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Oct. 16th, 2010 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
commotiocordisHad been putting the cats in my brother's room when I went to bed, but he was asleep, so I decided to leave them out without supervision for the first time.
MISTAKE.
I'd brought my lizards home in a big plastic shoebox-style container because we were flea-bombing the house in Springfield. Cats can apparently get into those.
Found both of them, and Fifteen doesn't look like there's anything particularly wrong with him (but internally, idk). But somebody got a hold of Steve McQueen--minor toothy/clawy-looking abrasions, but there's some kind of prolapsed rectum thing going on now, which suggests he got squeezed.
CHOICES:
1. Wait and put him in this isotonic solution thing the internet suggests and watch. Hope it goes down by itself, but probably he dies anyway from whatever squeezing caused that to happen.
2. Try and sort of reduce it by hand (for which there are no instructions on the internet, fucking backwater herp breeders who don't share their knowledge). Chance actually killing him faster, and he still probably dies anyway from whatever squeezing caused that to happen.
3. Ignore everything and not ever look at the box again to pretend it's not happening.
I really really really want three to actually work.
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Continued.
Tried isotonic thing. Tried sort of reducing it by hand. Nothing. He's still moving around and stuff, but calledtwo four animal hospitals that have herp vets only to be told that nobody is in today, fuck.
Also, frugal!me can't stomach taking him to the vet especially if all they'll do is put him down, because that's going to cost a fuckton of money. Even though I'm pretty sure Mom's going to cover it (she's doing all the calling and stuff because I keep crying like I'm PMSing a week and a half early, idefk), I feel guilty.
And I know that trying to fix it is going to be ridiculously expensive, because anesthesia + suture + possibly also needling the bubble and/or cutting his vent open a bit more is definitely considered surgery, no matter how pretty much minor. But, I mean, jfc. If I had a way to knock him out, I'd so give it a try myself, because I've got a reptile surgery textbook, LOL, and I know the theory probably better than a non-herp vet would. I don't have the sutures, though, nor a decent sterilized blade here if I needed to cut his vent open. Could drain the bubble with just a syringe, but I don't have the antibiotics I'd need to give him after to make sure it doesn't turn into peritonitis. This happens all the time to lizards, just not usually from trauma, so any herp vet who's been in business more than two weeks has probably fixed twelve of them.
----------
Continued continued.
So. Pushing 9 hours after I finally found them. Steve's still doing okay, I still haven't slept and keep being inappropriately torn up about this (I mean, jfc, I wasn't this bad when my dog died--but I suppose I just came home and found out he was dead after a day of being sort of sick, rather than this agonizing knowing what's wrong and not being able to fix it for hours and hours on no sleep and a really shitty weekend to begin with), and I've called every recommended herp vet on every list I can find and several animal hospitals just to ask if they had one and nobody's in until Monday morning.
He'll probably make it that long, but by then it'll most likely be too late to fix anything if the bowel is ischemic, so I feel like it's kind of not worth putting him through it. It doesn't look like he's in distress, but how the fuck do you tell with a lizard, you know?
I want to just leave both lizards here and let my parents take care of it, either take him someplace on Monday or just do whatever. More me feeling like a wimp, because I'm 20 years old and can't handle a dying lizard for fuck's sake, and more me feeling guilty but I don't think I can bring just one of them back with me. I'm in that "I'd rather not have any animals if it means I have to go through this again" stage, and the one who's (hopefully--for all I know, she's actually hurt worse and just not showing it) not hurt is the one who's pushing the average lifespan of a gecko anyway.
But even then, I have to walk around the house for the rest of the day today and tomorrow in this same sympathetic agony because he's running around in a box on the table probably in immense pain. I'd almost rather it have a resolution today so maybe I could chill the fuck out, but also very much do not want, because if I just hear about it when I'm back in Springfield, the acute pain is lessened.
I don't understand why I'm being this torn up about it other than it's just been a really really crappy break/week/semester and this is it all finally breaking through. I want to be able to just go to sleep and forget about it all, but minus significant quantities of alcohol (which do not have, as I'm at home), I'm not seeing that happening--it's 12:40pm and I didn't get to sleep at all last night and only got a few hours of sleep the night before (since my room is in the basement and I get woken up every time somebody walks through the front room, which means definitely by 6am when people start getting ready for school) and yet the only symptom of "tired" I have is this ridiculous weepyness.
MISTAKE.
I'd brought my lizards home in a big plastic shoebox-style container because we were flea-bombing the house in Springfield. Cats can apparently get into those.
Found both of them, and Fifteen doesn't look like there's anything particularly wrong with him (but internally, idk). But somebody got a hold of Steve McQueen--minor toothy/clawy-looking abrasions, but there's some kind of prolapsed rectum thing going on now, which suggests he got squeezed.
CHOICES:
1. Wait and put him in this isotonic solution thing the internet suggests and watch. Hope it goes down by itself, but probably he dies anyway from whatever squeezing caused that to happen.
2. Try and sort of reduce it by hand (for which there are no instructions on the internet, fucking backwater herp breeders who don't share their knowledge). Chance actually killing him faster, and he still probably dies anyway from whatever squeezing caused that to happen.
3. Ignore everything and not ever look at the box again to pretend it's not happening.
I really really really want three to actually work.
----------
Continued.
Tried isotonic thing. Tried sort of reducing it by hand. Nothing. He's still moving around and stuff, but called
Also, frugal!me can't stomach taking him to the vet especially if all they'll do is put him down, because that's going to cost a fuckton of money. Even though I'm pretty sure Mom's going to cover it (she's doing all the calling and stuff because I keep crying like I'm PMSing a week and a half early, idefk), I feel guilty.
And I know that trying to fix it is going to be ridiculously expensive, because anesthesia + suture + possibly also needling the bubble and/or cutting his vent open a bit more is definitely considered surgery, no matter how pretty much minor. But, I mean, jfc. If I had a way to knock him out, I'd so give it a try myself, because I've got a reptile surgery textbook, LOL, and I know the theory probably better than a non-herp vet would. I don't have the sutures, though, nor a decent sterilized blade here if I needed to cut his vent open. Could drain the bubble with just a syringe, but I don't have the antibiotics I'd need to give him after to make sure it doesn't turn into peritonitis. This happens all the time to lizards, just not usually from trauma, so any herp vet who's been in business more than two weeks has probably fixed twelve of them.
----------
Continued continued.
So. Pushing 9 hours after I finally found them. Steve's still doing okay, I still haven't slept and keep being inappropriately torn up about this (I mean, jfc, I wasn't this bad when my dog died--but I suppose I just came home and found out he was dead after a day of being sort of sick, rather than this agonizing knowing what's wrong and not being able to fix it for hours and hours on no sleep and a really shitty weekend to begin with), and I've called every recommended herp vet on every list I can find and several animal hospitals just to ask if they had one and nobody's in until Monday morning.
He'll probably make it that long, but by then it'll most likely be too late to fix anything if the bowel is ischemic, so I feel like it's kind of not worth putting him through it. It doesn't look like he's in distress, but how the fuck do you tell with a lizard, you know?
I want to just leave both lizards here and let my parents take care of it, either take him someplace on Monday or just do whatever. More me feeling like a wimp, because I'm 20 years old and can't handle a dying lizard for fuck's sake, and more me feeling guilty but I don't think I can bring just one of them back with me. I'm in that "I'd rather not have any animals if it means I have to go through this again" stage, and the one who's (hopefully--for all I know, she's actually hurt worse and just not showing it) not hurt is the one who's pushing the average lifespan of a gecko anyway.
But even then, I have to walk around the house for the rest of the day today and tomorrow in this same sympathetic agony because he's running around in a box on the table probably in immense pain. I'd almost rather it have a resolution today so maybe I could chill the fuck out, but also very much do not want, because if I just hear about it when I'm back in Springfield, the acute pain is lessened.
I don't understand why I'm being this torn up about it other than it's just been a really really crappy break/week/semester and this is it all finally breaking through. I want to be able to just go to sleep and forget about it all, but minus significant quantities of alcohol (which do not have, as I'm at home), I'm not seeing that happening--it's 12:40pm and I didn't get to sleep at all last night and only got a few hours of sleep the night before (since my room is in the basement and I get woken up every time somebody walks through the front room, which means definitely by 6am when people start getting ready for school) and yet the only symptom of "tired" I have is this ridiculous weepyness.
