Truly Reaching Out For Help...

[Kalyn876]

Hi Valerie, Serrapeptase has tons of great properties and is holistic. It can be used long term with no recorded side effects. It can reduce swelling, help absorption of calcium and as mentioned clean the liver and blood including arterial plaque. It has Soo many great purposes I cannot remember many. If you go to www.bug-de-lite.com and to the products page you can find serrapeptase, there are three great articles on the concentrate.

I cannot wait for another update on Leo. I think positive thoughts for you guys all day everyday.

 

[Mirthy]

Happy flying, leave your computer on and I think we are all virtually looking out for Leo anyway
Drink lots of tea and I hope all your passengers are sleepy ones.
I absolutely adore all of Leo's tongue pictures. He is such a darling character. I think we are all in love with him now. :love5:

 

[Irwinshealth]

I know I have certainly fallen for your guy I'm glad he is doing a little better. Your slurries sound perfect Prayers as usual

 

[Valerie]

Kayln, thanks so much for the info. Looks like good stuff.
I wonder if I can get it for my dog? But that is to be asked else where. This is a more pressing issue.I sure do hope Leo does OK! I wish I lived closer so I could go over there and dose him and care for him while she is out of town.

 

[nordica]

Well, I'm at work now, in our little "village", waiting for my flight... and having a mild anxiety attack over leaving Leo. My Fiance is home still, and so I asked him if he could give Leo his meds with a little bit of slurry tomorrow while I'm in DC. He said he'd "do his best". Let's just say that he and I... differ... in what we consider proper husbandry for pets (that's about as diplomatically as I can put it), so I always worry when I'M not the one tending to my beardies. If I'm to be perfectly honest, I just don't think anyone can take care of my pets properly other than me (I'm a bit of a control freak). I tend to go over-the-top when it comes to them, while my Fiance is more of a ulilitarian. As I was laying out all of the supplements and holistic additives that make up one of my slurries, and giving him dosing directions on Leo's Ketoconazole, he was just giving me this funny, humoring smile. I could have smacked that smile right off of his face. :mrgreen: Not really, but, well... I'm a mommy who's worried about her little scaly baby, and have been in such a high stress state of mind for so long now, that I'm just a little edgy. :wink:

I already can not WAIT to get home to him, and to everyone else!

(BTW, this is a nice little lesson in why you should be nice to your flight attendants, and anyone else in a service-oriented job... you just never know what they have going on in their Lives. :lol: )

 

[Mirthy]

You need to have one of Leo's ultra adorable tongue smile pictures with your id. Then you can explain, "Look, this is my dragon. He's sick. I've been putting roaches in a blender to make him slurpees to help him get better...NOW, what else did you want to drink!?!" Problem solved!

 

[loulou19]

I have just read through all of this post. Had me in tears at one point!

Leo is gorgeous, I wish you both all the best and hope his test results show something positive. He definitely seems like a great little guy, especially when it comes to feeding. I have to wrestle my guy to get him to eat just a couple of ml! The photos you posted of how you feed him slurries really helped me with how to feed mine, so thankyou for those. And I love his 'tongue' photos, so cute!

I will be checking back here often to see how he is doing! Fingers crossed for you.

Louise

 

[ShannyBeard]

Regarding dog food or cat food for weight gain - I wouldn't feed my bearded dragons any food made for cats or dogs, no matter how high quality they are. Their entire inner guts parts are completely different and I don't trust that this food would be okay. It may be harder to digest or make the nutrients harder to absorb. It's just not made for them. (Sorry about my primitive 'guts' explanation. I am so swamped at work but felt I had to get in here and reply regardless). :lol:

There are specialized reptile products for weight gain that are proven to work and to be safe. Honestly, it is a better idea to use the recommended products. They are called Critical Care and Carnivore Care. They are cheap and have precisely what is needed for our reptiles' special needs.

I feed Critical Care to Papa Smurf for weight gain and to support his need for greens. I feed the apple-banana flavor, but they also make anise flavor. I mix it one part CC to 4 parts boiling water and let it sit and thicken, and then I will add a teeny amount of squash baby food to give it some 'richness' so Papa Smurf will accept it better.

 

[nordica]

@Mirthy - BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH... *pause for breath*... AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!! OMG, I needed that laugh! I'm already known as one of the more... unusual... flight attendants in this company (what with my choice of pets, my military and construction background, my multitude of piercings, my love of geeking out at Renaissance Faires, and my penchant for superfluous cursing), all I need is to pull something like that and they'll all think I've lost it. *wiping away tears of mirth*

I just knew I would spark a bit of debate with the mention of canned dog/cat food! :lol: I guess my assumption of it being a "hot topic" was correct. :wink: Okay, so what about this instead... hard-boiled eggs? There's a lot of protein in them, as well as a decent amount of "good" fat. I used to feed them (boiled or scrambled) to my tegu when I still had her, as a weekly/every other weekly treat. She went NUTS for them. Eh, it's a thought... what do you guys think? I plan on asking what my Vet says to both options as well, not to say that I'm not taking all opinions and advice here to heart.

@ShannyBeard - I have both the Carnivore Care and the Critical Care on-hand, and they are the base of what I make all of my slurries from. While they seem to be taking care of his basic nutritional needs, they're not doing anything for weight gain at the moment, and honestly, Leo can't afford to lose any more. This is a dragon who once topped the scales at 750 grams, and is now barely holding onto 600 grams. I just don't get it. He'll eat upwards of 18ml a DAY of the stuff, and yet seems to not be able to convert any of it into solid mass. I really do appreciate your opinion of the subject, as you've been UBER supportive, so don't worry, I don't plan on running right out and shoving canned dog food down his throat, I just feel at a loss of what to do, you know? I'm just looking at any and all options. So what is your take on feeding boiled eggs?

For now, I will stick to my current slurries, and wait for the test results to come in.

Alright, I'm in DC, tucked into bed with a relaxing face masque on, about to catch a few hours sleep before we fly back to San Francisco and I get to drive home to all of my scaly babies!! Oh, yeah, and the Fiance too. :lol:

 

[Valerie]

I find it weird that he is losing wt with amount of slurry he is eating. I can only get between 4 to 6 ccs a day into mine and she has gained weight. BUT she is a smaller bd to begin with. I did try one othe rthing that seemed to work. Along with the slurries, I would force some dubias [ the smaller ones] into her mouth and a few supers. She would crunch them up and eat them.Then I would top it off with some more slurry.
Do the vets find it funny that he is not gaining or at least holding?
But then again, with the amount you are giving him, this is not an every day thing? Right?

 

[ShannyBeard]

@ShannyBeard - I have both the Carnivore Care and the Critical Care on-hand, and they are the base of what I make all of my slurries from. While they seem to be taking care of his basic nutritional needs, they're not doing anything for weight gain at the moment, and honestly, Leo can't afford to lose any more. This is a dragon who once topped the scales at 750 grams, and is now barely holding onto 600 grams. I just don't get it. He'll eat upwards of 18ml a DAY of the stuff, and yet seems to not be able to convert any of it into solid mass. I really do appreciate your opinion of the subject, as you've been UBER supportive, so don't worry, I don't plan on running right out and shoving canned dog food down his throat, I just feel at a loss of what to do, you know? I'm just looking at any and all options. So what is your take on feeding boiled eggs?

For now, I will stick to my current slurries, and wait for the test results to come in.

I don't know!! Waxworm slurries....??? They are pretty darned fatty. :shock: :shock: I was looking at the nutritional page on beautiful dragons just now! You read my mind. I still feel that whole foods are better and my mind is working overtime on this. We both have the same problem...my rescue needs to gain some weight, too. So I research for the both of us. :lol:

 

[Valerie]

So I have to ask. The magic bullet you said you bought, it grinds up dubias? are they ground up enough to pull up in a syringe?
That may be something I need to look into.

 

[Menolly07]

Kind of on topic... But sort of not.. Now I picture dubias spinning in a blender with bubbles and bits of stuff flying by. One grabbing for another as the one is sucked down to the blades and saying in its squeaky voice, "I'll never let go, Jack! Nooooooooooo!" As it rips free and just the insect arm is left behind. Then two fly by sans heads that it gestures to with the arm, "There goes Anne and her cousin Catherine." I have a sick but vibrant mental fantasy life.....

 

[pyffersnpaws]

good lawrd...... lmaoo

 

[ShannyBeard]

One interesting thing I did read is that wheatgrass is very good for reptlies. It has a 1:1 calciumhosphorous ratio and it is 25% protein. My Mom is all about wheatgrass when she is sick because it boosts the immune system. I don't know what dosing to use, but I wonder if it would be a helpful slurry addition???