Traveling with a Dragon

Our beloved dragon, Sandy Claws, is now an international traveler.

I'll admit it is a bit of a crazy idea to travel with a bearded dragon. It is just that he has been very sick. He was diagnosed with damaged kidneys. I am giving him kidney medicine and calcium supplements once a day, plus extra crickets dusted with calcium. Additionally, I'm giving him extra baths, squirting water in his mouth, and wrapping towels in him to combat his dehydration (which is probably a side effect of the kidney issues). While in Canada he seemed to be perking up and was shedding from snout to tail. 

The traveling required a lot of phone calls in order to get all of our questions

answered, especially about border crossing. Oh, and to ask our friend if we could bring the dragon with us. The friend was gracious enough to say yes. Canadian border control said it was no problem, after all he is just a pet and does not carry rabies (the thing they worry about with cats and dogs traveling). US is handed through the Fish and Wildlife Service. Other than a form to fill out, they were not any troubles either.

Sandy sat with us in the car. His tank fit in the trunk. The funniest part of the trip was that he pooped at our first rest stop. Okay, funny to me since he did it while I was in the Wendy's and Don and Ashley were with him in the car. We took turns at rest stops so he was not left alone in the hot car, especially since we did not think the restaurants wanted him inside.

Ashley's first words after camp were "how's Sandy?" Okay, that made it all worthwhile.

When Sandy woke up on Sunday morning after the long car ride he looked out the window and seemed to smile knowing he was home again. The view in Chris's basement was not nearly as exciting as the one at home.

Sandy update since coming home: he is still very sick. In addition to the two meds given orally, I will now start to inject saline under his skin daily to help perk him up. I told Ashley he is very old and sick, and she just cried. No one likes to hear someone they love doesn't have much time left in our arms. In the meantime, we continue to love him, feed him crickets, give him meds, and do what we can to make him comfortable. It will be a sad day when he is no longer with us.