I just had the strangest thing happen. I got home tonight and went to my herp room to check on my beardies. The lights were out and they were all sleeping peacefully. Then I noticed my male dragon laying on the substrate instead of on his usual perch. I looked closer and his mouth was slightly open and partially filled with substrate. It looked like there might also have been a struggle because he had flipped over his veggie dish and was on top of it. Anyway, I immediately opened his cage and picked him up and he was dead limp. His body was completely deflated, his whole front half of his body underside was black and his eyes were half closed. There was literally no life in him whatsoever. I took him to the sink and started to wash out his mouth to see if I could find out what caused this. I thought perhaps he had choked on something. I did manage to wash out all the substrate and a glob of slimey stuff came out, don't know what it was. Just seemed like mucous and substrate. Anyway, I used a soft airline tube to try to clear his throat. I had to at least try and see if I could save him, so I began giving him mouth to mouth resuscitation. I blew into his mouth enough so that his body would inflate. I know I was getting it into his stomach but I just hoped I was also able to get some in his lungs as well. I did this 2 or 3 times and then he let out a loud gasp, but then went limp again. I waited to see if he would breath on his own but he didn't, so I started blowing into his mouth again. Each time pushing the air back out by pressing gently on his belly and chest. I did this for several minutes only getting one more gasp but nothing else. Finally, I decided to try pushing on his chest with my finger to get his blood circulating. I did this combined with the blowing every few pumps and, lo and behold, he started gasping and moving a little on his own. He would try to breath a little and then would go limp again. I continued this for another 10 minutes or so until he was able to keep going on his own. His color started looking normal and his body seemed fuller again, but he was still not very conscious. So I put him under a heat lamp and now he is getting more and more back to normal.
He is able to breath better now, but he doesn't close his mouth all the way and every now and then he will raise his head, open his mouth and suck in a big gasp of air, then slowly exhale with a slight raspy noise. He is awake and aware of my movements and seems to be getting back to his normal self slowly. I'm pretty excited that I was actually able to save my beardie's life! Just thought I'd share it with you all.
-----
1.4.0 Bearded Dragons (Frodo, Red Sonya, Galadriel, Arwen, Lakis)
1.1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleons (Fred and Wilma)
1.1.0 Peacock Day Gecko
0.1.0 Gold Dust Day Gecko
0.1.0 Columbian Red-Tail Boa (Bilbo)
0.1.0 Ball Python (Daisy)
0.1.0 California King Snake (Cali)
1.1.0 Honduran Milk Snakes
0.0.3 Fire Belly Toads
0.1.0 Fat Cat (Mollie)
1.0.0 Mini Pinscher x Chihuahua (Pepper)
