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Post by WillemsMom on Oct 24, 2004 12:36:18 GMT -8
Willem's appetite started to fall off in July. He went into season then so I wasn't too concerned. but it continued to fall off through August. Too much, so I took him in for a parasite check. Lots of parasites. Either hook or cut worms (can't remember) That vet gave him two doses of a strong deworming med. No more parasites present. I expected to see his appetite really pick up! It didn't happen. He had no appetite. I took him to a new vet with the 9/13 blood panel. Thnis was taken after the deworming. The new vet determined that Willem had been overdosed with too strong a deworming medication. It had killed off all the little living things in his body. The bad and all the good! Willem had become very toxic. His new vet recommended 1/2 a capsule of dandelion root in his water daily. I worked at hydrating Will diligently, but still there was almost no urine with his poop. Only urates. Okay, More fluids from a dropper. My husband and I tried to feed him with a syringe, but it was too traumatic for all of us. We might have to try again though as every thing needs to be so fine to go through a dropper. Some days I'll put a collard green leaf on the bottom of his cage and I'm thrilled to see little nibble marks up and down the edge. Once he ate about 3 blueberries, but this is so pitiful as he used to devour a whole collard leaf in jig time and look for more. He is still in season, I find ejaculate every day. But I can't attribute what Will's going through to that. BTW the second blood panel indicated that Will was no longer toxic. His vet wanted him to pee and poop copiously to get rid of the toxins. The yellow urates, (sometimes close to orange) are now snowy white. I also know that Will needs to be fully hydrated before any of his appetite returns. I thought the slurries would do that, but I'm going to add a few ccs of plain water and pedialyte w/o the slurry additions once a day. I'll stay with this thread until Willem is eating with gusto the way he once did. ps. Second vet diagnosed severe toxicity (due to being over dewormed). No hepatitis after all.
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Post by JennaAndIguanaGwen on Oct 24, 2004 12:51:25 GMT -8
I'm sorry to about lil Willems. I hope he gets better soon so I can hear about him gobbling up all his food and how much better he is. Best of luck to get Wills appitate(sp?) back.
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Post by IguanaKing on Oct 24, 2004 13:07:48 GMT -8
OK Nancy, I know you're keeping Willy warm enough, and I know that he's in season now. Other than that though, since you know him fairly well, how would you describe his mental state? Does he seem depressed or stressed about something? Both of these conditions could cause him to stop eating, maybe you should start looking for a psychological reason rather than a physical one. How are his hips now, BTW, can you still feel his hip bones? Does his tail feel firm and solid, or does it feel hollow and limp? Can we get some recent pictures of Willy and his habitat? Maybe one of us might spot something that is stressing him out. You've taken care of the reflection problem, right? Sean
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Post by WillemsMom on Oct 24, 2004 14:59:58 GMT -8
Good questions, Sean! No, he doesn't seem depressed. Our dogs still stress him, though. They have to go outside or in bedroom whenever I take Will out. Will's nerves seem a little shot. sometimes when I'm holding him, he'll jump over the smallest thing. That's why I'm so pleased that the music I play soothes him. I like the idea of a psychological cause. We also have a noisy African grey parrot, but. they can't see each other. One of our dogs loves to lie by Will's cage, checks him when I'm bathing him, and more. If he were our only dog I think he and Will would be friends by now. The other two are young and very active goldens. I have some nice screens I could use to block Will's enclosure off. The other two are very quiet when they're around his enclosure, usually just lie down, by he sees them pretty rowdy during the day. His hips are fine and I checked today for those little bumps I felt before, and they're gone. His tail, up by his body, is firm, thick and doesn't have any symptoms that I can see. He has stopped going for reflections about 90% of the time now. I was hanging towels on the inside of the panels, but because of the humidity, they were always dropping down. I pretty much gave up on that. Sometimes he gets very aggressive about try to scratch his way out It's at those times he will sometimes try to bully his reflection. Nothing extreme though. Here is a new pic of Will. I'll take some of his enclosure tomorrow.
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Post by WillemsMom on Oct 24, 2004 15:02:10 GMT -8
Jennatheiglover, You and I are waiting for the same thing. I love your post. It's just how I feel too. Thanks!
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Post by IguanaKing on Oct 24, 2004 15:31:46 GMT -8
Does your African Grey scream a lot? You said the parrot was noisy, but how noisy? The sound of your parrot can also stress Willy out, just like how Willy likes some of your music, there are sounds that he may hate as well. If you can't keep the two of them separated, even in an auditory sense, you might try letting them see each other a little while each day. That way, Willy can see where "that horrible racket" is coming from. As long as his mommy is there when he has this new experience, he'll probably learn to no longer be threatened by the sound if he can see the bird as the bird makes the sound. They're VERY intelligent and it doesn't take them long to "put things together in their heads". If you can't feel his hip bones and his tail is firm and thick, it doesn't sound as if he's in any immediate danger, try not to worry about him too much, he CAN pick up on that. I'm sure you're already aware of the power of positive thinking, igs seem to be able to sense our mental states easier than some believe (I know you probably know that already though ). It looks like he's a healthy little guy...well...except for the tip of his nose...has he been face-rubbing again?
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Post by prism_wolf on Oct 24, 2004 18:02:06 GMT -8
OMG!! I SO thought in another thread someone had mentioned putting gut flora back into his system. AS the vet said...antibiotics kills good as well as bad antibodies...gut flora is one of those! You need to add some probiotics! Get some plain yogart. Give him half a tablespoon. This will get him jumpstarted. You can also get the probiotic called Nutribac from www.reptileuv.com. Instructions for use are right on the bottle!
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Post by IguanaKing on Oct 25, 2004 5:42:25 GMT -8
I think she has been doing that with Willy already Veronica. I know she's been working with BobMac to reverse the harm done to his system by the deworming.
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Post by WillemsMom on Oct 25, 2004 8:01:25 GMT -8
Sean, you gave me a great deal to think about in your earlier post. I'll answer in a sec. I do have ProBiotics for Will, but since he's not eating regular food, he's not getting it. I could mix it with the slurry, but then again I don't know how much he would get. I like the idea of yogurt for now. I gave it to him in the beginning of all this, but maybe he needs more. Thanks, Prism. Now, Sean, that was a very insightful suggestion about the African Grey. Will has 'met' him as we pass by his cage for Will's baths. It doesn't happen continously, because our grey loves to talk, but someimes he'll go on a screeching rant. I'll try and help Will to connect that frighting sound with Magic (our Grey). That's a good thought. How I feel about what Will is going though....you know he looks so well, scrambles around as usual, so I haven't been too worrried until now. I totally agree that a positive attitude is essential. A couple of times I've cried while holding him, though. I can't imagine what it would all be like without him. I know you know about that better than I. I did have a crazy thought for a few minutes, but I've dismissed it. I don't like to eat. No appetite. I'm going to work harder on that now, just in case it's effecting Will. Now, I called Will's vet this morning, pretty frantic over the possibility of kidney disease. He's ruling that out now due to his recent blood panel results. He knows I'm dripping food from a dropper for Will. He calls that 'prompted feeding.' He thinks I may have trained Will to eat that way and suggests 'I let him go hungry.' Then tease him with passing good solid food in front of his nose. So, I'll do that, but I'm still going to give him some water & pedialyte for a couple of days. I weighed Will on my postal scales and he's holding his own or even maybe gaining some. He weighs 1.6 oz without his tail on the scale. On 10/13 he weighed 1.96 oz with his tail on the scale. That's it for now. I'll keep hydrating him and let him get hungry. Also add yogurt to whatever he'll nibble on. About his nose. It's not getting any more banging up, but it was very bad before and is healing very very slowly. Thank you and Prism for your suggestions. Very much!
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Post by prism_wolf on Oct 25, 2004 14:55:02 GMT -8
Shwew...sorry. I thought I remembered you doing the probiotics. So the vet seams to think Will has you trained... ;D. Ain't that typical of so many of us!
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Post by WillemsMom on Oct 25, 2004 15:22:59 GMT -8
Lol, Prism. Wouldn't that be a delightful diagnosis of the current sitch. About an hour I go I put in a small plate of banana yogurt with sliced blueberries and green grapes stirred in. How the heck can he resist that!!! ? He looks at it from his ledge, but he's not stirring in anyway to go down for it. I haven't given him anything else to eat today. I put a kitty litter box in with 1-2 " of water. I would like to quit hydrating him with a dropper. He'd be really happy if I stopped doing that, too.. BTW, his doc didn't pooh pooh your suggestion about a kidney dysfunction. He just said it wasn't apparent in his blood panel. He knew about the Critical Care product from Oxbow. he said he knew many ig owners who love it, but he didn't suggest for Will because of it's high Phos. content since we have some concern about his kidneys. I'm going to read on that now.
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Post by WillemsMom on Oct 26, 2004 6:07:36 GMT -8
Well, Willie took only a few licks of yogurt and did funny things with his tongue and mouth after each lick. Something like we'd do if we sucked on a lemon. So that's all he's had to eat in the last 24 hours. As soon as his body heat is up from last nights coolness, I'll put down a collard green. Used to be one of his favs. I would so love to see him go for it!
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Post by WillemsMom on Oct 26, 2004 9:05:38 GMT -8
I blocked off, from the outside of Will's enclosure, a private corner where he could eat without seeing our dogs and w/o them watching him.
I just looked in AND.......he had eaten 1/2 of the collard green leaf. I am so relieved! I'm not going to give in and give him any more slurries, if he keeps this up. Whew....
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Post by Tesa on Oct 26, 2004 9:31:02 GMT -8
WONDERFUL NEWS!!!
wtg Willem!! I'm so happy for you Nancy!
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Post by Yoda on Oct 26, 2004 13:52:35 GMT -8
;D
WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
That is just great news.....It makes a crappy day at work all worth it to come home and read great news like this.....
Way to go Nance
James and Yoda .... ;D
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