Post by Nanshe on Aug 25, 2004 19:15:13 GMT -8
..........This Is Angel's Story..........
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[/center]Friday, August 13th - My daughter and I were just driving around, spending some time together (the rest of the family was on a camping trip), and just out of the blue, we decided to stop by this pet store a couple towns away from ours, that often rescues animals, and allowed the customers to interact them etc... It's an awesome pet store/rescue - this guy, Scott, is in it for the ANIMALS first - not the money - which is SOOO unusual.
Anyway, I totally loved this pet store, because they had a HUGE Iguana enclosure with lots of rescued Iggy's. The enclosure also encompasses a large front bay window, so you can see the Ig's from the street side. I love to go there and just spend time holding & watching them, so we decided to go there that day.
When we walked up, there was a lady looking in at the Ig's, and one of the juvinile Igs seemed really irritated that she would DARE to bother him! - it was so funny LOL - anyway, after the other lady left, I was checking out the Iggy's for a few minutes, and as I rounded the enclosure to go inside the store, here came an Iguana I'd never seen there before, heading straight for me.
As the Ig came closer to me, I saw the horrible condition she was in. It was painfully obvious that she had severe MBD, and had NOT been properly cared for for quite some time. My heart started to ache.
Immediately I went inside the store and asked Scott about her. He told me that the previous owner dropped her off 2 days earlier, saying they just "didn't want her anymore." He said he was told she was about 4 years old, and confirmed that it was infact MBD she was suffering from.
I went back outside and looked at her through the window. She kept coming to the glass and scratching at my daughter and myself, as though she wanted to be held. I couldn't take it anymore, and broke down and bawled - I was crying so hard, standing there on that sidewalk, talking to an iguana through the glass - people must have thought I was a nut case!
All of a sudden the lady that had been there when we 1st got there came back. She walked up to me and asked me if I was okay. I told her why I was so upset. As it turned out, she (Diana), worked for the Humane Society. As I began to explain the severity of the Ig's condition, she too started to feel the tugs at her heart. I told her that I felt I should buy her, and take her to be euthanized, so she wouldn't have to suffer anymore - but that I knew there was no way on earth I would be able to hold her while she was euthanized - it would kill me. So she offered to do it for me, and offered to pay 1/2 the cost of everything.
Immediately we talked to Scott, the pet store owner, and he told me I could have her for free (he knew we owned another large male iguana & knew quite a bit about them). As soon as he put her in my arms, she scurried up to my neck and just nuzzled me. It was love at first sight!
After holding & talking to her for about 45 minutes outside the store, I sent her with Diana to see the vet - but when she got there, the herp vet wasn't there, so I would have to take her the next day. In the mean time, Angel would stay with Diana (who had never even petted a lizard before this day - but also fell in love with her) because my male wouldn't tolerate another iguana in his "space" - as he'd already tried to kill (and almost succeeded) another female months earlier - and I had no other place to keep her at the time. I brought over all of my extra Iggy stuff and we made her very comfortable in Diana's guest room. She began eating right away, which was awesome news! It was then that I began wondering if it would be possible for us to keep this sweet baby.
Saturday August 14th, 2004 - My daughter (Ashley) and I took Angel to the vet, with the understanding that if euthanizing was to be done, Diana would come and take care of that for me after her company picnic. The vet looked her over, examined her carefully, and informed me that she felt Angel more than likely has some good years left in her. She did want her to gain some weight though, as she only weighed 1.8 pounds
She also told me to be sure to up the calcium in her diet, and purchase a NEW UVB light for her so she would have the highest UVB exposure possible. She also suggested I put her on additional calcium.We also talked about what would happen when the day came that Angel started to look as though she was in pain. The Vet said we could either medicate the pain, or euthanize her - but that she felt that would be a ways off. Her blood panels also came back screwy, because of her poor diet & lack of UVB exposure in her previous "hell hole", but I will have those done again once she's been on her new diet and in her new environment a little longer - to be sure everything is where it should be. The one thing we didn't do was x-rays.
I promptly went to the store and bought everything I needed to hook her up for free-roaming in my daughters room (my male free roams in my bedroom), and spent most of the following day setting her up.
Sunday, August 15th, 2004 - Angel came home to live with us, and we've never once looked back
Wednesday August 25th, 2004 - I'm wishing that we had taken x-rays of her when we first got her, because we may have discovered a problem that COULD have killed her:
The last 1 1/2 days, Angel's poop hasn't been quite right. A couple of times, she defacated, and it was only urine, just the liquid. No poop, no white stuff, just liquid. Then one time when she did pass fecal matter, it was kind of runny, and another time I didn't feel there was ENOUGH fecal matter. I have been making sure she gets as much hydration as possible w/o having to force it via misting her and her food more often than normal, soaking her several times a day for 20 to 30 minutes or so each time, running a steaming hot shower in the bathroom & turning on the heat lamps in there and then putting her in the bathroom (not into the hot shower) to breath in the humidity at least twice daily etc... (there hasn't been much warm water left over for us humans to take a hot shower LOL).
I had already made an appointment for her to see the Vet today, and then when she got up this morning, and did her "deed", there was something VERY strange about it! I had my husband look at it, and we discovered that it was a FULL LATEX MEDICAL GLOVE!!!!! It looked like it had been in her poor little system for a LONG time! A small part of it had already started to digest from her stomach acids. According to the Vet, that would totally explain the strange poopies she's had, as she was partially obstructed - which COULD have killed her! It was assumed that it had been in there from her previous home, so that's been about 3 weeks! My poor baby!!
Of course, she looks better now, is eating better, AND her next poopie was NORMAL looking! Even her color is better today! Of course, we DID do x-rays today, and all looks good except, of course, her poor little bones. But with God as my witness, she'll NEVER be treated like that again. I may not be able to fix the damage already done, but we CAN make sure it doesn't get any worse
Angel has been SUCH an asset to our family, and now that she's started to get stronger physically and medically, her spunky personality is showing through! Which is TOTALLY awesome! Her color is improving, and she's gaining weight! In fact, we're going to expand her shelving and stuff tomorrow, to allow her to do more climbing now, because she's starting to act as though she's ready for that - so we'll see how that goes!
Anyway, that's my Angel's story. I tried to post her pictures, but it would only let me post one pic. As soon as I figure out how to post more I'll post them up
And as soon as I get my digital camera to upload to my computer again, I'll post pictures of my other baby - my 4 foot Male Iguana Elvis, who was also a rescue - The pics of Angel were taken by Diana.
Good Lord!! 
