Lifesaving

Yesterday was, according to several friends who asked the manager, the busiest day Rudinos has EVER HAD! We don't have any idea what our donation will be but I am so grateful to those who came out in support of our adoption. Apparently, it takes little to no encouragement to get my friends (and my friends' friends, etc) to eat out - ha ha!
Switching gears . . . did any of you know that geckos can become constipated and die? Okay, I get how this sounds crass and random but, let me explain:
My oldest son has a leopard gecko. He had it placed on sand in the tank based on advice from a knowledgeable, barely pubescent salesperson at a local pet store chain.
Apparently, when geckos eat they ingest some measure of sand each time and have trouble digesting it. We noticed about a week ago that our gecko ("Officer Byrd", named after Judge Judy's baliff -another story altogether) had not um . . .shall we say . . . "made us a presnt" in a few days. His belly began to swell and a purplish spot appeared on his underside. After much research, we found that the course of treatment for gecko impaction involves the following:
1. remove the gecko's sand and place paper towels on the aquarium floor
2. soak the gecko twice daily in warm water/clear pedialyte up to it's "belly"
for 15 minutes per soak
3. mix plain chicken babyfood, a few drops of mineral oil and a little calcium powder and let the gecko lick it off your finger twice a day
4. wait and pray everyday that you wake up to gecko poop
After repeating steps 1-4 for two or three days (and hoping to wake up to a live gecko as opposed to a carcass) you should see some "action". We did.
Anyway, I thought I'd share my new found, life saving wisdom with anyone who might need it (ha ha).