dprince
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- 4,270
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OK, to give you a little background.....
One of my females was bred in mid-late June. By the end of July, she had still not laid her eggs - I could see them inside her belly - and was growing more and more uncomfortable. She stopped eating, for quite some time.
I held off as long as I could......but I knew there was a problem.
I am very fortunate to have a fabulous vet close by; I took her in, and we tried supplementing her with calcium, and they gave her some pitocin. No go. So......surgery was an option. We took it.
She had surgery on a Wednesday - it went well!! They were able to save her reproductive organs as well as the eggs!! I picked up the eggs that night (I had provided them with a cup of moist vermiculite, just in case) and put them in the incubator.
I picked up my gecko the day after her surgery, and she was doing very well. She seemed to be getting back to her old self, I was amazed!!
On Friday, she was starting to shed. Thankfully, I had talked to Marcia the day before and had gotten some great advice about what to watch for - shedding was one of those things (because she could pull her stitches out). I was pretty nervous all day; when she finally had enough skin coming off, I actually shed her. I was unable to get a bit of skin off by her belly; I tried with tweezers, but couldn't pull hard enough without pulling out her stitches (her surgery was Wed. - this was Friday.)
I kept checking on her every 15 minutes, and good thing - I checked on her, and her tub was very bloody. She had pulled out her stitches. I rushed her to the vets - by the time I had gotten there, her insides were becoming outsides. They were able to sow her back up OK, but she just wasn't the same afterwards. She just looked like she was in pain, and she didn't have any interest in food. By the time I got the slurry in progress, she had crossed the rainbow bridge. :-(
Her eggs, BTW, as Marcia's vet had suggested, were infertile. Extra insult to injury. Just a sad situation.
On a positive note, the vet figured out a really nifty way to keep her away from her stitches - unfortunately, didn't figure it out until after her second surgery, but anyway - they used a rubber glove finger tip (both ends cut off) as a little "tube" around her belly. This let the incision breathe, but kept her from yanking at her stitches. If nothing else, I hope this little tidbit helps someone else.
So.......a sad tale, but if someone learns something from this (like the glove finger thing), it will be worth it.
Thanks again to Marcia for helping me so much. I cannot say enough how much I appreciate the advice and help.
One of my females was bred in mid-late June. By the end of July, she had still not laid her eggs - I could see them inside her belly - and was growing more and more uncomfortable. She stopped eating, for quite some time.
I held off as long as I could......but I knew there was a problem.I am very fortunate to have a fabulous vet close by; I took her in, and we tried supplementing her with calcium, and they gave her some pitocin. No go. So......surgery was an option. We took it.
She had surgery on a Wednesday - it went well!! They were able to save her reproductive organs as well as the eggs!! I picked up the eggs that night (I had provided them with a cup of moist vermiculite, just in case) and put them in the incubator.
I picked up my gecko the day after her surgery, and she was doing very well. She seemed to be getting back to her old self, I was amazed!!
On Friday, she was starting to shed. Thankfully, I had talked to Marcia the day before and had gotten some great advice about what to watch for - shedding was one of those things (because she could pull her stitches out). I was pretty nervous all day; when she finally had enough skin coming off, I actually shed her. I was unable to get a bit of skin off by her belly; I tried with tweezers, but couldn't pull hard enough without pulling out her stitches (her surgery was Wed. - this was Friday.)
I kept checking on her every 15 minutes, and good thing - I checked on her, and her tub was very bloody. She had pulled out her stitches. I rushed her to the vets - by the time I had gotten there, her insides were becoming outsides.
They were able to sow her back up OK, but she just wasn't the same afterwards. She just looked like she was in pain, and she didn't have any interest in food. By the time I got the slurry in progress, she had crossed the rainbow bridge. :-( Her eggs, BTW, as Marcia's vet had suggested, were infertile.
Extra insult to injury. Just a sad situation.On a positive note, the vet figured out a really nifty way to keep her away from her stitches - unfortunately, didn't figure it out until after her second surgery, but anyway - they used a rubber glove finger tip (both ends cut off) as a little "tube" around her belly. This let the incision breathe, but kept her from yanking at her stitches. If nothing else, I hope this little tidbit helps someone else.
So.......a sad tale, but if someone learns something from this (like the glove finger thing), it will be worth it.
Thanks again to Marcia for helping me so much. I cannot say enough how much I appreciate the advice and help.
