I've been fighting a migraine for over a day. Now my head isn't hurting as bad, it's 2AM and I'm wide awake. I need to tell y'all what happened this afternoon (or is it technically yesterday). Let's call it yesterday.
Lizard Dude belonged to my 8 year old son. He named her 3 years ago when we first got her and before we found out that she was female. She was very spunky at times. Dude had always been small- she only measured about 14 inches long, and she came from small parents. I new if she was ever bred that it would kill her. So I made sure to keep her separate from the boys, and I hoped that she would grow more before producing any eggs.
She hadn't been acting right for a couple of days. She was eating and passing stools ok, but she was basking under the heat lamp more than usual. Yesterday she looked like she was having some pain or labored breathing every now and then, and her skin was pale. She had passed what looked like very yellow urates and a cleared thick substance. I had difficulty locating a reptile vet that hadn't already gone home for Thanksgiving. One vet said that they could euthanize her and they would be open until 9pm. I finally found one who handled reptiles, so I took her in along with the "fecal". The vet gave me a couple of options. We could take some labs, but the labs would be closed until Monday for the holiday weekend. We could treat her for dehydration and go ahead and give her antibiotics in case it was a bacterial infection. I chose to treat her with the fluids and meds. The vet said that she might not make it even if we tried the treatment. She also mentioned that if she had a broken egg yolk inside of her that it would go septic, and there was a vet in New Orleans (about a three hour drive from here) that could do surgery on her, but it would cost thousands of dollars. There was no way it could have been arranged in time (even if I could pay for it), especially during the holiday weekend. I knew something had to be done for her immediately. The vet started the meds and fluids, showed me how to do the injections, and sent us home. A couple of hours later, she started looking like she was trying to pass something, but she didn't look exactly like she was trying to have a bowel movement. Not long after that, she started breathing more labored. I knew she was dying. I held her and had my son come sit with us so he could love on her and tell her goodbye. She started gasping for air and writhing in pain. He started crying. He asked if the vet could give her some medicine like they did when we put our older dog to sleep(she had cancer). He didn't want Dude to suffer. We called the vet that was open late and I took her in. They helped her "rest" and put her in a box. We will bury her after everyone gets up this morning.
Now that my head isn't hurting as bad and I can think more clearly, I am convinced that it was an egg that she was trying to pass, and that she was probably egg-bound. She didn't look gravid, her belly was not that big and no lumps were visible.
She may have been small, but she had big personality. We are going to miss her greatly.
