Hi, guys! I've been posting here for a couple of days, now (though reading for a few weeks longer). I've got one beardie, who is kindof co-owned by the rest of my household (primarily by my roomate/best friend, Meredith, though his expenses are mostly funded by our SO's).
Figured it was about time for an introduction.
My fiance found Oolong in the middle of April. He'd gone out for a bike ride, then come back almost immediately telling us that he'd seen a cat fighting with a "small komodo dragon". With visions of a wounded & angry monitor lizard, Mere & I set out w/ a cat carrier & probably more good intentions than sense. What we found was an absolutely *gorgeous* cat, & a bearded dragon of about 14". We scooped the beardie up, & left the cat (who seemed well taken care of... besides, we already have 11 of them ;} ).
Mere had wanted a beardie for some time, so she already had a manual. We quickly set up a habitat, & I proceeded to research everything I could about them. I used to have possibly the world's only psychotic ball python, & therefore thought I never wanted another reptile pet, but Oolong (as the beardie was soon named) convinced me that I *needed* a beardie. 
Oolong had a small scratch over his right eye, which we thought was from the encounter w/ the cat, & looked like it was healing on its own. Then, about a week after finding him, I woke up in the afternoon to discover that Oolong's eye had swollen completely shut & was oozing yellow liquid.
We rushed him to the vet... the vet thought that he'd contracted an infection from the cat, & that the lens of the eye had probably prolapsed (ie, his eye had "popped" 
). She prescribed a course of Amicacin antibiotic, which took care of the eye swelling (he still as an eye, & seems to have most, if not all of his vision), & lessened the two abscesses that appeared on either side of Oolong's bottom jaw.
Alas, the abscesses came back... Oolong has now undergone two surgeries to remove his abscesses. He's currently on Fortaz (until the culture comes back & the can determine exactly what bacteria we're fighting), & Nolvasan flushes in his jaw abscesses twice daily. We're also giving him Acidophiliz+ every day to replace his natural gut flora.
Thank god, he's doing well so far... he's gained over 4 inches in length & nearly 150 grams since we found him. His colour is beautiful, he eats & poops well, & he's pretty active (when he's not just sitting on his basking log ;} ). If we can just get the abscesses under control, we'll be all set.
All told, we've spent over $800 on our "free" lizard since the middle of April. o_O Don't get me wrong... he's totally worth it. I am absolutely amazed by how much I am in love with this lizard! I just hope that nobody makes the mistake that we made. If you ever see anything remotely amiss w/ your beardie, *please* take him/her to the vet! If we'd taken Oolong to the vet immediately, we likely only would have been out the vet visit & maybe a follow-up & a single course of antibiotics, which would probably been less than $150. As it is, we're looking at *at least* one more vet visit & another course of antibiotics, which will put Oolong's total vet bills at between $900-$1,000, assuming he doesn't need another surgery.
I used to have a horse, & even *she* wasn't so expensive when she was sick. ;P
And now... the pictures!
This was taken the day after we found Oolong. You can see the scratch above his eye. That's a piece of apricot on his head... we were trying to tempt him to eat, then got bored & started balancing things on his nose... hence his name (named in honor of Oolong the pancake bunny: http://www.fsinet.or.jp/~sokaisha/rabbit/rabbit.htm ).
http://digitalmegami.com/photos/oolong/dayout1.jpg
A few days after he came to live hear. Looking perkier, but his colour is still very dark, & you can see the abscesses under his jaw starting to form. Being new beardie parents, we didn't really know the weren't normal.
http://digitalmegami.com/photos/oolong/sexy.jpg
Not long before his first abscess surgery. Isn't he cute?
http://digitalmegami.com/photos/oolong/sun.jpg
The day before his first surgery. Poor thing... note that not only does he have huge abscesses under his jaw, but they're shedding, so he's compelled to rub them on anything. Also note that the lump under his eye later got much, much larger (the vet didn't want to touch it unless she had to, but it got large enough that he could only open his eye halfway).
http://digitalmegami.com/photos/oolong/abscess.jpg
After his first surgery, sacked out on the couch. He's gained a lot of weight, & his colour is sooooo much better. Perhaps strangely (considering how we found him), he pays no notice whatsoever to our nearly dozen cats.
http://digitalmegami.com/photos/oolong/blankie.jpg
Yesterday. Still eating, pooping, & acting interested in his surroundings. Colour is still gorgeous... you can still see the swelling where all his abscesses were, but they're all muchly improved. Hopefully this will be the end of it. ::crosses fingers::
http://digitalmegami.com/photos/oolong/oolongjune.jpg
-----
~Alice
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Oolong)
0.1 ferret (Lil' Guy)
7.4 cats (Angel, Goblin, Hush, Kirin, Sammy, Squee, Toes, Feets, Gypsy, Kana, Raisen)
