Obduratekitti
Member
Goldar just had surgery on March 20. The vet said the stitches would dissolve, but didn’t say how long it would take and google isn’t helping. I’m also unsure when to move her back to her larger tank.
This was a very unusual situation and I feel the need to share the details in case someone else experiences something similar:
Surgery details:
Mrs. Goldar wasn’t eating as normal and was hiding under her rock for weeks. We initially thought she was brumating. Her bowel movements were small, but I figured that was normal if she wasn’t eating. Then, around March 6, she had blood in her nearly non-existent stool. So I took her to the vet.
The vet did x-rays and it, along with her symptoms, indicated impaction. He sent her home with a stool softener and antibiotics. We started feeding her baby food and hornworms since those are easy to digest, and tried several home remedies for impaction along with the meds. After two weeks, Goldar still had not had a normal bowel movement.
I called the vet on the 19th and he performed emergency surgery on the 20th with the intention of clearing the impaction. But once he opened her up, another story entirely was revealed. Goldar had a large fatty mass (non-cancerous tumor) filling her entire abdominal cavity, pushing all her intestines into her stomach, and making it impossible to digest any food. The tumor was 10% of her body weight!! To put that into perspective, if you weighed 200 lbs, that would be a 20 lb tumor.
Luckily, the vet was able to get all of it out. It’s been about about 10 days and Mrs. Goldar is recovering quite nicely. She took a large poo right after surgery, has been having normal movements since then, and is eating like a pig again. I’m checking her stitches daily, and the wound is healing nicely as well. They bled for the first 24 hours, but the vet said 24 - 48 hours is normal for bleeding after surgery.
We’ve been keeping her in the long 20 gallon tank to reduce the stress after surgery, but she’s already back to being pretty active.
How long should I keep her in the smaller tank and how long should I expect it to take before her stitches dissolve?
Additional Story:
It’s been 10 years since I had a beautiful beardie. I’ve always avoided holding them at the pet stores because I couldn’t afford another one for a long time. In August of last year, I saw this little girl at PetSmart and caved. I asked to hold her and obviously fell in love. I was supposed to go back on that Saturday to pick her up (since I’m now in a position to afford a beardie), but by Friday, I was desperate to pick her up. My husband and I went to the store and bought everything we needed for her and then picked her up.
She’s been a quirky lizard from the start. She was scared of crickets, scared of baths, and refused to eat half the time unless she was hand fed. (The vet said she’s likely had this tumor growing the entire time).
I now believe this tumor is the reason I was ended up with this particular beardie. I cannot explain the desperation I had in getting her before someone else did. She needed me and I’m so glad I was able to help her.
This was a very unusual situation and I feel the need to share the details in case someone else experiences something similar:
Surgery details:
Mrs. Goldar wasn’t eating as normal and was hiding under her rock for weeks. We initially thought she was brumating. Her bowel movements were small, but I figured that was normal if she wasn’t eating. Then, around March 6, she had blood in her nearly non-existent stool. So I took her to the vet.
The vet did x-rays and it, along with her symptoms, indicated impaction. He sent her home with a stool softener and antibiotics. We started feeding her baby food and hornworms since those are easy to digest, and tried several home remedies for impaction along with the meds. After two weeks, Goldar still had not had a normal bowel movement.
I called the vet on the 19th and he performed emergency surgery on the 20th with the intention of clearing the impaction. But once he opened her up, another story entirely was revealed. Goldar had a large fatty mass (non-cancerous tumor) filling her entire abdominal cavity, pushing all her intestines into her stomach, and making it impossible to digest any food. The tumor was 10% of her body weight!! To put that into perspective, if you weighed 200 lbs, that would be a 20 lb tumor.
Luckily, the vet was able to get all of it out. It’s been about about 10 days and Mrs. Goldar is recovering quite nicely. She took a large poo right after surgery, has been having normal movements since then, and is eating like a pig again. I’m checking her stitches daily, and the wound is healing nicely as well. They bled for the first 24 hours, but the vet said 24 - 48 hours is normal for bleeding after surgery.
We’ve been keeping her in the long 20 gallon tank to reduce the stress after surgery, but she’s already back to being pretty active.
How long should I keep her in the smaller tank and how long should I expect it to take before her stitches dissolve?
Additional Story:
It’s been 10 years since I had a beautiful beardie. I’ve always avoided holding them at the pet stores because I couldn’t afford another one for a long time. In August of last year, I saw this little girl at PetSmart and caved. I asked to hold her and obviously fell in love. I was supposed to go back on that Saturday to pick her up (since I’m now in a position to afford a beardie), but by Friday, I was desperate to pick her up. My husband and I went to the store and bought everything we needed for her and then picked her up.
She’s been a quirky lizard from the start. She was scared of crickets, scared of baths, and refused to eat half the time unless she was hand fed. (The vet said she’s likely had this tumor growing the entire time).
I now believe this tumor is the reason I was ended up with this particular beardie. I cannot explain the desperation I had in getting her before someone else did. She needed me and I’m so glad I was able to help her.