nancy115
Member
Hi all,
About 6 weeks ago I adopted a lovely female bearded dragon, around the age of 5. She was from a family “friend” (no longer a friend).
When she was dropped off with her vivarium, I noticed the absolute disgusting state of it, the improper substrate, lamp and food she was being fed, dead bugs stuck in the heat lamp cage. It had definitely not been cleaned in months.
The poor girl wasn’t being given any calcium, was dehydrated and being fed fatty grubs as a staple insect, I don’t even know how long it’d had been since she had greens. She also had a large lump on her neck that we were told was benign by the previous owners.
Right away the viv was disinfected, correct substrate, heat lamp and food was given to her. She seemed a lot happier and put on a healthy amount of weight, no longer seemed dehydrated. I booked her to see the vets about her lump as I had a feeling it was worse than they said.
Last week we were referred to a specialist as our vet couldn’t diagnose the lump from the sample she had taken. I took her in for her consultation with the specialist and they said we had to completely remove the lump or she would have to be put down due to the lump restricting her throat. (I had noted the week leading up to this appointment she was starting to refuse all food)
Fast forward to Monday of this week, she went in for surgery but I noticed the day before she was already starting to seem ill, she had a black beard constantly that day and slept all day.
The surgery went well and the lump was removed, and we picked her up. When I brought her home, she slept for the rest of the day and night which I was expecting. But the day after she was starting to fade away, she was sick on herself and just went back to sleep. I called the vets and they hospitalised her overnight.
Yesterday morning I got the call and she had passed. I was so devastated as I bonded with her so much in the short 6 weeks I had her.
I got the post mortem report back and I couldn’t believe the amount of internal problems she had, her liver was nearly dead, she has sepsis that was likely caused by the lump spreading and chronic follicular stasis.
I just can’t help but feel like I could have done more? Or was it too late by the time I got her? I’m finding it hard to accept her passing and just have so many questions.
Edit: I thought I’d attach a file of her post mortem report for a bit more context/detail. Just a warning though it’s very sad and unpleasant to read
About 6 weeks ago I adopted a lovely female bearded dragon, around the age of 5. She was from a family “friend” (no longer a friend).
When she was dropped off with her vivarium, I noticed the absolute disgusting state of it, the improper substrate, lamp and food she was being fed, dead bugs stuck in the heat lamp cage. It had definitely not been cleaned in months.
The poor girl wasn’t being given any calcium, was dehydrated and being fed fatty grubs as a staple insect, I don’t even know how long it’d had been since she had greens. She also had a large lump on her neck that we were told was benign by the previous owners.
Right away the viv was disinfected, correct substrate, heat lamp and food was given to her. She seemed a lot happier and put on a healthy amount of weight, no longer seemed dehydrated. I booked her to see the vets about her lump as I had a feeling it was worse than they said.
Last week we were referred to a specialist as our vet couldn’t diagnose the lump from the sample she had taken. I took her in for her consultation with the specialist and they said we had to completely remove the lump or she would have to be put down due to the lump restricting her throat. (I had noted the week leading up to this appointment she was starting to refuse all food)
Fast forward to Monday of this week, she went in for surgery but I noticed the day before she was already starting to seem ill, she had a black beard constantly that day and slept all day.
The surgery went well and the lump was removed, and we picked her up. When I brought her home, she slept for the rest of the day and night which I was expecting. But the day after she was starting to fade away, she was sick on herself and just went back to sleep. I called the vets and they hospitalised her overnight.
Yesterday morning I got the call and she had passed. I was so devastated as I bonded with her so much in the short 6 weeks I had her.
I got the post mortem report back and I couldn’t believe the amount of internal problems she had, her liver was nearly dead, she has sepsis that was likely caused by the lump spreading and chronic follicular stasis.
I just can’t help but feel like I could have done more? Or was it too late by the time I got her? I’m finding it hard to accept her passing and just have so many questions.
Edit: I thought I’d attach a file of her post mortem report for a bit more context/detail. Just a warning though it’s very sad and unpleasant to read
Attachments
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