Nathaniel, Cierra, Castiel, Freya, Grrl; RIP GABRIEL

We never expected to get another dragon, but our neighbours next door wanted to give away Cleo, as he was called. We'd babysat him before, he's such a sweetheart. We nicknamed him Velcro because when he snuggles he never wants to go back to his viv, he hangs on as if he's made out of velcro.

So here he is. Today was his first day with us. He ate 13 supers and ate some squash, not bad for the first day he was here. He's only in a 30 gallon tank, which will be ok for now. He's 18" long but weighs only 200g. We figure he's probably 2 yrs old. Our neighbours rescued him last fall, they found him and a female (which they named Puff) on Craig's list. They were in a 30 gallon dirty tank, with sand and a huge log that took up 1/2 the space in the tank. Leo was at the bottom, he was sooooo skinny. He's gained weight, but never got the attention he deserved. I took some pics today, but will take more tomorrow. I think he remembers our place as didn't get stressed as I expected. No stress marks at all. When we let him run around the living room, he noticed our girls and immediate black beard, so his hormones are working!

He had a bath this morning, had a big poop, no smell, so not worried about parasites.

So here are a few pics, he's a yellow & dark gray, light gray colour.

Under the communal power sun in the living room:

Discovering there are girls in those tanks up above, he has a great black beard for such a skinny boy:

On the couch, he's got a pretty diamond pattern on his back:

Hope you enjoy
Deb and my six dragons :shock: :shock: :shock: :love5:

 

[Oki05]

ohsmileb, Didi has been on the ramp for 3 weeks now and isn't showing any sign of wanting to be off it. He's such a good boy, I don't even have the large partition up and he stays in the living room, never strays far from his beloved ramp. I'm not sure how he's going to react to being in his tank once I've sanitized it after Titan get his own set up done, which will probably be next weekend. We'll see. He'll still be out when I'm at work, he's always been allowed to do that, but then he'll have his own tank to be in when others are on it. Probably a bit of a shock for him!

Matt, I'm glad you're getting that paper done, and moving soon. Have you heard from Krugers about a job close to your mom's?

Yes I just came back into town of driving almost 2 hours both ways to talk to them. They seem impressed with me now she said she will talk with the other store manager to get things final and call me back sometime

 

[sweetiepie9]

Good stuff! Hope you get full-time!

 

[Oki05]

Thanks sweetipie so I'm 25 pgs in your thread.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Wow, it's a very long thread, but it's a journal of everything that's happened since we got Leo on Feb 14/10. Thanks for looking!

 

[sweetiepie9]

So got back from the vet, they're still out of panacur but will call me, should have it soon. Leo still has mouth rot, not as bad as beg Feb but bad enough, so another month of Nolavent rubbed on his teeth and gums and I take him and Titan (plus Titan's fecal) in end May. Poor Leo, but he was such a good boy at the vet. This was a new vet to me, my regular vet wasn't on this Saturday, but she was really nice and knowledgeable and because she didn't have dragons & had seen one about 1 1/2 hrs before I brought Leo in, she was fascinated on how healthy (except his mouth) he was, good weight, great fat pads. Seems the dragon she saw previous to Leo was undersized, had been rescued by these people as the prev owners daughter wasn't taking care of it. Said it wasn't 3 dimensional like Leo, meaning it was very flat, didn't have a good belly, etc. So I gave her this site, the types of lights that are best for dragons and also the nutritional chart at beautifuldragons. I'll be seeing her when I next go in.

The good news is that Titan's head has almost shed off all the gray It's mostly orange now. I had put polysporin on as the vet last week requested and after a week of warm 20 minute baths, it shed almost all off! So that's good & might also explain why he's not eating. He's also shedding his face and already shed around his bad eye. He's losing weight, he looks so skinny, hasn't eaten anything but 1 worm in two days and keeps refusing the babyfood, so tomorrow I'm going to try to feed him twice to see if he'll eat more. The Baytril is over on Tuesday, so hopefully that will bring back his appetite. I don't start the panacur for at least 2 weeks, so that will give his tummy a break.

So more meds for Leo, at least it's not a med that he swallows, so he'll still eat. I'm supposed to rinse out his mouth after he eats, but when I try, he aspirates the water and you know what I've had to do twice now to get him breathing again...so I'm not anxious to give him any water at this point. I told the vet what had happened, and she'll talk to Dr Pruss to see what they can come up with, as I don't want to have to keep giving him this med for the rest of his life :shock:

The vet visit was $128, that's including Titan's last week, so that was reasonable, and didn't use up too much of my budget! I just love going to that vet, reasonable in price and easy to get to!

So if anyone can come up with any ideas on how to flush out Leo's mouth, without him aspirating, please let me know!

 

[zandi202]

$128 is not bad at all!

Poor Titan. I'm sure you'll have your eating machine up and running again? How is Empress Didi doing?

 

[sweetiepie9]

He's doing just fine, he was annoyed as heck that first Lonzo, then Leo were allowed out on the ramp, but he's back in his place and happy again :lol: Don't know what he's going to do when he gets his own tank back!

And I'm hoping I get my eating machine back, too, Liz, even though it's hard to keep enough bugs in the house, at least he can eat small supers and roaches and the fact that he hasn't eaten any roaches for over a week is giving the babies time to grow to med sized, which is what he's going to eat going forward.

 

[zandi202]

the fact that he hasn't eaten any roaches for over a week is giving the babies time to grow to med sized, which is what he's going to eat going forward.

See? There's a blessing for every problem :lol:

 

[morphmom]

I'd love to see pics of Titan's all better head. Poor Leo, at least he doesn't need to ingest the meds. Didi always cracks me up! "All dis everythings is mines!!!" :lol: I think $128 is a great price. It's so nice you like your vet, I saw a link for one about an hour away and I think I'll check it out being recommended here. Always great to hear of your adventures

 

[sweetiepie9]

You got Didi's personality in one sentence Holly "All dis everythings is mines!!!" That's my Didi diva :lol:

Poor Titan has gotten so skinny, I'm starting to wonder if it's worth keeping him on Baytril for another 3 days. No poops for 2 days either, nothing to poop out...makes me so sad to see my baby like that but he sure did enjoy his 2 hour snuggle. Gabriel was on one side, Titan on the other, awww, the fat and the skinny of the bunch :lol: So I'll keep trying to get Titan to eat, might need to force him a bit more tomorrow. I don't have to leave for the gym until 12:30 so that gives me lots of time to feed him, I'll get up early, too, put a few hours between the Baytril and the food.

So my son called me tonight, he's been sick with sinus infection and tonsilitis for a month. When I asked if he got some antibiotics he said his benefits haven't started yet, so he's been working like that...I know he's making good $ and regular antibiotics are not THAT expensive, so not sure why he didn't get to a clinic. I told him to find out when his benefits start, as he's been there more than 3 months now. It sure was good to hear from him, though!

 

[beardie parents]

Deb, I'm glad all your boys are doing well, except Titan and your son. I know how frustrating it must be to have to work with a sore throat. I've never had tonsillitis but I'm assuming it would make your throat sore and the sinus infection makes it hard to breath. He has so many more expenses with a baby on the way that is probably why he hasn't gotten to the dr's yet. I've been there, financially so I understand.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I know, Lori, he's taken on a lot with a new baby and a wife who can't work. I know how it is to be financially strapped, when Roger was alive he never worked from 1993 until he got a pension when he was 62, we lived on my salary & it never went far enough. My mom bought Eric all his shoes and a lot of his clothes and the whole family pitched in at Christmas & birthday to outfit him for awhile. I got to know where all the thrift shops were for our clothes and we economized in a lot of other ways. I was very lucky, though, the bank where I work gave free benefits, including extended health, so I didn't have to worry about prescriptions. So I'm hoping he gets off his butt and find out about his benefits on his new job, as they should be in force. He's just been too tired and he always depended on me to check out those administrative sort of things!

I'm supposed to be knitting for a close friend from work who's due to have a baby soon, so it's time to pull out the needles and get some wool. I know what colours she wants & I have to email her to see how she's doing. She almost made it to the end of the month, her baby is due May 11, but she was put on sick leave by her doctor's orders as she was so big & uncomfortable, she couldn't sit at work. She was also getting false labour pains, which a lot of the time is from discomfort. A few of her friends gave her a small baby shower last weekend, last minute, I would have loved to be there but I don't work the same shift as them as they put this together last Saturday for Sunday.

 

[Goonie]

Sorry to hear that Leo still has a bit of mouth rot and has to go back on medication. Instead of flushing his mouth out with squirts of water, would it be the same if you used an overly soaked cotton ball??

Yay for almost done shedding. Maybe that's why Titan hasn't eaten that much? Hope it's not only because he's on the meds.
Poor boy had been through so much already. Give him a big hug for me.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I'm trying to figure out something for Leo & his mouth, I've had him for 3 years and have never seen anything like this b4. I've also never had trouble with him drinking water before now either. The vet was amazed at how healthy he is (besides the mouth), she wasn't used to healthy dragons, just unhealthy ones. She was so open to learning, though, it was great to hear! I'll try water again, just not so much, as long as he takes down some, that should wash down whatever he's eaten. So 2 on meds starting tomorrow morning.

I'll give Titan a bit hug for you tomorrow Gina, he's such a sweetie and loves to snuggle with me. In fact, Gabriel is very jealous of him, if I snuggle with him, I'd better have Gabriel on the other shoulder or there's lots of black bearding & bobbing going on. If Gabriel's on my left shoulder and Titan's on my right, all is right in their worlds :mrgreen: Sheesh :lol:

I'll be very glad when the Baytril is finished, though, he's just too small for this & his dose is tiny .007, the funny thing is he licks it up every am, every drop. I'll see how he is tomorrow, would like to see a poop, too, but nothing for the last 2 days, but then there's nothing in his system either, may be time to force feed him a bit, don't want to be too rough on him, but he needs to have food in his tummy. I'll try just the squash and chicken without the carnivore care tomorrow, see if that's what's putting him off.

I'll let you know how he's doing after I get some food into him tomorrow. He's turning into skin and bones, poor baby

 

[BrendaKay]

Deb! I'm so excited! I thought of you instantly so had to post here. Sorry to intrude on your thread, but I FINALLY got a beardie snuggle you (and so many others) talk about!!!!

Check it out. Yay!!!

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