Zilla RIP 3/2/14 : Started a new thread for Sid!

Hi all. Never in a million years did I think I'd get so excited about a lizard pooping in his bath before. Lol

I want to potty train him, so I'm super excited. He's only ever pooped i the tub once. I was hoping today was the day since its Saturday, since he hasn't pooped in about a week and since he ate about 14 supers for breakfast. Yay!!!!!

What a nice birthday present. For him. Lol. He's a year old roughly right around now.

 

[BrendaKay]

And today keeps getting worse. I just found out a dear friends husband just passed away. They were my neighbors when I moved to nc and bought a house 12 years ago. They were my first friends here and I just loved laughing hysterically with them about stupid stuff. Such good times.

That's the third death I've heard of in three days. Good grief. I'm HOPING that means Zilla is safe. One of my best friends just lost her grand father and someone I work with just lost his wife.

I'm not normally one to feel depressed, but this totally just completely sucks.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I feel for you Brenda, I went through it when my hubby passed almost 3 years ago & then I lost Sweetie that same December. And then I lost Titan in December/13. It does suck, big time. Especially when beardies don't show they're sick until they're really sick. At least you got the blood tests done & hopefully the antibiotics do their work. Because he's so run down, the shots are going to take a lot out of him, so keep up with the pedialyte baths and the probiotics in the afternoons. I'd give him two baths a day at this point. So for the syringe feeding, what I do to make sure it goes down, is I get the syringe past their teeth, then plunge the liquid down their throat. I've been doing this for a long time. I also "force feed" bugs, Lonzo spits them back at me (yuck) but I shove it back in & close his mouth if necessary. Once the first bug is in, the rest go down just fine. I've had to add Rubio to my list as he wasn't eating hardly anything & losing weight, too.

I read the results of Tracie going over the test results, and it seems he's anemic. So doing the slurry with mustard greens and bok choy (use baby bok choy) would be the best thing to do. Again, you use a large bore syringe (pharmacies usually have them) and you'll really have to get it down his throat. Not licking this time, he's too tired for that. I so wish I lived closer I'd come over to show you how to do that, as I've been doing it for years! So good luck, that seems to be the only way to get him healthy again. Tracie knows her stuff, she's studies a lot on dragons and has been helping me for 6 years. Do have a blender that will do greens? Just add a bit of water to the greens, then add the rest of the stuff. I wouldn't worry about protein right now, as I don't know if that would overload his system. Adding critical care would be necessary, a tsp of that and then a 1/4 tsp of carnivore care, that will all be gentler on his stomach. I used to add bee pollen to Titan's water, as can't get capsules up here, just granules, so had to melt them in hot water first. But if you get capsules, add a capsule to the slurry as well. It's going to be a lot of work for you, but it will be worth it, as it will get him better, it will just be slow as it takes forever for beardies to get healthy when they're not.

Good luck, keep me posted, if you have any questions, let me or Tracie know.
HUGS!!!!!

 

[Heisenberg]

I've been keeping an eye on your thread and hope Zilla gets better soon.

 

[BrendaKay]

Thank you!

I went to Whole Foods yesterday to get everything I could. I found capsules of Milk Thistle, Echinacea with goldenseal, and tablets of B12. I found Black Cherry Juice. I also got Dandelion greens because the stores near me haven't had it in months.

I hope I didn't overload him this morning, but I mixed a slurry with two capsules of each of the above, a couple tiny little scoops of vitamin powder, bee pollen and critical care. The liquid i used was pedialyte and water. Deb, thank you for the tips on force feeding, I got 3cc's into him for the first time this morning! Now, that 3cc's is probably only a quarter of what I mixed up, so it's not like I got ALL of that ratio into him. I will go home at lunch time and do that again, and give him soak in Pedialyte.

He has been so completely lethargic since Saturday and doesn't hold his head up anymore. That is until I try to get the syringe in his mouth, then he promptly snaps to attention and appropriately gives me the stink eye. No problems there! Also, I woke up at 3am and kept hearing to stop the antibiotic shots. So i didn't give him one this morning. He doesn't have an infection, so i don't want to do more harm than good. After his first shot Saturday, and I gave him a shot yesterday, is when i noticed he looks just terrible. So I will not give him anymore, unless it is warranted.

I'll update again soon.

 

[zandi202]

I'm so sorry to hear about poor Zilla. I hope he gets back on his feet real fast for you.

 

[BrendaKay]

Thanks! I keep peeking in on him with the web camera I have set up, and the poor thing won't bask. We find him away from it more often then not, but not on the cool side.

Richard went out and spent a fortune yesterday morning on a new Mercury Vapor Bulb yesterday just to be sure (again!) the bulbs were putting out what they should. I swear this is the third round of new bulbs in two months! Lucky lizard.....

I keep raising it up little by little to find the happy spot for him. Right now it was at around 101.3 and he still thought it was to hot. We keep the tank around 85 at night now with the CHE, thinking being a little warmer would help him a little.

Leaving to go home in about an hour to feed him again and give him a soak.

 

[zandi202]

What about buying a dimmer switch so you can make it whatever need be instead of having to buy new bulbs all the time. Home Depot has them for $10. They plug into the lamp and then plug into an outlet. Works like a charm.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I wouldn't give him too much vit b12, just one capsule, and give him more bee pollen, you can't overload him on the or the protbiotics. Lots of greens, too. And not giving him the antibiotics will help more, too. So the slurry as many times a day as you can, two baths a day if possible & you might see a less lethargic dragon. He's old enough to have 95F as a basking spot, that's what my boys have & they love it, no problem basking at all. You might find Zilla stays more on his basking spot, too. What type of MVD did you get, it can't be more than 12" from him, it is on the outside of the tank? Get a lampstand, too, so you can take his top off and he'll get full UVB that way. Keep the Reptisun 10.0 on, too. You might find the double dose of sunlight might give him what he needs, too.

Keep me updated, too, k? I'm so worried out him. HUGS!!!!!

 

[BrendaKay]

Thats where i get get confused - you say one capsule, but one capsule how often? Per day? Per slurry? I'll try to figure out how much greens to put in the blender to make a day or two worth of slurry -- OH!!! I just figured out what to do!!!!! Maybe this is what you guys do and I'm just slow on the learning curve..... I can JUST put the greens and pedialyte into the blender and make slurry in a quantity that will last a couple days, and then add the supplements to it after I see how much it will be???

I gave him 3cc of slurry this morning, and he just did another 2cc of the same. There is probably another 3cc worth left of that - maybe a little more - but how many cc's per day do you think I should aim for?

Deb, we unplugged the Reptisun, but perhaps i'll plug it back in for tomorrow. He doesn't have a screen on top of his tank - i have most of his things pretty low so i don't think he CAN get out, but he's been so blah for many months that I do'nt think he'd even TRY to get out.

And Liz, I'll look for a dimmer next time I'm in there, but i like to get the height of the lamp stand correct because it takes so long to get a reading everytime i move it. We got the Powersun again - we just weren't sure to trust the bulbs that were in there.

He seemed perkier in his bath at lunchtime, chasing bubbles a little bit, but I couldn't tell if he actually drank anything. So i syringed some pedialyte into his mouth again. I'll have to do that with the cherry juice next time. I forgot about that....

 

[swiLLest]

Mushu and I are pulling for Zilla! He's got a great owner obviously!

 

[Citrusbeardiebro]

I am not that good nor is he

 

[sweetiepie9]

Don't know what the previous poster meant, strange

I don't think he needs 500mg of Vit B12, but I'll leave it to Tracie to give you the doses of everything. Making up the slurry & adding the supplements at the last minute is a great idea.

Keep up with the baths, looks like the pedialyte is helping him, I'm glad to hear that.

I gave Titan 5 drops of Echinacea & golden seal daily, orally from the dropper, but then he loved it and would lick it up & look for more. Not sure if Zilla would do that, too.

You can throw as much probiotic as you want in his slurry. Live probiotics would give him the best dose. I buy them for myself at the health food store, they have to be refrigerated and not frozen.

I'm glad he's enjoying the slurry, I'm so hoping all this will help him. I'm not sure if the Reptisun 10.0 and the Power Sun would be ok together, we'll have to ask Tracie.

I wish there was more I could do for you & Zilla, Brenda, hang in there!

 

[BrendaKay]

Thanks for all the support everybody!

I got about another 2.5 cc of slurry into him this morning. then washed it down with about 1 cc of black cherry juice. he seemed to like that!

he's very lethargic again this morning, will check on him at lunch and feed him again. I hope he snaps out of this, i'm really getting worried.

I think i will take him to work with me tomorrow to keep an eye on him and feed him more often. I need to leave town at around 1:30 for the funeral and won't be back til after lights out - so at least if he's here with me I can feed him more.

 

[BrendaKay]

The one thing that has been bugging me all along is he's never had a black beard or stress mark on him. If he's very sick, wouldn't he? Do they get so sick that they CANT show stress marks?

There is no change in him at all. He doesn't move, except crawl a couple inches out from under his basking light. He almost never has his eyes open. Right now, he's soaking in the tub, but I had to hold his head above water so I set his rock in there for him to prop his chin on. He looks dead, but he is breathing.

I can't figure out the creamy white belly all the time.

 

[BrendaKay]

This is what I mean. This is my view of him right now in his bath tub.