Criagslist Rescue - Sienna's progress

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SkeptiBee

Hatchling Member
Browsing through craigslist I came across this ad for a 3 year old:
http://denver.craigslist.org/for/3972321109.html

This animal looks bad. Not as skeletal as some I've seen listed here but the growth and the long nails tell me enough this animal has received little to no decent care. Equipment is a non-issue as I have spare lamps, decor, and a tank. My main concern though is not being at the house due to my day job. Are there others here who have taken rescues and revived them while being away for 8 hours in a day?

Part me says just go for it because the attention and care received in a short window would probably be more than what it gets now. I'm just worried because I already have one dragon who is brumating (timing is rather convenient at the moment).
 

SkeptiBee

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Quick update: After a very fast exchange with the seller, I was able to negotiate a touch of a lower price on this poor dear. I just got home with him and need to go snag some items like syringes for food and the like. This poor guy STINKS to high heaven. He is so covered in dirt and his own poop. There is an inch long area of his tail so thick with fecal matter it's probably going to take multiple baths to get that off him.

The seller didn't even bother to put him in a tub for transport, he just had a tiny cardboard box he was going to throw him in. Thankfully I had a tub with some towels tucked in there to keep him comfortable. During the drive home he would slowly scoot himself forward; his back legs seem very weak. This could be a combination of the food they fed him as well as the long nails possibly causing pain. For what it's worth, I kept my window down and the top of the lid open so he could get some sunlight. It was an hour drive he had to get through.

As part of our bargain, they threw in his food pellets (whut?) and his basking log. I'll be cleaning the log (it actually looks nice and if he can scoot himself up it will make a perfect basking spot for him). If he can't move up the log, I have a bunch of rocks I can set up for him to use. They were giving him crickets, he isn't that underweight, but parts of him don't look filled out at all considering the weight he has on his stomach. The fat pads on his head looks a tad sunk.

I also asked them about the bumps around his eye and the kid just told me some nonsense about they've always been there and they used a different light and now it's not as large. After he's adjusted to the change, I'll be setting up a vet visit to have those looked at and have a fecal ran for him.

I'll post a few images in a few hours. Right now I need to go get another surge protector with a timer and a stand for his tank. How long do you think he'll be okay without a UVB light? I thought I had the right length on a spare, but it was a 18" not the 24". :/ I just put an order in but it won't arrive until Tues.
 

destiny1998

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Yay! I'm glad you got him! You could take him ouside for a few mins a day. I can't wait to see pictures :blob5:
 

SkeptiBee

Hatchling Member
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Okay, as promised here are some images. For the record, I have not confirmed if this is a male or a female just yet. For now, I'm just going to call it a he since that's what I was told. When he begins to recover, I'll find out for sure. In the meantime I'll figure out another name if he's a boy. I don't know why, but Moose just keeps throwing itself in front of my brain. Looking at him in person it makes sense as he is HUGE. If it's a girl, uh... it still might be Moose, but I'm partial to Kiki too.


This is "Mr. Bean" shortly after receiving him. I rolled my window down and let him soak up some sunlight on our way home. You can kind of see on his head where his fat pads aren't that plump. His weight is something of an illusion. When you pick him up, his belly collapses and you can feel how frail and delicate he is. I'm so afraid of hurting him as a result.


Close up of his face. He has a lot of scale sores and dark spots all over him.


This is only a small area under his tail where his feces was so thick it was falling off. There was a giant clump that shook loose in his tub coming home and much more when I gave him a bath later on today.


The giant bump near his eye. Near as I can tell, it hasn't impaired his vision any. He can still focus on things but it definitely obscures him looking forward. Which might impact his hunting abilities when catching live feeders.


This doesn't even come close to utter disgusting mess clinging to this guy's belly and tail. It's probably going to take several baths to finally get it all off.


After his bath, I dried him off and gave him a syringe of some squash baby food. He ate until it was all gone, then I wiped up the mess and put him in his new cage. It's bare bones right now but with his limited mobility it's for the best.

http://youtu.be/EjkYD4nNakI
I do apologize but I do drop a swear word in this. It um... rhymes with "ram". :eek: I don't know if we are permitted to use it on this board I know we try and keep swearing under control for the PG rating. I was just so frustrated and it took me a lot of self control not to drop a lot more expletives during that bath. I will pull it if the mods want.

Anyway, I wasn't able to film him just shortly after this footage. He got so enthusiastic about the water he hoisted himself up and shoved his nose into the drain as if to submerge his face. I had to pull him up and out so he didn't breath in the water trickling out of the faucet just over his head. Also, after he was done drinking he lifted his head up and started jerking it back and forth under the trickling water. At first I thought he was attempting to get away from it until he starting wriggling his whole body back and forth, swishing the water around, then starting splashing himself with his front feet. I started crying when I saw this. Even though he was gasping for breath near the end from exertion, he was enjoying his soak very much.

So far he's kept the water and food down. Tomorrow I'm going to make a run for some chicken baby food and grab a few more syringes. I see people giving really dehydrated beardies pedialite.. do you think I should pick him up some too?
 

destiny1998

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Awwwwwwwwww! He's so lucky to have you! Yes by all means pedialite in the bath water will work. I think most people use clear or non flavored.
 

Esther19

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Thank you for saving him. I almost cried at your telling of the bathtub scene. He is a fortunate dragon.
 

SkeptiBee

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Okay, I looked under the tail today and I'm thinking he is a she. Where two lumps would be are pretty deep dents with just a single bump near the vent. When I take her into the vet I'll get that confirmed. Today she received another soak, this time with the pedialite. She perked up again, didn't drink any though, but she did sit under the water faucet and let me sprinkle the fluid on her like rain. I cleaned a bit more of that gunk off her underside but she still has staining there. Afterward, I took her outside for a bit to both warm up and get some UVB. At first she laid in the bottom of the tub and didn't really respond but it didn't take her long before she propped herself up.


She was just starting to realize how nice and warm she was at this point.





I have a feeling the damage on her face and body is due to a lamp burn. I have no idea what items the person before me was using at all but it's very clear that her eye sight isn't that great. Either they used the wrong kind of bulbs or it was too low to her body and thus impacted her vision. When she focuses on things, she has to shove her nose right against it in order to see what it is. I'm going to wait a few days or at least until she passes a bowel movement before taking her into the vet. She seems to be adjusting very well... but if her eyes are pretty bad, she might not even realize she's in a new location. Or maybe she's used to this kind of thing. :/ I guess the last owner wasn't her first. Who knows how many hands his poor dear has passed through.
 

destiny1998

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Hi. She already looks better. I'm sure she knows she's in good hands even though she can't see very well. :D
 

SkeptiBee

Hatchling Member
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Good news is she passed a poop today. It looked so filled with fibers, like they kept her on a bark or coconut substrate. It was very thick and kind of pasty. It didn't smell too terrible but I saved it for a fecal test later this week. She did pass a sizable urate with it. She certainly has no lack of an appetite right now. I gave her a small dish of greens, unsure if she would even eat them (I suspected she would not) but when I got home, most had been eaten. The rest were flung around her viv. She's kind of a messy girl. She had her poop smeared all over the glass and looked like she had sat in it for a while but then she's probably used to crawling in her own waste. She had another bath today to scrub her feet clean from nastiness.

The more I look at this poor dear, the more I'm convinced much of her head was exposed to prolonged high heat. She has no upper lids at all... what little remains of her left lid is a fleshy lump at the back of her eye. She can still close her eyes fully, but I think she keeps them closed a lot is because she has little protection for them. I've got a vet visit scheduled for this Wednesday. She'll get an exam and the fecal done, and whatever else the vet wants to give her. I'm sure she'll be going on liquid calcium probably for a good month.

I gave her a few feeders today just to see if she would eat them and she wolfed them down. The remainder of food she received was liquid form. Currently she's resting on her basking rocks and watching me. She looks rather comfy actually. Her heads raised and she's looking around a lot which is a good sign. I do think she freaks out in the baths. She just sort of freezes and lays limp, not really knowing what to do in them until I encourage her to move.
 

SkeptiBee

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
So Sienna had her vet visit. Yes, she is a girl, and yes, her new name is Sienna. She tends to open her eyes when I call her by that name. It's really sweet.

Anyway, the vet visit went well. I was given liquid calcium and she has to get a dose every day for the next thirty days. She is also scheduled for that lump to be removed and sent in for a biopsy at the beginning of next month. While she's getting her lump removed, they will also clip her nails. For now, we want her to stabilize in her new home and get a bit more energy before surgery. Hopefully her vision issues will improve with that lump removed and she won't have to tilt her head anymore to locate and catch food. The vet also suspects Sienna might have (or had) a bad fungal infection which could be causing her skin and scale problems. And to top this all off, a fecal is being done to rule out any worms or parasites. She's got a long road ahead of her, but I'm optimistic she'll do well. :) She'll need to endure getting daily medicine of liquid calcium but it's easy to trick her into thinking the syringe is a worm. When she bits the syringe I can easily administer her meds. She's been dragging herself around her viv slowly, just exploring when she feels the desire, but normally she sits on her basking spot and watches the happenings in the room.

The vet seemed to think she'd be fine eating solids too since she is passing stool and has a healthy appetite. I put an order in for some silkworms, hornworms, and more superworms. I'll snag some crickets too and hand feed those via the tongs. I will need to make one adjustment in her viv. Right now there is a linoleum sheet lining the bottom of her tank (currently covered by paper towels) but I will need to get shelving liner with a brighter color. When I put feeders on the linoleum, it's earth tone color obscures the insects and she can't see them.
 

destiny1998

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I'm so glad she is doing well. Hopefully the removal of the bump goes well. So her skin issue will be like that permanently? Poor thing. She's a trooper :)
 
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