Sick

[katie]

Hey everyone.

Chomper is really sick. It seems that I just get one health problem solved and he comes up with another. He is having a really bad shed. I read thru the forums and tried everything that I read and still nothing is working. Now since yesterday he's hardly drank a drop, and what he did drink he coughed out at me. Today I was giving him a soak and he threw up. I made him a vet apt right away I just hope I can find someone to get me there. I would of had him there a long time ago but the vet is a 4hr drive away and I can never find anyone to drive me and its super hard to sneak a 3ft tegu onto a bus. I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for me to help keep him well or comfortable at least until the vet apt on monday. I'm worried sick!

[DaveDragon]

Where are you located?? Maybe there is someone close to you that can help.

[katie]

Nah, I'm in NS, Canada. Theres no one around here to help.

[DaveDragon]

Nah, I'm in NS, Canada. Theres no one around here to help.
OK, that explains the 4 hour drive.

We're nursing a sick baby Tegu now, feeding him Stage 1 meat baby foods and Activia yogurt. He seems to feeling a bit better but still isn't eating on his own.

Good luck with your. I hope he feels better soon.

[katie]

awwe, sorry to hear about your sick baby. Hopefully he'll be better soon as well. Thanks so much for your response and well wishes for my tegu!

[YorkOC]

What kind of setup do you have. Im sure the red experts on here can make sure you have the right husbandry. As far as the shedding goes I have no experience with reds but I do recall there being some type of shed aide for snakes.... possibly that might help. Also Bert from Agamainternational is an expert with reds and very helpful whenever you have questions. I know his health has not been the best lately but possibly he can steer you towards the right way. I would definately reccomend a vet visit though. Good luck and keep us posted.

[katie]

Just an update for anyone that might be following.
I took Chomper into the vet today because they were able to give me an earlier apt. Annnd the story goes that my husbandry is great and i'm doing everything right for a shed problem so the vet thinks its more than that but he doesn't know what it is. He's the only exoctics vet in my area and he's never seen anything like this before so he's haveing to consult other vets to find out exactly what this might be. I have to bring Chomper back on Monday to see what he can do after hes got responses from other herp vets. I pray that he figures something out, so far its cost me 100$ just to find out he has no idea what it could be.
Please if anyone has had any weird shed like problems with their tegu's please let me know so I might be able to figure out what this is. Thanks!

[tegulevi]

I find with reds that its not all of the fruit in the diet that makes the difference. my vet told me its vitamin A, which is found in vegetables and organ meats. since getting a tegu to eat veggies without defiling it with turkey, which i wont do. i use the organ meat approach. that doesnt mean go buy some liver etc. i use larger adult whole prey. well developed organs and the bigger the prey the more organ matter contained. using this method my tegus sheds are getting better every time.


good luck

[Nero557]

raise your humidity, do multiple soaks a day, some people rub mineral oil on to the stuck shed to help it. try giving the tegu some gatorade to drink, because if its sick and puking then it'll need the electrolytes. umm... you could use pedialyte if you can get it. other than that, good luck and keep us posted

[katie]

Thanks so much for the help.
My humidity is never less than 70% except for under the lights, I've done the long soaks, the sweat box idea, the whole mineral oil thing, I've also got him to eat a great deal of fruit.
The vet has me giving him 10min iodine soaks twice daily and they seem to be working. The shed is starting to fall off a bit better anyways. So hopefully tomorrow the vet can tell me exactly what the problem was.
The throwing up and everything seems to have gone away, the vet said it may have been just due to stress from soaking, and because his skin is so bothersome.
Again thanks so much for the responses. I'll post again tomorrow after the vet visit to let anyone thats been reading these posts know exactly what the vet found and to put the info out there for anyone who might come along this problem in the future.

[katie]

I was talking to my vet this morning, he's still waiting to talk more to other vets about things so I won't be bringing Chomper in again today but maybe tomorrow. Depending on what he hears back.
The vet has decided with the advice he's received from others that it is due to humidity problems, and although my humidity is on point in the enclosure I do allow him to free roam when he wants so I need to close his little door to my room and keep him in the enclosure until this problem has gone away and if after a couple weeks of eliminating the free roaming things haven't changed then i'll have to bring him back again.
I also talked to him about congestion problems Chomper was having, he was breathing oddly, swallowing hard, and then at the worst point throwing up and having trouble drinking. Since I've arrived in the city this has stopped completely. I mentioned to the vet that when Chomper was smaller he would get congested whenever I gave him his vitamins and I had stopped giving them. I had started giving him the vitamins when this bad shed started to try and help just incase it was something missing in the diet causing the problem and the day after he would be congested again. But since I was soaking so much and everything I was blaming the congestion on the amount I was soaking because it wouldn't last. But since I've come here and he hasn't had the vitamins all those problems have gone away completely. The vet said he never heard of an animal having these problems with vitamins before but its too much of a coincidence. So the vet has asked me to stop giving the vitamins.
So, things seem to be improving nicely and not costing an arm and a leg which is wonderful. Hopefully Chomper will have a good shed soon to get rid of the mess he is in. Thanks to those who offered advice! I'll leave updates again if anything changes!

[DaveDragon]

How strange!! A vitamin allergy!!

Has he had any similar problems with any type of food?? It must be one of the ingredients. After he settles down maybe you you try a different brand vitamin, but compare ingredients first.