Alicia and the Zoo Crew 2011

[JadeIcing]

Ok so why have I not updated... Well life thought kicking me would be fun.

Jax is not well and honestly we don't know if she will make it. She has a HORRIBLE infection. Could be an abcess(SP?) which we could try to fight with the chance of winning. Or slight chance it is a tumor. Which than we can only make her comfy for a few months or let her go. If it is a tumor, I have to let her go. I can not, will not let her live with that. I am sorry but she is to small to deal with the mass that suddenly sprouted. An infection we can try and beat but not that. So please please pray for her. She is one of my heart animals and honestly I CAN not deal with losing another.

 

[Dragonrain]

:hug2:

 

[JadeIcing]

Thank you

 

[myheart]

Poor Jax... Have you taken her to the vet to find out for sure what you're dealing with? I hope it's something you'll be able to take care of yourself to make her all better.

ray:

 

[JadeIcing]

I did and well not so great news. Will post more when i go on break.

 

[Dragonrain]

Please keep us updated! I keep thinking about little Jax and wondering how she's doing. I really really hope she can pull through.

 

[JadeIcing]

The swelling on top seems to be going down. The bottom not much. The vet said we won't see much yet. All we are trying to do is tame the infection a little so she can pin point the cause.

She has a massive swelling that came on suddenly. With geckos you don't handle them the way you do other animals. So my normal routine is I handle mostly when feeding. I check them every day for water, which I take a peek at them. They regulate their temp as needed so I see them all over the tank. I believe it was Friday I held her and she was fine. On Monday morning I was home, on the phone with my mom. I looked at Jax and saw she was shedding. I spritzed her and made sure there was water. I always go back later to check them. When I went to see her that night she had shed on her head. I reached down and got her noticing the swelling. Within 30mins I booked a vet visit for the next afternoon.

There is a LOT of infection so we need to bring it down so the vet can get a better picture. There were some funny looking cells but because there is SOO much infection she can not say for certain.

 

[Dragonrain]

Jax update? I hope she is doing well and making some progress. I can't imagine what you're going through with her. I've been so lucky that so far I've only had a few very minor issues with my leo's.

 

[JadeIcing]

Jax is I don't know. We think the swelling is down but maybe we are to hopefull. Her open eye is no longer clouded. So that's good.

 

[JadeIcing]

Well the swelling is down on Jax! Not all but about half! She is going through a shed which I suspected would happen.

 

[JadeIcing]

We have been thinking the swelling was going down and until yesterday we weren't sure. It has not all but most. The top of her head is down that it looks normal. Her eye is finally showing. She does seem to have her vision back. I am hoping but also keeping in mind that it could still be a tumor.

When I gave her meds yesterday morning Jax was about to shed. Her skin was pale and already lifting off. I was petrified of what could happen to her but I had to go to work. I came home and it was the same, so I broke it open and pulled enough off so she could finish. Hardest part was putting her back in her tank to finish herself. When Rob went back later on to bring her to me, she had pulled it off! She had NOTHING left. With the shed she open the wound on her face which has me a little worried. The vets will be calling me today. I will also be shifting my hours so that I can take her for a recheck on Tuesday.

Honestly other than my poor sweet Harli we have never had any issues with our reptiles. I feel that while Jax is showing signs of improvement I am still keeping in mind that it could still be a tumor. Until they tell for sure I will not get my hopes of to much. I can't, I have to try and hopefully she does pull all the way out of this.



It's funny, she is the only one of my geckos I "pet". You can't really pet a lizard but I take one finger and pet her head. She tolerates it, I know she isn't fond of it but she lets me. Jax is such a calm laid back gecko. You can handle her to your hearts content and she doesn't fight it. So many people are more willing after meeting her to give lizards a chance. She really truly a special creature.

Day 1

Day 1

Day 1

Day 2

Day 4

Day 4

Day 10

Day 10

Day 10

 

[myheart]

Oh my goodness... Those Day 1 photos are nasty looking!! Poor little Jax! That really looks like it hurt her. Nice to see that what ever they gave her is working. How much longer before she goes back to have it checked again? Or is that what the vet is calling about?

 

[JadeIcing]

She is going to continue the baytril for a bit because it is working we are going go another week and see than.

 

[JadeIcing]

Ok so thought I would put some updated pictures. Sadly we lost Quinn but despite that Madison is going strong.

As a side note.... Jax..... Remaining swelling is down by half.

 

[JadeIcing]

Thursday it is a year I lost my girl Montana. Than Friday is 6 years I have had bunnies. Ringo's gotcha day. Saturday would have been my girl Samantha's gotcha. I am going to try and celebrate but don't feel like it much.

I feel like rabbits have brought more tragedy than joy.

 

[Dragonrain]

Aw I'm sorry. I feel the same way sometimes. I love my bunnies...but out of all the different types of pets I've owned I'd say that rabbits have brought me the most grief. Makes me wonder sometimes if they are really the right pet for me.

The summer is a hard time for me too - Zeus' gotcha day was in June and he passed away in the beginning of August. I try not to think about it, but that never really works.

All we can really do is enjoy the rabbits in our life right now, and appreciate every day we have with them.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

I am so sorry you feel that way Ali.

Itoo have had more pet issues with the rabbits then I have with any of my Dogs. I guess what keeps me staying with rabbits, is they have such different personalities, cause different mischief then other animals and show their displeasure with thumps and giving of the bunny butt.

To me they are a very noble creature and to earn their trust is such a accomplishment.

 

[JadeIcing]

I was telling Peg I have found the most joy in rabbits with my fosters. Helping them, earning the trust (for most of my fosters I am there last chance before...) finding them homes and just helping them.

 

[RandomWiktor]

Haven't been on in a while but I hope Jax continues to improve. Reptiles can bounce back amazingly well from infection.

One thing possibly worth checking: my leopard gecko Asha had five major accesses in her face when I adopted her, looked like Jax and worse - the vet couldn't even tell that she had one eye because it was so pushed out of the way by the swelling and infection. Anyways, one thing we discovered was that she had a small hole in the roof of her mouth that went straight up into her eye socked, which was either caused by the infection or the cause OF the infection. I asked around with different vets, and one of my friends finally came up with this:

Vitamine A deficiency!! Okay, so I called Dr. Harris and read your post to her RW and this is what she had to say. She's be treating leos for 20 years now and there was the mealie shortage last year. After the mealies came back on the market she started seeing a TON of leos coming in with all kinds of problems. Eye issues, eyes lesions, abscesses, and the abscesses would just come back again and again. She saw A LOT of geckos with abscesses exactly like your describing related to the oral commissure getting impacted with old skin. Finally she found out recently the geckos are deficient in vitimine A and it seems like the mealies on the market now are deficient in it as well.

The part to be emphasized is that Vitamin A deficiency may be related to mouth/head abscesses in geckos, and even though mine was on a varied diet, upping her A intake definitely DID wind up helping. You can get vitamin A supplements in many forms and really only need a tiny amount; I *think* I have a formulary with vitamin doses for reptiles somewhere if you don't mind waiting a bit.

Good luck with her.

ETA: Ok, I found my formulary faster than I expected. Assuming you don't want to do injections, you are looking at 0.3ml/kg for the first dose, then 0.06ml/kg weekly for the next month. I also found an interesting footnote in my formulary that stated that 100mg/kg Vit C orally daily can help with stomatitis. I don't know if your gecko has this, but Asha did in conjunction with her abscesses.

 

[JadeIcing]

Sweet! I will call the bet and discuss this. I have been feeding mostly mealworms over the last few months, with superworms.