I'm a sucker for Beardies- 3 rescues- Pics!

[danab]

Hubby finally gave me the go ahead for expanding our beardie family so I hunted around for some new tanks and got super lucky! We got 6 gently used Crittter Condoz (4 of which would be the eventual homes for our new beardie additions). I was planning on making some purchases over time from the breeders who are active on the forums here, but fate intervened and we now have three new beardies that I just couldn't say no to!

The people who sold the Condoz to me were really, really nice (I mean I seriously liked them tons). But they had some beardies they were breeding etc. and they were not in good shape and needed some serious TLC. They were looking for someone who would be willing to deal with their rehab and medical issues and I am a super sucker for animals in need. So in addition to the Condoz I left with two rescues.

The first is a 2 year old female that our son named Peppercorn. I was told that she was sold to a customer that put her in a tank wth a full grown male. The male basically beat the crud out of her and the customer returned her to the breeder. When I first saw her she was in a plastic tote, on paper towels with no lights. She lost a good portion of her tail, a large toe and she was kind of dragging her back legs. She has a curvature to her spine. Prior to the plastic tub she had been in a four foot cage on sand with another female and she was not eating and getting bullied so they moved her to the tote. I have no idea how long she had been there recouperating.

My son adored her and I was mentally going through the list of things that were probably wrong with her. MBD, impaction from sand, parasites. dehydration etc. etc. Luckily I had 4 new tanks and I work from home so I knew I could devote the time to nursing her. After being with us for a few days I noticed a small amount of blood in her stool so she had her first trip to the vet. She has high coccidia counts and most likely MBD. The vet thinks the curve in her spine is from it previously being broken. She is so much smaller and weaker than my one year old girl and she is two years old.

Peppercorn is the absolute sweetest beardie I have ever seen. And eventhough she is very damaged, she holds her head high and is such a trooper! She has been on Albon and liquid calcium for 4 days and today her appetite has really increased. She is moving around her cage and has been waiting for us to pick her up. So much handwashing.......

Our second rescue is a Sandfire/Citrus named Akiko (that's the name the breeder gave him and we haven't decided on his new name yet). He is a 2.5 year old male and he has almost no color, is underweight and he has a big kink/break in his tail. The breeder told me "he broke his tail in the cage but the vet says it is healed". He also has a crooked toe and I pretty much knew he had MBD. When I looked at his light, it was an aquarium tube. Gah! His eyes were all sunken in and purple...Gah! The vet says he will most likely have to be treated as well but since he is improving with baths (you should have seen all the dust that came out of his nostrils. I don't know how he breathed) and is improving under his new lights and is eating we are hoping he will not be as bad off as Peppercorn.

Rescue number 3 is named Cayenne and we got him from a pet store (I went there to get Peppercorn and Akiko some carpet so I could get all the sand out of their tanks). He was less than 5 inches long and had his eyes closed. His skin was all wrinkly and he looked like he would topple over. They had large pieces of peeled carrots and adult sized pellets in his food dish. The thing that really got me was that he is definitely a leatherback with pretty orange colors (maybe even tiger striped) and I think he will be a beautiful boy! How could the breeder ship him off when he was so small and risk him dying? I left that day but couldn't stop thinking about him. So we went back the next day and Cayenne came home with us LOL.

I have been giving Cayenne baths and feeding him baby food (he loves chicken and squash). His eyes had stuff in them so I have been doing sterile saline rinses. I think he might have gotten bulb burned and dehydrated. He's beginning to perk up quite a bit so I am hoping he will pull through.

I am posting this because I am quite sure this will be a long road to recovery for these babies. You will have to put up with me asking all sorts of questions as things come up! Supplies and supplements are coming from Rioreptiles and Cheryl is wonderful. I just posted some pics of how they look on 7/1. We are allready in love with these guys!

Dana

Here's Peppercorn She is 2 years old , 276g and 11.5 inches to the end of her stubby tail!





This is Saffron (previously Akiko). He is 2.5 years olf 406g and 14 inches- He's missing tail too! He's gotten a little bit of his color back and we are hoping to see even more!




And little Cayenne- He is doing so much better! He has started opening his eyes more and doesn't seem to have the gunk in them. Still a little droopy eyed but I think we are on the right track! Now if he would just grow a bit I will feel much better. He is soooooo tiny- might lose a little of the end of his tail too!

 

[AHBD]

Good for you Dana, it sounds like your poor little sad - sack beardies have found the right " sucker" to take care of them and give them a chance at a good life. I hope the poor mangled female have some quality of life after her bad start. I hope they all do well !

 

[danab]

Good for you Dana, it sounds like your poor little sad - sack beardies have found the right " sucker" to take care of them and give them a chance at a good life. I hope the poor mangled female have some quality of life after her bad start. I hope they all do well !

Thank you so much! We are really going to give our all to these guys.

Peppercorn is my son's favorite and honestly with everything that has happened to her, I am really amazed at how much she loves people. She comes to the front of the tank and gives you this begging look, she never gets stress marks when you pick her up and she gets all sad when you put her back in her cage. She is eating dubias and since she can't really chase after them, we are dropping them in front of her so she ony has to move a few inches to get them. I tried putting her in a critter keeper with them and she didn't like that. She really wants to chase her food and if its not moving in front of her like a duck shooting game she doesnt want it! So we have to pinball her feeders back and forth until she gets them. Its like she refuses to admit she is handicapped.

 

[AHBD]

Hi Dana....well those guys all look reasonably healthy, of decent weight for their lengths [ remember, a FAT beardie is not a healthy one, no more than any other animal or humans ] So as long as the tail base has the full look to it, with no hip bones protruding, and they have fullness to their bellies, they are a decent weight. So don't go overboard and make them fat! They all look really good aside from the crooked MBD tail, so you don't have anything there that looks to be of real concern, just give the proper food, calcium,UVB and hydration [ all with TLC] and they should do just fine. The baby already has a fat belly [ very good ! ] and a sparkle in his little eye. Good job ! Very cute !

 

[danab]

Hi Dana....well those guys all look reasonably healthy, of decent weight for their lengths [ remember, a FAT beardie is not a healthy one, no more than any other animal or humans ] So as long as the tail base has the full look to it, with no hip bones protruding, and they have fullness to their bellies, they are a decent weight. So don't go overboard and make them fat! They all look really good aside from the crooked MBD tail, so you don't have anything there that looks to be of real concern, just give the proper food, calcium,UVB and hydration [ all with TLC] and they should do just fine. The baby already has a fat belly [ very good ! ] and a sparkle in his little eye. Good job ! Very cute !

Thanks! They have allready perked up quite a bit in the short time they have been here. I was worried that Akiko was underweight because to me he feels like he has no belly at all. So that's good if hes not. He isn't eating all that much and neither of the adults are eating their salads. I'm hoping that will change.

Do you think there is a chance that the MBD might improve enough that they aren't so crooked and could Peppercorn possibly regain some more mobility? The male just looks so uncomfortable and eventhough he has a large cage, he is always knocking over everything. He's like a beardie tornado. Greens/salad get spread everywhere and hes bumping into everything. Its like he turns and cant control or feel that his tail is playing demolition derby. I don't mind the extra tornado cleanup and helping Peppercorn eat etc. but it would be nice to know if there was even a small chance that their major problems could improve. The vet told me that healing in reptiles was "just a terribly slow process" and he could not tell me anything. Just makes me feel really bad that they got to this point.

 

[AHBD]

The deformities are there to stay. Their bones developed that way due to lack of calcium and or UVB to help them process it, which sometimes leads to soft bones that break easily. Their appetites should hopefully pick up once they get over the relocation stress. In other words, everything is new and unfamiliar to them, they are nervous and unsure of the new surroundings, but they should get over it soon. The belly should be filled out, at 400 grams and 14", [ without the tail nip he'd probably be in the 18 - 19" range] he's not bad at all, and once he starts eating better he'll probably gain a bit and fill out. They will all benefit from natural sun, but I wouldn't try that until they are happily and securely settled in.

 

[Phoebe]

What lucky beardies to have come across you! All three are gorgeous, good luck on helping these babies and keep us updated

 

[danab]

The deformities are there to stay. Their bones developed that way due to lack of calcium and or UVB to help them process it, which sometimes leads to soft bones that break easily. Their appetites should hopefully pick up once they get over the relocation stress. In other words, everything is new and unfamiliar to them, they are nervous and unsure of the new surroundings, but they should get over it soon. The belly should be filled out, at 400 grams and 14", [ without the tail nip he'd probably be in the 18 - 19" range] he's not bad at all, and once he starts eating better he'll probably gain a bit and fill out. They will all benefit from natural sun, but I wouldn't try that until they are happily and securely settled in.

Ah well I pretty much figured that would be the case. I'll do my best no matter what though. Maybe they will surprise us all!

 

[danab]

What lucky beardies to have come across you! All three are gorgeous, good luck on helping these babies and keep us updated

Thank you so much! Love the name Vegeta. Is that from the Anime or the seasoning? We are big anime freaks and all our beardies are named after spices/food seasonings or toppings so either way I love it.

 

[Phoebe]

What lucky beardies to have come across you! All three are gorgeous, good luck on helping these babies and keep us updated

Thank you so much! Love the name Vegeta. Is that from the Anime or the seasoning? We are big anime freaks and all our beardies are named after spices/food seasonings or toppings so either way I love it.

Thank you! It's from the anime Dragon Ball Z. Cool name idea's! How are your new additions doing? How did you manage to sway your husband to letting you get more beardies? My boyfriend isn't being persauded

 

[danab]

[/quote]

Thank you! It's from the anime Dragon Ball Z. Cool name idea's! How are your new additions doing? How did you manage to sway your husband to letting you get more beardies? My boyfriend isn't being persauded [/quote]

Well I'm not sure except that hubby pretty much lets me do what I want as long as it is within reason and we can afford it (I'm pretty frugal for the most part to begin with). He knows that our son is just as much of an animal freak as me too. It probably helps that he is in Afghanistan right now and he wants to see us happy while he is away. That and I'm not spending a fortune on crickets and he gets to tell all the guys in his unit about all the crazy bugs and animals we have. He loves to see pictures and everyone calls this "The Zoo". Now when he comes home and I ask him to clean poo he might not be so keen on the idea Heh.

Peppercorn is pretty much the same. I'm a bit worried about Akiko since he just wants to sleep all the time and he looks so washed out. He ate 3 med. dubias yesterday with some prodding and his calcium but then he went back to sleep in his basking area. He was doing some strange vibrating thing with his head when he first came home and he isn't doing that anymore at least. I made the mistake of letting him see Peppercorn when we were giving her meds. WHOA he sprung to life, and was black bearding and head bobbing. Then he head bobbed at the cat.... :roll: He bypasses the fresh greens alltogther but then he ate one piece that was dried up behind the dish. Its like he doesn't know what fresh veggies are.

Cayenne seems to be out of the woods. He did a pretty normal poo yesterday and even ate a nymph but I think the baby food mix has a little too much water content from the squash. He decided to get rid of his excess hydration on my bare leg (I'm so blessed). It was a little bit of urates and quite a bit of liquid. So I am going to be on super poop-examination duty today to make sure thats all it was. I think he might be getting ready to shed which would make me happy since that would be an indicator that he is growing. I am hoping that he will end up being a nice orange color as he grows older. I can't find any pics of similar babies like him though to give me a hint. <crosses fingers>

 

[danab]

Peppercorn did a round of Albon and has now decided she doesn't want to eat. So I gave her Repta-aid + squash baby food along with her liquid calcium yesterday via syringe (she really doesn't want to open her mouth or take meds of any kind) and I got my beardie medical kit supplies from beardeddragonco.com in today. Thanks Cheryl! So I'm going to start her on Acidolphils+ and try to get a fecal from her so we can see where she is at. I am hoping that her absence of appetite is from the albon and that I won't have to syringe feed her too much since she hates it. She got a long bath yesterday to hydrate her and we shall see about giving her another today. She had some really old shed by her vent and some black looking stuff there. Vet said it was nothing to worry about and it started coming off yesterday. Huzzah!

Our son named Akiko Saffron. He is having this cycle of spend almost a whole day sleeping, then wake up, mess up his tank, eat a little salad and a few dubias (I can put the drops of his calcium on a dubia and he will take it that way-Im sneaky) make weird faces at mom then go back to sleep. He is not eating as much as I think he should and I'm going to try and get a fecal from him too and check his weight again. I think one of his ribs was broken since there is this weird indentation on his side and it feels like half the rib is missing?

Cayenne is eating a few nymphs at least once a day now but I am still giving him a little chicken+squash babyfood to keep him going. He is going to get a bath today too. Pretty sure he is shedding which would make me super happy. Sprinkles mini-beardie with fertilizer...grow....grow.

I talked with the previous mommy/breeder of these two today. She is just the nicest person and was really concerned about them. So now I'm even more fired up to get them fixed up and happy! Now they have two mommies worried about them.

 

[danab]

On Saturday I bought a nice scope from a scientific supply store (with a little digital camera attachment) for only $129. My currently unused MLT parasitology experience plus all my supplies from beardeddragonco are being put to good use! Even stinky beardie poops are still better than the big human samples I used to work with anyhoo. I know TMI and I'm playing with poop again!

Boo!!!!!! My adult male beardie rescue (our son named him Saffron) finally gave me a good stool sample today. His quick wet prep and it was simply loaded with pinworm eggs. Like 2-4 eggs per field and that wasn't even a fecal float. No coccidia showed up though which surprised me so if he has it his count is low (thank God). So that would explain his lethargy, lack of appetite and general I'm miserable appearance. I'll just be thankful he is still eating.

Peppercorn has not been eating much after her Albon treatment so I am waiting for her to give me a new sample so I can see if her coccidia counts look better and if she still has blood in her stool.

Little Cayenne has coccidia too but his levels don't look too bad. In fact all of the beardies I have gotten from the petstores here have coccidia. So its a guarantee that their display tanks are probably loaded with it. I wonder how they clean them? I'm pretty much guessing that I will never rid my beardies of it completely.

In addition to my usual clean up poops and disinfect the area asap protocol, I now have most of the beardies on shelf paper with relatively no decoration in their tanks. Add spraying everything with quats and steam cleaning. I get to strip and totally clean Mr. Pinworms cage in a bit.

Since all of my beardie rescues either have coccidia or pinworms (only the ones I got from breeders are clean or at least showing up as clean) everyone is now on reptaid, Acidophilz+, Leapin Lizards electrolytes and I'm making sure they stay hydrated. Hooray for the included papaya extract since they all seem to like the taste. Lets see how everyones wet preps change after 10 days. <crosses fingers>

Saffron is going on panacure but its going to be fun giving it to him. I'm going to pray Peppercorns coccidia is better. The herp vet charges me $72 for one fecal and $106 for the exam/office visit. I'd rather not have to keep paying that. At least I can screen beardies and do their floats myself now to help me figure out who has to see the vet and prioritize their care a bit.

 

[izz]

Cayenne's colour is stunning!. I Reckon that they will be very happy!

 

[danab]

Well good news!

Peppercorns legs seem to be a little stronger, her appetite is better and her coccidia is gone or very low in numbers. Unfortunately now that the coccida is better, pinworms showed up to take their place LOL. I figured she had pinworms anyways since Saffron was so loaded with them and they came from the same place. We shall see how the Panacure works for her. She shed the nasty scales around her vent and now has a nice white area there too!

Saffron's pinworms have gone down from OMG that is so gross to just a few so it appears the Panacure is working for him. He started shedding a little bit and I can see a tiny bit of orange on his legs. Looks like he might be on his way to being the Sandfire/Citrus color he should have been if he wasn't so sick.

Cayenne had his first shed and he has grown 3/4 of an inch and has gained 2 grams (from 6-8 grams). He is very slow growing compared to my other babies but progress is progress! He still has moderate coccidia but hes too tiny to treat.