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Previous Entries 2-3-2020 New year same me. Level up in 4 hours. Woo. We almost bought a house o3o Buuut not now. Maybe next year. Ugh. idk how I feel about the whole thing. Definitely sick of this apartment tho. 8-22-2019 Transferring everything important from Tinypic to Dropbox. Tedium. 6-23-2019 Same old same old. Here but not here. Doing a lot of lurking lately. Trying to tie up some loose strings and maybe push myself back into activity around here, but we'll see about when. Watching a lot of "TV" - whatever's on Netflix or free. Doodling a little, but not enough. Work, work, work. So I don't lose the link again: x 2-3-2019 Corydora didn't make it. Caught him in his final throes and was at least able to speed it along for him. Too little, too late. Sorry, buddy. Went to the artist meetup group again today, with my brother's fiancee. We ended up going to IHOP and had a pretty good time. I did a lot of gesture doodles of Rire/deer. Then we had a little birthday double date with her, my brother, my husband, and me. We went to a Chinese/Japanese place that's new enough that it was quiet in spite of Superbowl Sunday, and had sushi.Back 'home' with Punkin. Had entirely too much coffee way too late in the day, and slept late this morning, so I'm sure my 12 hour shift tomorrow will be interesting... Whoopsie. Doodled some more. Been itching to create the past few days, today in particular for some reason. Probably just because I haven't in a while because LIFE and once I started doodling it was hard to stop. Music didn't help with that, lol. Listening to some soothing music, though, to counter a little. When I was young, I would very often hear music in that world between waking and sleep. It's the most intricate and complex sound I've ever heard, and I can't describe it except to say it must be what Heaven's choir sounds like. A thousand thousand voices and harmonies perfectly blended and touching every sense. Anyway, I came across the closest thing I've ever found only a couple of years ago, and it popped back up on my playlist tonight. It makes me happy, and peaceful, even if it doesn't reverberate in my heart the way it did when I first heard it. The problem with earthly song is that it is finite, and when it is over you can only repeat it, and it becomes predictable, memorized. It loses the wonder of an ever-shifting aural kaleidoscope, which is never the same twice. It's no less beautiful, but the mind grows conditioned and immune to its color. Still, it makes me smile. I don't hear that eternal song often any more. I can't really say why - maybe because I don't play classical, choral, and instrumental music as much as I used to. Maybe because I pursued visual art instead of musical. Who knows. So finding this was a rediscovered joy, and nostalgic. I want to do some writing, too, but I'm not entirely sure what about. I just feel a need to be doing creative things, even though I'm not sure what those things should be. With luck, maybe I'll dig myself at least partway out of the artistic rut I've been in over the past few years. Going to bring my sketchbook and laptop/wacom tablet with me when I have my wisdom teeth out. Maybe I'll doodle when I'm enjoying my pain meds, haha. We'll see. 1-25-2019 Tooth extraction scheduled for Feb. 6. At least I'll be able to eat cake for my birthday. But I kinda want to return this present.  One of my corydoras is sick. I've treated him twice for pop-eye, and now he's dropsied and has weird flesh bubbles all over. Last time I saw that was with my goldfish before she died many moons ago. I'm not sure he'll make it in the end, but he seems to have a decent appetite in spite of trying to keel over from stress every now and then. Moving him to quarantine AND moving quarantine to the house I'm petsitting at might've been a bit much, but my husband is 100% clueless when it comes to critters so his odds are actually better here than there. So... there's a fish living on these people's kitchen counter lmao. At least the other fishies seem okay. I treated them with this guy's second round, too, but that treatment didn't seem to help him at all and all the other fish have seemed fine the whole time, so... We're trying the first medication that seemed to help the first go-round but obviously didn't fix the problem. I'm worried whatever it is is probably resistant to this stuff now, but it's what I've got. Guess I need to name this kiddo. ...And I still need to decide on a name for my betta. Hm. 1-14-2019 Guess who needs to have her wisdom teeth out because her dentist/parents decided they didn't need to do it after all when it was recommended 15 years ago before they had big obnoxious root systems and started growing into her other molars just exactly like her mommy's did? I love spending money on easily preventable problems! sigh My tooth hurts  A little stiff lately, but meh. Sleep study has led to pretty much nowhere except Frustration Town for me. The sleep center and my doctors didn't really communicate much from what I can gather, no one has shown me the actual results, just asked me if I've gotten a CPAP yet (before even telling me I needed one loooool) and then the otolaryngologist (say that five times fast) says I don't need one, go ask the gen-prac for B12 injections and exercise. Because that fixes everything. Sure, Doc, I'll just fall asleep driving and take myself and a few innocent bystanders out in the meantime. No biggie. Blue Cross Blue Shield came back to the Healthcare Marketplace this year, THANK GOODNESS, because as much as I don't really like BCBS that much (omg I was on hold for them literally for 3+ hours once, and already 30 minutes just today to get them to unlock my account - a literal press of a button for them - after I entered the wrong password and froze it, because FOR SOME STUPID REASON it doesn't automatically un-freeze itself after a few hours. EVEN MY BANK DOES THAT. I DON'T HAVE TO CALL THE BANK TO UNLOCK MY ACCOUNT IF IT GETS FROZEN, I JUST WAIT LIKE 6 HOURS. THANKS, BCBS.) -- they cover our preferred/previous doctors, so I can ditch these guys who don't communicate with each other OR me and maybe get some dadgum answers. Otherwise doing okay. Changed my thyroid medication a couple of days ago. I seem to have a little more energy since then? but it's only been a few days so it's hard to tell if it's coincidence or not yet. Fingers crossed! The thyroid seems to be about the only thing I can really claim this set of doctors has done right for me. I've noticed that my GI issues have reduced pretty significantly in the past few months since I've been on thyroid medication, so I'm beginning to suspect much of my IBD was related to my thyroid being out of whack. Two birds, one pill. I like it. Especially since I probably won't need to pursue the colonoscopy said doctor wanted. No thx pls. Although really, I should probably start a BINGO sheet or some kind of "diagnostic bucket list" for all the tests I can/have had/will have run... That could be interesting. I wonder what the prize should be? 12-18-2018 Welp. I guess it's about time for my monthly update, huh? Doing okay. Tired, as always. If you'd like some stream of consciousness rambling, longer version is already in the past updates. tldr version: - Money is stupid. Husband needs to get a job gosh-darn-it! - Holiday madness! Busy busy busy! - Really tired of being busy - ANXIETY AND FEELS - Ivi why are you awake at 5:30 you've been typing for like an hour about ABSOLUTELY NOTHING go tf to sleep. - Oh yeah but... - NO GO TO SLEEP - But I still have thoughts-- - NO. - ok ilu bye hug ur kitties 12-18-2018 Welp. I guess it's about time for my monthly update, huh? Doing okay. Tired, as always. Had a sleep study done. Going to see an ENT this week. I'm pretty over doctors and insurance and stuff. Bleh. Petsitting is about to pick up a looooot in the next couple of weeks. I have one right now, start another this morning (why am I up at 4:30 anyway ugh can't sleep), the third starts Wednesday, then I get two more on Saturday so I'll have 5 at once... Thankfully I think that's my peak. Then I drop one on Christmas and pick up another the day after... One gets back on the 27th, then I pass the remaining 4 on to two coworkers the afternoon of the 28th to go see my grandma over the weekend, pick them all back up late Sunday or early Monday... That's a whole 'nother mess, leaving my babies and having someone else watch them. Anyway. Things start tapering off after that, and everyone's back home after the first week or so of January. Then I have a month long live-in stint. They brought down my price like 26%, but it's still a decent chunk of change so I guess I can't complain. Husband is still unemployed. He's applying for a PhD. ¯\_(?)_/¯ This after he said 'you and the therapist were right, I need a job/source of income' but okay. To his credit, he *is* writing grants and continuing to work with his nonprofit group, so he's not 100% idle, but... idk. It's just really hard not to be resentful sometimes when I'm pulling 12+ hour days in a workplace that eliminated lunch breaks because they "decreased" productivity/"removed personnel at a critical time period". Plus petsitting. Plus struggling with health issues that are new and therefore aren't well managed like his are. And he's been better about it lately because he recognizes it's an important source of income, but like... he's had the gall before to say I petsit/work too much and it detracts from our "us" time and wears me down too much. Well help a girl out, then! Sigh. We aren't under water yet, but you can only tread for so long before your head starts dipping. My savings account is a measly 16% of what it was this time two years ago. Boy needs to find him a damn boat, fast, and he's digging in heels about going back to his therapist (because it costs money but obviously he's not listening to *me* so...). Maybe I'll just make an appointment with her and tell him we're going to get lunch and just show up there instead. Hm. I wonder if she'd let me do that, lmao. I might just ask. omg I found two fleas on my cat, and now I'm paranoid. I got them all back on track with their prevention (I missed a month... BAD MOM), but I keep preening his fur to make sure there aren't more. BATHS FOR EVERYONE SOON. Gotta let the preventative spread with the body oils first. Sitting on my hands waiting. Except not because they're busy being monkey hands and picking for bugs. They better not get tapeworms from this. Ugh. And I keep thinking about leaving for 3 days (2 and a half, whatever) and what if Rowan gets another urinary blockage? The people watching him aren't going to know what to look for, and even if they did he's not going to let them touch him. I have a spot saved in the boarding schedule at work, just in case, but he gets so stressed there it just doesn't seem worth it to stay two nights, and I don't know that he would take his medicine there like he would at home. So many pros and cons on each side. I'm probably just extra worried because we've had several traumatic things happen at work in short succession recently, mainly involving things dying or becoming extremely ill while no one is there. Just makes my stomach churn. Absolutely awful. And I just keep envisioning Rowan struggling to pee and getting sicker and sicker and no one being there to help him. *I* almost missed him blocking the first time, and I'm a licensed professional who knows exactly what to look for in those situations, AND I'm his full-time caretaker who knows his habits and expressions. How can I expect a stranger checking on him once or twice a day to notice something is wrong? And I know it's been months since his last block and his urine tests have improved but... ugh, *what if*. Just makes me sick. tldr; nothing's changed, Ivi's still a bundle of nerves who stays up way too late at night and needs to clock her husband over the head with a shovel and go bury him in the back yard and then go snuggle her kittens. SILVER LINING: I'm only scheduled to work 10 hours this pay period, so aside from petsitting and appointments I'll have a little bit of downtime. Maybe I'll try out the mindful breathing feature on my little pedometer watch. Which, btw, you definitely get what you pay for when you get a cheap-o knockoff... but at least it counts my steps lol. Oh! Maybe I'll draw and color some more. That was a lot of fun, although I think it was more fun because I was doing it for someone else, and not for me. I'll have to put some pictures up here, for those who don't keep up with the art Discord server. There's a new group of artists who meet up occasionally, that I've been going to. Maybe I'll come up with a project to work on while I'm there. I kinda feel like a third wheel because a lot of the core group went to school together and I'm just some random person, but I'm trying to be social and not failing miserably. Progress! Ivi is adulting! This turned out to be a much longer update than I thought it was going to be. Probably because I haven't had anywhere to write/vent in a while. There's not a lot going on, but also so much going on. Hm. I feel like... I've been a very shallow person for a long time. Just, in that I haven't had the time or energy to cultivate much beyond surface-level thoughts and emotions for a long time. My creativity has stagnated because I just haven't been able to stretch out and put it to work. Everything is very routine lately, aside from the helter-skelter of figuring out health stuff. I'm actually pretty close to a burnout point with work... I've had a lot of days where I just don't feel like being there, which is really unfortunate, because I really do enjoy what I do in general. I think there are a lot of things contributing to that, but mainly I'm just tired. I need a week or so where I don't have to go to work, or petsit, or do anything except maybe go for a walk. I'd love to go to the zoo, but I'd have to go alone, which isn't as much fun but I might actually enjoy it more alone because I don't have to worry about other people. Which maybe is another part of the burnout. I just don't have a lot of time to focus on me, and when I'm done focusing on whoever else I have to worry about, I'm just done. This is getting really ramble-y. ¯\_(?)_/¯ And my thoughts are starting to jump railroad tracks so I think I'm just going to make myself go to bed at this point before we start doing loops. 11-4-2018 Tomorrow I will have been married for two years. And it's coming up on 11 years in TEF. Man, time flies. I have a Bean hanging onto my arm, so I can't type. Oh well. Have a (STILL VERY CLINGY) Jellybean in lieu of a real update.  He blep.  10-2-2018 My husband is the biggest, most obnoxious dummy ever AND I LOVE HIM SO MUCH  I asked for a bottle of water and he brought me water, green tea, and my favorite Gatorade. I am pretty sick and as much as I want to be participating in the Rut I didn't even go to work today because I've felt so crappy and I think I've missed like 5 days of work in 10 years so that's a big thing. So. Just sticking to things that don't require much thought or energy. Two years in a row being sick for the Rut uuuuuugh. At least I'm not in excruciating pain this time. Just feeling super ooky. Maybe I'll throw someone in to people-watch later. I opened a window a while ago and up and forgot about it so I guess Rohit is sleeping somewhere randomly oh well. Blugh. Nap time. 9-23-2018 Aaaaand we're back! Kinda. Just... just don't click on the "Other" tab ok. Pretend it isn't even there. YOU SAW NOTHING. About Me Name: Not used. Alias: "Aivilo" or "Ivi" work fine. Will also answer to "Lepisma" or "Lepismatidae". Pronunciation Guide - /'aI ,i: vi: l??/ -- "eye-ee-vee-low" - /'aI ,vi: l??/ -- "ivy-low" ** Either set of pronunciations is correct, as the name is a play on words. - /'i: vi:/ -- "Eevee" (yes, like the Pokemon) - /'aI vi:/ -- "Ivy" Gender: Female Age: 31 Joined TEF: Dec 26, 2007 Contact: Post here, or Email (AiviloTEF@outlook.com) Occupation: Licensed Veterinary Technician (LVT) x 2018, 2020: “THE MEDIATOR” (INFP-T); Diplomat; Constant Improvement -- Growth: ---- 2015: ISFJ x ♒ Earth Dragon + Reading, Writing, Drawing, Coding/Technology, Music, Singing, Daydreaming, Puzzles & Story Games, Cats, Animals, Purple, Green, Gold, Red, Blue - Math... uh... some other stuff I'll think of later My Deer All deer listed below are In Character unless otherwise noted.
Title Five Detractis detrahere concipere ac ut et inveniant to. Im perductae ut at ecclesiae assentiri eo. Ea ergo ausi ac otii suas. Utrum me sequi falsi ut atque. Existeret conformes his rei scientiis. Virorum corpora hac iis brachia. Ii ha quaeque ab sentiat alteram co. Memoriae sub mem rogassem integram assignem est interdum. Existat haberet replere meliora sentiat lus jam. Evidentem persuadeo ob ei excaecant evidentia ad oblivisci perductae ha. Serie volui potui iis paulo uno primo nulli est. Liberet effingo im gi quantum id ad facilem. Vul obturabo lectione vix uti potestis collecta. Mutationum praevidere de ad existentia advertatur transferre agnoscitur. Age attigeram has vereorque hoc contingit realitate medicinam lor. Vi verbis at me mutata videor primas ad. Imo uti exponuntur facultatem substantia uno. Scire audio eo in situs modis. Vel voluntate perceptio reddendum componant cau tot. Re porro omnia vi im serio is. Ea geometras eversioni ad pergamque. Toga sic mei has loco viam nota luce veri. Dem his quam ipsi boni. Dubium altera cau duo nihilo summam lumini nia humano. Se jactantur id distinguo im videantur ut. Scriptum inquiram eo deinceps permulta ac. Ut to illae clare me vitae hausi. Sic cujus venti lor vapor minor creet veris. Assignetur addiscerem ne ad discrepant si. Ut ne videmur rotunda studiis quasdam quaeque et. Praestari ii deleantur potestque animalium archetypi at. Florum lus hac secius negari opinor una videor fuerim mea. Se nunc ob eo unde to vere. Ex dubium mundum gi postea. Externarum nec quaedamque collabitur realitatem quodammodo cui nec cum. Ille ausi dari ex ab at de enim utor. Serio fecto non talia sed. Anno tria fide ex addi esto ab at. Mirabar at ei verarum ut eo ignorem. Imaginando vel credidique hac operatione eam sae. END. |
Cyda - Fish - Alates don't
Fish - Alates don't bite, right?
WS - I have three cats so I already eat and breathe cat hair
ohlook a new page
that's what I get for
POBODYS NERFECT
so my wifi is r slow right
because every frame is a goddamn treasure omg look at his face
e. but if it helps ease your mind at all, human bed bugs don't transmit any disease-causing agents and really only older folks have allergic reactions to the bites. Most of the problems we have with them is just the mindfuckery that comes with the knowledge that something is using us as food
Actually they maybe can
I hear Chagas is becoming more prevalent here, too. Assassin bugs on the rise or somesuch
But mostly they're just itchy and annoying >/
I seem to be reacting to the bites some, and when I had them all up my arms it was pretty bad (like hives), but now that it's only 2-3 at a time it's bearable. Someone is coming out to look at the place today and put a bid on cost of treatment, and the apartment complex is going to see if it's an acceptable price or if they're going to shop around some. Sigh.
Ugh, Chagas. Tennessee had a
This is basically what I
This is basically what I imagined you describing. I cannot unsee it now.
Butyeah, Chagas is all I need on top of everything else rofl. At least it's low on the list of plausibility.
The 7th arrived! HOW ARE
.
Haha. My legs are fine, but I
I've been through that bed
I sure hope so, man :/
I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE TO
.
Was legitimately worried when
"- Ivi realizes 90% of her life is her pets, and the other 10% is work."
as 90% and 100%. Like. Woah there.
I demand pictures of your comfort-betta. And Felicia.
Is your fish tank easier to clean now that it's a fifth of the size?
HAPPY BIRFDAY ROWAN!!
.
Well. I mean. Pets are work,
I will have to dig out some pictures of comfort-betta and Felicia.
Comfort-betta also needs a name. I haven't found one that quite fits, yet. I like "Rotti," maybe, idk.
It's SO. much easier. A water change is literally two or three scoops of water out, two or three scoops of water back in (roughly 1-2 gallons each time). Takes like 10 minutes. It took an hour plus to do maintenance on the 55, and involved wrestling hoses across the entire apartment, from kitchen to living room - using an adapter that wasn't meant for a hose-to-sink connection, and which would often burst or pop off and throw water everywhere. I also had to use a step ladder to reach into the tank, and still couldn't generally reach the bottom (especially without getting soaked up to my shoulder and being covered in algae and limescale etc from the nasty city water). Lighting a tank that big is difficult to do without spending a small fortune, especially if you want to be able to grow live plants. It's just... a lot. Granted, you can do SO MUCH MORE with more space - huge, shimmering schools! Aquascaping with all kinds of effects! Big caves and plants everywhere! But it's like mowing the lawn for a house vs. mowing a football field. Same job, more time, effort, and money.
please name your fish Rotti.
Haha! Marnie and Nathan were
Shiloh and Graverobber, my Bolivian rams, went to live with the fish lady.
well ur just a lil repo
A little glass vial! What a
I can neither confirm nor deny that the majority of songs playing in my car playlist right now are Repo...
I can also neither confirm nor deny that I know all the words and sing along obnoxiously.
190% Pets and work. Do take
I eagerly await pet pics! And agree with calling your betta "Rotti", because that :C pic of his is perf for a betta. So. Yea.
I can not even fathom a 55 gallon tank. I'm glad you've downsized and made things easier on yourself!! But yea, the glory of large tanks with aquascaping. Oh man. I've seen some amazing things on amazingpetenclosures.tumblr and just. Wow. But that's A TON of Work and Dedication and Time and Effort. Maybe later in life you can tackle a football field-esque tank, eh?
.
10 gallon (from the side, not
Unreasonably-hard-to-photograph betta who's also in the bottom right of the above picture
Way-too-skinny Felicia "YOU'RE KILLIN' ME" Smalls, who needs to eat more bugs.
FELICIA!!!! it's been too
Felicia is so tiny! omg so
Your betta looks unreasonably like a shady character, but that might just be his camera shyness? Dark boi.
.
Your new tank is beautiful,
Your lizard baby is so cute (I'm assuming either some type of day gecko or a leopard gecko?). How long have you had her? Tank size and lighting? Most reptiles typically don't want to eat while shedding, but if she's still not willing to eat, maybe try and pinpoint any stressors? Is she being given anything other than flies or moths? Perhaps try small, live calcium-dusted crickets, if you haven't yet. If you need to, try and offer them to her with tongs, or gently try and push them into her mouth. If she's still more or less doing the same, or is getting worse, I'd probably try giving her some reptiboost and consult an exotics vet.
(I know you're a tech and you probably know all of this, so sorry that I'm butting in...just want to try and help her and you.)
WS wrote:Your betta looks
Right? Part of why "Rotti" is on the list of possible names, haha. He's actually a bit of a jerk, too. The most aggressive betta I've owned (which isn't saying much, as I'm generally very careful to choose exceptionally chill bettas).
I don't mind at all! Herps are not my forte; I'm primarily cat/dog. HERE, HAVE A NOVEL! halp
Yes, she is a Mediterranean House Gecko (specifically Hemidactylus turcicus, as there are two species that go by that common name). Noctournal. I've had her about a year now. She's wild-caught - a rehab case, actually. Her head was partially shut in a door and one of her eyes was filled with blood for some time, along with some facial swelling. Her left eye is smaller than the right, now, and I'm not sure how well she sees, which is why I never released her. Her pupil is reactive, but she has a hard time catching things sometimes and will miss even a stationary bug 4-5 times in a row before she either gives up or catches it. It seems worse than usual recently.
I have attempted to feed her everything under the sun and then a few more. She will not eat pre-killed food, only live. She won't eat crickets, dubia, flightless gnats, mealworms, and superworms are questionable and only if they're very small. She might have eaten a waxworm, once. She ignored the hornworms until they crawled out of her enclosure. She usually will go for phoenix worms, although sometimes it's hit or miss if she isn't really hungry. I also tried spikes again recently and got some wigglier ones than I did last time, and she attempted to eat one then seemed done with it. I've tried dried flies you get at the store, both dry and moistened. She ignored them until I tied one to a hair and made it fly around, then she caught it and spat it right back out because she felt the hair, and she hasn't gone for them since. I even stumbled upon a bunch of fruit fly maggots last night (don't ask) and washed them a bit and offered her those with her spike and phoenix worms. I've hand-caught and made a bug trap for her, but I'm not efficient enough with either to provide the amount of food she needs, and I have no idea what kind of quality the bugs are - she does eat most non-beetle items from this selection well, though. She's not a fan of tongs, and at best just ignores them. When she gets extra finicky I'll cut the head off a superworm and toothpaste-squeeze it into a syringe with a smidge of calcium dust and glob it on her mouth until she licks some of it off. She's caught on to this over time, though, and often just wipes it off and gets irritated with me. She tried to poop on me last time, lol... I've read not to force their mouths open though (she's so frickin' tiny) so I haven't done that unless she has opened her mouth to threaten me (so scary ooh) and then I've popped her a little... she quit doing that when she realized what I was up to, though, and I hate that it stresses her anyway.
I recently moved her from a 10 gallon (the one the fish are now in) to a 30 gallon breeder (around July 28th), but she has been finicky even before that. Partly I think I need to get some stronger heat sources - it's around 75 on the basking rock she refuses to use, but it's near the piece of wood she likes to hide under on the hot side. Cool side is around 72. When I feed her I put her in a tupperware, and since I moved her to the 30g I've been putting the tupperware in her tank with one edge under her heat source (light during day, ceramic during night) and she's definitely more active then (it doesn't fit in the tank since it's big, so it's maybe 6 inches between the heat and the bottom of the tupperware), but still doesn't seem to be very interested in her food, or will look at something and maybe stalk it for a bit, maybe strike once or twice, and then ignores it.
She did shed a week or two ago, shortly after moving into the bigger tank, and it was the first difficult shed she's had, in spite of multiple mists daily while she was shedding. She got most of it herself, but her hands got caught up in the shed and when it hadn't resolved in 24 hours I decided to pry them out with tweezers, lest they lose circulation. Feet weren't as bad, but I had to free them, too, and the very tippy tip of her tail. I think some of her toepads and claws may still have a little, but they seem overall okay now.
Immediately before her shed (literally hours before) she was snapping at bugs. This most recent bout of inappetence started within 48 hours after (I didn't feed her again until after I peeled her toes out, since she usually does not eat when she's shedding, yes).
The only weird thing I've noticed is that she doesn't seem to climb on the walls of her tank since I've moved her to the 30g. She wasn't exactly all over the place in the 10g, either, but she was at least sometimes out and about and on the walls or top grate. Again leaning towards "more heat" for that, I just haven't gotten to get the replacement bulb for my other lamp.
Everything kinda happened all at once, so between all the variables it's hard to pinpoint anything. She definitely has been losing weight since before the move to the big tank, though, and I've attributed that to not eating the foods I've had available to her (the dubia, small superworms, and hand-caught bugs at the time). She must have eaten something recently, because she pooped out what looked like it was a phoenix worm last night. I did give her some phoenix worms earlier in the week, but I couldn't tell if they had escaped the tupperware (I made the mistake of misting it before I went to bed, and I caught one of them climbing afterwards - they can get into weird places when they're not 100% dry) because she has moss in the bottom of her new terrarium and good golly I had enough trouble finding them on just her little 10g fuzzy floor mat.
idk. This is literally the exact reason why her name is Felicia Smalls.
I give her a bug and she's like "Psh, BYE FELICIA." And I'm left screaming "YOU'RE KILLIN' ME, SMALLS."
Hey, the more knowledge I
Sadly, I'm not very well versed in this specific type of gecko (Leopards and cresties are more up my alley), so my knowledge here is based on general gecko care and some quick Google searches. 75 degrees on the "hot" side is definitely too cold for a gecko, her hot area should be around 85-90ish (The overall gradient should be 90-75ish), with the nighttime temperatures roughly around 65-70ish, maybe a bit cooler (but I wouldn't push it either.).
Humidity is another thing she needs as well. Tropical reptiles typically prefer humidity levels around 60-70%. Both a water bowl and misting at least twice a day helps with this. Coconut fiber soil is really good substrate for tropical reptiles, but you can keep the moss too, as both help with humidity a lot, and the substrate is typically the main way tropicals get their humidity levels. Out of curiosity, how much decor is in her tank, and how tall does it go up? How tall's the tank overall? For geckos like her kind, taller tanks are better than longer, maybe it's throwing her off a bit if it's longer?
Regarding her feeding, have you tried feeding her in the tank instead of the tupperware? Since she's wild-caught, she'll be far more sensitive to being handled and her tank being messed around in, so being placed in the tupperware for feeding (and even just putting it in her tank) could stress her to the point that she won't eat. Reptiles are notorious in general for this - they have to feel absolutely safe before they'll eat.
Reptiles in general prefer live food (and it's generally considered healthier for them), so yeah, I wouldn't even bother with freeze-dried ones. House geckos typically are primarily fed crickets and dubais, with mealworms and waxworms once or twice a week. But it definitely sounds like you have a very picky girl, though it's possible that as a wild-caught animal, the whole situation in general is stressing to her. It sounds like you've been dusting her bugs with calcium powder too? I'm thinking too that she's probably blind or at least partially blind on one side of her face. Could there be some possible brain damage too?
Generally yes, you shouldn't force a reptile's mouth open for anything, but I would suggest still trying to give her some Reptiboost. It's Critical Care for reptiles, and if you're able to get even just a little bit of it in her, it could help her quite a bit.
Overall, the only things I can recommend are getting stronger heat sources and not using the tupperware at all to feed her. If you're worried about her accidentally ingesting her bedding, I'd switch her substrate to carpet, if she's not on it anymore. If you want to keep moss in her tank, you could try placing it in a dish or bowl. Keep trying to offer her bugs, and keep track of what she actually seems willing to eat, and offer more of those.
The only other thing I can recommend is consulting an exotics vet, as they may be able to give her things that you normally wouldn't be able to and that might give her a good boost.
I don't work this weekend, but there's a slight chance I'll be popping into work for a visit either tomorrow or Sunday. If I do and my manager is there, I'll ask and see if she can recommend anything else.
(Sorry if any of this is either repetitive or something you addressed earlier, I'm literally typing all this just before bed orz)
Pardon any weird paragraph
Yeah, I definitely want to get more heat in there, I just haven't managed to get the new bulb yet and my stick-on heater is one-time application only *eyeroll* it breaks if you peel it off to put it somewhere else. I went to get the replacement bulb the other day, and it's not carried where I went - I had forgotten I got it at the store across town, uuugh. I'm thinking about scrapping the lamp I have right now (or just moving it to the 'cool' side and leaving the ceramic on all the time) and getting something better.
Humidity is generally pretty well covered. It's humid as hell outside, so indoors rarely gets below 40-50% to start with, haha. I try to keep the moss moist-ish and mist whenever I think about it (usually 1-2x daily,
occaaonally a bit more). She has a water dish, but I've only ever seen her near it once, while she was dodging me.
In general, I try to keep heat and humidity like it is outside during spring/early fall here. Although if the windows outside are anything to judge by, they're doing just fine in this summer heat. 104 some days!
I have tried feeding her in the tank, and she actually doesn't eat as well because she tends to hide under her log and her bugs tend to burrow into/under the carpet and decor if they manage to get out of their dish, or they shrivel up before she even thinks about touching them. I started using the tupperware when I started collecting flying insects for her, and while she wasn't too keen on it at first she seems to have picked up that it means food and (normally) will go after things pretty much immediately after I release them in there with her. Sometimes if I'm lucky she'll even let me watch.
I tried feeding her a minute ago and she went straight for the first phoenix worm I dropped in, but she only nipped it once and then started wiping her face on the ground like there was something on it, and wouldn't touch anything after that. She did this the other day, too. I got a good look at her face with a flashlight, and there wasn't anything there that I could see. Not sure what's going on. It did give me a chance to test her pupillary reflexes again, though. Will get there in a second. She
also had two big poops overnight, so I guess she got those phoenix worms the other day after all! They
looked like they were whole, so I'm going to start trying to poke little holes in them when I feed to see if
maybe she'll get some better digestibility with them. I'm not really worried about her eating her
bedding... it's just the carpet and moss. There's carpet over almost all of it (the 30g breeder is an
uncommon size, so I used her 10g carpet and a normal 30g carpet, and covered the cool side with the
moss and dug her some little hidey-holes under her wood pieces). I think she'd have a hard time
ingesting the carpet, and the moss is long and stringy enough she'd probably have to work at that, too,
and I think she's more likely to spit it out than eat it.
It's pretty heavily decorated (pictures!), and dimensions 36" long x 18" high x 12" deep. It's definitely longer than it is tall, but she has lots of space to climb and even some wall-mounted decor to hide in (although admittedly there could be more)
Crickets and dubais quickly outgrow her (her head is a little thinner and longer than the nail on my pinkie, for reference - maybe 1/2 inch by 3/4 inch? ish? A good sized house fly would fit on it with a little room to spare maybe. She fits comfortably on my finger), and she hasn't been interested in them while they're small enough for her. I've tried both of them in her enclosure and in the tupperware, no interest in either. I never witnessed her eat the waxworm, but it did vanish. I do try to dust her bugs when I get a chance, or supplement with the phoenix worms where I can since they're much higher in calcium than the average bug and she (usually) likes them. I'll try to get ahold of some Reptiboost. Even if I can't get her mouth open she'll lick it off her nose eventually. Or rub it on me. It's a bit of a toss-up who wins the forcefeeding fight, but she gets a few licks most of the time.
As for her eyes - the damaged eye has darker pigment in the iris, which I hadn't noticed before. I think that's new within the past 6-8 months. It also DOES react to light, but it's slower than her good eye and maybe doesn't contract as tightly. Brain damage, I have no idea. She seems to act like a sassy miniature dragon should. She used to try to bite me. It was more like a nose boop. Ferocious. Most of the swelling was further down, on her nose, but who knows. She's so tiny and fragile and I've seen so many geckos completely flat in that same door, I'm surprised she didn't die.
Thank you for taking the time to fuss over my snotty little monster <3
Oh. My gosh. I am so freaking
oh damn that's frustrating
Yeah... ugh. I'm still
Got the new lamps today. It's up to 90 on her basking rock. Added a vine item around the top/sides of the terrarium (burned the sh*t out of my fingers trying to hot glue it to the sides because it only has suction cups at the ends, and it still fell down in the end... managed to melt the rim on one side of the tank with the new lamp, too. WAUGH). Tried to put a little bit of shade on the hot side so it's not crazy hot, but also trying to balance the vines' distance from the heat so they don't catch on fire .-. Put some of the moss in a cup of water on the hot side to try to boost the humidity and keep it more consistent, since it will dry out faster over there now. Going to move the weaker heat lamps to the cool side once I get a day/night timer in. Repta-boost wasn't available at the store, so I ordered it online. It'll come in Monday. Looks like she ate a phoenix worm overnight while I wasn't looking, at least.
Felicia came out to watch what I was doing and/or sit in the light for a bit. Uuugh she looks so wrong without her poor tail. Still can't believe that.
Goodness me, it's always one
Also how is it that people have successful sleep studies?? I'm pretty sure they're all lying and there's just some kind of conspiracy, like forreal. I refuse to try another one because paying ~2k to have a shitty night's sleep and to get no satisfying results is bullshit.
When it rains, it
Uuugh. I've had some N2O when I was like, 6? idk. But literally NO anesthetic of any type other than that and local lidocaine blocks. On top of that, grinding/bone-type things skeeve me out. So... the whole idea makes me leery. I made the mistake of pulling up a YouTube video of the procedure last night and almost puked. Animal teeth, not my favorite but no biggie. I do dental procedures pretty regularly at work. Whatever. People teeth and thinking about it being my teeth...
The sleep studies actually weren't that bad... I can sleep pretty much wherever, usually (PART OF THE PROBLEM?). The first one I had a little trouble falling asleep partly because I'd dozed off earlier in the day and just wasn't as tired as I usually get at night (and it was earlier than my usual 'bedtime'), although the wires did bother me for a bit. Second time I had to wear the mask and after the initial claustrophobia panic wore off I was fine, but the mask kept digging into one side of my face because I don't sleep on my back, so that pain kept waking me up.
So I guess I didn't get great sleep either time, but I feel like the first time was just because I wasn't all that sleepy and had to force myself to go to bed and wake up at odd hours and would have slept okay under other circumstances.
But yeah, the cost is outrageous for pretty much any healthcare, let alone something where someone has to intently watch all your monitors for like 10 hours straight.
Dude, I happened to notice the price of my lupus medication the other day when I picked it up... It's like freaking $150 per month without insurance. And you KNOW those pills only cost the company like $0.30 each and the medication is probably worth like $20 + a little markup so maybe like $50/month. I mean hell, all of my medications together without insurance probably cost something absurd like $600 a month, but obviously insurance companies turn a profit paying most of that AND most of the cost of doctor visits and labwork etc, for a monthly fee of less than $1k FOR TWO PEOPLE. My husband's medications cost more than mine do, and he has more specialists.
It's absurd. Absolutely absurd. And if they take away the government subsidy and we have to pay the full $900-1,200 ish for insurance every month AND they bring back pre-existing conditions...
We're f#@%ed, man. Straight up.
Lmao, it's like... Oh, thank goodness, 2018 is done. Goodbye. Hello, 2019! Please be good to me!
And 2019 is just like...
LOOORRRDDD WHY WOULD YOU
My coworker just had one done and in one go they gave him a CPAP. When I went years ago, I told them "hey, I wake up sometimes because *I stop breathing* and I have family who have seen it happen and can vouch for me, please I just want to breathe" and they went "UHHH WELL you're not male, overweight, or old, so you can't have sleep apnea :smirk: but yeah hahaha sure we'll test you. Can you sleep on your back? Impossible, you say? Ok, well have you ever taken eszopiclone? Oh, you don't do well with sedatives of any kind? They can trigger your anxiety? That's ok, this will make you fall asleep!"
I slept like three? Four hours? And at the end they slapped me with a "trendy" chronic diagnosis and insomnia and *maybe* it's my tonsils, but I haven't gotten sick enough times to warrant their removal so haha fuck me I guess
Oh no, I agree, it's criminal what they charge for care and medicine. My coworker told me that without insurance, her prescriptions cost about 500$ per month. We don't make enough money where that's just a drop in the bucket so like... Thank goodness for insurance, but at the same time screw them. 'Murica, right? If you can't afford your meds, too bad, you'll just have to die
BECAUSE I WANTED TO KNOW but
LOL the video was like "and the tooth is gently lifted from th--" no there is no gentle in extractions what video are you narrating because it's not this one
Uuuugh Fish why do your doctors suck.
Why do my doctors suck.
...actually I usually like my doctors but I've been stuck with alternate doctors because insurance ugh.
Still.
wtf healthcare system.
But like... there's something going on with me. I just can't definitively say what. I kinda suspect I have some form of narcolepsy. I'm hoping maybe my neurologist can figure it out when I get to start going back, now that our insurance has changed.
Maybe it's all my thyroid (although probably not, because I'm still falling asleep on my feet - LITERALLY - some days, but overall energy seems a little better so idk). Maybe it's all in my head sigh. I hope not, because that sounds a lot harder to fix lol.
'I am Many' is Among Us's
(Also track!)
Oh, finally! I was waiting
Signature © Draak
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I like attention. Here
Here because have seen the post in the Discord HUB.
lmao, hello!
\o/