Dragon Disaster..!

Mum suggested we call her "Ampersand", to match Hyphen. So we trimmed it to "Sandy" as that's not a million miles from her old name.

As you may know, Sandy came to us as a rescue, and we were informed that she had pinworms. This turned into a bit of a fiasco in itself, namely that Pests At Home wouldn't sell me the Panacur 10% solution I required. Because it said "Cats and Dogs" on the front. No, it doesn't specify horses, avians or any of the other uses on it either.

So I went to my lovely vet, who confirmed Panacur was what I needed. I went back, told them I'd seen the vet who said NO, I don't need a prescription and I could just buy it. But no. That's not store policy. I could buy some Beaphar wormer though.

Which is great, except it doesn't treat Enterobius. Beaphar treats hookworm and other parasites, but not the common pinworm, which is why I needed the half-mil per kilo dose of Panacur which DOES. I ended up paying an extra fiver to get it from my vet. He rolled his eyes. This is why I don't shop at Pests At Home.

Some Saturdays we have the Jehova's witnesses in for a cuppa and a chat - but this week they left in a bit of a hurry. Sandy's stomach was a bit mixed up from her previous poor diet, parasites and relocation stress, and now, because the medicine was doing its job well, it unfortunately upset Sandy's already wobbly digestive system, and she explosively pooped ALL down me! Never had a dragon do THAT before - but at least I know she's well hydrated...

I cleaned us both up, and then she vomited all over her tank a few minutes later. Thankfully I'm always prepared for such events and was able to disinfect everything before giving her a dose of vits, AviPro, calcium and banana sugar with water. Upchucking is quite serious in reptiles, as it burns their throat, but the calcium and water would settle that, and the AviPro is a specialist probiotic culture which would help prevent her being sick and squitting any more.

Poor thing doesn't like being syringe fed, but a couple of days later (after a better contained squitter incident), we upgraded it to a plum and mixed fruit puree with water, AviPro, bee pollen and other healthy bits. Since then, she's gone back onto proper food and luckily none of the other dragons were bothered in the least by the wormer.