Respiratory Infection seems resistant to treatment

[Esther19]

I would hold her at an angle so that anything that is gurgling can come out. Let us know how she does tonight.

 

[Lilith86]

Hi all,

We made it through the night again! She looks maybe a little better, but still pretty bad. Still wheezing. We have an appointment at 4pm today. If the doc thinks she can pull through with a culture to figure out exactly what kind of infection is going on in there, we'll do that and try another round of medication. But I've prepared myself for the worst too. I think we'll spend some quality time together until then.

Thank you everyone for all your help. This has been such a great resource and such a comfort to have you all to reach out to. Thank you for everything. Hopefully I can introduce you all to my other lizards after this, and we can celebrate that I still have them, together.

 

[Lilith86]

So, Aten just had straight up squirts that smelled like what I syringe fed her last night. Like it just went right through her. And her breath smells like it too. Gave her a rinse and am cuddling her now. Is that kind of elimination typical when rehydrating? It was seriously just all liquid and a few very tiny chunks of urate.

 

[CooperDragon]

I've seen similar before when rehydrating and emergency feeding. More (or completely) urate and liquids. If it continues, try using a little less liquid in the food and see if that helps to solidify things and slow things down a little bit.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....I really feel for you + your poor girl Aten ! You're doing a great job in a difficult situation, trying to decide what to do for an old, sick beloved pet. I just wanted to mention one thing....The Zilla supplement has a lot of sugar in it, plus cod liver oil. You might want to try Oxbow Critical Care or even stage 1 baby food chicken, squash + green beans. All of the soft foods will of course come out soft, but at least these ones I mentioned will give her some real nutrition without a lot of sugar. I hope for a good outcome but I can see that she is quite critical.

 

[Lilith86]

Hi all,

So, we have some tentatively optimistic news from the vet...

He thinks that she may have developed pneumonia, and we're going to try injecting doses of antibiotic and fluids directly under the skin, to really get the medicine in her system and to rehydrate her. We're also going to continue nightly soaks, and we're not going to do any more syringe hydrating... turn out that a good bit of what I gave her last night just pooled in the bottom of her beard flap, probably because she regurgitated it The vet showed me with a flashlight, and he was able to stick some gauze down there with tweezers to soak most of it up. She wasn't happy about that, but she seemed to be breathing a little bit better. I'll be monitoring that too, now. That's probably what the gurgle I heard was. Jeez, I feel stupid. He also gave me some anti-diarrhea powder to mix in with mush food in order to stop the squirts and keep the fluids and nutrients in her. We're also doing small, frequent, non-watery meals from now on.

Thanks for the recommendation, AHBD! I don't know why that didn't register with me before. I think after last night, Aten will be put off of that supplement anyway. I do have Fluker's Repta-Boost here, and I think I will try that tonight for immediate effect, but I will keep the Oxbow in mind!

Thank you everyone for your kind words an encouragement! They really do me good to see. I'm cautiously optimistic that this might work. If not, the vet and I agreed that it's probably time to let her go. But we have one last shot, dammit, and we're going to take it!

 

[AHBD]

That sounds like a very reasonable treatment plan , and it's really great how the vet got the excess fluid cleared from her throat. Good for her, poor girl, and good for you.

 

[CooperDragon]

But we have one last shot, dammit, and we're going to take it!

That's the spirit! Good luck to both of you =)

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I am so sorry your girl has had so much trouble with a respiratory infection.
You could also consider doing a nebulizer treatments also to help deliver meds further into her lungs. A lot of times, the oral medications are hard to give without them aspirating it, too.
I agree that you should try a tube bulb instead of the coil light for UVB. It would really help boost her immune system, having a better quality UVB light for exposure.
I am glad that the vet got some excess fluids out of her throat. That had to of helped out her breathing a lot!

I hope she gets to feeling better. Are you keeping her tank around 80 overnight also to help while she isn't feeling well.

Tracie

 

[Lilith86]

Hi Drache613,

As I'm writing now at 2 in the morning, heating has gone out twice in my apartment. Abmient air temp is 68, and it's in the low 70's in Aten's cage where she's sleeping. Thank God I have a ceramic bulb and a side mounted heating pad. But I'm so afraid that's not going to be enough to keep her from getting worse because of this. I've actually propped up my own human heating pad on the side of the tank to try to supplement heat. I'm so mad at my apartment complex right now. I'm going to wait a few minutes to see if my heating pad can do some good for her. If not, I may end up turning her heat lamp back on. But I'm afraid that will make it hard for her to sleep... but I'd rather have her able to metabolize.... ugh stupid stupid apartment!

I'm going to go out and get her a new T5 hood tomorrow morning. I actually still have the brand new replacement bulb from the old hood I threw out. Hopefully we'll get her through this yet!

 

[Lilith86]

Alright, we've just gone ahead and turned lights on. The parts to fix the heat won't be here til tomorrow morning. Ugh. Well, she's slept plenty with the lights on before. I just hope she can get some restful sleep tonight. What cosmically bad timing.

 

[Esther19]

What a bummer! I'm sorry you have to have this worry on top of your others. Try putting a blankie over her head to block the light. She should sleep okay. I hope you do, too.

 

[Lilith86]

Hi Esther19! Great Idea! I've done that. Hopefully she doesn't get ornery and wiggle her way out from under it. You get some sleep too!

 

[AHBD]

Another thing you can do to block the light is cut one end off of a shoe box and set that over her like a cave.

 

[Lilith86]

Thanks AHBD! I may do that. I tried sort of making a blanket fort for her, but she did not like having her head covered and wormed her way out of it. Maybe the shoe box fort would give her something she could feel freer to move around. Heck , she might even climb it and get closer to the light to bask!

I gave her an injection of fluids this morning, and she seemed to have much of her old personality back! I also mixed up a little repta boost paste + antidiarrhea med, and I syringe fed her a little of that. It wasn't a watery paste, but she initially retained a good bit at the bottom of her beard cavity/ lower mouth. I held her vertical for a bit and massaged her throat, and after a few minutes most of it was gone. She actually wasn't gasping any thing morning... until I fed her. That makes me both happy and worried.... it seems the antibiotics are working. But I really need to get some weight back on her. She doesn't seem to gasp when I spoon feed her, so I'm going to try that with her other small meal this evening. Hopefully she'll munch on some kibble while I'm at work. She's still not interested in worms *sigh*

But I am so glad to have her back, even if it is for only a little while. Hopefully she'll pull through! I feel like celebrating!!