When it rains....

[Armiyana]

It pours.... oh boy is it pouring here.

I'm having one of those moments where I'm trying not to have a meltdown.
I've been dealing with a frustrating change of health insurance and the fallout from that.... while trying to get my own health on track. That's been an adventure looking at surgery in a couple of months along with some diagnostic testing for other issues. I'll be talking to two different surgeons on the same day, different appointments at the end of the month. Fun.

Then there's the surprise bill from my old insurance from a procedure done 14 months ago.
And as if that wasn't enough...

Then there's the animal issues.
It looks like my colony of feeder rats picked up ringworm from a carrier male I shuffled in. On the plus side, it doesn't really bother the snakes...so I might just euthanize and freeze them all for future meals. Then deep clean/bleach everything and start over with a small stock of the younger ones I can treat with some shampoos and powder instead of having carriers pop up every couple of weeks and causing new infections later.
Thankfully, I don 't have more than 5 tubs of rats at the moment and I have a couple of 'teens' that are easily handled for the baths and such.

Then there was finding a mass on my oldest boy. With everything else going on, I have been keeping an eye on it and so far..... no changes. I was going to consider a biopsy. And that's when the other issue came up...

I purchased a couple of snakes from a breeder I was working with and getting a custom incubator and rack from.
The incubator works great. I love it. As of today, 11 eggs cooking.
The rack is fine.
What is not fine.... is the issues after quarantining the animals. I made the big mistake of keeping a couple of holdbacks in the same rack as the new arrivals. A separate room from my breeding group. I finished up the 90 days. Everyone eating and such. I moved one girl to my juvie rack in the other room. The other 3 are still in the hold rack.
Then the one I was really looking forward to bringing up to size and working with next year dies. No warning. Healthy beforehand. Had a necropsy done with a local reptile specialist... everything looked normal, since he was partially on the heat pad though, the last bit of the bowels were too gone to really see what was up. There wasn't any fluid buildup or anything in the lungs, just some redness the vet couldn't say was post or pre mortem.
I asked to get some samples done for the big three viruses. They all came back negative.
Chalk it up to the mysteries of life.
So.... small sigh of relief.

Until I notice the female juvie being picky. She went into shed, okay. Brushed it off as just a shed cycle lack of appetite. She was fussy again the other day. Didn't take her meal. Looked interested, but no. I offered her a rat. She had eaten them 2x already in the past, but I had been feeding her mice more often. Took a look at her and it looks like she lost a little weight. She also expressed some exudate from a scent gland.

I went to check on her today and was considering trying a mouse later in the evening... And she's cold.
I'm wondering if maybe I missed an impacted scent gland, but she didn't have any noticeable swelling in the first place. Just that admittedly weird bit of exudate.

Now I'm just stressed and really tired.
I admit not shuffling my holdbacks to the main room beforehand was a big faux pas. And it gave me the hard lesson of not trusting anyone no matter how much you deal with them and work with them.
And just really frustrated that both issues were after 90 days.

So now I'll be here.
Bleaching rodent and snake tubs. Eyeballing every animal suspiciously for weeks. Waiting for the metaphorical roof to leak a bit more and really hoping this was just some strange fluke at a frustrating time.

TL;DR
I'm physically, mentally and emotionally drained. Hoping I didn't unleash the plague among my noods. While I also raze and rebuild my small feeder colony

[dakski]

Keep us posted and hang in there.

We are thinking of you and sending positive thoughts and energy.

Sounds like you are doing the best you can - and that’s all any of us can do.

Get some rest when you can as well.

[Bogertophis]

Oh boy, all I can say is that anyone who's never had times like this just hasn't lived long enough- because sooner or later, things just have a way of hitting the proverbial fan.

Armiyana- we're pulling for you on all fronts- we all make some little mistakes now & then, & not everyone has the bad luck for them to turn & bite us, but apparently it wasn't your lucky day.

I hope for improvements on all fronts for you... caring for a lot of animals is not for the faint of heart- it's hard work at best & misery when something (or several things) go wrong.

First, take good care of yourself- please? Try not to let the stresses get to you (easier said than done, I know).