My photo is gravely impacted by The story behind it.
**Please read the story**
So, about a month ago, My bearded Dragon Sunny was assessed by a local exotic animal vet. We noticed he had a mass on his lip. He was diagnosed with Advanced Pariondontal Disease. This stemmed from the pet store he was kept at. He wasn’t kept at the right humidity, and it resulted in fungus around his mouth and periodontal disease. So, we took him to a separate animal vet that I used for my tortoises before. He specializes in Desert Reptiles. Without putting him under sedation, he noticed something terrible. His jaw bone was protruding from his gums. In other words, his bone was fractured. After further investigation, he noticed he had very advanced bone infection. The bone infection attacks Bone marrow, and spreads all over around the body, overall killing his bone marrow, thus killing him. They are very aggressive, and can only be taken out surgically. Unfortunatly, this surgery is very expensive, and costs 3k. I don’t know about you, but i don’t have 3k lying around. He is in pain, and at the end, I decided to euthanize him. I’ve had him for 6 years. He is the best lizard ever. He chases vacuums, eats Dubia Roaches with a passion, loves sweet potato, and absolutely adores the sun. The euthanasia is happening sometime in the next week. I’m absolutely heartbroken
. He is eating, and loving his last few days, he sits next to 2 of my Desert Tortoises, not having enough energy to chase them away from his micro green Pile. I was going to put in a different picture, but I feel I need to commemorate this guy and post a picture of his last few days. Everyone hates to lose pets. Thanks for reading
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Update:
So, under further investigation, the surgery will cost 1k.
The original thought was that he had a bone infection on both sides of his jaw. From what it looked like on X-rays, that's what it was. But I decided to pay 200 dollars for exploratory surgery. I did this because I wanted to know I did everything to help him. They put him under and poke around in his mouth. Instead of bone infections on both sides, they found bone infections on the jaw bone and a different bone that is hard to pronounce.
The surgery price went down by almost 2k. They do need to remove a mass caused by the Periodontal Disease.
My thought process was: He was my first pet. His personality is great. The probability I will own another beardie is low. I want to do whatever I can to help him. I have a lot of things I can sell to get to 1k. Basketball hoop, drum set, and tons of different things I've outgrown over the years. My parents will not pay 1 penny. All my friends love him. They love feeding him, and he has became popular around my neighborhood because I have him out in the front. He chases vacuums, which is something special. I love him.
The vet who will do the surgery is the #1 Reptile vet in the US, and I use him for yearly checkups for my tortoises. I entirely trust him. So, with tears of joy in my eyes, I make this post. I'm going to keep him alive