Stitch and Sydney- New pics pg 22!!

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I rescued a beardie yesterday, and am looking for a little support group overall for the most part, and any advice you have to give... and hopefully to watch this little one progress from pitaful to fat and sassy over the next months!!! For some quick background info...I'm a long time lurker of several bearded dragon forums over the past 7 years, and I've had 2 beardies over the past 6.5 years, but have always been a 1 beardie household (until today). My first I had for 5 years, before he passed from a long term illness, and then I've had a new baby for just over a year.
This one ended up with me yesterday. I'm not entirely sure of all the details, but he ended up with a wildlife rehabber about 3 weeks ago, who has to go through major surgery and who has been trying to get a better home for him since then. He was supposedly bitten by another bearded dragon on the tail base before going to the rehabber, but in my opinion it looks more like a dog bite. He's skinny, and the saddest part is apparently he put on "good weight" over the past 3 weeks - his little hip bones are all sticking out :( Here is a first picture, but I"m not sure how well the skinniness will come through
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At the vet's office we did a full workup - got that scab off and the skin and area cleaned up, bloodwork, xrays, took a biopsy of the wound to make sure the yellow coloration around it isn't yellow fungus , and got him started on antibiotics and pain meds. He never would poo at the office, so no sample to test there (stinker). Here is a pic afterwards, in the 2nd bath of the day
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Things look better at that point, and he's lightened up a little bit at least.
I've got lights, etc on order for him, but for now, my tortoise was nice enough to share her UVB light , and we'll shift some lights around to get things up to temp, and then hopefully my next week all my stuff will be in and he'll be set up.
As I mentioned earlier support and advice are welcomed! Luckily my significant other, Matt, loves the beardies too, but doesn't quite understand :) I know many of you guys will !!! I've already become alarmingly attached to this dude, and have named him Stitch. This is the fastest I've named something in a long time, so hopefully that's not a jinx, but will give him something to aspire too. Figured the name worked...he's a rescue, but still a bit fiesty, and maybe he'll aspire to some mischievousness over time :D
When I got him home tonight and put him in the 3rd bath of the day (where i finally got poo :blob5: ) he lightened up the most I'd seen him, so I'm hoping he knows that he's HOME... and that's my anthropomorphizing for the day... (But check out the pics?? What do yall think ?????)
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and then snuggling in a towel - he's not sure quite what to make of this I think, but is still snuggled in the towel propped on my leg as I type....
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I'll have questions and concerns soon I'm sure, but I wanted to introduce Stitch !!
Carrie
 

NCSUCarrie

Juvie Member
Original Poster
Hey all, quick update on Stitch.
He is continuing to feel better and better it seems. He's shed 2 feet so far and shed his lips. He's actually developing some light orange highlights on the area he shed around his lips... so it'll be interesting to see if that follows through on the rest of his face.
It doesn't really come through, but here is a picture of his head. He'd just had a bath, so it was time to run around some!
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And then here is a picture from yesterday of his wound... it's looking great and healing faster than I expected :)
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He's been excited about having a new shipment of crickets in yesterday and eating as many as he can quite voraciously :) Quite the change from a month ago. I can't believe I've had him a month now...
 

jeritta

Sub-Adult Member
It doesn't seem like a month. Wow his wound is really healing nicely. So happy you saved him. He is gaining weight nicely
to it looks like.
Thanks for the updates.
 

NCSUCarrie

Juvie Member
Original Poster
Yea he's filling out more, even though he hasn't put all that much weight in grams on... but I think a lot of the initial weight gain was from some of the weird stuff going on in his GI tract, and so it looked better on paper than it was.
His tail wound has healed up much faster than I expected. His last day of antibiotics was today... just topical stuff from now on out as long as everything keeps looking good :)
 

beardie osk

Extreme Poster
I've just read through your thread and you have done a wonderful job with Stitch, his tail is healing well and he appears stronger with every picture. It'll be interesting to see his final color after all the shedding is done and with his continued growth spurt. Sydney is quite the looker, love the colors........ So keep up the good work, you have healing hands.
 

nair88

Gray-bearded Member
wow, stitch is looking great as always. that wound looks so much better every time you post :)
 

NCSUCarrie

Juvie Member
Original Poster
Thanks beardie osk for the kind words!! I'm just happy I could help Stitch out. It's been rewarding to see him come into his personality as he's gotten better and see how much he has changed already. He's quite silly and is living up to his name so far. Definitely keeps me laughing. The people I work with enjoy him too, since he's had to come with me regularly over the past month :) I'm looking forward to the shed! I hope he'll just go ahead and get it over with already :)

Aaron - Yea I swear his wound is healing up visibly more each day. He's healing up fast for a reptile :)


Stitch got to have a quick visit with his "grandparents" this afternoon. We were both traveling in opposite directions and stopped off at an exit to say hello quickly at the mid-point. So in spite of the chilly temps I pull Stitch out of his carrier and Mom snatches him up and tucks him up in her sweatshirt while we chatted. I thinks she may have been more excited to see him than me... :roll:
Some randoms stopped to ask us about directions while we were standing there and they caught a glimpse of Stitch's head sticking out and Mom promptly introduced them to her "grandchild". :laughing6: The people were actually pretty interested and seemed to enjoy meeting Stitch and asked a couple questions about them as pets. :lol: So all in all.. a successful 10 minute visit :)
Carrie
 

beardie osk

Extreme Poster
Wow, your mom sounds great..........your fortunate, they're not too many family members outside your own household that take to our scaly friends, so you mom is quite the trooper. :mrgreen:
 

NCSUCarrie

Juvie Member
Original Poster
It took her a year to be able to touch one finger to my first beardie...but once that was over she'll do pretty much anything with them. She's still not a big fan of the insects though.... lol
 

fez09

Extreme Poster
That's really cute! My Mom won't even look at mine! I'm so glad to hear that Stitch is improving!
 

NCSUCarrie

Juvie Member
Original Poster
I left Stitch at home instead of taking him to work at the beginning of the week. I was surprised how much I missed looking over and seeing him hanging out!! But he's going back with me for the end of the week. He seems to be doing well off his meds and extra feedings.. I think he's glad to have me not dripping stuff on his nose all the time :D
He's been eating a bunch and blowing through my new cricket stock... luckily my little hornworm eggs have grown quickly and are approaching medium sizes now. I fed him mid morning today and he zoomed through a bunch of crickets and then hopped up on his box to bask a bit and would stare at the few crickets still crawling around and if they got close he'd start to get excited, but if they hopped away, he was like oooohhh tooo full to chase them down.. lol He snacked on them over the next hour though and finished them off before I had to go get them.
He shed his lips again and his skin is so nice and white there with litlte orange highlights. COME ON FULL BODY SHED! :)
I'll try to do better with pictures. Between being busy and my little rat being sick I haven't gotten them like I should...
 

jeritta

Sub-Adult Member
I am so glad he is doing good. I bet he misses going to work with you too. Can't wait for those post shed pix.
He gets more handsome everytime you post.
Waiting on Sydney to wake up so we get more of her too.
 

jeritta

Sub-Adult Member
woohoo!!!! Yay! Stitch! Glad he is growing so good 400 grams. That is great. Way to go Carrie. Keep up the good work.
 

NCSUCarrie

Juvie Member
Original Poster
Thanks jeritta and aaron !! He's eating like a pig now, which of course I'm enjoying immensely :) I was quite excited when I weighed him and he teetered on 399, and then steadied out on 400 (like 1 gram really matters, but 400 is much better than 399... lol)

So now.... More pictures...Finally:)

First... Grumpy Sydney....I'm sure many captions could be made... but I'm fairly sure she's saying: "Why are you taking my picture? Lady, I need my beauty sleep and you are interrupting !"
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Next are a few of Stitch. He was running around on the floor and decided he wanted back in the tank...
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You can even see a little bit of belly in the last picture. :D I really enjoyed that last picture.. his eyes sure pop out, and you can actually see a difference in the skin color where he's shed his lips and then it's darker above and below :)
Hope you enjoy the pictures and have a great weekend everybody!
Carrie
 
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