unexpected rescue. help! (Picture heavy!)

Okay so I went to petco to buy small crickets for my geckos and some reptiboost because one of our geckos is not doing too well. So the workers know me and I was looking at a couple of new baby beardies they got in and there is this other little guy that I always assumed was a baby. Turns out he was in the same batch as my dragons but he has one eye he cant open and another he can barely open and they assumed he is blind and are shocked that he's made it this far.

He is teeny tiny but doesn't look starved. When I get home I'll take pics for you but I wanted to get this up right away so you can tell me your thoughts about his eyes and any suggestions you might have. I 100% will be taking him to a vet.

Pics in a bit. Thoughts?

Shelby

Okay, I'm ready to show you some pics. They aren't the best pics because my phone was dying so we couldn't use flash, but they are some pics none the less.

This first pic is him in between our dragons. I don't know if they are from the same clutch or just came in at the same time. The lady at the store said they all came in the size of this dragon and the others grew and he did not.



This is the eye that won't open.



This is the eye that sometimes opens a little. They said it looks like the eye inside is too small or set too far back perhaps. They didn't really know, they just said that it didn't look quite right.



This picture shows you how tiny he is. She said he came into the store about this size and has been there 2-3 months.



We gave him a bath first thing. He had something yuck stuck to his bath and we figured that hydrating him was a good first step. I also gently ran a wet q tip over the eye that wouldn't open. It felt sort of hard.



This is his makeshift Viv for the night. Tomorrow we'll have to get him set up with the proper viv with lights, etc.



We also offered him some reptiboost out of a dropper since we had it and he gladly lapped that up for a bit. So I'm pretty sure that he is hungry, but we didn't want to overload him, plus we knew we wouldn't have him under lights for hours tonight for proper digestion.

So we did this:

1. Rescued him.
2. Bathed him.
3. Gave him reptiboost.
4. Made him a make shift viv for over night.
5. Got the name and number of a vet.
6. Gave him lots of love.

Has anyone seen anything like this with the eyes before? Any guesses?

We're calling him Hermes to stick with the theme. (The other dragons are Artemis and Apollo.)

~Shelby

Update:

Okay, I found a great Herp vet in Minneapolis and I really liked her a lot. Hermes definitely has an infection in his eyes and so he's on antibiotics now for that. The one eye that was closed is from a shed not handled well, which was my first guess when I talked to her about what it possibly is. She has hopes that his vision will be okay once the infection is gone.

She says it's too early to tell if he has MBD because he could just not be using his back legs much because of his stunted growth or feeling weak, etc. So time will tell on that one. I'm going to continue hand feeding him repti boost. I'll keep offering him other food, but since he has trouble seeing, so far he doesn't take it because he can't see it.

So time will tell. But I would love it if he recovers with full vision and close to full mobility. He's such a cutie!

~Shelby

Well, It's still pretty plain, but we got Hermes set up in his own Viv.



AND some GREAT news was that after his bath he perked up and he was a bit active and had his eyes open for a while and could definitely see to some extent. He ate two small roaches and half a wax worm and pooped. Silly but it made me so happy.

I don't know if anyone is following this lol. But I thought I would update it anyway.

~Shelby

I'm following it!

I get so upset when I read about rescue stories. (how they was treated previously).

You've done such a great thing!

Hope he's doing alright!

My lil boy dragon is named Hermes too! Yay for Greek gods!

Glad to see he's interested in eating and has passed a poopy. Sometimes those small acts of normality are enough to ease our anxiety. I hope he continues to get better!

Another Hermes! Yay. Great minds and all that!

Today the little guy woke up with his eyes glued shut, but when he gave him a bath, we used a q tip to get them to open up. Then we gave him his antibiotics and fed him some reptiboost.

He always perks up a couple of hours after he takes his antibiotics. We've also seen him run around his viv when he gets a burst of energy, those back legs seem to be working a lot better. He still doesn't keep his eyes open all the time. I think they must bother him, the vet seemed to think he was grabbing at them like they were itchy or uncomfortable.

Tomorrow I'm taking a leo that won't eat to the vet. I really think they might have to euthenize him. Sad, but he's wasting away to nothing and I've done literally everything I can except force feed him because I don't have the experience to do that without hurting him. If anyone has experience with Leos, let me know.

~Shelby

Look how good this sweetie is doing.

This is him eating reptiboost today and then he ate 11 small dubias!!! Yay!



He keeps his eyes open about 50% of the time now and he takes his medicine every day like a good little dragon. He also has some active times where he runs around, etc. So that's good. I'm having high hopes for him now.

I just wish we could take him to Jamaica with us. Leaving these little lizards for a month is tough!!

~Shelby

Hermes looks wonderful! How fortunate he is that you adopted him.

I think I'm fortunate that he adopted me.

He's the tiniest little guy, but he seriously has the proudest basking pose I've ever seen! I've got to get a picture of it for you. He literally has his head straight up in the air. I mean like 90 degrees! It's the funniest thing.

Little bugger REFUSED to open his mouth to take his meds today. But we'll do it in the morning tomorrow before he eats so he's more apt to open his mouth.

~Shelby

I snapped these pics the other day. You can REALLY see the size that Hermes should be.

This is Hermes saying, "No I will NOT take my medicine no matter what you do. If you put drops of medicine on the backs of my dubias, I will just stand here until all of the medicine is smeared off and then, and ONLY then will I eat the bugs."







He's SUCH a toddler!

~Shelby

Awww, that is so cute. The pose is priceless Like he's saying nope not gonna do it. :lol:

He is such a little cutie. He may be small, but with you taking such good care of him he'll catch up (I know, I rescued a runt from a local breeder that was three months old and about 4 inches; and he's about 15 months old now and is over 17.75 inches (not as big as my other dragons that are around the same age, but he's really healthy and happy )

Sabrina

Thanks! We have some concerns that he has ADV. We're going to get him tested. He does that Star Gazing thing.

~Shelby

If he won't take his meds you could always get a slin pin and inject the roaches with the meds and feed them.
When I got a dragon with a broken jaw I had to hand feed him for months. The way I got him to eat on days he was fussy was rubbing his lower lip with the very tip of my finger and he would pop right open. On the downside now I can no longer rub near his mouth petting him without him thinking something tasty should be going in there. I just drop a little spaghetti squash in there and he closes his trap happily.