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:

 

[Goonie]

It looked like there was a hand on the monitor...or am I mistaken. Poor beardie!

The person was holding the monitor, moving it towards the beardie.
Poor beardie is right.

 

[sweetiepie9]

From the first video, you can't see that, but it was clear on the 2nd. Didn't seem so funny when I saw the 2nd video, Diane, poor beardie.

 

[BlueDragon09]

Hey Deb, how is everything? My old boy
has mbd but I was sure to get everything.
Sorry to interrupt the coolness of bearded
dragon videos. I watched them though it's
too funny. But yeah, age is definitely hitting
my boy too or it's mbd but he walks on his
left front arm not paw anymore, but he seems
happy sleeping even though I wake him for
food even though he doesn't want to eat or
bathe, but he will I put food in his mouth so
that's good to see.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Hi Blue, thanks for visiting! I doubt it's MBD, just age. Lonzo is the same, he's not walking well at all, but just got back from the vet and she said he's in good shape considering his age. It won't do any harm to give him some extra calcium, 4x a week would be good. I have to feed Lonzo for everything, he won't eat on his own. His favourite thing is to sit in the sun for 1/2 hr at a time. Otherwise, he just checks out what the others are doing from his tank, he can see the whole living room.

So about the vet visit. Lonzo and Didi are clear, but Gabriel, Puff and Leo have low amounts of parasites (can't remember what she called them). So Panacur 3x wk .03m for 4 weeks, that's what Lonzo was on & it worked. So now I'll have an assembly line going on for the 3 of them, Sun, Mon & Tues am, the Acidophilus 1 ml daily for them the other 4 days. I can't give them the acidophilus during the week, I'm home too late. But they'll be fine. Glad I got it all done. She only charged me for the 3 fecals that had parasites, not Lonzo's or Didi's.

So Didi has a slight infection in his left eye above the mess from the abcess on his lips. She was great about the manuka honey, thinks it'll work better than everything else we tried. He has to have surgery, though, this coming Friday the 26th, to get the cyst or whatever it is out completely, as it's growing underneath his skin across his back. She's scraped this thing off twice before but it keeps growing back, so now it will be gone. So I take him in Fri am, then pick him up on Sat am, only because I can't take any time off work right now, I'm in the middle of training, plus I have no vacation time left. So hopefully this is the end of vet visits until next year.

She's also good with the spirulina for Leo, but only on the days he's not being treated. So I'll try 2x/wk to see if it helps him at all, then continue it after he's done the meds.

She's also told me to put Betadine on Lonzo's upper beard as there is something crusty growing in there and the Betadine should kill whatever it is.

So it was an interesting 2 hours at the vet. Cost: $127. So as I put aside $300 for this visit I now have enough to have the surgery done right away, which is a relief.

Got some more pictures done & will do the rest tomorrow am, then will post them for your opinions. My friend Dana is coming over at 4p tomorrow because her daughter takes karate lessons. So I have all day to get my chores done & get the pictures done. Got a good one of Puff and Lonzo today, but need more.

 

[Goonie]

They have parasites? How? From what?
Oh you poor thing. What a lineup you have to go through.

Refresh my memory - did the vet ever say what the lump was and why it keeps coming back?
Poor Didi

Crusty thing on Lonzo's beard? Like a bacterial thing? Ick!

 

[diamc]

Deb, I'm sorry to hear that Digi needs surgery. Didn't know he had a something growing across his back.

You're gonna be busy with the Panacur. Even though their counts were low, the vet feels they need to be treated? Guess best not to take any chances before any of them start brumating either.

Hope the Betadine helps clear up Lonzo's area on his beard.

Great that she gave you a break on the price. Really helped putting the money aside too, good planning. :wink:

Can't wait to see your pictures. Have fun with Dana.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Hi Gina and Diane, yep got everything set up to start the rounds tomorrow am, I'm still glad I got the fecals done, even though it's low counts, that would just have gotten worse over the winter, so best they get their meds now. At least I bleach their towels & blankets every time I do a wash.

Didi developed this round thing under his left armpit about a year ago, I think. My vet has scraped it off twice, thinking it was a cyst. Now that it's become like a runner and 3 spots have popped up across his back, she's realizing it might be something else. Hence the surgery to make sure and probably a biopsy to see what it really is. I know cysts can get bigger and smaller, but I've never heard of one being like a runner plant and growing roots to start others up in other places. Glad I put that $ aside, if it's more than I think it will be, my vet is good with paying the rest with my next paychq Oct 10. We're just very concerned about this thing and want it gone. She doesn't even normally do surgery on Fridays, but because I can't take any time off, she's decided to do it this Friday, so I can drop him off in the am and then pick him up on Sat am (they open at 8:30a) and she will leave all directions with the vet tech. She's a wonderful vet and even though she has a partner that has some experience with my beardies, she's been seeing them now for 7 years and I prefer to see her. And I'm hopeful that whatever this is that Didi has, it will be gone with the surgery and not come back, but we won't know until the biopsy results come in.

Poor Didi, he's always been my healthiest beardie, now he's got a small infection in his eye, so have to get a drop into his eye every day (luckily I have the drops at home from when Rubio needed them), plus his surgery on Fri, plus the honey every day, too. My mornings for the next 4 weeks are going to be very busy, guess I'll be getting up a bit earlier so I can get all this done. Our beardies, if nothing else, keep us all busy :mrgreen:

 

[Goonie]

Do beardies have lymph nodes? Given the location of the lump and how it's spreading, I can't help but wonder if the mystery cysts are cells that are attacking his lymph nodes. I'm only saying this based on what happened with my Rottie. Of course, I'm praying that it isn't that, but . . .

 

[sweetiepie9]

So this is what it looks like, two views:

 

[Goonie]

Oh my! I had no idea that it'd look like that.

Do you feel a lump on the inside, or is it only on the outside?
I hope the biopsy won't take too long to come back.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I'm afraid to touch it but my vet says it does go under the skin. It's so weird looking and now there are 6 little things growing up out of his back. So that's why I scheduled his surgery on Friday, I want this thing gone asap. The biopsy usually takes two weeks. He's had this for over a year, so if it was cancer I'd say he'd have had other issues by now. So I don't think it's anything like that. My vet still thinks it's some sort of cyst, so we'll see.

So day one of 3 on panacur, they all took it sort of well :lol: And at 3p I gave them all acidophilus and their calcium/vit-min mix. So they're all done.

My friend Dana and her daughter Desi (she's so cute) came and played with Didi and Lonzo for an hour. They're going to talk about this with her dad & then come visit again after the meds are all done in a month. Desi is just so taken with the beardies, Dana fell in love with Didi (which isn't hard to do). He kept bobbing at everything, which made me laugh, he's such a clown :mrgreen:

 

[Goonie]

Glad to hear that you had a great visit with Desi and Dana. Was Desi gentle with the boys? How many times did she ask her mom if she could get one today?

 

[sweetiepie9]

She was great with both Lonzo and Didi but never asked if she could have one today. She did agree that there would be a discussion with mom and dad & Dana took lots of pictures of her holding both beardies, so will ask her to post them on my facebook so you can see them. I'll try to copy them here, too.

So I have some more pics that I'll put on later, I'm on my way to Jolene's with roaches for her huge 5 mo old. One way to get rid of my excess!

 

[diamc]

That is odd looking. Hopefully it's just a benign cyst that can be removed easily & totally.

Sounds like Desi & Dana enjoyed the visit. Can't wait to see those pictures.

Good light with your morning ritual for a while. Hopefully it will go quickly and they'll all be completely healthy very soon.

Say hi to Jolene for us.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I did, I can't believe how big Fizz is, he's 18 1/2" 400g, not 500g, but still for a 5 mo old, he's huge! He's also discovered how to black beard & bob, which he does constantly, at anything & everything. Jolene and I got a good laugh out of that :mrgreen:

Thresh is doing better, her foot is still a bit swollen and she was snoozing when I got there, so I didn't hold her. But she's as beautiful as ever.

So I did get some more pictures done, just missing Leo, he's been snoozing off and on for a few days. I'll pick some pics from previous this week. I also haven't decided 100% of these, so please let me know.

Gabriel:
1)

2)

3)

Puff
1)

2)

3)

Lonzo
1)

2)

3)

Didi:
1)

2)

3)

Leo:
1)

So I have to take more pics of Leo, every other picture I have, he's with one of the others, so there will be another photo session on Wed, Thurs or Fri am, the days I don't have to give the 3 amigos their Panacur, will give me a bit of time in the am.

So let me know what you think of the pics of everyone but Leo, I'll post those later.