SeniorOatmeal
New member
Hi all. I used to post here back when my girl and her sister were younger, but ended up forgetting my password, not having access to the old email address, life getting crazy, and them basically being okay. The old user name was OatsNVigo.
A bit about my beardie: I have an old girl by the name of Oatmeal. She is about 14 years old now (I have had her since 3 April 2004, and she was approximately 3-6 months old when she came home with me.) She also had a sister, Vigo, who came home at the same time. Basically, throughout their lives, Vigo was the bigger, healthier one, while Oatmeal was smaller, submissive, and had the health crises. Unfortunately, we lost Vigo in Nov of 2016 when she was 12.5 years old, but Oatmeal is going well.
A bit of background on Oats' issues: Back in 2006 or 07, she had bad seizures. The first vet said her kidneys were failing, and to put her down. I refused, so he gave me saline needles to give her subcutaneous hydration, and told me I could try, but she was just going to die anyway. I turned to the Beardie ER forum, and was given great advice by a woman named Tracie, who spent almost a month helping me with Oatmeal. I also got her to a different vet, who found that it was a major calcium deficiency, so we got her on liquid calcium immediately. Between the help from this forum, weeks of syringe feeding (I gave up n the sub-q fluid as soon as I realized she was keeping oral fluid down,) and tons of love, she got better. Mostly. Due to the seizures, she has either vision or depth perception problems. She will try to grab her food, but be an inch or so too far to one side. I learned how to follow her mouth to hand feed her, and we've done that for the past decade or so. She also has a scar on her abdomen from a heat rock burn back when she was maybe a year old. Back then, heat rocks and calci-sand were pushed as the best thing for them, and regrettably, she was the one who suffered. But again, she recovered, and she's fine. All of these emergencies, combined with the fact that I was always the one who took care of her, bonded me to her quite strongly. Vigo was always pretty self-sufficient, and my ex took care of her more (though, I loved her just as much.)
I always figured I'd lose Oats first. When the two of them went into brumation in Oct 2016, I didn't think much of it. They'd done it every year I've known them. I had started waking them up to feed them in the previous couple of years because of their age, but they weren't interested more than once every two weeks. In late Nov 2016, I noticed Vigo was incredibly pale and dehydrated, so I tried to give her water and food. I soaked her, tried her favorite worms, everything, but she never recovered. She was fine one week, but gone the next. A friend who is a herp vet figured it was her time, but it was an awful time. At the same time, Oatmeal (who was always thinner anyway,) didn't look great either. She had zero fat left on the base of her tail, her "hip" bones were protruding much more than usual, and her head was sunken in. I started preparing myself for her to go, too. But she actually did eat, and drink, and respond to the soaks. Also, her eyes were bright and alert, and she looked about how she always was, albeit a bit groggy. She pulled through, and we're still together.
My main concern is that I haven't been able to put any weight back on her. Her tail is still bony, her hips are still sticking out, and her head is still a bit sunken. She is pretty healthy and very alert otherwise. She eats and drinks pretty well, though with the vision issue and me having to hand feed her, it takes a lot longer, and she doesn't eat as much as I'd like her to. She usually has superworms and greens, with some fruit as a treat rarely. When she had her seizures, I syringe fed her a mixture of meat baby food, greens, Ensure (the adult nutrition supplement sake stuff,) vitamin supplement, and liquid calcium. I'm thinking of trying to supplement her with syringe feedings to try and get weight back on her, but it's been so long since we did that, I don't know if this is still recommended. I'm also going to try and get her some waxworms, because they're fatty, but she's had trouble in the past seeing them.
This probably belongs in the intro section, as it's gotten kind of long. Thanks for reading, and for any help or advice you can provide!
A bit about my beardie: I have an old girl by the name of Oatmeal. She is about 14 years old now (I have had her since 3 April 2004, and she was approximately 3-6 months old when she came home with me.) She also had a sister, Vigo, who came home at the same time. Basically, throughout their lives, Vigo was the bigger, healthier one, while Oatmeal was smaller, submissive, and had the health crises. Unfortunately, we lost Vigo in Nov of 2016 when she was 12.5 years old, but Oatmeal is going well.
A bit of background on Oats' issues: Back in 2006 or 07, she had bad seizures. The first vet said her kidneys were failing, and to put her down. I refused, so he gave me saline needles to give her subcutaneous hydration, and told me I could try, but she was just going to die anyway. I turned to the Beardie ER forum, and was given great advice by a woman named Tracie, who spent almost a month helping me with Oatmeal. I also got her to a different vet, who found that it was a major calcium deficiency, so we got her on liquid calcium immediately. Between the help from this forum, weeks of syringe feeding (I gave up n the sub-q fluid as soon as I realized she was keeping oral fluid down,) and tons of love, she got better. Mostly. Due to the seizures, she has either vision or depth perception problems. She will try to grab her food, but be an inch or so too far to one side. I learned how to follow her mouth to hand feed her, and we've done that for the past decade or so. She also has a scar on her abdomen from a heat rock burn back when she was maybe a year old. Back then, heat rocks and calci-sand were pushed as the best thing for them, and regrettably, she was the one who suffered. But again, she recovered, and she's fine. All of these emergencies, combined with the fact that I was always the one who took care of her, bonded me to her quite strongly. Vigo was always pretty self-sufficient, and my ex took care of her more (though, I loved her just as much.)
I always figured I'd lose Oats first. When the two of them went into brumation in Oct 2016, I didn't think much of it. They'd done it every year I've known them. I had started waking them up to feed them in the previous couple of years because of their age, but they weren't interested more than once every two weeks. In late Nov 2016, I noticed Vigo was incredibly pale and dehydrated, so I tried to give her water and food. I soaked her, tried her favorite worms, everything, but she never recovered. She was fine one week, but gone the next. A friend who is a herp vet figured it was her time, but it was an awful time. At the same time, Oatmeal (who was always thinner anyway,) didn't look great either. She had zero fat left on the base of her tail, her "hip" bones were protruding much more than usual, and her head was sunken in. I started preparing myself for her to go, too. But she actually did eat, and drink, and respond to the soaks. Also, her eyes were bright and alert, and she looked about how she always was, albeit a bit groggy. She pulled through, and we're still together.
My main concern is that I haven't been able to put any weight back on her. Her tail is still bony, her hips are still sticking out, and her head is still a bit sunken. She is pretty healthy and very alert otherwise. She eats and drinks pretty well, though with the vision issue and me having to hand feed her, it takes a lot longer, and she doesn't eat as much as I'd like her to. She usually has superworms and greens, with some fruit as a treat rarely. When she had her seizures, I syringe fed her a mixture of meat baby food, greens, Ensure (the adult nutrition supplement sake stuff,) vitamin supplement, and liquid calcium. I'm thinking of trying to supplement her with syringe feedings to try and get weight back on her, but it's been so long since we did that, I don't know if this is still recommended. I'm also going to try and get her some waxworms, because they're fatty, but she's had trouble in the past seeing them.
This probably belongs in the intro section, as it's gotten kind of long. Thanks for reading, and for any help or advice you can provide!
