Today was the absolute definition of a rollercoaster as far as emotions went. It started with the big time low that ebbed throughout the day. The high came relatively early to lighten the mood somewhat.
I had my second ever trip to the vet this morning. Over the weekend I had noticed that Lacey had some roughened scales on her belly that were browned as well as what looked like blistering along the back third of her belly. It all looked very symptomatic of a burn. As it was the weekend I consulted a trusted source who confirmed that it looked very much like a burn and perhaps some scale rot thrown in. Needless to say neither is an particularly inviting prospect.
The world's most caring vet Jan Spate confirmed that it is a belly burn. It occurred because I use a heat mat underneath Lacey's enclosure that she lies over to draw the heat she needs. I will go into more detail on the mechanics of how a burn like this occurs and how to avoid it (lesson well and truly learned) in a later post. Suffice to say that the burn was a result of my mistake and I'm pretty shattered about it. You can see the nature of the burn in this first photo. It is not serious and she will recover quickly. She is eating well and generally appears to be as content as ever. Loving her food is the way I would describe it. Gave me a nip last night thinking it was feed time. I have an ointment from the vet to apply daily. She ate her latest meal tonight and I will apply the treatment tomorrow morning. Expect progress updates soon.
On a brighter note, after the early morning run to the vet I went in to work. First thing was to check on the geckos, now named Lizzy and Ecko after a naming contest with my colleagues. I noticed sand around the entrance to the lay box which peaked my interest. Further investigation of the underside of the container and I spied a glimpse of white suggesting that my suspicions about Lizzy were correct. She had laid two of the smallest eggs I think I have and will ever see. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting by way of size. Reptiles tend to be measured in terms of 'snout to vent length (SVL). That's their nose to their bum basically. Golden Tail Geckos are around 12cm SVL. So they are not exactly huge. The two eggs that you can see in the images here are about the size of the very small jelly beans you can buy these days. I put a five cent piece in the photo for perspective.
Of course as you do, Lizzy buried the eggs in the very very, back bottom corner of the box. The only indicator really was the sand around the entrance and a little bit of lateral thinking. Lizzy herself does look a lot slimmer, but, I doubt I would have quite picked that she had laid without a pretty detailed inspection. I have chosen to use perlite as the medium to incubate the eggs in this time. It is the white pebbly looking material around the eggs in this second photo. I found that I was less than entirely happy with using vermiculite this season with the Dragons. There was mould in the egg containers for the first time in the second clutch. I'm not sure that the clutch was as strong as the previous ones that Lolly has produced, but, I do think that the vermiculite may have contributed to the outcomes somewhat. Most of the eggs survived and produced healthy babies. I just felt that the consistency of the vermiculite may have contributed to the few that were lost. So I am moving to another commonly used material that just appears to me to be cleaner and retains the moisture in a better way.
I have started another competition at my work to guess the hatching date of the two eggs. I should mention that geckos only ever lay two eggs, so all is very normal on that front. I thought the competition was at least another way to try and bring a bit of light into an otherwise shady day.
