#beardimus maximus venemous the secondus

[darlingrutherford]

Hey all. I really hate doing this, I've never done this before, but dire times call for humbling so.

My bearded dragon, Max (or, Beardimus Venemous Maximus the Secondus, as some of you may know him by) has been sick for a few weeks now. He has an infection that his vet hasn't been able to find the cause for yet. We're currently in the middle of an antibiotic treatment where we inject saline and antibiotics between his scales under the skin every 48 hours, in addition to giving him an oral pain and anti-inflammatory medication every day. This doesn't seem to be doing anything. He still refuses to eat. He still has a hard mass (either his liver or gallstone most likely) that is causing his stomach to be pushed upwards.

The first image on top is a radiograph of Max after they gave him a barium solution. That white boy is his current stomach placement. The second picture is how it's supposed to look.

Because this course of treatment doesn't seem to be doing anything, we booked an ultrasound with his vet for July 30th. Because of the nature of this, his vet will be transporting him to an emergency clinic in the next town over that has a much higher quality ultrasound available so that they'll for sure see what's going on, no questions. We had to put down a $980 deposit down for this visit, which was the minimum of what the visit for that day alone will cost. If they have to do a biopsy while there, which will require anesthesia, it could cost up to (and possibly more than) $1716. This is on top of the $889.50 we've already paid out of pocket for his treatment. And we have no idea what the cost of treatment will look like once we determine what's happening.

I'm disabled, currently on my third year of trying to get approved for disability in this country that seems to not believe disabled folx, so we're surviving on my husband's not great income in a city where cost of living is already pretty freaking high. Max means the world to us, he's what gets me out of bed even when I'm in insurmountable pain, and we'll do anything we can to make him feel better. He's only just turned five. His vet is extremely qualified and we know we've done the best for him under her guidance, so the fact that he's going through this is breaking my heart. He could live another fifteen years. It's just not fair.

I hate asking for favors. I know times are tough for a lot of people right now, and if you don't feel like you can spare anything right now I 100% understand and don't expect anything from anyone. But, I feel like I need to put this out there into the universe.

If you can spare anything, even just $1, our venmo is @ dragonparents , ko-fi is https://ko-fi.com/darlingrutherford if you prefer that way

Again, I'm not expecting anything, I know these times are tough. And please don't feel bad if you can't help out. But I figure it's good to put things into the universe. I wish I could offer something substantial in return. If you do donate and would like something, I could offer an over DM tarot reading, I can do a "good energy" ritual for you, send healing energy your way through ritual, etc. Unfortunately my CFS just isn't allowing me to write well right now, so I would feel like I would be offering a disservice offering that up. But, I can offer those (culturally responsible, pulled from my ancestor's culture and not those of other's) energy offerings/readings to you if you'd like ❤️

Most of all, I hope all of you remain healthy and happy, that your pets and loved ones stay healthy and happy, especially in these times ❤️

And, of course, paying the pet tax:

#bearded dragon #pets #max the dragon #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #my baby #i love this little nugget more than life itself

[basiltwist]

A little summer for your feed~ 🌞

#beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #max the dragon #my baby #bearded dragon #it was so hot today #way too hot for me #but i do it for him❤️ #prolly not gonna move much tomorrow 😂

[darlingrutherford]

When you hit dat ultimate level of comfy-womfy ❤️

#😂😂😂 #in the bearded dragon community we call that a sexy leg 😂😂 #lil frog legs lmao #max the dragon #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #my baby #bearded dragon

[darlingrutherford]

Even pirates need to relax ☠️

#Max the dragon #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #my baby #bearded dragon #just taking things one day at a time right now #still waiting on vet results

[darlingrutherford]

Baby boy devours ginormous hornworm two hours before his vet calls to say "no more food before Thursday's ultrasound"

Please ignore my excited rambling in the background I was so happy to see him eating so much

#max the dragon #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #bearded dragon #my baby #Max update

[darlingrutherford]

Wanted to share all of this with you: the first time Max has actively swam in water 😍 This little guys are so easy masking their pain, it would be hard to tell anything is wrong with him if this was all you saw. I guess we're kind of alike in that respect 😏❤️

Joey and I were so ecstatic to watch him play in the water. He stayed in there a long time, splishing and splashing... Until he eventually pooped and jumped out onto me 😂 Now he's happily drying off on his lavender plant ❤️ Hes gonna smell so niiice when we go back inside 😍

#max the dragon #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #my baby #bearded dragon

[darlingrutherford]

Max update!

First off, I want to thank those of you who have helped us out with Max's vet bills, who have sent good energy and thoughts our way, etc. You have no, no idea how incredibly touched we are that people wanted to help us out so much. It's been such a relief to not have to worry as much about being able to care for him. We've always had a little bit we set aside for his care, but this all happening at once just totally ate away at that, so, thank you from the bottom of our hearts ❤️

Max's labs came back and he doesn't have cancer! Obviously we're so relieved to hear this, but it does raise the question of, what the heck is on his liver?? His vet is thinking the mass is maybe scar tissue on his liver, but we really don't know 100%. Doing exploratory surgery to figure it out would mean a high chance that they'd have to euthanize during the surgery because of all the blood vessels attached to it, so it's not really a option we wanna do. So Joey and I are trying to decide if we want her to go in endoscopically (he would still have to recover from that, but it would be a tiny hole they'd make vs an actual incision so much higher chance of him being fine) in which case she could take a biopsy and actually look at it while in there with the tiny camera, or whether we just want to maintain him comfy and happy for as long as we can.

It's one of those things where, since his current treatment has him eating better now, he could be fine as long as we give him pain medication and saline injections for as long as he's doing well, or it could get worse over time. He could have weeks or years, it's kind of hard to know. But, if we continue to treat him with saline we can just do it a couple times a week it sounds like, and she has smaller needles we can use that he won't feel as much, but they're harder to get in because they have to go in between his scales (which is fine, I'm happy to learn how to do it so that it's more comfy for him because he haaaates his injections right now). We're also looking at switching him to a different pain medication he'd only have to take orally once every two days so we'd be bugging him less often. But. Yeah lol.

I think I'm leaning towards seeing how he does for a couple weeks with just the pain meds and the smaller gauge needles for the saline, maybe he'd be a bit less stressed then, and then doing the endoscopic procedure when he's not as stressed since he'd need anesthesia for that and I don't want him more stressed during that and during recovery. His vet said we can think about it for a bit and continue his current care in the meantime, so we'll be researching more and hoping he continues chugging along. Something about his current medication is obviously working since he's been eating better recently, so I think the pain meds and saline injections are absolutely what his long term treatment will entail. Currently he's sleeping on my shoulder so he's happy right now lol ❤️

I'll definitely continue to post updates as we learn more. Thank you again to everyone who's been so supportive and kind to us throughout this ❤️ You all mean the world to us! And Max says thank you ❤️

#Max update #max the dragon #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #bearded dragon #my baby

[darlingrutherford]

This little nugget just got dropped off at the vent. He's been having (fresh) blood in his stools so they need to check and find out what's going on. Because it's fresh (bright red, not brown) it's most likely something irritating his vent (where their poop comes from), so possibly not related to what's already going on with him. Poor little guy just can't catch a break. Hopefully it's something they can fix so it'll be one less thing for him to stress about.

I'll definitely keep you all updated ❤️

#max the dragon #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #max update #bearded dragon #my baby

[darlingrutherford]

Max had his last dose of antibiotics two days ago, which means we get to switch to his new treatment plan! He'll now only get poked with a needle every 3 days for fluids, and the needle is much smaller. Today was our first day with it, and he wiggled a whole lot less and barely black bearded during it. He also got switched to new pain medication that only is given by mouth every 3 days as well, so the hope is that he'll be able to chill out a lot more and get a little better. Then we can look at him having his endoscopic procedure down the road when he's more stable.

Until then, it'll be in the 100s this weekend 😩 we don't do pool time on the days he gets poked (just because I'm a neurotic dragon parent), but you can expect lots of splish splashin pool time photos tomorrow 😘

I won't be putting out more posts specifically for donations (unless another big procedure pops up) since his care is now within a level we can afford without too much pain, but if you ever want to help contribute to his ongoing meds (~$50/month right now) feel free to click on my ko-fi link in my bio. If you specify it's for Max, 100% of that will go to him, whether for his treatment or for some extra special wormies as treats (I'll be ordering him hornworms soon because he deserves them!) We're working on figuring out some photos to take for a big thank you, so you can expect that in the near future as well ❤️

#Max the dragon #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #bearded dragon #my baby #its so damn hot outside lmaoooo #willing to melt for this baby! ❤️

[darlingrutherford]

Well, Max is back home safe and sound from his vet appointment. Unfortunately, we didn't get great results.

Max definitely has a mass in the tissues of the middle of his belly, between his gall bladder and stomach. His vet is guessing the mass is somewhere on his liver or pancreas. It has a lot of veins and is getting a lot of blood to it, so she's really worried it may be cancer. The mass is causing a block up of fluids in him (not from what he takes in orally or what we've been giving him via injections), and she was able to take a good sample of it to send off to pathology since there were many cells present in the fluid. We should hear back early next week and hopefully have a more concrete answer then.

Best case scenario is this is something that can be solved with medication. If surgery is needed, his vet is very worried about operating on the mass because of the blood supply being given to it. She said there's a very high chance she would open him up only to find it's not safe to operate, and then Max would have to deal with the pain and frustration of healing from being cut open on top of everything else. Joey and I talked about it, and if it comes down to it we agreed we would rather Max be comfortable instead of selfishly forcing him to spend what time we may have with him in pain just so we could possibly get a bit more time. If possible, we would continue giving him meds so he can feel pain free and comfy, and when it becomes impossible to keep him comfy we would agree it's time. Hopefully it won't come down to that, but if it does I'm glad I have a partner on the same page who shares the same love and ethics for our little guy. In the meantime, we took Max out in the sun to splash and play, and he seems to have had a great time. He didn't eat the flowers I put in the water, but he seemed to enjoy their presence.

#he's chilling on my shoulder now #so hard for me to put him back in his viv knowing what's going on #i love this little guy more than life itself and I'm trying not to be completely crushed right now since it could all work out but #ugh #Max update #max the dragon #bearded dragon #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #my baby

[darlingrutherford]

We just dropped Max off for his ultrasound with his vet! He got lots of early morning snuggles and the promise of more when he gets home.

From this point, his vet is getting him prepped for their car ride to the emergency clinic in a nearby city to get a high quality ultrasound done on his belly. This will allow her to see more clearly exactly what is pushing his stomach upwards, and from there she'll determine whether or not to sedate him and take a biopsy. We opted for them to do CPR if anything goes wrong at any point. Upon picking him up from us in the parking lot, she asked about how he likes to ride to make him comfortable, and when I said he likes to forward face so he can see out the window, she gave us a mischievous look and said, "maybe I'll let him ride on the dash" before taking him inside 😂 I feel like I just dropped my child off with the cool Aunt. We trust his vet with his life. She's done well by him for three years now. Needless to say, though, I'm looking very forward to getting that call probably around 10A-11A of him being ready to come home ❤️

#Max update #Max the dragon #bearded dragons #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #my baby #trying not to have a mini panic attack from not having him at home right now #gotta keep reminding myself that he's even safer with her than he would be with us

[darlingrutherford]

I don't want to get my hopes up, but Max ate one hornworm and two dubia roaches this morning, and he just fucking devoured the BIGGEST HORNWORM IN THE WORLD and is looking awfully smug about it (hornworms are literally goo filled, they squish almost instantly upon being devoured, so it's not as dangerous as giving him a giant roach or something more crunchy like that.)

I really, really hope the gradual return of his appetite means things are looking up for him. His urate is yellow right now (it's supposed to be white) but apparently there's a possibility it's because of his antibiotics and not a scary reason. With him continuing to be active and eating (he only ate one tiny roach yesterday and nothing the other two days before that, which has been normal since he's been sick), I'm crossing my fingers that his super expensive ultrasound on Thursday shows that his treatment is working 🥺

Thank you so much again to everyone who's given through venmo or ko-fi to his treatment, as well as those sharing the post around ❤️ Being able to not worry as much about affording his care has been such a huge relief off our chests (especially since I have my own health care to look at and would absolutely have put that treatment on hold if it meant getting him healthy again). The world doesn't seem like such a big, strange place with friends like all of you ❤️

#max the dragon #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #bearded dragon #my baby #max update

[basiltwist]

Things are getting crazier by the day- so....we (re: me. I mean me.) need pics of Max. His healing photogenic-ness is the cure to all~

I got up about an hour ago and found Max like this on the couch

He's since been moved to my chest since we keep the house fairly cool and he needed some heat, but he was awfully cute all snuggled under his blanket!

#He really is the cure to all #excuse the mess lmao #we've been sorting through boxes and donation centers arent open right now so #our place is a disaster zone lmao #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #max the dragon #my baby #bearded dragon

[basiltwist]

I request pictures of your boy please ;D

YOU MEAN THIS BOY??

That was yesterday. THIS was today. His tail shed is being stubborn so we gave it a good soakin in his viv~

#always happy to fill requests for pics of Max #baby boy #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #when DA mutuals find my main blog my brain goes #UH OH THEY KNOW ME #😂 #HI FREN #bearded dragon #pets

[darlingrutherford]

Braving the 100F heat for HIM ❤️

Thank you so, so much to everyone who has shared and donated my fundraiser post for this lil guy. We're so incredibly touched at how much people care, and we've gotten so many little and big donations that are definitely going to help ease some of the stress from his treatment. Max had his daily pain and anti-inflammatory meds a while ago, and now he's basking outside like a king until I feel like I'll pass out from the heat.

I'll be making a point to post photos and updates leading up to his ultrasound on Thursday, as well as updates of his health and care thereafter. (There may even be a pirate hat in store for tomorrow if I can make things go my way). Max says thank you, and we love you all ❤️

#max update #max the dragon #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #my baby #bearded dragon #seriously thank you #even if it was only a reblog #ive been crying a lot from the support #i really wasnt expecting it #i love you all ❤️❤️

[basiltwist]

In other dragon news, it's Max's 5th Birthday!! 🥳🥳🥳

To celebrate, have some more pictures of the cutest baby in the woooorld ❤️❤️❤️❤️

#bearded dragon #max the dragon #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #happy birthday babyyyyyy #❤️❤️❤️❤️