First off. I went to the vets yesterday with Sam and a fecal sample because I suspected she has a respiratory infection and I wanted to make sure she didn't have parasites. The vet had a little more trouble restraining her this time then when she was lethargic when I first adopted her (and even then she was quite a struggle!). He says whatever I'm doing for her to keep it up. She's gone from 400 grams to 300 grams in under a month, and she eats like a pig (usually a large bowl of greens...sometimes I give her another bowl in the afternoon which she manages to eat more than half of). Plus, she has more muscle now, is much much much more active, and is overall a much healthier animal than when I first brought her in...I guess letting her out to run around and burn off all that fat is really showing results. When he checked for respiratory infection he couldn't get her mouth open without a big stuggle, and he couldn't keep them open for long. She had enough signs of respiratory infection for him to go ahead and inject her with antibiotics. I should see a huge improvement by monday. I already am.
Also, I called today about the stool sample, and it's clean! I was worried she was going to be full of parasites.
Now for the funny thing. My dad has been talking to the guy we got her from (the very neglectful owner), and first, Sam is suspected to be about 6 years old right now (living in the guy's possession for 2 years). He also told my dad that I should be careful because she might "latch on to me". Apparently, when she was living in her unlit ten gallon tank filled with feces and a hot rock, one night and figured he would take the lizard out. He reached down into the dark dirty tank and when he tried to pull her out, she bit him and wouldn't let go! In the time that I've had her, she has been very happy and will eat out of my hands. Today I was hand feeding her a couple pieces of greens, and I twitched or something and she accidently got my finger, but she didn't bite. She realized right away that she had my finger so her teeth barely even touched me (I actually think only her bottom teeth did, she didn't even close her mouth), and she let go right away and continued eating. Not a scratch on me, no pain, no bite! I think she knows that I've been keeping her healthy and happy and that the other guy wasn't. It was pretty funny to hear.
-ryan
