lizard_fingers
Bearded Dragon Egg
- Messages
- 2
I've had my bearded dragon, Kim, for just over 4 years now, she unfortunately has partial paralysis (caused by possible trauma after she hatched or from a birth defect, I honestly don't know, as when i got her the pet store couldn't tell me much about her condition, they told me she would grow out of it which is clearly not the case) she also possibly has some neurological problems. I take her to the vet every few months and whenever a new issue pops up, unfortunately my vet hasn't been able to do much for her condition and she's been gradually getting worse over the years, at first she could move her back legs with minimal success and get around fairly well, you could pinch her tail and she would feel it, try to get away, but now she has no response in her back end, and her ability to move has gotten much worse. She can still move her "arms" but she does kind of an army crawl and because of this she has something akin to callous' on her "hands" and the lower part of her "arms" making it so they cannot be moved the way they're supposed to. She's always had difficulty eating and has shown little interest in it in general, and it's gotten to the point where I need to force-feed frequently just to get anything into her.
Due to her "issues" the way she moves is very...wrong? She tends to do a slither, and when she does this she leaves her mouth wide open, which is the root of her biggest issues= she bites her tongue and fingers. Her tongue is completely destroyed, scarred and bleeds frequently, I can only assume it's incredibly painful (which is the most likely reason she doesn't eat). Her fingers have taken the brunt of her "wrath", only 3 have been spared, 1 is completely missing, 1 she has bit in half, and the other 5 she has ripped out the nails. I keep them clipped as far down as I can (her nails) but it doesn't do any good, she still finds a way to rip them out, they grow back but when they grow back they look "off." She gets liquid calcium every few days and a liquid vitamin mix a couple times a week (both reccomended by the vet because of her issues with eating), I mostly feed her dried food and insects that I soak in water till it gets mushy as this is the easiest thing to feed her, and she's occasionally given live silkworms/wax worms/ phoenix worms but again she shows little interest in them and it's generally a waste of money to feed live food.
After all of this you're probably wondering why I've kept her alive this long- but she's still aware of her surroundings, is active all things considering, and I really deeply care about her. You can't have an animal like her for so long without really caring about them! And I really feel that she knows who I am and enjoys being with me, for a week last year my grandpa had to care for her because I went on vacation, and when I came back to get her I'll never forget what she did, she immediatley perked up when she heard me-got excited, then wiggled herself up into the corner. When I reached into her terrarium to pick her up she calmed down, normally she wiggles a little, tries to get out of my hand, but when I picked her up she just relaxed her entire body. My grandpa had trouble feeding her so maybe she was just hungry and knew I would give her something, but it still warms my heart thinking about that.
My biggest dilema is recently she's taken a turn for the worse, she's begun fling most of the food I give her out of her mouth so she doesn't eat as much as she used to, she's been losing weight because of this and I've bbegun to notice bruising on her eyelids from where she bangs her head against the sides of her enclosure or some of the things I've placed inside. I also think she's beginning to lose her eyesight because they don't dilate/contract like they should and Kim doesn't really focus on anything like she used to. The tip of her tail necrosed and fell off, we had all the dead tissue cut off at the vets and have been giving her everything the vet told us to (i dont know what all of it is but one of them is an antibiotic) but even after all of that I've noticed her tail continue getting darker and I think there may be an issue with her blood flow, and to top it all of at some point last night she ripped out an entire nail bed, and i highly doubt a nail will regrow in this particular finger just because of the amount of nail she ripped out (there's a hole where it was now and her finger is incredibly swollen- the nail is still there hanging by some tissue but she won't let me touch it), and I'm thinking at this point the most humane thing to do would be to put her down, I worry that she's just going to continue getting worse. I tried wrapping her hands in bandages to keep her from biting her fingers but she just chews on them and they fall off within a few hours or I worry about her ingesting the fibers, I really don't think this is any way for her to be living as much as it pains me to think of this- and I really wanted to ask some other people about what they think I should do. Should I continue caring for her the best I can until the inevitable happens or should I cut it short and have her put down? Any input is welcome, and I especially welcome any tips on how to care for her better with her issues so I can keep from having to euthanize. Sorry for this long post, I just wanted to cover all of my bases.
I've attached a couple pictures to it so you can see some of what I'm talking about.
Due to her "issues" the way she moves is very...wrong? She tends to do a slither, and when she does this she leaves her mouth wide open, which is the root of her biggest issues= she bites her tongue and fingers. Her tongue is completely destroyed, scarred and bleeds frequently, I can only assume it's incredibly painful (which is the most likely reason she doesn't eat). Her fingers have taken the brunt of her "wrath", only 3 have been spared, 1 is completely missing, 1 she has bit in half, and the other 5 she has ripped out the nails. I keep them clipped as far down as I can (her nails) but it doesn't do any good, she still finds a way to rip them out, they grow back but when they grow back they look "off." She gets liquid calcium every few days and a liquid vitamin mix a couple times a week (both reccomended by the vet because of her issues with eating), I mostly feed her dried food and insects that I soak in water till it gets mushy as this is the easiest thing to feed her, and she's occasionally given live silkworms/wax worms/ phoenix worms but again she shows little interest in them and it's generally a waste of money to feed live food.
After all of this you're probably wondering why I've kept her alive this long- but she's still aware of her surroundings, is active all things considering, and I really deeply care about her. You can't have an animal like her for so long without really caring about them! And I really feel that she knows who I am and enjoys being with me, for a week last year my grandpa had to care for her because I went on vacation, and when I came back to get her I'll never forget what she did, she immediatley perked up when she heard me-got excited, then wiggled herself up into the corner. When I reached into her terrarium to pick her up she calmed down, normally she wiggles a little, tries to get out of my hand, but when I picked her up she just relaxed her entire body. My grandpa had trouble feeding her so maybe she was just hungry and knew I would give her something, but it still warms my heart thinking about that.
My biggest dilema is recently she's taken a turn for the worse, she's begun fling most of the food I give her out of her mouth so she doesn't eat as much as she used to, she's been losing weight because of this and I've bbegun to notice bruising on her eyelids from where she bangs her head against the sides of her enclosure or some of the things I've placed inside. I also think she's beginning to lose her eyesight because they don't dilate/contract like they should and Kim doesn't really focus on anything like she used to. The tip of her tail necrosed and fell off, we had all the dead tissue cut off at the vets and have been giving her everything the vet told us to (i dont know what all of it is but one of them is an antibiotic) but even after all of that I've noticed her tail continue getting darker and I think there may be an issue with her blood flow, and to top it all of at some point last night she ripped out an entire nail bed, and i highly doubt a nail will regrow in this particular finger just because of the amount of nail she ripped out (there's a hole where it was now and her finger is incredibly swollen- the nail is still there hanging by some tissue but she won't let me touch it), and I'm thinking at this point the most humane thing to do would be to put her down, I worry that she's just going to continue getting worse. I tried wrapping her hands in bandages to keep her from biting her fingers but she just chews on them and they fall off within a few hours or I worry about her ingesting the fibers, I really don't think this is any way for her to be living as much as it pains me to think of this- and I really wanted to ask some other people about what they think I should do. Should I continue caring for her the best I can until the inevitable happens or should I cut it short and have her put down? Any input is welcome, and I especially welcome any tips on how to care for her better with her issues so I can keep from having to euthanize. Sorry for this long post, I just wanted to cover all of my bases.
I've attached a couple pictures to it so you can see some of what I'm talking about.
