NOVA; UGA; EGGS -- EDITED FOR UPDATE

[Drache613]

Hello,

Oh my, poor Nova, she is shedding & tired! She does look better, it just takes time. She needs her rest.
That is odd, for her to be gaining weight when she isn't eating very much. The amount you are feeding
sounds reasonable to me.
Only 1 bug daily, or 2? The only thing I can think of that could be affecting her metabolism would be the
medications. Let us know what the vet says when they call back. We are all pulling for her!

Tracie

 

[xp29]

I'm guessing you still can ket her be very active due to the stitches. That may be a contributing factor.
I know you must be exhausted, hopefully they get her on the right track soon.

 

[acidburn01]

Well, part of her tail will shed. The dark parts in the middle have no shed and look weird as hell.

Well, first, the uga vet said she was good to go back into her normal tank and was good to climb, like climb onto her hide, even though it had kinda pointy edges because it was a log. I was kinda shocked at that and have been so paranoid about her stitches, we've been keeping her in a 30g with nothing but like, puppy pads, as substrate and her lights. Our local vet said she shouldn't be climbing and can be a little bit active, but can't be running around the house like she normally wants. She can walk around our bed, but that's it and shouldn't really be climbing up us, if we can help it. Looking over the discharge paperwork last night, we saw the uga vets put that her tank needs to be 100-105 for basking, like 95ish for hot, 85-90 in the middle and 80-85 on the cool side and at night, not below 75. Essentially, they want her warmer to promote healing. Her hospital tank has been in the kitchen and our room stays pretty warm with the bodies, the lights, the TV, dven when it's all off at night but the rest of the house get cool. The thermostat says about 70, but our thermotemp gun was reading like 61 (which i don't buy, it didn't feel anywhere near 61 ) but we put her to bed in her tank and just kept her in there, despite not moving her from the boys yet. (We're trying to get the house in order but chris' depression with his dad passing and mom moving away has hit him hard so less than zero motivation) that, and she seemed she was getting depressed being in the hospital tank because we watch TV in our room and basically, there's no one/no noises really in the rest of the house and she didn't like the isolation/lack of interaction/people watching.

But we give her one bug with the meds, sometimes it has to be broken into two bugs to prevent the meds from squirting back out and will give one to two more bugs (typically a superworm, she isn't interested in dubias) to wash down the meds because they're gross as hell. We aren't sure if its the meds causing the weight gain, when the uga doc called me on monday to say she wasn't super concerned with the initial 15g gain because she's still healing, she didn't say the meds could cause it and ive never heard of it causing weight gain. She takes 0.03ml of meloxicam every 24 hours and 0.3ml of tramadol every 48 hours for five doses. The uga doc is supposed to call Chris today so I guess we'll see. On monday, they said her loosing a bunch of weight is more concerning becsuse it'd set off the fatty liver disease, but nothing about gaining weight. Uuuggghhhhhh I guess we'll see. I dunno, it seems like one bad thing after another keeps stacking against our girl.

Here's a photo of Toothless refusing to accept anything less but being in the window as payment for my long ass comment.

 

[xp29]

Well, part of her tail will shed. The dark parts in the middle have no shed and look weird as hell.

Well, first, the uga vet said she was good to go back into her normal tank and was good to climb, like climb onto her hide, even though it had kinda pointy edges because it was a log. I was kinda shocked at that and have been so paranoid about her stitches, we've been keeping her in a 30g with nothing but like, puppy pads, as substrate and her lights. Our local vet said she shouldn't be climbing and can be a little bit active, but can't be running around the house like she normally wants. She can walk around our bed, but that's it and shouldn't really be climbing up us, if we can help it. Looking over the discharge paperwork last night, we saw the uga vets put that her tank needs to be 100-105 for basking, like 95ish for hot, 85-90 in the middle and 80-85 on the cool side and at night, not below 75. Essentially, they want her warmer to promote healing. Her hospital tank has been in the kitchen and our room stays pretty warm with the bodies, the lights, the TV, dven when it's all off at night but the rest of the house get cool. The thermostat says about 70, but our thermotemp gun was reading like 61 (which i don't buy, it didn't feel anywhere near 61 ) but we put her to bed in her tank and just kept her in there, despite not moving her from the boys yet. (We're trying to get the house in order but chris' depression with his dad passing and mom moving away has hit him hard so less than zero motivation) that, and she seemed she was getting depressed being in the hospital tank because we watch TV in our room and basically, there's no one/no noises really in the rest of the house and she didn't like the isolation/lack of interaction/people watching.

But we give her one bug with the meds, sometimes it has to be broken into two bugs to prevent the meds from squirting back out and will give one to two more bugs (typically a superworm, she isn't interested in dubias) to wash down the meds because they're gross as hell. We aren't sure if its the meds causing the weight gain, when the uga doc called me on monday to say she wasn't super concerned with the initial 15g gain because she's still healing, she didn't say the meds could cause it and ive never heard of it causing weight gain. She takes 0.03ml of meloxicam every 24 hours and 0.3ml of tramadol every 48 hours for five doses. The uga doc is supposed to call Chris today so I guess we'll see. On monday, they said her loosing a bunch of weight is more concerning becsuse it'd set off the fatty liver disease, but nothing about gaining weight. Uuuggghhhhhh I guess we'll see. I dunno, it seems like one bad thing after another keeps stacking against our girl.

Here's a photo of Toothless refusing to accept anything less but being in the window as payment for my long ass comment.

Every one of my dragons came to love car rides. Even Sinatra and Snickers who both HATES the outside.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I agree, they love being with people & usually
don't like being isolated which I can't blame them.
I'm not sure why the weight gain. It is odd! Just keep small amounts of food mixed up for her to help with metabolism.
It sounds like she is active so that's a great sign she is feeling pretty good.
She is still healing so let's see what she does & hopefully her body will start to normalize soon. Keep us updated on her!

Tracie

 

[acidburn01]

She's gained more weight. Between the, like, 31st or the 1st, she went from 800 to 830 and there's no real explanation that I can think of. She's not eating enough bugs to cause weight gain unless just a couple (like three at most) and day are causing the gain. I inject her meds into a hornworm, give it to her and offer one or two more bugs like superworms, to wash down the meds and that's it. I mean, she's starving to death and will hone in on our fingers when we go to pet her so I don't understand what's going on.

 

[xp29]

She's gained more weight. Between the, like, 31st or the 1st, she went from 800 to 830 and there's no real explanation that I can think of. She's not eating enough bugs to cause weight gain unless just a couple (like three at most) and day are causing the gain. I inject her meds into a hornworm, give it to her and offer one or two more bugs like superworms, to wash down the meds and that's it. I mean, she's starving to death and will hone in on our fingers when we go to pet her so I don't understand what's going on.

I dunno on that one

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I am not sure what is going on! That is very
odd for her to be gaining weight like that. I wonder if possibly her thyroid function has gotten sluggish?
Is she active right now?
Has she had a black or darker beard or is it a normal color?

Tracie

 

[acidburn01]

Hello,

I am not sure what is going on! That is very
odd for her to be gaining weight like that. I wonder if possibly her thyroid function has gotten sluggish?
Is she active right now?
Has she had a black or darker beard or is it a normal color?

Tracie

I hope it's not thyroid. Poor girl doesn't need anymore health problems. well, she wants to be super active. She wants to run, to jump off the bed and run through the house. But she can't. The vet said she shouldn't even really be running around on the bed until her stitches come out, which isn't until the week of Christmas. she was active and wanting to run around within minutes of waking from the anesthesia. But we let her pace around the bed a bit, she gets pretty mopey if we don't. It's hard to say on her beard becshse she's gray, getting ready to shed and when she gets like that, her colors are either dead skin gray or baby mouse pink until she sheds, it's so weird. but I think when she's more active, the next day she may hurt a little and seems more loafish and maybe a little dark beard but in general, she's orange and bright and alert.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I hope not too! I don't think a little bit of activity will hurt her. Running & walking around on the soft bed is fine. As long as she doesn't try to climb things which could rip out the stitches.
It's a great sign she is going to shed. Hopefully she isn't in any pain, & that she is recovering well.
It seems like she feels good though! Keep us posted on her.

Tracie

 

[acidburn01]

Hello,

I hope not too! I don't think a little bit of activity will hurt her. Running & walking around on the soft bed is fine. As long as she doesn't try to climb things which could rip out the stitches.
It's a great sign she is going to shed. Hopefully she isn't in any pain, & that she is recovering well.
It seems like she feels good though! Keep us posted on her.

Tracie

She seems like she's not hurting that much, unless she's real active the day before, the following day, she'll be a little bleh seeming. But yesterday, I was giving Toothless some worms and Nova was on her bridge and saw the tweezers/worms and absolutely lost it. She flung herself off the hide and ran as fast as she could toward me; she is acting like she is *starving* to literal death. Like, she's acting like she hasn't eaten in months and months but has been desperate to. So, we gave in and let her eat her fill this one time. She's already gaining weight anyway so I don't think one stuff fest would affect her negatively. So, she stuffed her face until she finally turned away from it and was either so shocked that she was given more than two or three bugs for had, in fact, slightly gorged herself because she sat totally still for a good while after. and she was totally calm after. No pacing, no scratching, she just chilled all afternoon. She's currently shedding and itchy but is otherwise in good spirits, thankfully. I was so worried she'd have a hard recovery time.

 

[xp29]

She seems like she's not hurting that much, unless she's real active the day before, the following day, she'll be a little bleh seeming. But yesterday, I was giving Toothless some worms and Nova was on her bridge and saw the tweezers/worms and absolutely lost it. She flung herself off the hide and ran as fast as she could toward me; she is acting like she is *starving* to literal death. Like, she's acting like she hasn't eaten in months and months but has been desperate to. So, we gave in and let her eat her fill this one time. She's already gaining weight anyway so I don't think one stuff fest would affect her negatively. So, she stuffed her face until she finally turned away from it and was either so shocked that she was given more than two or three bugs for had, in fact, slightly gorged herself because she sat totally still for a good while after. and she was totally calm after. No pacing, no scratching, she just chilled all afternoon. She's currently shedding and itchy but is otherwise in good spirits, thankfully. I was so worried she'd have a hard recovery time.

I was kindda wondering about that, if her weight gain is a symptom of something else, is denying her food even beneficial? I would have an excruciatingly hard time not feeding my guys. I feel so bad for you both still.
At least she seems to be healing well after her surgery. It's obvious your taking great care of her.

 

[acidburn01]

The vet called and was a little confused at the steady weight gain, even if its just a little at a time. She said she can't give us much advice without seeing her so I think we're gonna make an appointment to go down there again before long. I don't like denying her food, it's been really hard and the last day or two, I've been giving in a bit more. Today, she had a couple more superworms and a small handful of mealworm. I just don't get why she went so long with basically denying all food and woke up one day and was ravenous 24/7.

 

[LarryTheLizard]

The vet called and was a little confused at the steady weight gain, even if its just a little at a time. She said she can't give us much advice without seeing her so I think we're gonna make an appointment to go down there again before long. I don't like denying her food, it's been really hard and the last day or two, I've been giving in a bit more. Today, she had a couple more superworms and a small handful of mealworm. I just don't get why she went so long with basically denying all food and woke up one day and was ravenous 24/7.

Jeez, that is a bit weird! It’s also weird that the vets don’t know what’s up either. to me, they could probably do better! Then again, they know more than I do, so I’ll just shush now

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

You definitely should keep an eye on her weight, but hopefully her weight will
begin to stabilize finally. If she seems happy & is active right now just go day
by day & keep her low stress in her life.
I agree, keep her eating small amounts, for nutritional support & to keep her
metabolism boosted.

Keep us posted on her!
Tracie