Posted by:
-ryan-
at Tue Dec 23 19:38:06 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by -ryan- ]
So I was sitting at home, and the phone rang. I picked it up and someone said "Is **** there? (name left out)". I said "No, can I ask who's calling?", and he said "It's **** from down the street". I told him I'd be over as soon as possible to take a look at the uro. I got there and this is what I saw:
-1 Extremely overweight Uro (it's twice the width of my adult beardie at least, and probably about twice as heavy), with a skin infection on both of his sides, one side being a lot more noticable. I'm going to take him to the vet after the holidays for a general checkup and to get some antibiotics for it, but I was wondering if anyone might know what it could be. It's just a hard white patch where it's obvious skin is stuck (he's in shed also).
-a ten gallon tank that he/she was living in, filled with nothing but feces, old and new lettuce, some heavily soiled rocks (including a heat rock), a water dish, and get this...grass.
-a 29 gallon tank and stand in bad condition that he wasn't using.
-a ceramic dome clamp lamp he wasn't using, equipped with a mercury vapor bulb.
If he had the stuff, why didn't he use it? He basically said, "If I was a kid with time on my hands, I would do everything the right way. But I just don't have the time anymore to take care of it". He also told me that he had inherited it from a friend and at first he was doing all the right things (had the 29 gallon tank setup, which is a bit small, with the mercury vapor bulb), but he gave me all sorts of excuses to why he didn't use it that just didn't make sense to me. He said "I took the light away because the lizard kept going crazy trying to get at it". Well I've got he/she setup in my room in the 29 gallon with the mercury vapor bulb, and he/she's just basking under it contently. Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy, but it just shows you that some people aren't cut out for dealing with reptiles.
On another note, I gave it a much needed bath today, which loosened up some of the skin and got some of the nasty stuff off of him/her. When I took her (we'll call it a her because I think it is, and I'm too tired of typing him/her), out of the tub, she walked around the bathroom a little (at a sluggish rate, which is the most I can expect from such an overweight Uro). I'll give her a bath again tomorrow and some nice dusted greens and adjust the tank setup a little since all I have in there is paper towels, a food dish, and a couple rocks underneath the light (which get to about 110-115 degrees). I'll also make her run around a little to try to burn off a little fat. She has lived on iceburg lettuce for the past few years which is the equivilent of us living on mcdonalds I believe, so it's going to take a nice excercise program. I'm going to do even more research on uros tonight.
Luckily for christmas I think I might be getting (among other things) a gift certificate to a local petshop, so I can get some better rocks, a lamp stand for the light, and a real top (right now I just have a piece of screen tied to the tank to hold the light up).
I think the main reason this big girl (who I am calling, for the time being, "big papa smurf", despite what sex she is), is because she had a heat rock. this is normally the foe of all reptile enthusiasts, but since she didn't have a light, this must have given her the belly temp to digest (and from the looks of the tank, she's digesting).
I'll update you guys tomorrow.
-ryan
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 I adopted the Uro!!!....and I'm disgusted at the disregard for it's health.... - -ryan-, Tue Dec 23 19:38:06 2003
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