Broly the new super saiyan beardie

Picture coming up!

I can't turn upwards!!! But there he is!

 

[SHBailey]

Hi...

It's gradually getting warmer here -- 50s in the daytime. It's good when it doesn't warm up too fast because then the snow melts all at once and we have a puddly slushy mess. Not so bad this year -- a very few patches of snow left and things will be starting to turn green soon. My husband is going to pick dandelions this summer even though we don't have a beardie to feed them to anymore. He likes them himself. They're too bitter for me.

It sounds like your friends are having a rough go of it. My husband works for a non-profit that helps people get out of situations like that -- find jobs and decent places to live and such. He loves helping people. Hopefully your friends are not in as dire straights as some of his clients.

I don't celebrate birthdays anymore either. When you get to be my age it's not something to celebrate. Anyway, I hope you have a nice one whatever you do.

Puff was just like Broly when it comes to liking water. But he got to where he would tolerate a bath. We did it every day because we had a heck of a time keeping him hydrated. He almost never drank out of his water dish so we would dribble water on his nose and sometimes he's slurp it up. You're lucky Kane and Jamie aren't picky eaters.

 

[BlueDragon09]

It’s warm and my birthday passed (yesterday) and we were broke but that’s ok bills are important. So we loaded all 3 dragons in the minivan and headed off to my parents house (4 hours). I had a friend watch our dog, cats and of course my troublemaker, betta fish. He’s always getting banged up (missing scales, chronic tail biter). Stopped a few times because my service dog had to go to the bathroom. I think he had a stomach bug Im not sure how as we don’t give him anything he shouldn’t have.

Anyway, the birthday (my parents celebrate it lol) had a big dinner out. Ribs, steak, deviled eggs, garlic bread. It was a mess but whatever. Tom and Dad cleaned up. Dragons had a good time outside I had to bring them in as Dad was starting the grill and didn’t want them breathing in charcoal from it. Brolys starting shed as he feels waxy on the chest. He wanted to run out on the floor so we had to get dad’s big boxer/pitbull mixed dogs outside for a bit. They’re friendly but too excited and they’ll step on them on accident of course. We had Broly and Kane out, Jamie doesn’t care she’s getting too old already coming up to 10 years old. She’s getting eggy so she needs more calcium. So we’ll keep her situated have a laybox ready.

 

[SHBailey]

So I had a few days of a computer problem that made it so I couldn't reply to your post. But my husband fixed it. Nice to have a computer wiz in the house.

Happy belated birthday. Sounds like you and your beardies all had a good time.

My sisters and their families and I used to go out for dinner whenever someone had a birthday. With everyone in the family we averaged at least one per month. My husband participated with us after we got married so we'd go out for his birthday too. Those were the days... Eventually, it got harder and harder to get everyone together and we stopped doing it. But it was fun while it lasted.

Third try on our new windows today. They were the wrong size AGAIN but it turns out that they got our order mixed up with someone else's this time. So they're coming back tomorrow, hopefully with the right ones this time. What a hassle. I asked if we might get a discount for all the trouble. We'll see...

At least it's warm enough now for Alaskans to be comfortable, so we won't have to worry about freezing air coming in while the windows are out.

I'm surprised that Jamie is still making eggs at her age. I guess there's no such thing as "bearded dragon menopause."

We piled up a bunch of stuff on the platform where Puff's terrarium used to be because we had to move everything away from the windows to make room for them to work. I think most of it is probably going to stay there now, rather than ever get put back where it used to be. Thinks were getting crowded and blocking the windows in other parts of the house. Nice not to have a bunch of stuff in front of the windows blocking the light. And whenever you have a horizontal surface, it becomes a "stuff magnet" and doesn't stay clear for very long, or at least that's what tends to happen around here. We have too much stuff and not enough house.

 

[BlueDragon09]

Sorry to hear about your computer issues.

I don’t like to celebrate because nothing happens. It’s fine for me though.

Tom is gonna have to find an opening in his busy schedule to fit Broly in. I told him, Broly’s jowl looks swollen/big. Now it could be nothing and his walking (has aggressive MBD in the past) has gotten worse with age despite vet grade vitamin/calcium supplements. He’s almost army crawling. Besides that, he’s happy and loves to eat. I’ll be honest I hadn’t checked his weight in a few months...busy. Im sure it’s fine as he does eat, I’ll get on it as soon as I can. He still hates greens like Vash did in the past. It’s been almost 10 years since he passed. Broly doesn’t care about the jowls being touched or prodded no reaction other than the usual don’t touch my beard.

Tom just arrived home to check on Broly as I know what I’m seeing. He’s not sure what’s going on. I remember it being like this a few weeks ago. I thought he stored food every time but now it looks like this constantly. He doesn’t show any behavior changes though. Could be a bug on the way down but he never indicated anything hurting him when he ate roaches/crickets. Might be an infection so he’s gonna run tests to rule it out then we’ll move on if infections are clear.

 

[SHBailey]

So when you get to be my age, you don't celebrate birthdays anymore. One more year closer to the inevitable, although I come from a long-lived family. My father lived to be 98 and two of his aunts lived to be over 100. Some 90s on my mother's side too. I don't think I'm going to last that long though. I'll be lucky if I get another 20 years. No major health problems yet but I can foresee needing to go into assisted living at some point in the future, definitely if *God Forbid* something happens to my husband. Relatively minor things like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, swollen feet, decreased mobility, etc. Probably all about being too fat. At least no diabetes (yet). I gave up dieting a long time ago. It only makes it worse -- asking your body to spend its savings account. It goes against nature and you usually end up gaining back more weight than you lost. In the end the yo-yo thing is harder on your health than just staying fat. My sister did that all her life and she didn't quite make it to 80, although that actually wasn't too bad -- probably about as good as Puff making it to 10.

Excuse the rant.

Computer issues pretty much fixed now. All I had to do was pull down something from the menu and click on a certain button, but my husband had to show me which button to click. It's like that story about the power plant that went down and nobody knew how to fix it so they called in some retired guy and he came in and pushed one button and the whole thing came back on line and worked fine. Then he sends them an itemized bill: "$1 for pushing the button; $10,000 for knowing which button to push." LOL.

I hope you and Tom can figure out what's up with Broly. Some of it sounds like it could be MBD, especially the army crawling. At least that would be fairly easy to fix with more calcium although it sounds like you're giving him enough, unless he needs more now because of his genetics and his age. The fact that he doesn't seem to be in pain and nothing wrong with his appetite is probably a good sign.

We used to check Puff's weight weekly. That was after he lost all that weight without us realizing it. We weren't going to get blindsided by that again. Not feeding him too many bugs to encourage him to eat greens, but that backfired. He held out for bugs and didn't start eating greens until he got mortally hungry. At first we thought it was a good thing that he was eating greens but when we weighed him we realized it was because he was actually starving. After that we offered him bugs every day and let him eat as many as he wanted, and to heck with the greens. He did eat a little bit of greens (small piece of a small leaf) once in a while, and he still liked squash. We had to settle for that. Not eating enough greens did not seem to shorten his life when all was said and done, especially considering the adenovirus.

We still have the digital scale we bought especially for weighing him. We may find another use for it someday.

Puff didn't seem to mind having his beard touched. In fact, when he fluffed it up I used to be able to get him to relax by stroking him under his chin. "Don't pull that big bad macho dragon routine with me -- I'm bigger than you. Put it down..."

I was outside yesterday, and it actually felt "warm," or at least not "cold". Very pleasant. High 50s. That would have felt cold to me when I lived in California. I guess I've completely adapted after over 25 years up here. About the only time I ever get out of the house anymore is church and doctor's appointments, both of which I now like to do over Zoom whenever I can get away with it. I got spoiled during the pandemic, but now my husband insists on going to church in person, so I go with him. We finally quit wearing masks, but I still feel a little bit unsafe without one. I'm immune to "cabin fever" these days, and I should be immune to covid too, with all the shots I've had.

And to think I thought I wouldn't have much to talk about anymore now that Puff is gone! Excuse the TLDR.

 

[BlueDragon09]

He’s got arthritis from his early MBD years. He doesn’t move much and we’re starting him on serrapeptase for pain and can be used long term. I got info from Tracie that it’s good for pain, swelling and inflammation. As for his beard, well he smacked it a couple times on this box he LOVES to jump to. Box is now off to recycling so no more of that. Tests are all clear so now we’re thinking injury and I was correct, he smacked it again and swelled back up. It was gradually going down it’s not noticeable unless you see change. It seems to be going down maybe I think. I really can’t tell.
It’s slow on going back to normal. He’s mad we took his box away it’s for your own good dude.
I guess that’s it.. nothing else to report.

 

[SHBailey]

I guess some arthritis isn't surprising at Broly's age. At least you found out that it's not something more serious. I've heard that serrapeptase is good stuff. It comes from silkworms. I tried to get some silkworms for Puff but nobody ships them to Alaska -- not even the eggs. My vet was going to do some research about serrapeptase but never got back to me. Doesn't matter now.

I don't know for sure that Puff did not have arthritis in his last few years. It was never diagnosed. His movements got shaky and he moved less and less, but that could have been due to the adenovirus.

Puff was a klutz all his life and it only got worse when he got older. I think he banged he wrist falling off of his basking platform, and we didn't notice when it first happened. That's probably why he had that lump on his wrist that would occasionally swell up and need medical attention. Sometimes the vet would have to aspirate the goop out of it, and then gave him medication in case of infection. He didn't seem to have any more problems (not with that particular issue at least) when he got older, so I guess it finally healed up.

We ended up padding everything in his tank with terrycloth towels to keep him from hurting himself, but he still managed to land upside down on his way to the bottom of the tank where his hide was. We had this nice little ramp for him to go "downstairs" from his basking platform, but half the time he insisted on going off the side and getting stuck between the basking platform and the side of the tank, so we stuffed more towels between the platform and the glass, trying to eliminate all the ways he could get himself in trouble. Once we thought we had it all covered, he'd find another way.

Nothing much exciting going on around here at the moment, but my husband has more time off at the end of this month. His employer has a "use it or lose it" policy about vacation time, and his boss tries to make sure he uses it all (good for his boss, or my husband would cheat himself). He likes to wait until the end of the fiscal year, (June 30) in case he gets sick and needs to use it earlier. Problem is, that's what most of his coworkers like to do too, especially since it's also summer, and somebody has to cover the office. But he's got a little seniority now, although they don't have high turnover. Most people there like their jobs, unlike when he worked at Kinko's, where he ended up being one of the senior employees after working there for only a year. I'm glad he didn't work there for very much longer either.

Anyway, we've got a couple of road trips planned. One just a day trip to our friends in Trapper Creek, who used to babysit my husband when he was little. We've visited them every summer since we were married. We are also going to visit his stepmother in Homer for 4 days and 3 nights. Now that we don't have Puff anymore we don't have to worry about not leaving him alone for more than one night. Don't get me wrong -- we do miss Puff. Especially the cuddles.

A little over a month until high summer (solstice). "Night" is already gone -- nothing but twilight. My husband and I both love it. We have to enjoy it while we can here, because Alaskan summers are really short.

 

[BlueDragon09]

His beard is getting slightly less swollen. He did smack it again a second time. Since then, we make sure he doesn’t get out unattended (sometimes he escapes when it’s tank clean day). We have him in an 80 gallon. He was in a 125 but since he shakes when walks despite new UVB and the supplements he just isn’t the same. He actually cuddled with me! He doesn’t do this. He never has. Ive tried to have him do it when younger but he wasn’t having it now he’ll do it. We encourage him to walk a bit not much. Serrapeptase is helping him feel better to have energy to walk. Tracie says this came from early MBD days. I always try to keep spare bulbs and fixtures around. No UVB for even a day MBD starts creeping up crazy fast! It’s aggressive! A healthy beardie can take up to 2 weeks without UVB but not my boy.
It’s fine he’s still a troublemaker inside and outside the house. Our livewire..

He hasn’t used the bathroom in a week he went last week and he’s been eating well nothing too big or any foreign objects that he shouldn’t eat. He eats squash and that has water content same with collards and the bugs are eating the collards too. I don’t dare try a bath he wouldn’t go he’d rather try to get out. He’s never liked baths so I don’t wanna stress him out. He does bask for 3 hours so that’s not it. I’ll drip water on his nose he’ll take that. I don’t believe he’s dehydrated but extra doesn’t hurt.

 

[SHBailey]

We had a 125 gallon tank for Puff -- wanted him to have as much space as we could get away with. No room for anything larger, but it seemed adequate. He didn't really use all of his space for the last few years. But he was used to it when he was young. When we visited his "Grandfather" we kept him in a smaller tank and he went nuts trying to get out, as well as not wanting to take a bath in the sink, since we had a plastic tub for him at home. That little beardie did not travel well.

We got rid of the tank after Puff was gone because we don't plan on getting any more reptiles, unless my sister's turtle needs a home. Not so far because since she died, her son has been taking decent care of the turtle, as far as we know. But the turtle would come with her own tank if so. Meanwhile, the place where Puff's tank used to be has become a stuff magnet, mostly stuff that was in front of the windows. Now that all but one of the windows is done we haven't bothered putting most of it back.

Wow -- Broly is really sensitive to the UVB - MBD thing if he can't go without for even a day. That's a good precaution that you keep spare lighting supplies around.

Puff always tolerated being cuddled but I was never sure if he enjoyed it. I was lucky I got to cuddle him for a while on the last day of his life. I felt like I got to say goodbye. It must be nice to get to cuddle Broly for a change.

Puff used to go for up to 2 weeks without a poop, and once even 3 weeks. We had an appointment with the vet that time but he pooped on the morning of his appointment so we didn't have to worry about it. We still took him though because he was overdue for a checkup anyway. We learned not to worry about it if it was less than 2 weeks. I always kept track of that and his weight. Repashy grub pie turned out to be a good laxative too.

Midsummer now, but luckily it hasn't been too hot this year. I guess I'm a real Alaskan now (been here for almost 30 years). Anything over 70 is HOT for me. It's been mostly in the 60s.

We did our usual summer trips to visit our friends in Trapper Creek and my step mother in law in Homer. My husband had a couple of weeks off, including the holiday yesterday (complete with the usual illegal fireworks in the neighborhood). He's back at work today with no more days off for a while.

 

[Lyrebird.Rainwing]

118 PAGES OF COMMENTS!? HOLY MOTHER OF TURDS

 

[SHBailey]

Yep. We've kept this thread going for a looooong time.

 

[BlueDragon09]

Hi!

I have returned! A few updates.

Oh a newcomer hello!

Broly’s beard swelling is going down after getting everything else ruled out. He does have a wobbly walk now. We had to downsize from 120 to 80 gallon. It was confirmed as Tracie we can do this. No high climbing logs we do however have a guinea pig liner for a soft flooring. It was tiles but Im not risking him falling over his feet. It does happen. He gets serrapeptase it’s good for him. He’s happy at least. Not much else is going on at the moment. An update on Broly is pretty much all I have.

 

[SHBailey]

Hi...

Glad to hear that Broly is still plugging along with no major problems. We had to surround Puff with soft stuff too -- pretty early on in his life because he was a klutz from the get-go. We used wads of towels. We kept him in the large tank though (125 gal) but he probably could have done with a smaller one when he was older because he didn't seem to have the energy to walk from one end to the other and use all the space. But keeping the large one didn't seem to do any harm either.

The only other major news around here is that we FINALLY got the last of our new windows in. Took them around 3-4 tries to get the measurements right. They all work great and we can now open all the windows in the house easily. What a concept!

It's been a cool summer here this year (fine with me -- I don't like hot) and now it's almost over. It tends to turn cool and rainy this month, unlike California (that weird place I used to live where it never snows) where August was usually the hottest month. Seeing the heat waves nowadays with temperatures in the triple digits, I'm not sorry I moved north.

 

[BlueDragon09]

Huh needed a new password for some odd reason. I KNOW my password but whatever.

Broly has a URI. Ive taken steps to kill it off doesn’t explain the beard swelling though he is shedding. He’s not acting too sick at all really. He’s still eating and using the bathroom. I use the heater to boost his immune system so that should help out. It’s getting to that time of year. He loves honey (it’s raw and unpasteurized) water to thin it. Ive seen Broly breathe hard at times and opening his mouth as if to cough or gag. No mucus so I believe it’s been caught in its very early stage.

In regard to the beard. It shouldn’t be so swollen and black though he has lots of energy to wake up and run around as if nothing. Not sitting around in pain. I don’t know if there’s pain, I push on it no reaction. It’s not hard either. It’s been going on since June. We’re again going to see if there’s an infection going on or something else. It could be URI but never heard of any dragons beards going swollen because of it. Who knows maybe he’s the first case.

 

[SHBailey]

Hi...

That's weird about Broly's beard. I hope you can figure it out and that it doesn't turn out to be anything serious. Puff's beard was dark near the end of his life so I hope he wasn't in too much pain, but I'm afraid that's probably what it meant. In Broly's case, if he's running around and acting like nothing's wrong, he's probably not feeling too bad. Breathing hard once in a while and trying to cough is probably to be expected under the circumstances. Whatever it is, I hope he gets well and stays that way. That's what we always want for our beardies (and all of our other critters as well). Nice for you to be married to a vet, especially when you have a small zoo. I still miss having some sort of a little critter around (reptile or otherwise), but it's not fair for my husband to get stuck with all the hard work when I'm not up to it.

I had to get a new email address because our wonderful (sarcasm) telecommunications service provider shut down their email service. I put the new one in on this website and it seems to be working fine -- I got the email notice that you'd posted a new message just like always and it came to my new address. I wish all my other attempts to fix my email address elsewhere had been so easy. So far it hasn't asked me for a new password and I'm glad for that. I'm no good at making up new ones, not to mention remembering them. I only have a few that I use daily or often and I usually don't forget those, but for others my husband has an encrypted flash drive where he keeps all of our passwords. So as long as we get them on there in the first place whenever we make up a new one, if we forget one all we have to do is pull out the flash drive, plug it in the computer, and problem solved. He keeps it in a VERY safe place. Especially needed in his case because my husband is famous for thinking up wild and crazy unhackable passwords. He'll have some weird silly mnemonic sentence and then replace letters with numbers and weird shifted characters. Whenever he sets up something new for me, I always tell him to let me make up my own password, please.

Same old same old around here otherwise -- getting darker and rainier and cooler. No frost just yet... stay tuned.