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

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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?!"
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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
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Scoping out his rearranged tank
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Morning stretches, as usual :)
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Him looking *really* grumpy sitting in the sun on the back of our recliner. And I put his tail like that, lol
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My husband took this :roll:
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A rare shot of him actually eating his salad
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Watching Glee with me!
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He loves to explore the coffee table, not sure why
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I did not put him like this, lol. I should have entered it in this months photo competition!
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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.
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Just looking cute. This was right around when he stopped eating about a month ago.
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JenFid

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Ok, here's the latest from the vet, I brought her in for a quick visit today. The vet wanted to do fresh blood panels and do a culture of the arm to check for gout. Basically looking for reasons on why it isn't responding to the antibiotics like the back foot.

Good news is no gout. She saw no crystals in the sample she took. She said when she put the probe into Scully's arm a *ton* of puss shot out of it, and looking at it under the microscope showed it's just full of bacteria. So the treatment regime we're on is correct, but she said since the joints don't have direct blood flow to them, it's harder to treat them.

The blood test was good as well, basically everything was where she expected it to be given the meds that Scully is on. She also put on 10 grams since last week, so that's good.

Despite that though, the vet thinks we're looking at surgery regardless. We're going to finish out her antibiotics for her back foot which is 2 weeks worth. We'll revisit then and look at our options. Basically we have a choice of a kind of exploratory surgery on the arm, where they will go in and see if they can remove some of the bad stuff, like the bone shards that are floating in there. The other choice is amputation.

Deb, I don't know about spaying, but I'll definitely ask her about it. I think if I had been home for that 2nd clutch she laid and was able to provide her with a proper laying box this might not have happened. I also feel like maybe I shouldn't have waited so long to bring her back in to the vet. Trying not to blame myself though :(

Anyway, here are some pics from this weekend :)

Snowing outside yesterday at work
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Making friends with my sisters-in-law's kittens!
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Definitely naughty for costing mommy so much money... :roll:
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My other two are good. I woke Sartharion up last week and gave him a bath. He hasn't eaten yet but he looks good, still a solid 524g, a perfect weight for him I think! Daeds is still her spunky self. She was spoiled with some Thanksgiving turkey last week, of course!

That's all I have for now! Will update again after my next vet visit.
 

sweetiepie9

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Don't blame yourself, a lot can happen when dragons lay eggs, look at my Sweetie, low blood calcium because she lay too many...so you never know what eggs will bring. At least the rest of the blood results were good and the vet got alot of the pus out, so you know it's an infection. Hopefully, if necessary, the exploratory surgery will do the trick and get her on the mend. Hate to think of amputation unless it's necessary, but then again, I know a lot of beardies that have lost arms/legs that are doing very well, still it's hard to think about, isn't it.

I checked Titan today and the YF is getting worse and now on his legs and tail, so even though the cream doesn't make him feel well, I'm going to have to cover him every 2nd day instead of every 3rd day. He absolutely hates it, but better he gets the cream (anti-fungal) than he gets sicker. If it becomes systemic, it will kill him, poor baby. So need to make sure it stays in the skin. It's just such a nasty disease, just keeps coming & coming. But at least he seems healthy inside.

Here's to Scully getting rid of that infection and Titan getting rid of the YF!
 

JenFid

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Oh Deb, that sounds awful :( One of the things the vet wanted to rule out for Scully tonight was YF. Apparently when she was doing some research this morning she came across some cases of YF appearing in joints. But with what she saw after the probing she didn't think that was it. She said we could put Scully on anti-fungals just in-case, but didn't think it was necessary, and I agreed. She doesn't need to be on more meds.

I like my vet more and more every time I see her. It's such a great group of herp vets there. She sat on the waiting bench in the lobby with me while we discussed the blood and culture and saved me $40 by not charging for the follow-up exam fee. I shudder to think how much the surgeries are going to cost. Hopefully we'll be able to get away with doing just one.
 

sweetiepie9

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I hope the exploratory surgery will do the trick. I just checked Titan and what I saw earlier today before putting on the cream seems to have diminished, but with YF you never know. It's a nasty bug. Don't put her on any anti-fungal meds unless you've had a biopsy to determine that she needs them, they're very harsh, I think harsher than the bacterial meds. I didn't get a chance to give Titan anything but water this am. I've been off work the last 2 mo & just started going back this week, it's been difficult to get into a different routine, as I'm used to giving Titan his supplements mid afternoon, as I give him his oral anti-fungal med in the am. So I really have to hop onto giving him his supplements when I get home.

Good luck with Scully and I'm glad you have a good vet, it's important. I have a good one, too, we're lucky!
 

JenFid

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Figured I'd break up the upsetting vet posts with some holiday cheer. Nate and I are staying home for the holidays this year (which is one of the first since I moved up here) so I insisted on getting a tree. Can you guess what the first thing I did was after the lights and ornaments were in? :mrgreen:

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JenFid

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Well we had an interesting evening! I've been putting Scully in with Daeds during the evenings (about an hour and a half before lights out) because with the below freezing temps here I can't keep their viv's warm enough, so I put two basking lamps on Daeds tank. Usually when I get home Daeds is hanging out in her hammock and doesn't mind sharing the basking spot with Scully.

Not the case today! When we got home she was on her cool side, so I moved her next to Scully so they could share the spot (it's a big spot, with the 2 lamps). About 20 mins later Daeds bumped Scully off the spot and I went to re-adjust them. Daeds didn't appreciate this and jumped out of my hand and sprinted over to the other side of the tank, glaring at me. I basically shrugged and went upstairs to get a few roaches for Scully. As I'm approaching the tank with roaches cupped in my hand, I see Daeds beard flare and a few headbobs go, and all of the sudden she's charging across the tank towards Scully! I'm like "nooooo!!" running the last few feet over to them. By the time I get there Daeds has jumped and clamped on Scully's shoulder pad!

Fortunately she wasn't biting hard. Scully basically just sat there like she wasn't getting bit and Daeds let go as soon as I picked her up. Inspection of Scully's scales shows no damage. I set Daeds on the couch and she immediately started tearing around the living room, and what does she do next but run into the computer room to puff her beard at Sarth.

So I guess she was really upset, lol! Tired of having to share with Scully maybe. Nate suggested I could put cardboard or something to cover most of the tops of their tanks to help keep the heat in, so I'll give that a try this weekend.

I did speak to my vet on Monday since Scully's injections run out tomorrow. She's going to have me do another 2 weeks of them for the front arm, so I'll pick those up on Saturday. Regarding the front arm, it really isn't looking any better, but at least it's not worse either, although I can tell it's causing her a lot of pain. The back foot, while not back to normal (and I'll have to ask if it ever will be) looks way way better. I'll have to get some comparative pics up this weekend.

Anyway, that was our eventful evening. The girls are back to normal now, guess I better just keep an eye on Daeds when I have to move her for basking sharing :roll:
 

sweetiepie9

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Is there no other way to heat up both vivs for them? Sounds like Daeds doesn't want Scully to share her space. But then again, you just have to keep your eye on them, they can sure move fast when you least expect it. And she was fine for awhile before she decided to attack Scully, luckily no harm done.

It's not near as cold here as at your end, yet at 20F outside, I'm finding it hard to keep my living room warm for the geckos. So I've given Bunny a black light, which she loves, but Rocco is not a happy camper at all, he likes to be much warmer. So I guess it's time to get a heater for him. It's warm enough for the dragons, though, they all passed out at 5p this eve. Rubio is bromating and Didi is next, as he's done with his shots for the abcess in his mouth & his mouth is mostly healed. So he can sleep for awhile. I call him & Leo my yo-yo brumaters, up & down all winter :lol:
 

JenFid

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I'm going to try insulating their cages by covering maybe 1/2 to 3/4s of the top with cardboard or something similar. Hopefully that'll do the trick. I would definitely prefer not to have them share for exactly that reason, but it seems to be a decent temporary solution, especially since I bring Scully to work with me right now so at least it's not an all-day deal.

This cold snap we're having is not supposed to last so that should help too, when it finally warms up 10 degrees or so!
 

JenFid

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Well as my bad luck would have it, my boss "requested" yesterday that it be Scully's last day in the office. I believe her exact words after I said "no problem" were "don't want an animal menagerie in the office", whatever *that* is supposed to mean. Trying not to take it personally since I was lucky they let me bring her at all, but she was in a tank on the floor in my office, it's not like she was causing a big ruckus.

I seem to have found a solution though. I divided her tank in half with some cardboard boxes that are just about as tall as the tank. I added in the lamp I was using for her at work along with her regular one. This kept the basking spot around 110 and most of the rest of the area in the 80s. When I got home the spot she was in was 88 and she was warm, so that works I guess.

I guess it's been so long since she and Daeds have seen each other in the morning, Daeds started bobbing at her through the tank. Scully tried to wave back but the poor thing can hardly lift her front arms :( Of course Daeds was probably just like...see this spot over here? It's mine!!

Tomorrow during lunch I'm going to call the reptile store and see if they have any horns in. Scully could use some of those now that we're trying to keep her from losing weight! Then back to the vet on Saturday to pick up more injections. I might bring Sculls with so they can give the first injection to her instead of me!
 

sweetiepie9

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Retired Moderator
Sorry to hear about work, but at least you had her with you for awhile. Daeds has been like that b4, though, she'll tolerate only so much Scully, then gets aggressive, dragons are just that way, though. Glad you got Scully's tank warm for her, it's so difficult when you have such cold weather. We're starting to warm up again, which is nice, over 30F now & rising, so rain has come in and the snow should be gone in a couple of days. The higher altitudes are still icy, but not where I live, thank goodness and all the main roads are clear.

I've gotten so used to giving injections now, I don't even think about it. I just finished giving Didi a month's worth, his abcess is gone now, so he's now asleep. I'll be checking it when he wakes up again, as he's my yo-yo brumator, up and down, never know when he'll wake up, as he already slept for a week a couple of months ago & now he's down again. Rubio is also asleep, but he may be down for 2 months, I just wake him up every week to give him water by syringe, I don't even wake him up for baths anymore, as he gets so very grumpy. I did this last year and it worked, but he'll still need to get up on the weekend for a couple of days, as he owes me another poop :lol:

I'm so hoping your vet will find a way to stop this infection that's attacked Scully, I think of her often and pray that a cure is found. Titan is getting worse, I'm afraid of what the vet will find, as he's now got lesions or something in his mouth...my poor baby...I'm so afraid I'm going to lose him.
 

JenFid

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Oh Deb, so sorry to hear about Titan :( Obviously I know how it feels when you know you're doing everything you can but they don't get better :( Keep me updated on him!

I had Scully walk around a bit not too long ago and catch her dinner. She's getting along a bit better, however she can no longer lift her body off the ground like she could before that right front arm got that lump. And even when I help her along with a hand under her belly, the tail still drags. She's still in good spirits though and has gotten really good at letting me open her mouth for her meds. I picked up some hornworms today to help with her weight, they are little so they need a week or so to grow. Sarth ate one though!

I can give injections ok I guess, it just stresses me out! In the morning I usually pet Scully and tell her it'll be ok, but I'm really talking to myself :roll: I'm actually hoping the vet can show me how to do one under the skin with her. Her skin so so wrinkly and the scales so small compared to my other two I wasn't sure where I could do it without running the needle through the other side. Maybe she can also drain some of the pus out of the bad front arm too while I'm there.
 

sweetiepie9

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Geez, I hope so. I always put the needles in the thigh & use a different one each time, left to right & back again. I keep a calendar & I've never had a problem. Don't know if that's where you're doing the injections, but the needle doesn't need to go in very deep, just under the skin & between scales.

I hope Scully gets better soon & I'll keep fighting for Titan. This Yellow Fungus is nasty, it's all over him again but I think he's starting a shed again. If he is, when the shed is off, the anti-fungal cream will go on right away, maybe if I do that instead of letting him rest a few days I'll have a chance to control it better. I'll find out how he's doing tomorrow on our vet visit.
 

JenFid

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Yea, we were doing alternating front arms, but once that right arm started getting bad we can only do it in the left now. My vet said not to do it in the back legs, because apparently if you do them back there, the kidneys or liver filter out the antibiotic before it has a chance to do its thing. With Daedalus when I was giving her injection once a day it was in the muscle along either side of the spine, but she had a different issue of course. Since we can't alternate arms now she said we could also go under the skin, but she said intra-muscular is more effective so that's what I've been doing, and picking different spots on the arm. At least it's every 3 days and not every day.
 
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