Reptile & Amphibian Forums

has wierd spot on his back that looked like scar tissue when i got him about a week and a half ago, but now it is showing through and you can start to see his flesh. if anyone knows what it could be and if there is anyway to treat it i would greatly appreciate the advice.

just give it a bat to the head in order to humanely end it suffering now...

I'm not nearly as experienced as others on here, but I know enough just from a glimpse of your setup you are not caring for it properly at all.

laff

yea no [bleep] that's a savannah. it wouldn't let me not attach a photo for some reason. and that's not the cage my yellow monitor is in eather

“yea no [bleep] that's a savannah. it wouldn't let me not attach a photo for some reason. and that's not the cage my yellow monitor is in eather”

ok so why are you acting defensively that someone would mention it is a sav considering you attached a pic of a sav? Why are you acting defensively that someone would mention the terrible enclosure you have the sav in, considering you attached a pic of a sav in a terrible enclosure?

Look…I’ll give you my humble opinion on your situation. Don’t worry about your yellow monitor’s boo-boo. Worry about your husbandry. If you provide an environment even close to what he needs the boo-boo will heal just fine. The garbage you have your sav in will not suffice for the sav or the yellow monitor.

Now potentially the boo-boo is so far gone you now need to seek a vet’s help, that decision is your responsibility alone…but either way make sure your husbandry is a helluva lot better than what that pic suggests.

Good luck –

Tom

Where on it's back is the spot?

Is it raised, look anything like a pimple or is it flat & more like a hole in the skin?

Any fluid oozing out of it?

A picture would help but your best bet is to take it to a reptile Vet ASAP. About all we can do is give you an educated or uneducated guess where a Vet can see what's going on firsthand and know what to do about it & take care of it.

Later!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

it's flat, and kind of indented. nothing is oozing out of it

are right. If the problem is getting worse, take it to a vet. However, that will count for nothing if you're not taking proper care of it. If the critter is capable of recovering from the ailment at all, I would be confident a healthy monitor's immune system is all the medicine needed

Hey!
I can't tell from your descriptions if it's a superficial wound or an internal infection, but I'm betting on internal infection, which is brought on by stress, which is brought on by sub-par caging conditions, feeding, etc, "general husbandry." I found out the hard way, so don't get too defensive.

Tom (tpalopoli) nailed it, dead on, center of the bullseye, in his reply. Here's the gist of it so you don't have to go back to read it.

Look…I’ll give you my humble opinion on your situation. Don’t worry about your yellow monitor’s boo-boo. Worry about your husbandry. If you provide an environment even close to what he needs the boo-boo will heal just fine. The garbage you have your sav in will not suffice for the sav or the yellow monitor.

Now potentially the boo-boo is so far gone you now need to seek a vet’s help, that decision is your responsibility alone…but either way make sure your husbandry is a helluva lot better than what that pic suggests. Tom

To use a term coined by another Tom, Tom Crutchfield, varanids are "complex social creatures." Highly intelligent and sophisticated, high tech finely tuned machines.

Kept in sub-par conditions they become stressed & begin to lose their will to live. The stress weakens their immune system and all heck break's lose.

I don't mean to harp on you but the sav in the pic knows that the conditions can't meet his needs, he knows he's in a death trap, and I'll bet he's stressing over it. If kept liked that for much longer you'll be on a forum somewhere asking what's wrong with it, too.

So, please, take the time to get 'em into an enclosure that will hold heat & humidity, and preferably a soil substrate. Meet their needs and they'll take care of themselves.

So hang out, read, search the forum's archives, read some more, ask questions. We'll be glad to help you get on the right track.

Hang in there!
HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

just to clear things up, the savannah hasn't been in that cage for over 2 months, and i took apart the cage when i took him out of it for that reason. almost as soon as i got him settled into the cage he started getting extremely aggressive. so i got him a 150 gallon tank from petco, and so far he seems to be doing fine. sorry for getting deffensive about the whole thing i'm just really bummed about this whole thing. i do have him in a 'sub-par' cage for sure right now because i'm in the works of building him an enclosure that will meet his needs. any tips on what it should consist of? i'm going to make the sides plexi-glass and chicken wire for the top. but like i'm not to sure of the dimensions, and i'm debating weather i should put a small pond in or not

go to the pro exotics website. they have pics, explanations etc that are quite in depth and pertain to nearly all monitors (the basics that is)

It's good to hear that it's no longer in that wire cage, and as for it becoming aggressive once settled in, that's normal, it was being itself. At least 9 times out of 10, if a monitor isn't defensive when approached the caging conditions aren't where they should be.

Pet shops rarely keep them warm enough for them to function normally so they seem "tame" at the store. Take it home, get the temps & humidity right & two weeks later you've got a mini T-Rex on your hands. Then you know you're doing something right. They generally calm down as they age but not all will tolerate handling very well.

It sounds like you care about it, if not you wouldn't be here. To be honest, I think you have a lot of reading to do still. And there's nothing wrong with that as we all had to start somewhere. We can't change the past so let's just pick up where you are & move forward.

Plexiglass sides and wire top isn't good for a monitor cage/enclosure. The cage has to hold a lot of heat and a decent amount of humidity. That's one reason the term "enclosure" is used, it encloses the monitor's environment.

There are 3 main types of enclosures used for monitors.
1 - Stock tank (horse/cattle feed troughs) that holds soil substrate, sometimes having a wooden box-type addition on top.
2 - Plywood-type box with the wood either sealed or lined on the inside to protect against moisture, usually having sliding glass doors on the front.
3 - An even bigger wood-framed box with a stock tank on the inside for holding substrate.

While aquariums can be modified for temporary use they're not good for long term. A screen top would have to be mostly covered with aluminum foil, plastic, plexiglass, etc, to hold humdity & heat. Top-vented systems do not work very well though.

There are plenty of pics here, just search the forums for "monitor cage" or "monitor enclosure" and likewise. I also strongly encourage you to search the forums for posts on both species you have, and even some topics involving other species because you'll usually find something relative. There's plenty of good reading just within the 6 pages linked to the main monitor forum index.

The answer to just about any question you have can be found on this forum or a Google search, but there will be times you'll get confused or need an explanation or something. Don't hesitate to ask.

By the way, I'm not one of the top dawgs around here, I'm suckin' hind tit. You know, almost the runt of the litter. There are plenty of wise old hounds around to keep us all on the right trail. Don't lose the scent and don't go barkin' up the wrong tree. Those are my jobs. Hahaha!!!

Catch ya later!
HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

That is a savannah monitor. Not a yellow. Sorry. Tyler.

V.Melinus= Quince Monitor.
Mike
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Mike's Monitors!

apparently the thread I was posting on disappeared. being that I am not on the level to understand how waterboarding monitors is a useful husbandry method I must no longer be able to see what I can't understand.

I would for sure recommend a trip to the vet
Foot Hill Reptiles

I am not sure what is on your monitors back. I am assuming it is some type of skin infection.

I am not going to harp on you, but its most likely because he is not getting the heat that he needs.

I suggest putting him in a more proper enclosure. I have never owned a yellow so I don't what the heat and humidity requirements are for him. Find this out, google may even help you here.

As for the infection itsself... neosporin MAY be the perfect fix.

I had a sav. get a lil infection on his back and I cleared it up by changing his cage to a much warmer setup (better basking sites) and by putting neosporin on his back. The neosporin worked wonders...