Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm interested in learning how stress can cause organ failure.

I beleive we should be more concerned with how to avoid or relieve stress because then we wouldn't have to worry about it causing organ failure. However, I'm still interested in finding out how it happens.

Thanks for enlightening me!

Have a good one!
Mike
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It is said that 1 out of every 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Think of your 3 closest friends, if they're normal, then it's you.

How or why are two different questions. How is something a doc would have to explain. Then theres WHY.

My guess would be the effects of adrenaline on the organs. Most likely its a combination of adrenaline and a low metabolism. As in not usable adrenaline.

Its kinda like nitrogen injection in cars, push a button and you get an instant add boost of horsepower, use it to long, and your engine blows up. Adrenaline works that way with the body.

In the case of monitors, stress causes systems to break down, casual stress, simple poor husbandry causes the immue system to be compromised and monitors get mouth rot, colds, sores, RI, etc. All these things do not effect healthy monitors. Also with poor husbandry, monitors experience tumors, which again do not occur with healthy monitors, these tumors are mostly hmmmmmm puss from an systemic infection. All this from physical stress.

Holding animals that do not want to be held causes them to produce adrenaline. Their heart races, etc. Only theres nothing they can do.

Such enviornmental stresses as low basking temps, cause organs to function at the wrong temps. They then fail over time.

Monitors also suffer from mental stress, being confined in places with nothing they recognize. Remember, you know the difference between natural materials and manifactured materials. You do because you were taught. If you were never taught was carpet was, and you had never seen it, read about it, or hear of it. Your first reaction would be of fear. Monitors are the same, they fear what they do not know. So while you think paper and carpet and such things are nice and easy to clean, to the monitor the are indeed alien.

Monitors also get stress from adverse social conditions. Again, this stress would be like putting you in a prison cell to like with the biggest meanest killer in a prison. He may or may not want to kill you, but do not know that. So it would cause you lots of stress.

I could go on and on and I usually do, but I hope you get the point, if you were confined in adverse conditions you too would breakdown and die.

What is an indication of organ failure. Very simply put, its when a healthy looking monitor dies. They can have good body weight, normal bone structure, they just fall over dead. Well you should understand, something has to have a complete failure to cause death.

When healthy newly acquired monitors die, it can be traced back to over-medication. They have been treated for various things too many times and in most cases, improperly(not by a vet)(by a petshop employee or an importers employee)

Normally a monitor should look dead to die. It should be all shrivelled up and bones sticking out, etc. Not look healthy. Again, common sense.

My guess is, most healthy animals die from lead poisoning(shot) the rest die from organ failure. Of course this is only a piece of the iceberg, so to speak. Cheers

Good explanation, FR. Plenty of good information that invites a more detailed look at stress and its effects.

The average Joe might be able to tell if a monitor is severely stressed or not but can they detect if its the least bit stressed? But then again, we can also go overboard in our attempts to be the best keeper we can be. There's a fine line for everything, eh?

Thanks for taking the time to fill me in. I greatly appreciate it!

Have a good one!
Mike
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It is said that 1 out of every 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Think of your 3 closest friends, if they're normal, then it's you.

I forgot to ask: Which stress-related death is the most common? Seemingly quick death or a death with visual signs?

Thanks!
Mike
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It is said that 1 out of every 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Think of your 3 closest friends, if they're normal, then it's you.

if you're interested, i have a great paper(pdf)from a biology point of view on stress levels in lizards. the paper goes in detail about what kind of stressers have the biggest impact on the lizards and how long it takes for them to recover. it also covers the differences in males and females when it comes to coping with stress. if you're interested in this paper i'll send it to you via e-mail
cheers
shay

I'm interested! I sent you a message. N/P

Thanks!
Mike
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It is said that 1 out of every 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Think of your 3 closest friends, if they're normal, then it's you.

np