Sarth, Daeds, & Starling **5/28 First Camping Trip Pics!**

I figured I would post some pics of Sarth...even though he hasn't been eating very well the past month he still finds every opportunity to be cute! I think I might just keep adding pics to this thread along with my blog, we will see!

The most recent ones are at the top.

I thought this was adorable...he was kind of lounging against the glass, looking at me like "what?!"

Just trying out a close-up of his face...it's hard to get good pics during the weekdays when the sun is going down by the time I get home

Scoping out his rearranged tank

Morning stretches, as usual

Him looking *really* grumpy sitting in the sun on the back of our recliner. And I put his tail like that, lol

My husband took this :roll:

A rare shot of him actually eating his salad

Watching Glee with me!

He loves to explore the coffee table, not sure why

I did not put him like this, lol. I should have entered it in this months photo competition!

Him still being really mad from the vet's visit the night before. He looked so hilarious, all puffed up with the black beard. I started petting him and he deflated while managing to look confused.

Just looking cute. This was right around when he stopped eating about a month ago.

 

[JenFid]

Daedles at the vet (although she has happy colors on - I discovered she prefers being man handled by the vet over riding in a car, lol!)

Well, her foot issue from a few months ago seems to have come back with a vengence; when sitting on her blankie or anything soft, she more or less drags herself forward with her front legs and pushes with her good back leg without letting the other one touch the ground at all. When she does have to use it, it trembles visibly when she lifts it and she can hardly walk her limp is so bad. So I brought her into the vet today with hubby and got another x-ray done. What we had thought was her toe last time actually appears to be her hip bone degenerating! The x-ray comparatives from this time and last time show some pretty clear signs.

The options weren't ideal. The vet (who I really liked!) said he is going to consult with some reptile surgery specialists to see if a hip replacement procedure would be a viable solution for her. What they do I guess is take a piece of muscle from the femur and cap it on the bone that is degenerating - it has a specific name, I just can't think of it now, I guess it is common for birds and small dogs/animals to get it. It sounds like that will be the best route to go if the specialists he speaks to say they've seen it help.
If not, he said there's really not a lot we can do. Doing nothing almost isn't an option since she is in obvious discomfort. She has been so mopey the past couple weeks and I'm sure it's because of her leg. I guess there have been some studies that show the pain meds used on dogs and cats doesn't seem to make a difference in reptiles, so it's hard to say if giving her those would be helpful.

Ugh, this is so frustrating! I feel so bad for my poor little girl. The vet is going to get back to me Monday, I really hope the specialists he talks to say they've done this procedure on reptiles and seen it help.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Oh poor Dreads, I'm sorry to hear this news but hoping the surgery can be done. I'll be keeping any eye out to find out what's decided, poor girl. What a thing to have to go through! I'll be praying for a good diagnosis, as the alternative of constant pain isn't a great option. As for pain medicine, have you considered giving her liquid Serrapeptase? Lonzo, my 9 yr old, as arthritis & a neurological twitch in his back tail that makes his legs wrap around it. I've been giving him this liquid Serrapetase for the last month (I get it from Tracie's website http://www.bug-de-lite.com) and he gets it daily. It's not very expensive; it's the silkworm enzyme that works as a painkiller, anti-inflammatory, so may be what she needs. I take if myself in adult form & it has worked well. So look into it. It's a good alternative from other pain meds & is easy on the stomach, Lonzo also likes the taste so licks it from the syringe really well. I give it to him 3x/per week but she can get a daily dose, there are no side effects in either dragons or humans, as far as I can tell, anyway.

Give her a hug for me, poor girl, and keep me updated.
Deb

 

[JenFid]

Thanks Deb, I did pick up some of the liquid serrapeptase the first time we noticed her limp a couple months ago. I gave her some today, and they also prescribed .1cc a day of Metacam to help with the inflammation for 5 days while the vet figures out if the surgery is a viable option. We are crossing our fingers that it is, otherwise like you said the leg will eventually have to be amputated once she stops being able to use it completely, and who knows how long that would take - the comparison of the x-rays from May and yesterday were startling, her hip was visibly much worse. Maybe if she was an older dragon I would have gone the route to leave it be, but she's so young!

Yesterday evening and today she was in much better spirits, running around the living room and getting into trouble as usual, so the meds must be making her feel better. We should find out tomorrow if the surgery will be an option. Let's hope!

 

[sweetiepie9]

You can give her the Serreptase daily, 1ml for every 100g of weight. I give it to Lonzo almost daily & his tail isn't doing near as many spasms as he was, so it does work. I take it myself in adult form. So go for it, there aren't any side effects of any sort.

I'll be waiting to hear what the vet says, hopefully they can operate, she is so young for this to happen. FINGERS CROSSED & lots of prayers.
Deb

 

[JenFid]

So the prognosis from the vet was, the surgery has been done on reptiles (it was called an ostectomy, FHO more specifically), but it does not seem to be very effective due to the angle of the bones compared to other small animals. I guess probably because they spend most of their time sitting with the femur on the ground instead of up and walking around. But apparently these bone issues stabilize after about 6-7 months, so theoretically speaking she should be ok in a few months.

He is forwarding the X-ray to a exotics radiologist specialist to see if they can definitively say if the thing that started it was either trauma or something else. I am bringing her back in this Saturday so they can do some blood work and make sure it's nothing metabolic.

So that's where we stand for now. I'm going to talk with him more on Saturday and see what he thinks about long term management since it sounds like the surgery wouldn't be worth it. I'll finish her prescription meds in a few days and then just keep giving her the serrapeptase in the meantime. This is so frustrating, both Nate and I are so worried over our little girl!

 

[Jess]

Aww, I'm sorry that she is having so many issues, I hope that she gets better soon! Hopefully it will get better in a few months and you won't have to do surgery for her.
Are you still going to Valley View?

 

[JenFid]

Aww, I'm sorry that she is having so many issues, I hope that she gets better soon! Hopefully it will get better in a few months and you won't have to do surgery for her.
Are you still going to Valley View?

Me too Jess Yes I've been working with Dr. Larry of the two Tholls there. I like him a lot, the only chance I got to speak with Michelle was on the phone after the first time we dropped her off in May, but since it was a drop off I didn't actually get to meet with her, and the tech went over the initial x-ray with me. It's a great place, I'll continue going there even if it is almost 40 mins away :mrgreen:

 

[sweetiepie9]

Sounds like a great vet she's seeing, so keep me updated. I'll be hoping that they find some way to stabilize her. Poor Daeds, hoping the Serreptase helps her as it's helping Lonzo. Take care, give her a big hug from us all,
Deb

 

[JenFid]

Sounds like a great vet she's seeing, so keep me updated. I'll be hoping that they find some way to stabilize her. Poor Daeds, hoping the Serreptase helps her as it's helping Lonzo. Take care, give her a big hug from us all,
Deb

Haven't seen any noticeable improvements yet - I just gave her meds a few minutes ago, afterwards she went to climb from my knee to the pillow to look out the window and that leg just shook so bad she didn't go all the way up onto the pillow My poor girl, she is getting lots of love from Nate and I and extras huggles from everyone here too.

Dr. Tholl called back today to relay the info from the radiologist - he was certain it happened from a trauma of some sort, but thought the swelling in her leg could be due to infection. The vet is hoping that's not it since we did two weeks of antibiotics from the first time we brought it in, but he supposed it could be something resistant. The blood work on Saturday should help us figure it out. After that we're taking both her and Scully up to the cabin for the long weekend so that they can sunbathe with me.

And to top it off it looks like Sarth is getting ready for brumation!! This is about when he started last year...he's been hiding a lot more. This morning after basking for all of 30 minutes he went and shoved his head under his plants behind his perch.

I've gotten some good pics in the last few days though

My girls!

Sarth showing off for the girls

Scully is already to big for her hide (did I mention she now weighs 465 grams?)

All done with her latest shed!

Looking out the window

Ready for sleep now!

Daedalus on her favorite perch

Happy girl last night - Nate was hand feeding her roast beef. Who wouldn't like that?

Scully tells Daedles she'll feel better soon

I should have the blood results back on Tuesday...will keep you updated!

 

[sweetiepie9]

I'm sorry to hear about Daeds, wonder what caused the trauma to begin with? Hopefully with the blood work, they'll have more answers, but if she has an infection you'd think the antibiotics she already took would have knocked it out. I'm so glad your girls get along so well, loved all the pics, but the last one was the cutest, real sister love :love5: And didn't Sarth look manly with that black beard. My boys are sort of slowing down, then not really, but Rubio was in his hide first thing this am after he warmed up. I lured him out with worms, then he was basking when I left for work. Silly boy!

I'll be waiting to hear about the blood results, hopefully it's good news!
Deb

 

[JenFid]

I'm sorry to hear about Daeds, wonder what caused the trauma to begin with? Hopefully with the blood work, they'll have more answers, but if she has an infection you'd think the antibiotics she already took would have knocked it out. I'm so glad your girls get along so well, loved all the pics, but the last one was the cutest, real sister love :love5: And didn't Sarth look manly with that black beard. My boys are sort of slowing down, then not really, but Rubio was in his hide first thing this am after he warmed up. I lured him out with worms, then he was basking when I left for work. Silly boy!

I'll be waiting to hear about the blood results, hopefully it's good news!
Deb

I'm sure she probably hurt it in one of her many romps around the house, or she got it caught it something and hurt it trying to get it free. Got her to the vet OK yesterday and he got her blood while also telling me she could stand to lose a bit of weight, lol! We'll have to stop spoiling her with chicken and beef nibbles for a bit I guess. She was so traumatized in the car ride without daddy to hold her she took a huge poop on the blanket I had her in and I had to pull off at a gas station to get it out of the car. Then after we got back on the road she insisted on sitting in my lap.

We're up at the cabin now and I brought both the girls with me. Let me tell you it was a full time job all the way up there keeping both of them out of trouble After about 40 minutes they both finally relaxed enough that I could set them up on the dash without one of them trying to jump off
This serene pose lasted all of 5 minutes

Once they finally settled down...

Once we got here I took them out to the dock for some sun. Scully was lovin it of course, and Daeds was more or less paralyzed in one spot until she eventually settled down and had her happy colors. Once I brought them back inside I played the "pull Scully out of all the dirty corners" game for about 30 minutes until I covered her up with a towel to get her to relax, lol! Once they both passed out I put them to sleep in the 20 gal bin I brought up for them and they snoozed until about 10 this morning.

About 1ish we went out to the beach because I figured Scully would want to dig and it is sooo warm out. Daedalus fluctuated between freaked and happy. Scully went to town in the dirt of course and had a good swim in the lake once she was done flinging dirt all over herself

Dig dig dig

Enjoying the beach

And the dock!

Daedalus sees a bird and decided she's had enough

She was hiding like this under my chest

Right now they're on timeout in the bin because both of them wanted to see how many dust bunnies they could collect. I'm getting a lot of stink eye from the both of them, lol.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Glad you're having a great time with them both & that they're having just as much fun. I'll bet you're getting the stink eye, didn't you know collecting dust bunnies is a good beardie thing :lol: Thanks for all the great pics!

 

[FranktheTank]

Scully and My Sunny could be long lost sisters. They are both big gorgeous girls who are tons of fun! hahaha :laughing6: :laughing6: :laughing6: :love5: :love5: I love all the pictures of the girls at the beach. I hope my girls will be like them some day. Scully is so adventuresome, and has no fear it seems. Thank you for sharing these pics, I really enjoyed them..

-Kaleen

 

[JenFid]

Scully and My Sunny could be long lost sisters. They are both big gorgeous girls who are tons of fun! hahaha :laughing6: :laughing6: :laughing6: :love5: :love5: I love all the pictures of the girls at the beach. I hope my girls will be like them some day. Scully is so adventuresome, and has no fear it seems. Thank you for sharing these pics, I really enjoyed them..

-Kaleen

Yes indeed, I think the only things that freak her out are airplanes and birds...lol!

A few more pics from Monday. It was HOT yesterday, in the 90s. I was only able to be outside with the girls for about 45 mins. Scully was digging literally the entire time, having herself a good bit of fun. I kept Daedles up on the chair with me to help her keep calm. She was showing off some lovely colors, I almost never get to see them!

Back inside, they had some chill time in the bucket without the light so they could cool off. Oh I'm so mean saying bucket, lol! They both got some exploring time before I put them back with the lights on.

What is this place?!

Scully is a basking light hog. I had to shuffle them around a couple times to make sure Daeds got enough heat too. Good thing this was a temporary set up Daeds has her happy colors on though so I guess she wasn't complaining.

Scully helps me browse the forums

They were such a handful on the way home. I warned hubby that he wouldn't be able to just stash them somewhere so he could read his Kindle, but apparently he'll do anything so that he doesn't have to drive, lol! Almost the entire time they were playing leapfrog on the dash or unexpectedly leaping off into his lap. A couple of hilarious moments was Scully cuddling on *top* of Daedalus, and later Daedalus clutching Scully for dear life as we passed a semi :roll: She seems much more comfortable in the car with Scully around though.

Anyway, here is the news from the vet. Daeds blood looked great, no signs of anything metabolic and everything was within normal levels. The only thing that popped up was she had a few levels of toxins that were high, so he is thinking a very localized infection. I'll be going to pick up her antibiotics in a couple days here. So hopefully those will help with the swelling of the injured leg. Otherwise she's been her normal, happy self

 

[Jess]

They look so happy on the beach!! I love the one of Scully and Daeds basking together... Scully is SUCH a chunker!! :shock:

It's awesome that Daeds is feeling better! I'm glad that they didn't find anything horribly wrong with her.