Let me start by warning that the first pics that you will see are difficult to look at, but this story has a happy ending!

A friend of mine got in a small group of Box Canyon Redback chucks around the beginning of August. Among them were two babies that were absolutely emaciated! I was told that they came right out of the field like this. He sent me pics and we decided that it would be best if they came to me since I have been successfully rehabbing lizards for a few years and have access to an excellent herp vet. Well, the pics just didn't prepare me for the severity of the dehydration and emaciated state of these babies the size of hatchlings that I am told are actually at least a year old! Here were the babies on the first day




After I got over the shock that their condition caused me, I began to work on them. They obviously needed fluids first, so I started tubing watered down critical care, pedialyte and a dab of soy yogurt for gut flora replacement. I tubed them around 3-4 times a day for two days, then added organic baby food summer veggies, tubing that mixture for 2-3 more days. Finally around day 6, they started eating salad on their own.

During that first week, I contacted Maureen and Tom Greb, and I can't describe how supportive they both were, and how helpful their advice was! I also took the babies in to my vet, just sure that there must have been parasites involved in the condition of these poor babies. But Tom has been warning me since I became a member here that worming chucks and DIs can be very tricky and should be avoided if at all possible. Well, the vet did a fecal, and guess what? There were NO parasites! I am so glad that I didn't just worm them on a hunch!

One baby had gummy "stuff" all over, and when I removed some of it, there were the beginnings of lesions that looked like scale rot. I scrubbed the spots with antimicrobial soap that I had used on a squirrel with a bacterial/fungal infection of the skin a few years ago, and the vet, also thinking that the lesions looked suspicious, did a culture. Fortunately, the scrub knocked out what could have been a dangerous scale infection. I believe the issue cropped up after my friend soaked them several times in pedialyte and it seeped under some incomplete sheds.

Anyway, it has been 3-4 weeks, and they are now out of the woods. They are cleaning their plate daily and clearly improving! Here they are this morning.


This one is probably a female, and she was the one with the scale issue. You can still see where the lesions were, but look at her weight! She is really starting to thrive!


This one is probably a male, and he still has some weight to gain in his legs and tail, but he is looking much better too.


I plan to separate them very soon so that the female doesn't end up gravid before she is ready, but I think they did better together up to now.

THANKS SO MUCH again to Tom and Maureen!

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