Sticky situation...

[Travis R]

Hello all, my b/w argentine tegu recently managed to climb up some things in his enclosure and take advantage of my irresponsibility of not closing the top all the way...

Its been a week and 2 days today and I found it... stuck to one of the sticky mouse traps under my dresser. He is shedding, but started right before his great escape, and although I am very worried about him getting some food, does anyone know how I can get this poor guy off without more harm than he has done by squirming? Im about to try soaking him in some baby oil because Ive heard it will dissolve the glue, is it safe for the tegu?

Ill try to post some pics when I can

Edit: after an oil bath he got unstuck, and I started a soak... Ate a little bit of eggs

[HernandosMom]

I'm so glad your tegu got unstuck. Thank you for sharing this story as a warning to everyone. I'm glad it had a happy ending.

I'm not sure, but I believe baby oil is mineral oil? If it happened to me, knowing that at least one type of oil unstuck that stuff, I would start with a Q-Tip full of vegetable oil from the kitchen and work it around the contact points of the skin with the trap. I'd avoid submerging him in more oil than the minimum necessary for the job. Too much oil over a wide area can end up trapping fungi or other nasties. Also, when our boy had a bad retained shed, I regularly rubbed olive oil on various large areas and eventually realized it was doing no good, and maybe even making things worse, I don't know.

[txrepgirl]

Wow. This is one scary story. I'm very happy to hear that all turned out well. I think I'm going to make a sticky thread about escaped Tegus and what happend to them. This way other members who lost or maybe will loose a Tegu can get some infos on where to look or what to do.

[SnakeCharmr728]

I know this is a dead thread but I thought I'd add my story:

2007; Rex, my argentine b&w was about 1.5yrs old at the time.... I had brought him to a local herp society meeting out at our local reptile rescue's house... I had him in one of those large rubbermaid totes... Well sometime during the meeting, he popped open the top and decided to go for a walk....right out the door to the outside!!! Now let me say this was at 9pm, in the beginning of December, in the middle of a very bad storm....it was roughly 25 degrees outside, pouring rain for days and LOTS of flooding! So I went into an udder panic not knowing where he was... This place was about 45mins from home, after about 20 people looking for him in the dark and the rain... we decided to call it a night and I came back the next morning... still no luck... there was a group of 5-10 of us out there every day for a week, looking for him in rain boots and panchos... On several of the days, the road to the house was closed because it was flooding so bad... luckily I had a beat up ford explorer and didnt care too much so I drove around the cones and went through anyway... water up to the middle of my doors!!! I was truly heart broken and thought I would never find him, and even had contemplated moving his cage out as looking at an empty cage just put me in tears...
So come the 6th day, I was ready to call it quits but something told me to try one more day of looking... Thankfully I did!!! As I decided to take one more walk around the property... I passed a wood pile, and something just didnt seem right, there seemed to be a little dug out underneath, I passed it and then something told me to go back to the pile and look... I started taking the pile apart board by board all while trying to dodge the black widows... I got to the last board, pulled it up and shrieked! There was my Rex! All but the tip of nose submerged in muddy, freezing cold rain water! I instantly pulled him out, not knowing if he was dead or alive... he was ice cold and stiff. I swung him upside down and fluid and mucus flowed out of his nose and mouth... I ran him inside and luckily the guy that lived there and ran the reptile rescue, he knew what to do... I was kind of in a panic mode and wasn't thinking clearly. He kept him upside down for a few mins to continue to let the fluid drain out of him and then slowly warmed him up in water in the kitchen sink.... He was alive!!! Sneezing, blowing snot bubbles, coughing up mucus and fluid... but alive! I brought him home, and he sat under the heat for literally 2 days straight... I dont think I fed him for about a week more just to be sure... and even then I started with very small meals... I still dont know how he DIDNT get a respiratory infection!!!!
Ever since then, he doesnt leave the house! Hes on permanent lock down. Even after so many years later, just thinking of it gives me chills and I cant imagine how I'd feel if I never found him..... and boy, am I glad it was I that found him... mommy to the rescue lol
This was a photo of him being warmed up minutes after finding him...

[txrepgirl]

OMG. Your story is so scary that I'm speechless and that doesn't happen very often. Thank God you found him and for gut feelings. I'm so happy to hear that he made it and that he is still alive. You did a great job. Thank you for sharing your story. Please give him a hug from me.

[SnakeCharmr728]

I think I found a sticky with escaped tegu stories after I posted this, If Im correct, feel free to move it to that one...

[txrepgirl]

I hate not knowing alot of things about computers :( . I know what Sticky ( Tegu escape stories in the helpful section ) you are talking about. I tried to move it to that sticky but the only thing that happened was this thread moved over to the helpful section and not that sticky :( . I'm going to just copy and paste this link to that sticky. Thank you SnakeCharmr728 for reminding me that we have a sticky about this.

[laurarfl]

That is a scary story!