The Unknown Perpetrator

I decided to start a separate thread so as not to keep her in "C.W.D. Gaping" forever.

Perp (the Unknown Perpetrator) is a Chinese Water Dragon I was given by a friend. When my friend moved into her new house, she found this little lizard in a 10 gallon tank on the floor of her living room. She brought it to me, and said, "Here, this is for you." This dragon had eyes completely crusted shut, no substrate save coconut husk in a yogurt cup (her hide), no real water (there was a thick sludge in a 3" diameter water dish), nothing to climb on, and she was motionless other than the occasional breath. I took her to the vet, and she was cleared of parasites, but her prognosis was poor.

She couldn't eat (because she couldn't see), so she started with pedialyte soaks and some sort of "nutrient slurry" the vet gave me. The vet had intended to show me how to pry open a Chinese Water Dragon's jaw to syringe feed the "slurry", but when he touched her nose, she opened her mouth, which he took as a poor sign, but said it would be easy to feed her that way. I started cleaning her eyes with eyedrops on a daily basis, and after several days (can't recall how many), she opened her eye ever-so-slightly and coconut husk came through her eyelids. Very carefully, with some finetip tweezers, I pulled out the fibers I could see (obviously I did not dig, just removed the fibers sticking out past her eye), then flushed the eye again. It took almost 2 weeks from that point before she would readily keep one eye open, and at that point, I tried feeding her crickets, which she absolutely could not catch, so I ripped the back legs off, and she had a snack. It was a few more days before both eyes were clear, and she still could not catch crickets. The vet said her eyes may have been permanently damaged, and she may just not be able to see.

A few weeks ago she began gaping, but was cleared by the vet. After another week or so, I took her to a different vet who gave her antibiotics, and I soon discovered that it is not at all normal to easily give a Chinese Water Dragon something from a syringe. She was NOT happy! It took three days to discover the easiest way to give her the meds, and on day 14/15, she bit me. Fortunately, she is small, and I don't think she bit me as hard as she could. That was Thursday. On Saturday my niece put crickets in her enclosure (about 10), and much to my surprise she caught them. Over a few hours, she caught all of them.

I've had her for roughly 3 months, and her estimated age is between 4-5 months, though she's small for her proposed age. At her last vet visit, she weighed 18 grams (that was June 22nd), and as of yesterday, she weighed 24 grams. She has also grown about an inch in body length (about 4"), but lost roughly 3 inches off of her tail due to necrosis. She is very active now, and not at all the same dragon she was when she was first dropped off with me. The vet said it can sometimes take up to 2.5 years for a dragon to be full grown when it is starved as a juvie, and also said he wouldn't be surprised if she was permanently stunted. As of now, I have no idea of her actual gender (hence, Unknown Perpetrator), and it may take quite a bit longer than usual to be able to tell for sure.

I'm surprised how much I like her, because I refused to get one for a long time. They seemed like lots of trouble and just a small version of an iguana. Well I can say, she has one heck of a personality, and she has a place with me for a long while to come.

I do not have a camera right now (hopefully will soon), but here are some older pictures:

This was taken after her first eye was able to open (April 26th)
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And this is her on June 19th, the day before I broke my camera
Perpattitude.jpg

Wow, that is awesome! Great job! She's a lucky dragon to have landed in your hands.

Good luck! You have taken real good care of this dragon! Its people like his/her last owner who really tick me off...

Originally Posted by CentriRitanni

just a small version of an iguana.

O_o

Glad Perp is getting better Previous owner... grr... people like that make me soooo mad.

Originally Posted by SpidaFly

O_o

Glad Perp is getting better Previous owner... grr... people like that make me soooo mad.

Yeah, yeah, I know! BUT, I mainly work with desert herps, so they always seemed like a huge pain! Plus, the first two iguanas I was ever near attacked me unprovoked (bitten on the ankle and tailwhipped in the face), so I chose to remain uneducated about igs and anything similar *cough* Chinese Water Dragon *cough*. Obviously, I have remedied that. Still can't say that I want an iguana, but hey, improvement counts for something...

The part that irritates me more than the fact that they obviously had NO clue what they were doing is that they just left it to be someone else's problem. Fortunately for Perp, my friend moved in very quickly, but that's not always the case. Just as bad, if not worse than, the people who have to move, so they just leave the dog. At least the dog has a fighting chance of finding food and water, and of someone noticing that it's been left. The lizard trapped in a tiny box is screwed.

Originally Posted by CentriRitanni

. Just as bad, if not worse than, the people who have to move, so they just leave the dog. At least the dog has a fighting chance of finding food and water, and of someone noticing that it's been left. The lizard trapped in a tiny box is screwed.

Yeah I really don't understand attitudes toward animals. Why do people have animals if they aren't willing to take them with and keep them safe? Frankly the only reason keeping animals captive is ethical is because you REMOVE the effects of disease, malnutrition, and predation. I don't understand morons who abandon cats, dogs, or any other animal. Foolish and ignorant.

Heh. I guess it's "easy" for me to say, I'm considering not moving to Fairbanks Alaska with my wife when she has to live there for two years because I have no idea how I can provide 100% reliable care up there. Easy when we move back to Washington, but... middle of Alaska is quite another story. Causing quite a bit of stress in my life right now, unfortunately.

:/ Well that's not a fun situation. I'm trying to work out moving to the northwest in the next year or so, and that's making me feel crazy enough. Right now I'm in the process of adopting out most of the animals I have now before I have another knee surgery.

The thing of it is, though, these are considerations made to back up the responsibility we, as owners, have chosen to take on. Not saying they are easy, some are much more difficult than others, but it's a level of responsibility that owners need to understand. Sometimes you need to give up animals, and that's okay, but do it through the proper channels. Same thing with pet sitting. If you are moving an animal, do it properly. The list goes on and on.

Apologies if that's not very coherent, I am a bit dazed.

Originally Posted by CentriRitanni

:/ Well that's not a fun situation. I'm trying to work out moving to the northwest in the next year or so, and that's making me feel crazy enough.

Cool! Where to? I can't wait to return.

Right now I'm in the process of adopting out most of the animals I have now before I have another knee surgery.

The thing of it is, though, these are considerations made to back up the responsibility we, as owners, have chosen to take on. Not saying they are easy, some are much more difficult than others, but it's a level of responsibility that owners need to understand. Sometimes you need to give up animals, and that's okay, but do it through the proper channels. Same thing with pet sitting. If you are moving an animal, do it properly. The list goes on and on.

Absolutely.

Apologies if that's not very coherent, I am a bit dazed.

Hey me too xD <3 Petit Sirah

I'm looking at moving to Portland. Not so surprisingly, most of the mail order articulations I do are out of Portland or nearby places. I've visited a few times, and despite the fact that cost of living is much higher than Oklahoma, it seems more like my kind of place. Not necessarily Portland proper, but thereabouts.

With any luck, I will be down to Herp, Perp, and the pups by the time I actually have to have the surgery. So far I've managed to find a home for my foster dragon, and the new owners actually bought her enclosure and the anoles (which is great, because now I have enough money for food while I can't work, haha). A friend is going to take Waka, so I just need to home a bearded dragon, and that shouldn't be too hard (especially since my niece is in love with it and I know her mother and grandmother are both pushovers ). I'm trying to stall out on the surgery as long as possible (in part trying to get Perp's permanent enclosure finished, and partly because I don't wanna), so right now I'm in a lovely, enormous knee brace with a script for percocet to theoretically sleep. Clearly that's working out. <.< >.> Perp thinks my knee brace is FASCINATING, and when I set her on my corn plant for her mini-free-roam yesterday she decided my leg was a much better place. It was cute, but slightly odd, haha.

Originally Posted by CentriRitanni

I'm looking at moving to Portland. Not so surprisingly, most of the mail order articulations I do are out of Portland or nearby places. I've visited a few times, and despite the fact that cost of living is much higher than Oklahoma, it seems more like my kind of place. Not necessarily Portland proper, but thereabouts.

I LOVE Portland. I grew up near Seattle, but Portland is where my wife and I want to end up eventually. Microbrewery capitol of the world, politically fairly moderate, tons of cultural diversity, etc.

I'm trying to stall out on the surgery as long as possible (in part trying to get Perp's permanent enclosure finished, and partly because I don't wanna), so right now I'm in a lovely, enormous knee brace with a script for percocet to theoretically sleep. Clearly that's working out. <.< >.>

Yeah I hear you there. I had a major open abdominal surgery ~7 year ago and it's looking like I'm in the condition that will demand another within a year or two. Docs have me limping along in a barely tolerable condition on 4 different drugs, but the only real solution is surgery. That was a brutal recovery, and I'm not looking forward to it again Fortunately my wife loves the reptiles and I know she'll take adequate care of them (she's not quite as obsessive as I am, but they'll be fine). She'll probably tolerate caring for the roach colony, I can just let whatever morio adults I have die off and feed/sell the larva and start over again later since it's easy. I'm not sure how she'll take care of my tarantulas though... hmm. I've suggest that she might have to bring the tarantulas to the hospital with a box of feeders LOL... give me something to do and keep those pesky nurses from waking me up at all hours of the night at least xD

Wow, I've really derailed your thread here. Sorry!!! xD Hope you can get some sleep!