Hi Will, This is fantastic news, cant beat Mother Nature for help, the more Pete can have the better by the sound of things. The fact he can now lay on belly is also good, takes the weight off his hinds legs, all this combined with him actually starting to use them again and eating on his own. He's pulled through 2 ops now and is showing good signs, Pete's a fighter thats for sure. You are right the look an animal can give you can never be put into words, I'm sure he knows you're helping him and I bet he is greatful. As always my thoughts are with you.
Thanks, Bruno. It's really exciting to see some real improvement. It's gonna be a long road, though. We've really got some work to do to get that liver back in shape. We think we've pinpointed the source of the problem as well. As this whole thing seems to have gotten set off by a nasty microbe of some kind, we think that might have happened when we were away for a week back in early March. The person who was looking after him may not have been vigilant about dietary needs and keeping the cage, food bowl, etc. absolutely clean. We don't know that for a fact, but given the timeline of events, it seems to make some sense. Despite instructions, I think people are prone to think, "It's a lizard. They live in extreme conditions. What could possibly go wrong?" Then again, we don't want to point fingers. That's not the point. Needless to say, if we go away we've already decided to board him with our vet from now on. For now, the good news is that he appears to be improving, even if only slowly. We go back to the vet on Friday for enema instructions/training. We'll do whatever we have to do to keep him as comfortable and as happy as possible. But today was a great day. He just loved the sun, and it was great to see him buzzing around his cage, relaxing, and eating a bit. I even saw him digging a bit, which I haven't seen him do in a long, long time. Not having the millet seed, like you said, is probably helping too. Half of his cage is now that new excavator stuff, which looks pretty neat, and its quite hard so he can't really eat it. We keep his food bowl in that area to minimize any chance that he could ingest any substrate. The other half (on the hotter end) is that real super fine repti sand. He seems to like it quite a bit, and it seems to hold just the right amount of heat. His cage had sand originally before we got him and switched him over to millet. But man he loves to eat millet so we just can't have that anymore. When he gets up to speed I'll give him back that new 150 watt basking light, but it's just too hot for his condition. I know it might sound weird, but it makes logical sense. If he can't pass food easily, his GI tract is a breeding ground for nasty stuff. Add heat to his belly and bam, you've got a real problem on your hands. Anyway, sorry to blather. I'm just excited to see some improvements these days! Hope you are well, Will
Hi again uro_fan, I've been giving a lot of thought to your comment tonight, and you've got me worried about what you're seeing as "red flags with the medical thought process and course of action." Can you give me some more details? Perhaps I can raise some questions with my vet based on some of your concerns. We're trying our hardest to get Pete the best care possible, and if we are doing something detrimental and are headed down the wrong path, I definitely would welcome and appreciate your input here. The last thing I want to do is slow his recovery and make things worse for him. Thanks, Will
oh goddness!! what a nice surprise to have you back i try to see the forum everyday and first thing i check is if you were back. i've been thinking why you stopped writing and got me worried mate!, never mind your news are all good and i am very happy for you, from the bottom of my heart. even my son has recenytly joined this forum and he is being following you as well, he will be happy to hear the goddies. we can of being through a similar ordeal of pains and worries and sadness at the same time and it really lift my spirit to see you and Pete getting there. About Spot, he is doing alright aswell, he is progressing, even has managed to escape from his confined bed and look around the house, has vitality, can lift his body and use his legs to let's say 30% more strenght. he cant poo still but i take him once a week to the vet for a check up and he reckons that he will eventually poo on his own cuz his cloacal tonicity is looking every time better. the only thing is that his tails end (about one third of it), is turning blue and looks cracky?, the vet said he may loose a bit of tail due to the nerves no getting there, or the supplying of blood being interrupted at that end, but that wouldnt matter, would it?. so all good!! GEHAAA
ohh geee, i am Crusty , i just wrote with my son nickname, sorry, bulgyeyes is my son, he is only 14 and is a good carer of the babies, sorry again
Hey, hey! Good to hear from you, too - especially the good news about Spot!! Let's hope for continued improvement! Odd thing about the tail. I haven't heard of that before. Yeah, also, I didn't really have much to report until now. Pete was in this state of limbo for a while, and I actually didn't have him for a while as he spent about a week with our vet, recuperating from his second operation. I'm at work now, but he was looking real good this morning - very active, doing this little quick head tilt thing he does. Very cute. I'm excited to get home and see how he's doing. Hopefully tomorrow will be sunny because I want to spend some more time outside with him. That really seems to help him a lot. As I said, he just loves it. Makes sense. Once we get our funds back in order and can move to a house, I am going to build him an outdoor enclosure (I've already found some good plans) so I can sit outside with him on warm, sunny days. I have a feeling he'll just love that. One question to anyone: Pete REALLY seems to love sitting in water. We gave him warm water baths before to help get his digestive system going, but all that aside, he just really seems to love the water. He doesn't drink it; he just enjoys sitting in it. He closes his eyes and appears to be very, very relaxed. We stopped the water baths for now because they seemed to help the bacteria in his GI tract more than they were helping him, but would there be any harm, provided that Pete makes a full recovery, to allow him to sit in a bath from time to time? I don't want to give him that option unless its safe. I would, of course, supervise the entire time. Any thoughts? Have a great day crusty and bulgyeyes! So good to hear from you! Will
Hi Will, I know we could surmize various scenarios. It could have started with the millet as you are fully aware, uro's can and do pass copious amounts of water as well as urate and solid stuff, I know mine does, he did it today. Millet gets contaminated, Pete eats millet, microbes lurking, petsitter "possibly" lacking in care, microbes establish themselves, result present problems. Just one thought here. The best news is he's now starting to get more lively and even digging, enjoying the sun, all adds up to progress, be it slowly. Uro-fan is a very experienced person regards uro's, not just the "run of the mill" stuff, more technical indepth, hopefully she will post her concerns, then you can consult with your vet. Your vet may even be already consulting with Dr. Krupka. I know they do this here in the UK, vet DO have internal connections and do consult with each other. Just looked at your response to crusty. It is generally thought that uro's DONT need baths as it can trigger RI and other things, ie, bacteria in his GI tract. In the wild they dont usually have access to standing water hence they get all their needs from the plant matter they eat, which compliments my answer above re excess water being deposited with urate etc. I would say no to baths. The main thing he IS getting better, between you, the vet and himself, I'm sure he's gonna be OK
thanks Will!. now that you mention it, i've been trying to make an outside enclosure for about a year now, i mean a big one, cuz they already got a little one. we even made one which ended up in total failure (WD are very good diggers and we underestimated their capabilities), so if you have ideas of one could you please share with us? cuz these babies are going to be quite big and no indoor enlosure good be good for them. I dont know about Mali ,however i kind of think he may be trying to alleviate some discomfort by sitting on the water,especially if that is an unusual behavior that comes from nowhere. Spot was doing that for a while and i reckon it was because of his protruded cloacal, i am not sure, sorry not to be a big help. but anyway he is showing all these signs of recoverying, so i think i would let him be sitting in the water if that is what he wants to do, as long as it is shallow, cuz, instinct tells them how to care for themselves anyway. Cheers buddy, give a big kiss to Pete, and say hello to LA
Hey! I looked for a bit, and I think this outdoor enclosure is pretty cool: http://www.riobravoreptiles.com/howto_outdoor.htm I think it looks nice and doesn't seem like it would be outrageously expensive and hard to build. If anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them. Thanks for the input on the water bath. As I mentioned, we've stopped doing that (per vet's updated advice), and he may not like the idea of a bath at all when he's feeling better anyway. I can't wait to build an outdoor enclosure, though. I know he's really gonna like that. I promise I'll give Pete a kiss for you tomorrow morning when he gets up and say "hi" to LA. I get to spend the whole day with Pete tomorrow (except for a quick trip to the dentist), and it always makes me feel better to be around given that he's not feeling 100%. It's not supposed to be very sunny, though. Bummer. Cheers to you, Crusty! Will
Excellent! Thanks for the solid info. on uros and water. Indeed, knowing just a little bit about the issue already, I was perplexed as to why Pete seemed to enjoy it so much when we were exposing him to it for just a few minutes here and there to try and help his digestion. But now that's out of the picture, as I mentioned, and obviously now I won't be bringing it back unless advised to do so for medical purposes by our vet. I'll ask my vet on Friday if he knows Dr. Krupka. Avon Lake is actually not all that far from where he's located. I have to drive about 40 minutes to get there, and Avon Lake is a bit more west and north. I'll see if they're communicating. If uro_fan does get back to me, I'd be more than happy to raise any issues with my vet. In the meantime, I'll just be hoping to see continued progress!! Have a good day! Will
hi im crustys son, i wish u luck with pete, by the way u know how u said that the lady with the guinea pig had a disinterested look as soon as u said it was a mali, well the other day i was at the vet for spot and this guy said that he had kept reptiles all his life but he never thought of taking one to a vet, i wonder why people dont care as much for the animals that arent your regular cat or dog. i have a couple of pics of spot and 2 more dragons, his sister crissy and jackyand my dog.
Hi bulgyeyes! Good to finally meet you! And yes, that moment I had with the lady with the guinea pig really bothered me. You ask a really, really interesting question, and I don't have an easy answer. I was walking around by where I work the other day, and there was a dead squirrel lying in the road that people were just walking by and passing by on their bikes. It was really odd to me that they didn't even really look at it or pay much attention to it, even as they swerved around it to avoid hitting it. They paid almost NO attention to it. I guess I just wanted people to at least seem to notice it and feel bad for it, you know? I don't know why most people, most of the time, in most circumstances don't seem to care much for things other than "your regular cat or dog." But I do know that there are a lot of people like you and me and other people out there, including those who visit this forum, who do care A LOT!! And I think it's up to people like us to teach others about nature and how amazing it is. So, if I had to guess, I think some of why people don't seem to care as much as you and I would like them to care is because they just don't "know." They're not bad people, they've just never had the pleasure of caring for different kinds of pets, and in my opinion, people don't get enough education about nature and the environment. So maybe if we kindly teach the people we meet and get to know about how amazing animals are (including the amazing ones you have), we can do our part to help people appreciate them more. Right? And thanks for sending me the link to those pictures! You have some very healthy, happy, and neat-looking pets! I'm sure you take GREAT care of them! Take care, Will
Hi again, We got Pete from the younger brother of a guy that my wife knows. I'm not sure how the younger brother himself came to own Pete, but shortly after he got him, he stopped caring for him. And thankfully his older brother asked my wife if we wouldn't mind taking him in. I can't remember exactly when it was, but I do remember that the person we got Pete from picked him up from his younger brother and kept him in a car overnight when it was very, very cold here. When we finally got him, he was barely alive, he had a tiny little cage, and his UV light was broken. We went out that day and got him the biggest cage we could find at our local pet store, new lights (including UV and basking), new substrate, fresh food, etc. It took him DAYS to come around, but he finally perked up. He was still pretty young when we got him (maybe 2-and-a-half), but a lot of damage had already been done. We've been trying to do the best we can ever since. But he's lookin' pretty good today. He's got a long way to go, but it's good to seem him enjoying some of his old habits these days. : ) I really hope that continues... See ya, Will
about 2 years ago i had a WD that i got pretty much the same way you got pete, my friends little brother was keeping a just born WD in a dark cold garage, as soon as my friend found out he took it from his little bro and gave him to me, when i got him he was half dead, he couldnt walk, open his mouth er even open his eyes properly. after a bout 2 weeks of us keeping him he could actually walk, not normal yet but he could walk every day i came home from school i would go and feed him. this one day i came home too feed him but he was at the bottom of the water, he had drowned i cried for so long . he was doing so much better then he drowns in water not even that deep. when my mum got home she was devestated . at least pete is getting better.
That's a very sad story. I can imagine how devastated you and your mom must have been. What was his name? What was your favorite thing about him?
hisw name was lucky because he was lucky to be alive. my favourite things sbout him was wathching him grt better over the days and that he was so small pobably about 15cm including the tail i also used to love watching him eat when he got a bit better, he would chew extremely fast, it looked so cute.
Well, as promised, here are some new pics of Pete that I took right after we got back from the vet today! I should mention that although you wouldn't be able to tell from the second pic above, Pete's food is in a bowl. There is kind of an optical distortion here, and it kind of appears as though Pete's food is lying on the ground. That is not the case. Anyway, Pete continues to improve. He still has some trouble going to the bathroom, but we're treating that effectively so far. He's almost finished his anti-biotic treatment and digestion medication, and he continues to eat a bit of food each day. We're trying to entice him for now with fresh strawberries, but he doesn't seem to like those anyway and just eats around them. Smartly, he loves what is best for him: fresh nutrient-rich greens (collard greens, escarole, dandelion greens) as well as peas and carrots. I supplement with Oxbow, and he continues to get a few drops of infant Gas-X and his liver medication (Milk Thistle). We now have a powder version of the latter, and will start sprinlking a bit of that on his food, provided that his appetite picks up as the days go by and he begins to eat more and more on his own. We take it day by day, and it's so good to see him enjoying himself once again. As I've said, I really, really hope he continues to get better. I continue to get excited about building him an outdoor enclosure once we get the space to do that. I'd also like to add that I have total confidence in our vet. The original vet we had is actually no longer with the practice. When we drove up today her name was not on the sign. But our vet and his staff right now are absolutely incredible. I know uro_fan recommended Dr. Krupka, and though I lack the expertise of uro_fan, I have been very impressed with how our new vet, Dr. Riggs, has handled our situation, and I would recommend him to anyone who cares for exotic pets, including uros. Have a good evening all, Will
