Greetings!

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JessiJ

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New Beardie owner here ...

I'm a vet tech, and never realized how much I would like reptiles until I started working in an exotics practice and interacting with them. Due to realizing the reproductive disease the females are prone to, I was on the look out for a young, confirmed male.

As though on cue, a co-worker's friend was looking to rehome a 2 year old male named Bucky (for Bucky Barnes ... turns out the cat didn't like him), so I agreed to take him.

Well, "he" turned out to be a "she", and putting my money where my mouth was, I had her spayed. I'm SO GLAD I did. She already had the beginning of follicular stasis.

That's all behind us now, and she's SO full of personality. She has places to go, and things to do. At 300g, she's a tiny bit under weight, but unlike my dog's diet, her roaches, worms, and salad fixin's don't come with KCal counts, so there's a bit of a learning curve.

I look forward to learning from others, and sharing both my adventure with my new friend, and what I've learned as a vet tech working with these amazing animals!

5ClMVS9
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Welcome to this board------------- you are going to be a wonderful asset to this forum!!! :D We have alot of people asking all kinds of questions about medical issues w/ their beardies!! Tracie Drache613 is the vet moderator on this forum and gets a ton of questions along w/ AHBD and kingofnobbys as well-- they seem to help too w/ medical questions--- but w/ you chiming in to help will be great! Every ones knowledge and input is a great help!! I have already learned something from you about females. We had a female but she passed last March and I am thinking it was of old age- we had adopted her from the high school and she had lived most of her life in the schools (college) as well. In a small 20 gallon tank of which we upgraded etc......... she was w/ us for 3 more years--- in April we went to the MN Reptile show and was very disappointed in that - they had 1 bearded dragon- we left and went to a breeder down there and ended up getting a Orange Citrus Tiger - he was about 3 months old - named him Hiccup- he turned a year end of Jan--
97951-4838174088.jpg
anyway welcome --
Karrie
 

vrenee1018

Juvie Member
Welcome! So glad you and your little girl could join us in the beardie world! Also, it's great that you're gonna become a vet too! Go you!

And now a question for you already. Haha I have a female beardie as well. I just looked up follicular stasis and was quite alarmed at what I read and saw. How often does this happen and at what age do signs present? I just wanna be prepared in case I need to take my little girl in one day.

Again, WELCOME! ☺️
 

JessiJ

New member
Original Poster
vrenee1018":2kzptevx said:
Welcome! So glad you and your little girl could join us in the beardie world! Also, it's great that you're gonna become a vet too! Go you!

Ha! Thanks ... as it turns out though, I'm quite happy as a Certified Vet Tech. Though it makes human nurses unhappy to hear (at least in the US), I'm effectively their equivalent to the animal world. I draw blood, I take radiographs, I care for the animals pre-and post-operatively, monitor them under anesthesia, get histories, discuss husbandry, and diet (at least for animals I know; I'm still learning so much about reptiles and birds!), and common health issues. The things I can't do (and are the realm of the veterinarian) are make a diagnosis, and prescribe medications, which is totally fine by me!

vrenee1018":2kzptevx said:
And now a question for you already. Haha I have a female beardie as well. I just looked up follicular stasis and was quite alarmed at what I read and saw. How often does this happen and at what age do signs present? I just wanna be prepared in case I need to take my little girl in one day.

So, signs can present any time after reaching breeding age. We're guessing that in Bucky's case, her husbandry and diet were just substandard enough that her reproductive system was effectively shut down to preserve nutrition for herself. When she arrived in my care, I immediately made improvements to both, so we're suspecting that was the trigger in her case. She still wasn't showing any signs - she was very active, eating well, and basically an all-around sassafras. We were actually shocked to find out how far along it was!

The Catch-22, of course, is that a spay is an invasive procedure, not without its risks. This is part of the reason I didn't bring her home immediately (we had just lost our 10-year old dog, and I didn't want to become attached in case the surgery was unsuccessful for some reason). When the Beardie is already health compromised, your chances of success decrease, but by then it's often a matter of life and death. Of course, by spaying them you also eliminate the possibility of becoming egg-bound as well, so it's a nice solve to the many reproductive issues they're predisposed to acquiring.

Above all else, I wouldn't trust just any run-of-the-mill vet to do a surgery like this. A boarded exotics specialist at minimum, and one with their reptile focus preferably. In my case, I was lucky enough to have both; two surgeons worked together on Bucky, both boarded, one avian focused (though she sees a TON of reptiles), and one reptile focused.

I have a great picture of the follicles, but I'm a little bit of a tech ***** and have been unsuccessful with linking any of my pictures into my posts thus far...

vrenee1018":2kzptevx said:
Again, WELCOME! ☺️

Thanks so much! Now to try to stop by to read posts every once in a while ...
 

JessiJ

New member
Original Poster
Ah! I think I figured it out!

Here's the lady herself, scaling Mount Fluffy Blanket on the couch:

103221-482176906.jpg

And here's a pretty neat picture of her over active follicles, after removal. For reference, she's ~300g, and that gauze is 4" square.

103221-6268035956.jpg
 

vrenee1018

Juvie Member
Well I totally understand the vet tech thing and it's good that you're happy where you're at!

As for the follicles...WOW! That's crazy. My Tampico is going in for a wellness check later in the month. She's a little over a year old and I think I shall ask the vet about this and see if she can just do a quick Xray to see if there's any blockage or anything.

Here's my Tampico (Tampi) She's a sassy little thing too.
101206-807239674.jpg
 
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