Uber sick dragon
Frances is not well. She was sick yesterday (which I mentioned in my last post), but today I woke up to see her laying on her rock. Motionless, with a cricket (the one that escaped yesterday which she of course did not eat) at her mouth. Her eyes were open, but motionless. I could not see her breathing. I picked her up and was so terrified she was dead. She wasn't reacting to my voice. Wasn't looking at me. Wasn't looking.
But I saw she was breathing. Very shallow. Barely there. She seemed to be about to die. I called up the vet. 7th call in line, on hold. I checked with my mobile if there was an "Emergency" number. There was. So I hung up the land line and dialled that. ... I was now 8th in line. Umm... Yeah. Half an hour later, crying and wailing and panicking, I got through. I was told I should come in. A nurse would look at her, and a doctor would see her as soon as possible.
Too cut an extremely long tale that would surely have me crying out the last of my own water, Frances is sick. Really sick. The reptile vet isn't in on Sunday's. I don't have an appointment for tomorrow, but she'll be in and they'll squeeze me in. I'll head in to be there 10:30. If she makes it through the night. Else I'll be getting a post-mortem. The vet I saw, he was telling me she looked bad. That I needed to understand that there is a good chance she'll not make it through the night.
She had blood taken. Had her throw-up examined. Had an x-ray (to rule out impaction), and he found that she seemed to have a fungal infection in her stomach. Which he explained was very possibly (very often?) fatal. It must have been the dead crickets I fed her. I had figured that if they had just died, it would be a waste to throw them out. But when Sasha called up on Wednesday or Thursday to give blood results, I asked her about it, and she explained that they would start to rot quite quickly and hence it was a big no-no to give them to Frances. But as a lot of crickets had died the day after I got them in the mail, I'd fed a number of them to her...
Please don't let her die.
So she's been injected with fluids, as she was extremely dehydrated. She was also given antibiotics. And like I said, I shall see Sasha tomorrow.
She's breathing a little bit deeper now. Still practically limp. Was squirming around a bit, before. Until I went put a bit of paper towel under her tail - she doesn't seem to have complete control over her bowels. But I called up my Dad and he came around for a little bit. And she reacted to my voice a whole lot. Or, well, not a "whole lot", but a bit. Which was better than previously. And the little bulges (where the fluid was injected), appear to have been absorbed. And her eyes no longer seem so sunken into the sockets.
My Dad said, when he rocked up, that she looked very sick, but not on her death bed. So I'm going to cross my fingers. I'm not sure if it's better if I hope and believe she'll make it through this, or if it's better to prepare myself.
She's not even fully grown!
There's still so much I wanted her to see.
She hasn't even gotten to experience a summer.
I don't want her to die.
ETA: She just passed away. I loved her so much.
Brought home: 24th May, 2008
Passed away: ~7:45pm Sunday 16th November 2008
But I saw she was breathing. Very shallow. Barely there. She seemed to be about to die. I called up the vet. 7th call in line, on hold. I checked with my mobile if there was an "Emergency" number. There was. So I hung up the land line and dialled that. ... I was now 8th in line. Umm... Yeah. Half an hour later, crying and wailing and panicking, I got through. I was told I should come in. A nurse would look at her, and a doctor would see her as soon as possible.
Too cut an extremely long tale that would surely have me crying out the last of my own water, Frances is sick. Really sick. The reptile vet isn't in on Sunday's. I don't have an appointment for tomorrow, but she'll be in and they'll squeeze me in. I'll head in to be there 10:30. If she makes it through the night. Else I'll be getting a post-mortem. The vet I saw, he was telling me she looked bad. That I needed to understand that there is a good chance she'll not make it through the night.
She had blood taken. Had her throw-up examined. Had an x-ray (to rule out impaction), and he found that she seemed to have a fungal infection in her stomach. Which he explained was very possibly (very often?) fatal. It must have been the dead crickets I fed her. I had figured that if they had just died, it would be a waste to throw them out. But when Sasha called up on Wednesday or Thursday to give blood results, I asked her about it, and she explained that they would start to rot quite quickly and hence it was a big no-no to give them to Frances. But as a lot of crickets had died the day after I got them in the mail, I'd fed a number of them to her...
Please don't let her die.
So she's been injected with fluids, as she was extremely dehydrated. She was also given antibiotics. And like I said, I shall see Sasha tomorrow.
She's breathing a little bit deeper now. Still practically limp. Was squirming around a bit, before. Until I went put a bit of paper towel under her tail - she doesn't seem to have complete control over her bowels. But I called up my Dad and he came around for a little bit. And she reacted to my voice a whole lot. Or, well, not a "whole lot", but a bit. Which was better than previously. And the little bulges (where the fluid was injected), appear to have been absorbed. And her eyes no longer seem so sunken into the sockets.
My Dad said, when he rocked up, that she looked very sick, but not on her death bed. So I'm going to cross my fingers. I'm not sure if it's better if I hope and believe she'll make it through this, or if it's better to prepare myself.
She's not even fully grown!
There's still so much I wanted her to see.
She hasn't even gotten to experience a summer.
I don't want her to die.
ETA: She just passed away. I loved her so much.
Brought home: 24th May, 2008
Passed away: ~7:45pm Sunday 16th November 2008