Sandy, one of our female beardies, went from being extremely healthy and happy to critical condition near death overnight. Our vet, with the help of some of the best reptile vets in the country, pulled her though with a procedure that as far as is known has never been performed on bearded dragons before, a blood to marrow transfusion. This will be written up for vet journal publications by our vet, Dr. Carolyn Kohn at River Forest Animal Hospital in Sarasota, who performed the procedure.
She consulted with other experts in the US and they assisted with their ideas, such as meds to use to help reduce any swelling, bleeding, rejection, where to go into the marrow, what needles, caths to use, and also their support and encouragement. The contributing vets were:
Dr. Douglas Mader, author of Reptile Medicine and Surgery, in the Florida Keys, Marathon. Dr. Divers-Hernandez College of Veterinary Medicine, Athens, GA. Dr. Ivan Alfonso of Orlando. He has some really good herp articles with photos on vetmed on his site. Dr. Susan Lightfoot in Tampa. Florida Veterinary Specialist
Just in case one of you needs some top expert help, and are near any of these cities, these are some of the best bearded dragon vets or specialist in their fields in the country. How fortunate for us that they are all located in Florida. For those not in Florida, they will do phone consultations. I know I have a dragon alive today because of them and their ingenuity to put together what was a very cutting edge emergency medical procedure
I've never seen a living dragon that looked so bad so quick, or one that survived with iron levels so low in the blood. We are hopeful and it appears the procedure is successful.
For those of you that don't know her, Sandy, the dragon who received the procedure, is the gold dragon in the top left corner of every page on this website, so is very special to us and this site. It was our big healthy orange male 21 month old Merlin, from Matthew of Mystical Dragons, that became the donor. He is doing excellent, they said he hardly blinked when they took 5cc of his blood. Thank heavens we had a dragon that was so hearty and could share that health with her and allow her to survive.
Merlin, the hero of the house: He is now 680 Grams (not a bit of fat on him) and still growing.
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Re: Medical procedure appears a success
(Score: 1)
by Gandalfs_Beard on Jan 29, 2006 - 09:25 AM
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That is tremendous news! We are so happy for Sandy! And a big "Atta Boy!" goes out to Merlin from our family in Sarasota.
We are so fortunate to have Dr. Carolyn as the vet for our Dragon, Lady Arwen, (& for our Pomeranian, too!). She treats each of her scaley & furry patients with the top expertise & loving care.
Dr. Kohn also told us about your Dragon that is carrying eggs. How is she doing?
Keep us informed as to Sandy's health.
Re: Medical procedure appears a success
(Score: 1)
by sdellin on Mar 15, 2006 - 10:41 AM
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Congrats! Thats is really cool that your dragon was saved! What a story you have to share.
Re: Medical procedure appears a success
(Score: 1)
by Kelsey22 on Apr 12, 2006 - 09:27 PM
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yesterday my bearded dragon passed away from bone cancer which is really rare in lizards the vet told us. he wasnt eating at all for 2 weeks and we had to force feed him. in the end, there was nothing we could do for him.
