BeWild Reptile Rescue

10/16/2026

Barley and Hops are two geckos who were surrendered this week. Hops is an adult male crested gecko, who is healthy but VERY jumpy! Barley is an adult female gargoyle gecko. She is actually quite thin with prominent hips but with a large abdomen. This always concerns us with females, as it is often a sign of reproductive disease such as egg binding or follicular stasis.

We did an x-ray and ultrasound of Barley, which did not identify any shelled eggs but did show follicles, which are the precursor to eggs. We’re not quite sure of her husbandry or history so are going to start with supportive care and see if she improves. Follicular stasis is not common with New Caledonian species, but it is possible! In some cases this does require surgery.

10/13/2026

Arowana visited the NCSU Exotic Animal Medicine Service last week for a consult, and we’ve schedule a CT scan and echocardiogram next week! Luckily we were approved for teaching funds to cover part of the bill, as he is a bit of an odd case. Dr. Ozawa agrees that his symptoms sound systemic, not primarily ocular. We are worried about heart disease or a retrobulbar mass causing secondary inflammation in his left eye.

We also repeated radiographs at our clinic and got intra-ocular pressures, which were normal. He is a very good patient and we are excited to see what the diagnostics say next week!

10/11/2026

Faro is an adult bearded dragon who was surrendered to us last week. Her owners, a family with kids, listed her for free on Facebook Marketplace. A concerned citizen picked up Faro and immediately called us to see if we could take her, as her condition is very grave.

Faro has severe metabolic bone disease, which is what happens when bearded dragons are not given proper UVB lighting and calcium supplementation. The most frustrating part of this disease is that it is completely preventable with proper lighting and diet. Without proper vitamins and minerals, their bones become very weak and prone to fractures. If it’s caught early enough, it can be treated. Unfortunately, severe cases are often fatal.

Faro is thin and stunted, and has severe deformities in her arms, legs, jaw, and spine. We took Faro to the clinic for x-rays, which showed fractures in multiple bones including her femur, ulna, jaw, and ribs. She also was eating sand and has sand present in her GI tract, though she has been passing it. She is very weak but can walk a little bit.

We have started Faro on prescription calcium, subcutaneous fluids, meloxicam (NSAID), tramadol, and syringe feeding. We have not seen much progress yet, but it can take weeks to months to see improvement with these cases. Our greatest concern is that her spine is pushing down onto the area of her heart and lungs. If her condition doesn’t start to improve, she will be humanely euthanized. Luckily, her pain should currently be well controlled with the medications.

Reptiles are NOT toys for children. While they can make great family pets, parents are ALWAYS ultimately responsible for caring for living creatures. This is severe animal neglect and the owners would certainly be prosecuted if Faro was a dog or cat. Please donate or share to support her treatment.

10/01/2026

Yesterday we assisted Hoke County Animal Shelter with a hoarding case and took in 8 reptiles. These animals were confiscated several weeks ago in really poor condition, and Hoke County has done an excellent job caring for them and getting their weights up!

Included are a bearded dragon, Lambic, and 7 leopard geckos. Lambic is thin but otherwise in good condition. One of the geckos, Stout, was truly emaciated when she was found, and is already looking better after a few weeks of good care. Wheat is the other gecko who is still thin, but improving. The geckos are all pretty skittish, but we hope they will come around with enough food and experience handling.

We will be sending out cryptosporidium PCRs and doing fecals, and hopefully they’ll be up for adoption in about a month!

09/29/2026

Marzen is a beautiful 7 year old female crested gecko who was surrendered this weekend. She looks to be in great shape and should be up for adoption after a 30 day quarantine period!

09/25/2026

Wee Heavy and Saison are two geckos who were surrendered this week. Wee Heavy is a 1 year old crested gecko who was purchased from a reptile expo. He is only 7 grams and definitely small for this age, he should weigh about twice as much. We’ll work on getting him comfortable and eating well here!

Saison is a 2.5 year old female leopard gecko who has had persistent eye issues. Her owner brought her to a vet, who cleared material out of her eyes and prescribed an antibiotic eye drop. Unfortunately, this did not help, and she has been losing weight since then. Saison had not eaten in over a month, and has never been given a multivitamin containing vitamin A.

We were hoping this was going to be a simple hypovitaminosis A case, as we’ve got that treatment down really well and have had great success with these cases! Unfortunately, the right eye looks pushed out of the correct position and partially proptosed (coming out of the eye socket). This may have happened due to a severe accumulation of material around the eye or iatrogenic trauma from trying to remove the material previously.

We flushed Saison’s eyes, did a fluorescein stain to check for ulcers, and applied an antibiotic ointment to help lubricate. We are also starting her on an oral anti-inflammatory medication, and we gave her oral fluids and a multivitamin. We will start her on a slow refeeding plan to gain weight. Unfortunately, we do think she’ll likely have to have that eye removed surgically. We will monitor it for the next few weeks as she gets stable for surgery, but it does not look viable long term.

09/21/2026

09/19/2026

We took in 4 snakes this week from someone who was concerned they were having health issues. Congrats to Amy, who won our naming theme at the auction - we are now on a beers theme!

Porter, the ball python, has a history of respiratory issues. He did have some mild mucous buildup in his mouth on physical exam. We did not notice any respiratory signs in the other 3 snakes.

Dunkle, the corn snake, is a little overweight but otherwise in good condition. Gruit, the kingsnake, has an odd spinal/ribcage deformity that he was apparently born with. We will be getting radiographs of this to confirm. Winter is a true red tail boa who looks to be in great shape, and is really gorgeous.

We’ll be closely monitoring these snakes in quarantine and sending out some PCR testing for nidovirus.

09/18/2026

Goby is an adorable baby corn snake who was surrendered for “striking.” We have not observed this behavior yet, but baby snakes are mostly prey animals who are naturally scared of larger predators, like humans. Defensive behavior is normal in young or unsocialized snakes, and it does not mean they’re aggressive!

Goby only ate 1 meal for his owners and weighs 8 grams, so we are definitely going to focus on regular meals and weight gain before he goes up for adoption!

09/17/2026

We just wanted to take this time to thank everyone who helped support our silent auction fundraiser 💖

Whether you donated an item, purchased one, attended, volunteered, or shared our posts - thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Your support allowed us to raise $5,676!!!

I say this all the time, but we truly cannot do what we do without the beautiful community we've been lucky enough to build. As you all know, we're working with species that don't necessarily get the same love and kindness as your more typical pets. They need those who understand them to work twice as hard to protect them - and you all have always done that in spades.

These funds are allowing us to start the process of purchasing and erecting a greenhouse to provide winter housing for our rescued turtles and tortoises. And not a moment too soon, because I'm pretty sure we're not going to be able to lug Acorn in on chilly nights for much longer!