jrichmond120
Member
Hello
A little about me. I am a long time lover of reptiles, and have raised and kept mostly Iguanas for many years. My last big guy passed away about 4 years ago at the ripe old age of 16. After him I never got another mainly just because life got in the way and I didn't have the time to dedicate to them. My son who is now 16 has been talking about wanting to get a beardie for about 2 years now, and we have discussed it several times and even cleared out an area of his bedroom to build an enclosure but never got around to it once I started my business.
Two weeks ago he came to me with a picture on his phone, He said dad look what my buddy just found in his yard. Mind you we live in the mountains of West Virginia, it was Easter Sunday, and we had just received 4 inches of snow the night before and the temperatures were in the upper 20's. I take a look at his phone and this is what I see
.He said dad can we go get it, My buddy said his mom wont let him keep it because she don't like lizards. Can you believe the nerve of some people, How do you not like lizards?!! Of course I said absolutely we can go get it.
I sent him with his mom to go get the poor little guy/or gal, while I went out to the shed and dug out an old 55 gallon aquarium that I had stored away in there, (i always keep a spare tank or 2 on hand, I always seem to need them for something) While in there I found a uvb 10.0 tube in a fixture that I had bought a week before my last Iguana passed and I had a 125 watt heat lamp stored away too. (I swear I'm not a hoarder.) and I grabbed up a roll of astro turf that I had stored away and got busy getting the tank ready while they were out.
When they arrived with her she was really cold and very lethargic so I checked her over for all the signs of external parasites and looked over her limbs for signs of MBD, all of that checked out. I then looked at her left eye, and the poor girl (I checked the sex too) couldn't even open her eye and her lip had a nice little sore on it, not mouth rot but just a little scab. And the nape of her neck looked to have some scaring on it, possibly from getting burned on a heat lamp that was too close to her, her left rear foot is missing several toes, and her right front foot had a broken toe that I was sure was gonna fall off, (and did) and more than half her tail is missing. I told my son, well, aside from her being really cold and emaciated I think we can get her back to good health, but be prepared that we may not be able to do anything but make her comfortable for her last hours of life. He agreed at this point that our main objective was to do what we could for her to make her comfortable and try our best to save the poor girl. We soothed her and warmed her gradually with our body temperature and got her to come back down to a somewhat normal color and got her breathing slowed back down to a more normal pace, and gave her a nice warm bath in electrolytes and put her in the aquarium under her lights. I had a bag of salad mix in the fridge (mostly iceberg lettuce and carrots, but my main objective at the time was to get her re hydrated and by this time the stores were all closed so I couldnt get her anything else until morning.) so I chopped it up really fine and placed it in there with her, She kinda licked on it a little but was just too weak to eat anything.
The next morning she woke up and slowly moved about the aquarium a couple times. I ran to pet supplies plus and picked up some crickets and calcium powder and then to wally world to get some pedialyte, green and peppers, because I always had luck getting hungry iguanas to eat peppers if the wouldn't eat anything else. I was able to get her to drink about 8 tbsp of pedialyte from a syringe and she took about 4 cricket from my hand. I placed a warm wash cloth on her left eye that had some diluted betadine on it, after about 10 minutes she was able to open her eye again, at which time she came alive, she began eating and became more active. Two days later she had her first poop, it was terrible nothing but brownish green liquid, then another, a little more solid but had chunks of undigested food in it, I gave her 3 tablespoons of yogurt with probiotics to get her gun fauna moving right again and she has had nothing but healthy solid formed poops and urates since.
Now she is happy, very active and is eating about 20 crickets a day and 2 full plates of salad (colored greens, Mustard greens, dandelion greens, sweet peppers and butternut squash.) She has 2 healthy poops a day, like clockwork at 10:30am and 3pm every day. Her color is great, she is getting splashes of orange around her eyes and on her beard, and her eyelids are a yellowish color, her right eye is nice and bright with her little lashes, But her left eye lid is still discolored but is slowly coloring back up, however as of right now she has no lashes on that lid. but her actual eye seems to be working normally, no loss of vision that I can tell and it is good and clear. I can not make out any distinctive markings she is pretty much monotone with some darker specks. She is still a little skiddish, but once you get her settled she loves laying on your chest and sleeping.
Be aware in the pictures that she is only in this tank temporarily because we are currently building her new enclosure in my sons room and this was just an observation tank so that we could care for her and monitor her more easily. Also nevermind all the greens in the bottom of the tank, she just ate and is a very sloppy eater, If I take her to the sizzler we will all need a bib.
And without further adieu 2 weeks later I give you a much happier healthier and more active Leia, Princess of Alderan. (we are star wars geeks). May the force be with you!
A little about me. I am a long time lover of reptiles, and have raised and kept mostly Iguanas for many years. My last big guy passed away about 4 years ago at the ripe old age of 16. After him I never got another mainly just because life got in the way and I didn't have the time to dedicate to them. My son who is now 16 has been talking about wanting to get a beardie for about 2 years now, and we have discussed it several times and even cleared out an area of his bedroom to build an enclosure but never got around to it once I started my business.
Two weeks ago he came to me with a picture on his phone, He said dad look what my buddy just found in his yard. Mind you we live in the mountains of West Virginia, it was Easter Sunday, and we had just received 4 inches of snow the night before and the temperatures were in the upper 20's. I take a look at his phone and this is what I see
I sent him with his mom to go get the poor little guy/or gal, while I went out to the shed and dug out an old 55 gallon aquarium that I had stored away in there, (i always keep a spare tank or 2 on hand, I always seem to need them for something) While in there I found a uvb 10.0 tube in a fixture that I had bought a week before my last Iguana passed and I had a 125 watt heat lamp stored away too. (I swear I'm not a hoarder.) and I grabbed up a roll of astro turf that I had stored away and got busy getting the tank ready while they were out.
When they arrived with her she was really cold and very lethargic so I checked her over for all the signs of external parasites and looked over her limbs for signs of MBD, all of that checked out. I then looked at her left eye, and the poor girl (I checked the sex too) couldn't even open her eye and her lip had a nice little sore on it, not mouth rot but just a little scab. And the nape of her neck looked to have some scaring on it, possibly from getting burned on a heat lamp that was too close to her, her left rear foot is missing several toes, and her right front foot had a broken toe that I was sure was gonna fall off, (and did) and more than half her tail is missing. I told my son, well, aside from her being really cold and emaciated I think we can get her back to good health, but be prepared that we may not be able to do anything but make her comfortable for her last hours of life. He agreed at this point that our main objective was to do what we could for her to make her comfortable and try our best to save the poor girl. We soothed her and warmed her gradually with our body temperature and got her to come back down to a somewhat normal color and got her breathing slowed back down to a more normal pace, and gave her a nice warm bath in electrolytes and put her in the aquarium under her lights. I had a bag of salad mix in the fridge (mostly iceberg lettuce and carrots, but my main objective at the time was to get her re hydrated and by this time the stores were all closed so I couldnt get her anything else until morning.) so I chopped it up really fine and placed it in there with her, She kinda licked on it a little but was just too weak to eat anything.
The next morning she woke up and slowly moved about the aquarium a couple times. I ran to pet supplies plus and picked up some crickets and calcium powder and then to wally world to get some pedialyte, green and peppers, because I always had luck getting hungry iguanas to eat peppers if the wouldn't eat anything else. I was able to get her to drink about 8 tbsp of pedialyte from a syringe and she took about 4 cricket from my hand. I placed a warm wash cloth on her left eye that had some diluted betadine on it, after about 10 minutes she was able to open her eye again, at which time she came alive, she began eating and became more active. Two days later she had her first poop, it was terrible nothing but brownish green liquid, then another, a little more solid but had chunks of undigested food in it, I gave her 3 tablespoons of yogurt with probiotics to get her gun fauna moving right again and she has had nothing but healthy solid formed poops and urates since.
Now she is happy, very active and is eating about 20 crickets a day and 2 full plates of salad (colored greens, Mustard greens, dandelion greens, sweet peppers and butternut squash.) She has 2 healthy poops a day, like clockwork at 10:30am and 3pm every day. Her color is great, she is getting splashes of orange around her eyes and on her beard, and her eyelids are a yellowish color, her right eye is nice and bright with her little lashes, But her left eye lid is still discolored but is slowly coloring back up, however as of right now she has no lashes on that lid. but her actual eye seems to be working normally, no loss of vision that I can tell and it is good and clear. I can not make out any distinctive markings she is pretty much monotone with some darker specks. She is still a little skiddish, but once you get her settled she loves laying on your chest and sleeping.
Be aware in the pictures that she is only in this tank temporarily because we are currently building her new enclosure in my sons room and this was just an observation tank so that we could care for her and monitor her more easily. Also nevermind all the greens in the bottom of the tank, she just ate and is a very sloppy eater, If I take her to the sizzler we will all need a bib.
And without further adieu 2 weeks later I give you a much happier healthier and more active Leia, Princess of Alderan. (we are star wars geeks). May the force be with you!
To be honest this story made me teary eyed (LVjewel you're not the only one). 
