ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS (Alaska) 04 September 05 Nurse is a caretaker to ill-treated iguanas (Rose Cox)
Karen Decker-Brown cuddles Max under her chin like a beloved child. The 12-pound iguana is a mosaic of colorful scales. His orange legs end in inch-long claws; his green shoulders rise to a ridge of gray spikes along his back. When Decker-Brown strokes the grayish-green scales between his eyes, he closes them in what might pass for reptilian ecstasy.
His skin is surprisingly warm to the touch, and he seems utterly harmless in her arms.
"He's a perfect pet now," she said. "But when he arrived, he was skin-and-bones starving, with a tail infection that turned into gangrene." Three surgeries later, Max has a thick stump the size of a forearm instead of a tail.
Decker-Brown is an iguana aficionado, and Max is just one of the many who have found sanctuary in her South Anchorage home.
"Karen is a nurse and a great resource for me," said Dr. Catherine Winn, a local veterinarian who specializes in reptile care. "If I have a sick iguana, I have someone I can call who will go the extra mile."
Decker-Brown, a family nurse practitioner employed by Family Medicine of Alaska in Wasilla, has seen too many iguanas that have suffered from cruelty, neglect and abandonment.
She found 4-year-old Dinasara at veterinarian Jackie Fredrickson's office. The iguana had been treated for an infection, but three months later the owner hadn't returned. Three others -- Lizzy, Charlie and Grasshopper -- were among nine iguanas rescued by Decker-Brown and Maria vonKoehnen after they were found abandoned in an Eagle River house just before Christmas last year.
Decker-Brown saw Shorty and Brutus listed in the newspaper.
"I usually say, 'If you don't find someone who will take your iguana, I'll take it rather than you put it out in the cold.' "
She has six iguanas at her house now, and others she has rescued have been adopted. Some arrived in such bad shape that they died, most of kidney failure caused by poor diet, she said. Some who lived have suffered.
"Brutus has burns all over his body, probably from laying up against something hot. Shorty looked like he'd been bitten by a dog. The little ones we rescued (in Eagle River) were just bones. It was so sad. They were stick figures."
Iggums, who died of kidney failure, had cigarette burns. Charlie was never properly socialized, and he has been adopted and returned twice.
"He's a pretty wild and difficult lizard," she said, comparing the 7-year-old iguana to a teenage boy with an attitude. "So we're probably stuck with him. He's not especially likeable, but neither are some people."
Baby green iguanas are the type most often sold in pet stores. At a cost of $20 to $40, they may seem like an inconsequential purchase, but they have very specific needs, Denali Pets manager Laura Sokol said.
"Iguanas are the hardest thing to take care of and the number-one reptile that dies within a couple of weeks (after purchase)," she said.
The animals require UVB light in order to digest their food. Without it, they suffer a slow death from starvation.
"People put them by the window, but a double pane filters out most UVB rays," Sokol said. Sometimes owners replace a UVB light when it burns out with an insufficient regular light bulb. Iguanas also need a very specific diet.
"People think they eat lettuce, but there's nothing in iceberg lettuce but water. They need kale and mustard greens and dandelions."
Information to help owners care for reptiles is sparse, Sokol said. She and Decker-Brown recommend new iguana owners visit herpetologist Melissa Kaplan's Web site at www.anapsid.org before purchasing. The site's 76-page guide to iguanas makes it clear that proper care is not a simple thing.
One thing that is known: Virtually all reptiles carry salmonella, a bacterium that doesn't affect animals but in humans causes diarrhea, vomiting and fever and may develop into serious illnesses such as meningitis and sepsis.
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 6 percent of all cases in the United States are derived from reptiles and amphibians. Children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems are especially at risk.
Most dramatic to the new owner may be the transformation of that little green slip of a pet into an aggressive adult.
"People think of them as a 'starter pet,' " Sokol said, "but they grow up to 7 feet long."
An adult iguana's razor sharp nails can shred flesh, and their teeth can take off a finger. Males in rut will fight to the death.
"They get nasty," Decker-Brown said. "Their tail leaves a mark like a bull whip. They can leave welts or draw blood. It hurts for hours."
All have the potential to turn into pet nightmares, but Decker-Brown maintains that properly socialized and exercised, they make perfect companions. Several of her charges have free rein in a couple of rooms in the house where they have UVB lighting, their own heating pads and pillows.
Max's demeanor is so mild, his behavior so predictable, that Decker-Brown takes him nearly everywhere she goes. He's a regular attention-getter at Silvia's Quilt Shop and on visits to see her mother at the Anchorage Pioneers' Home. She has also taken him into elementary school classrooms.
"Iguanas have personality, even from the get-go," she said. "They're such neat creatures. I hate to see them treated like insects."
Nurse is a caretaker to ill-treated iguanas

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