Deformed baby

[kingofnobbys]

Awww...poor baby If it is a double snout it would be more difficult for sure. Sounds like he's a fighter though. He's lucky you have him as someone else might have 'let nature' take it's course (pfft...I'd still try too.). I would love to hear how he makes out. He looks so sweet! Glad you were able to order it! I love that stuff...It made a world of difference with my Evee girl.

I will be interested in hearing updates too, hope he / she thrives and has a long happy life.

Regarding getting sufficient calcium into him/her.

I recommend buying some liquid calcium solution (even if it's designed for birds) , I've used CalciVet with rescued / injured skinks and they did very well / thrived on it.
Need to dose daily by the lizard's weight so good idea to weigh the hatchling at least once a week, this will be your best indicator of growth.

I've used http://www.vetnpetdirect.com.au/herpavite with water skinks who were wild injured rescues (under vet advise) and they worked extremely well with these who were very difficult to feed (especially Lucky who had a broken lower jaw cf the next door's cat).

When I was dealing with little Lucky (a juvenile water skink I rescued from next door's cat who was in hot persuit of him) I took him to the local reptile vet and he prescribed things for him including CalciVet solution and provided me with a bunch of cannular needles' the outler flexi-tubes only (little flexy plastic tubes that screwed onto the end of the syringe to give him his oral antibiotics and oral doses of liquid calcium with.
The trick was to hold the little lizard (lucky was only initially about 6g) and to slip the cannular needle tube in between the lips and teeth , he advised at the corner of the mouth as a lizard can be very stubborn about clamping it's jaws shut and I didn't want to injure his already broken lower left jaw more in the process of feeding and giving medicines and suppliments.

Lucky took out his displeasure on the cannular tubes by chewing them up and making them unusuable after a week or two (but the vet was only charging $3 for 2 or 3 of these at a time , I think of memory serves me they blue coloured (23G). Kinda like https://au.pinterest.com/pin/565764771922218265/ only smaller .

The vet should have some suitable liquid calcium and liquid vitamin solution on hand or can formulate a mix of these as needed, and demonstrate how to get the cannular tube into the mouth.(Needn't go down the throat, just past the lips and teeth and into the mouth.... Lucky loved the taste of the Calcivet solution, would lick the residue off my figures afterwards.... but hated the oral antibiotics.
Another option and worth considering is a set of crop needles (he/she'll grow and you will likely need to help him/her eat for life and will need larger crop needles when he gets bigger) , again, I would only use the crop needle to get the liquid suppliments and food if you need to give slurries and special foods to him / her into the mouth , unless the vet instructs you how to use the needles to get the food directly down the throat into his/her stomache (this can be done with lizards as well with birds) BUT only give a little at a time .... not a huge amount each ïnjection'.

This is what crop needles look like http://www.vetnpetdirect.com.au/vetafarm_crop_needle_set
and http://www.vetnpetdirect.com.au/crop_medication_needles_birds. For this hatchling you might need a 12G crop needle I think ??? VetnDirect will advise the correct size if you email them.

If you need to force feed the little guy and don't feel confortable with forcing his mouth open to put food / suppliments in , a 12G crop needle that can slipped between the lips and teeth is the gentlest way , only needs to the get the end of the needle past the teeth to do the job.

 

[Rankins]

You have gotten great suggestions and I couldn't add to it. Just wanted to say I hope it makes it. It's actually really cute.
Sadly this is likely caused through inbreeding. Small gene pool that is getting smaller each year.

 

[NBGwen]

I will upload some pictures as soon as I figure out where I can add them! The first time it took me right where I needed to be... now I can't find where to upload them.

It's to the right WAYYYY down but here's the link https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/

(sidebar - is there a way the website gurus could move the link towards the top?)

 

[Neesieb]

I live in Wyoming where most of our vets at big animal specialists but I will do some research. Here are some pictures:

 

[NBGwen]

I'm no expert, but he looks like a Janus to me. They vary in severity and appear in many species (including humans) - some have two fully formed heads, some have two of each facial feature on one head. He looks like half his face is half of half face, while the other half was more 'complete' with both nostrils showing. There's a central spot on his forehead that looks like the join where the two met. Definitely a unique little one, and getting him up to size could be a challenge. He definitely has to be kept separate from the others - they look so huge compared to him lol - he may always be on the small side, but could very well surprise us

 

[Neesieb]

I took a video

of him eating last night and took snapshots of it.

 

[NBGwen]

I'm even more convinced now...that spot on his forehead central looks like where another eye would be - it's shape is similar and his markings are such that it looks like two faces have been sliced and spliced together but not quite even. I could be wrong - afterall I'm not seeing him in person, but all the markings are there.

I find it very exciting as Janus animals are rare since they normally would not survive birth/hatching.

 

[Neesieb]

I'm extremely excited as well! I'm feeling bad because I don't know where the parents came from and could very well be siblings. I will not allow the eggs to hatch again. However....if this little guy survives it would be a great learning experience for my students! Especially for those who don't quite fit in

 

[NBGwen]

AHH!!! That's right! He would be WONDERFUL for those special students (my son has learning and behavioural disabilities, so something like this would have been amazing for him). You are a great teacher to think of that! I'm pulling for him!

 

[Neesieb]

He's still got some turkey on his face I was able to feed him a larger amount today... but I don't want to overdo it. How much should I be feeding him?

 

[NBGwen]

He's pretty tiny...I would do a little at a time and see how he manages. It's hard to judge. If he has a growth spurt he'll eat more, but I think you would be able to judge based on how he acts.

 

[Neesieb]

Update: Ally is doing great! He has a lot more energy! I do half his feedings with baby food and half with the zilla supplement. He responds to my voice also...it's so cute! He jumps towards me when I speak to him. Yesterday we had an improvement. I need to open his mouth and then he holds it open for a couple seconds to let me put food in. I'm not extremely good at this and miss a lot.... his mouth is so little! Usually I have to repeat until I get the small chunk in his mouth.... but yesterday he pulled the baby food into his mouth on his own! Hopefully soon he'll open his mouth on his own! He is in his own cage now.

 

[Neesieb]

He's 10cm long and 2 grams

 

[NBGwen]

YAY!!! That's wonderful news! Way to go Ally! Hopefully he keeps it up!

 

[Neesieb]

I saw ally drink on his own out of a bowl today! That made my night! He's doing really well. He holds his head up off the ground most of the time I see him now. Hopefully sometime soon he'll eat on his own!