One of my collared lizards suddenly has lost weight and just is starting to look bad (as an FYI, I got two hatchlings last August and both had been doing great up until now). I had not been running the UV heat lamp as much just prior to this issue occurring but, since I have been again giving him heat almost daily, he still is not "pulling out" (and, like I said the other one is and has been doing fine). Also, I am in south Florida so the temps here are very mild/warm even throughout the winter and the house rarely got below the mid 70's at any time and stays at about 77 all day (when the heat lamp is off).
It appears that his right eye either will not open easily or he just doesn't want to open it and he also keeps his left eye closed most of the time (even when the heat lamp is on and there are crickets readily available). He will show an occasional interest in the crickets but isn't quick enough to get them on most of his attempts (while the other one does what they both always used to do -- just jumps down, charges over, and almost always nails the cricket on the first try). After this brief interest, the sick one will shut his eye and just sit there again -- I have seen him eat single crickets a couple of times recently but it is obvious based upon his weight loss that he is not getting stronger and "rebounding" yet (I obviously don't know if he catches any during the day when I'm not home).
did try to feed him a cricket with long forceps this morning and (unfortunately) he missed the cricket and grabbed the forcep tong. The only "good" thing was it was obvious that he still has a lot of strength in his jaws (although, after releasing the tong, he was once again not interested and just shut his eye and sat there).
Does this sound like a known/typical condition and/or can anyone advise on what I should do before he gets too weak to recover?
Thanks,
Tim O'Neill
e-mail: cheltecto@aol.com
