Broly the new super saiyan beardie

Picture coming up!

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

 

[BlueDragon09]

Yeah I don’t think he’ll do it again. I mean I was right there I was getting it up. I look over with paper towel in hand I see it nowhere and he’s licking his lips...Im like “no freaking way...don’t take your sister’s advice she’s a hamster.” I know Bardiel is a troublemaker but she’s not gonna tell a dragon to eat his you know...crap.

Found the culprit why he doesn’t gain a lot of weight. Big C word... I don’t even wanna say it. Now I have to think about putting him down or let him live out the rest of his life with it. Tom said he seems happy and he eats, this is your decision he’s yours. He does seem happy and he has quality of life here he’s not lying around dying. He doesn’t seem he’s suffering he’s completely enjoying himself he does gain a little weight but he has trouble keeping it. Man I don’t know this crap is messed up. I will feel like a horrible person letting him live like this though he doesn’t seem hindered by it. Tom will support my decision. He understands it’s a hard one to make as he seems happy. I guess when he stops eating and lying around dying quality of life is gone. I don’t know...I will need a lot of time and thought into this. He’s asleep right now. Im just here thinking of the hardest decision is he suffering? Is he happy? You know those questions. He doesn’t have a black beard anymore...dang. I had a dog like this and he went peacefully no vet he went to sleep and he was happy until the end. You can’t tell he’s lost weight. Maybe I should let him go losing weight he can’t be happy...my head hurts. I’ll try to sleep being sleep deprived won’t help my decision making any easier as if it’s easier in the first place.

 

[SHBailey]

Sorry to hear that you found out what's wrong with Broly and that's what it turned out to be. But it doesn't sound like he's suffering so as long as he's still enjoying life I think you're doing the right thing by letting him live as long as it's still worth it for him. Tough decision, but you don't have to decide right away as long as he's still happy. I wish you and him all the best for whatever time he has left.

 

[BlueDragon09]

We’re going to go through with the surgery it’s small and must’ve shown up late winter with the new symptoms. Tom is confident Broly will make it through. How it was described seems only some of the liver will be cut off to make sure it’s all gone and no chance to come back and spread.

He’s eating lots better! He’s finishing bowls of squash most days so he’s getting supplements. He can not care for salads though it’s offered every morning ever since he was a baby. He just doesn’t give two rats behind about greens and bell peppers lol. I better get some sleep. Oh he’s also keeping weight on.

 

[SHBailey]

It sounds like he's got a good chance. The liver can grow back in humans so I assume it's the same for bearded dragons. Is Tom going to do the surgery himself? It sounds like Broly is doing well in the meantime, and even if he doesn't eat greens, at least he eats squash so you've got something to put the supplements in. I know from personal experience that beardies who don't eat their veggies can still stay healthy. Whatever he eats, at least it's good that he's maintaining his weight.

 

[BlueDragon09]

He made it through guys! Tom did it himself and Broly is already home. Broly stayed at the hospital for a few days after the surgery just in case. I have pain meds for him he’s not been black bearding at all since. Broly looks a whole lot better than before like nothing happened. Luckily he doesn’t move too much so he’s happier chilling in his warm window right now. I don’t wanna stress him with outside at the moment though birds/noises and smells don’t bother him but I rather keep stress low. I pick him up carefully trying not to hurt him. I don’t pick him up every day because obviously some days he’s not interested. He is eating a bit not as much and it’s understandable. He ate about 4 roaches before going to sleep under his basking light. I’ll show pics of him eventually it’s been a while. I’ll just get through recovery time first then take pics.

 

[BlueDragon09]

He’s a lot happier today so I took a few pics and will upload tomorrow or Friday. As a warning he still looks skinny but he’s on the mend. Now that the cancer is gone some healthy liver went with it unfortunately. Tom said it will regenerate itself so that’s good news. This poor beardie been through hell. Knot in the intestines (fixed itself), aggressive MBD from an early age which turned to arthritis senior years and now cancer. He’s beaten all the odds. Even cancer didn’t keep him down. He’s truly a miracle child.

Urate looked like an off white color but not blue. He might have weird urates for a while and Im ok with it. He polished off a whole bowl of squash looks like his big appetite is on and off.

 

[SHBailey]

Glad to hear that Broly made it through the surgery, and it sounds like he's doing better. He's definitely a trooper for overcoming all the stuff he's had to deal with -- and you too, of course, for taking care of him through it all.

It's easy to get lost in all the different colors urate can be, but I think off-white is the most normal one, so you're good there. If it stays that way, that's one less thing to worry about.

We just got back from visiting family in Homer and it was quite an "adventure" (euphemism) this time. Our car broke down in the middle of nowhere on the way down. First thing to go wrong was the engine overheating, so we managed to get it a little further along by stopping every few miles to let the engine cool down, but then it decided it was out of gas (we had half a tank) and wouldn't go at all, so we had to get towed the rest of the way, and then we had to have it towed all the way back to Anchorage ($$$) because there were no shops in Homer that weren't booked out for weeks. No rental cars available so we borrowed one from a friend (a very good friend, we owe him big time) to get me back home because I couldn't ride in the tow truck with my husband (can't climb up that high and not enough room in the cab for two people anyway, and not allowed to ride in the car while it's being towed.) So my husband rode home with the tow truck, got the car from our friend, and drove back to Homer to get me. Then we almost hit a moose on the way home (at least it was almost -- stopped just in time) and then almost got mixed up in a forest fire -- the fire trucks had traffic stopped and backed up for about 3 miles along the highway. Fortunately, we were one of the first in line, but too close to the smoke for comfort. If I had seen flames I would have freaked out, but it looked like they got it out before they let us move on. I don't like to think what else could have gone wrong on this trip. At least we made it home in one piece, just barely.

 

[BlueDragon09]

It was still green/blue and purple for a bit and may do that occasionally. It’s mostly white these days though.

He’s shedding his lips at the moment so he’s grumpy. I have a picture of him and I’ll show it today since life is in the way lol. He’s doing well and the fish...well he’s not but Im trying. He’s still alive and eating but barely hanging on. I dosed correctly I guess he’s just not strong enough. Swim bladder plus bacterial infection is too much for his body.

I finally gave up the aquarium hobby. I need a break it’s been 14 years since I started this hobby and I want a break after he goes. I’ll just concentrate on the hamster and the dragons. I’ll keep the tank and start over anyway. Tank will at least be washed for next time.

That sucks..anyway here’s Broly: it’s a bit dark as it was late afternoon lighting was horrible lol.

 

[SHBailey]

I was lucky that Puff didn't get too grumpy when he was shedding. As he got older, he didn't do full body sheds anymore -- just patches. Nostril sheds were the most interesting.

Broly looks good in the photo, even if he is a little in shadow.

I always thought you had more than enough critters to keep you busy, so it's probably good that you're planning to give up on the aquarium. But you got a good deal going with your husband being a vet. I'm happy with my built in system administrator -- my husband is a computer wiz and I love him too, and now that we don't have any more critters I spend most of my time on the internet, so whenever it goes down I have someone right here who can fix it. And he earns us a living with that skill too.

We finally got our car back from the shop. Took them about 3 weeks to finally get around to it -- they only have one guy who can service electric cars. Turned out to be a fuse. We're in the market for another shop to take it to. These guys are incompetent. Kept not returning our calls and making all kinds of excuses. The place is less than a mile from our house and my husband can walk there to drop off the car and bring it home, but that's about all that's good about it anymore. We originally bought the car there and they used to do a good job, but then they got bought out and the service went south.

Big trip to Costco yesterday now that we have the car back -- we were running out of everything and thinking about renting a UHaul so we could get groceries. Hopefully things will get back to normal now.

 

[BlueDragon09]

Got a better pic of him.

His fat pads are down but it’s ok. We do our best here. I might show off the old fish tank once I decorate it without a fish in mind. It’s strange not having an aquarium but it’s for mental health reasons as a fish getting sick/old age whatever takes a toll on me. I know life has to stop somewhere Im aware of that but it still does take its toll.

Glad your car is back.

Broly better lighting.

 

[SHBailey]

Broly looks good in the picture. He doesn't look like he's too skinny to be healthy.

Once you take the water out of the fish tank you could use it for a reptile. Or you could put some houseplants in it -- might make a good greenhouse.

It's always rough loosing your little critters whether it's a fish or a lizard or a cat or a dog, but I think it's still worth having them anyway. If I was able to take care of them and not stick my poor husband with all the hard work when I'm too depressed to do it, I'd still have some. I'd probably have a cat if my husband wasn't allergic to them. It would take care of the mice around here, although I hate to think about that because in my opinion mice are cute little critters too.

I can't believe it's the first day of August already. We've had some nice weather lately but a lot of rain too. This used to be the hottest month in California (and brush fire season) but it usually turns cool and rainy here. I like having the new windows because we can open all of them when it gets too warm in the house. Too warm for Alaskans, that is

 

[BlueDragon09]

Broly’s doing fine, he sits in his tank watching the window. He enjoys going out since it rained for the last couple days it’s cooled off so no one is going outside. It’s getting to be that time of year, soon Jamie and Kane will be down mid September and wake up in beginning of March (it’s always been this way). Kane now has entered the senior years or as we call them “golden years” much like the Golden Girls on tv well was back then. My grandma watched them all the time. Anyway, Kane is now 8 years old, Jamie will be 11 years old September and January 2025 Broly will be 10.
They’ve all been watching football since preseason is on. Jamie prefers watching tv from her area LOL. She doesn’t do “family watching” she sits under her basking we have set up on a windowsill. Kane sits with Tom while you guessed it, Broly is with me. That’s right the once never ever cuddled in his younger years does it now.

Well I guess that’s all for now.

 

[SHBailey]

It's been raining here too -- typical for August in Anchorage AK. I guess it's cooling off at your place too. Broly will just have to make do with heat lamps now And at least Jamie and Kane are reliable with their brumation schedule so you know what's going on instead of worrying about them being sick or something. Puff never really brumated, which was a blessing because the vet said he wasn't healthy enough for it, especially when he got older.

All your beardies have definitely reached a respectable age. My mom and I used to watch "Golden Girls" together all the time too -- we hardly ever missed it -- even though I was still relatively "young" (however you define that. They say that "old" is always about 15 years older than you are now. For example, when I was 30, 45 seemed old. And now that I'm 67, 85 is "old" and 45 is "young"). I think I'd have gotten a big kick out of the Golden Girls at any age.

Nice for you that Broly finally likes cuddling. Puff would tolerate it but I'm not sure if he really liked it, except that once in a while he would do this little maneuver that was sort of a cross between snuggling up and digging in, so I figured he was at least able to get comfortable when I was holding him. Enjoy your cuddles!

 

[BlueDragon09]

Yeah, was surprised!

Anyway, small update. Fish tank is no longer housing a fish. It’s a work in progress so please don’t criticize too much LOL.

Broly wanted to chill on the bed (too warm to cuddle) weather wasn’t cooling off just yet (prove me wrong weather). Oh well...he did crap on the bed which was unusual he doesn’t usually understand the whole “should go elsewhere than the tank”. Normal color urate was blueish green...liver must still be healing itself. It’s doing “urate is the rainbow” thing. It’s been lovely colors LOL. Well it’s never been red or pink.

September 6-8th (coming home 8th) I will be going to comicon but not to have fun or meet actors and stuff. I’ll be selling my own original characters and yes of course nobody will heard of them before. I gotta start somewhere put yourself out there. Tom will be there meeting his favorite actors/actresses including voice actors. I’ll meet them after I can get Tom to watch my table. My dad will be feeding the lizards. Of course I have to spend the night on the 5th so Im there on the 6th. I go in earlier than the people attending gotta set up. My nephew (Chris) is like 14 now will be helping my slow butt count money LOL. Im horrible at it and he was happy to help. My sister says he’s going to be an accountant or something. Maybe he should run the table lol. My 9 year old niece won’t stay at the table she’ll be with my sister and sister’s friend. She’ll stop by though because she’s curious to know how we’re doing and report back to my sister LOL. For a 9 year old she knows how to navigate through a crowd of people. Im always bumping into someone and yet she gets through without that. Tell me your secrets Sammy! How do you do it?! I always have someone Ive bumped into.

That’s all for now.

 

[SHBailey]

It's the same for bearded dragons as it is for people -- when ya gotta go, ya gotta go. Puff pooped in the bed once or twice too. Eww... Oh well. We needed to change the sheets anyway. He usually pooped in the bath, at least when he was younger. It was really convenient to clean up after him that way -- just dump it down the drain

I used to paint -- mostly landscapes and sometimes seascapes and florals. I tried to sell my paintings but I was never successful. Once I had a few of them on consignment at a store that sold such things, and they sold one -- I don't know which one it was so I didn't find out anything about what sold best. Then the place burned down and I got a little money out of the insurance So I hope you do better than I did.

I'm ok at counting money but what I never could do was make change the old-fashioned way. I used to work retail sales back when they had the old non-computer cash registers. Then they got the new electronic ones and all you had to do was put in the "amount tendered" and it would tell you how much change to give them. I hated it when the customer (after I had done that and closed the cash drawer) would say "Oh wait -- I have this much change..." Bottom line, I'm glad I didn't have to do that forever but for a while it was the only kind of work I could get because that was the only experience I had. It all started when my mother, who was a secretary, tried to get a second job at a department store to make a little extra money when I was in college. They told her she was overqualified but she happened to mention she had a daughter and they said they might hire her daughter, so I went and applied just to shut her up and they hired me. I didn't need another job -- I was carrying a full course load and I had a job on campus, so I had very little time for anything but work and study. I was young enough then and had just barely enough energy to get away with it. Fortunately, I eventually managed to get office jobs later.

Ok, I guess that was enough TLDR for now.