process of getting ready to shed, I'm not worrying too much.

She's nibbling at this and that too, so her appetite isn't too badly affected.

Thanks all for your kind words

Well, it's been the full five weeks since her surgery - she has recovered her entire pre-surgery weight, INCLUDING the weight she lost with so much removed. She's actually chunky enough to have that little runnel down her back and is in fine form.

Her stitches came out neatly (three healed so well that they came loose and I removed them myself) and the dissolvable stitches in her muscles are nearly completed in their task.

Michael was delighted with her progress and her sunny attitude - she really likes him, even though he's mean to her!

I took two of the others with me too, to say hello - and he confirms my suspicions - Hyphen is developmentally impaired, but cute nonetheless.

That's wonderful that Jam is healing so well! You must be so relieved. I'm going to have to read back through your thread for info on Hyphen and his special needs. Thanks for checking in with the good news!

I had taken Hyphen with me for Michael the Vet to meet, as a medical curiosity, along with Sandy, my hermaphroditic dragon.

Hyphen's a strange little dragon. He's a blood leatherback, and he's rather out of proportion. He has a stocky, thick tail base, and a short abdomen and fairly short limbs.


He also has a very oddly shaped head. In fact, it causes his left eye to bulge quite severely, and causes his poor eyesight and left-biased targeting failure.


He regularly manages to do some spectacularly stupid things, including my favourite incident: getting stuck upside down in his Chrifsmas tree.


And reminding me why I don't leave buckets, tubs, bowls or boxes lying around open:


Michael confirmed that his actions, intellect, skull shape and physical structure suggest he's developmentally challenged, but very happy nonetheless...!