Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I am quite confused here !! I know Uros are desert dweling reps. I have mine for more than two months now. It is an Occelatus. I have been keeping it with a fluorescent Reptisun 10 UV lamp all this period the lamp is placed in 25 cm distance and the animal has no access to it. It is on for aprox 10-12 hours daily and it has been so all this time ! Everything seemed fine till three days ago. I grabed my uro in order to clean its cage and while stragling to get away its skin started to go away as if it was shedding ! Underneath the removing skin there is other skin but it is clearly not a shed. It all seems exactly as a giant blister from sunburn ! Could this be a burn from UVB ?? I m trying not to remove the teared skin yet since in the small spots it went away dry out and creates a mild wound.

I have been treating the area with Balsamum oil and I have removed the UV source till the wound- burn will heal.

There is no moisture in the cage whatsoever and the tempratures are high as they are supposed to be.

This is quite confuzing but I had this post originally in monitors by mistake and there is a guy that claims that any UV source is useless !!

Any help would be greatly apreciated.

Regards
John

John, My initial thought is that this is not a burn form your UVB bulb. I think to really get to the source; we need to know a bit more info on your animal and its environment. What are the dimensions of the enclosure, what are the temperature reading in the basking and hot spot, what kind of heat sources are you using, of what materials is the cage made of and what furnishings are in the cage? It may also be of benefit if you could post a pic.
First and foremost, you should try and get the animal to a vet as this is the best course of action when dealing with an injured animal. There is a lot that goes into reptile lighting and the use of UV bulbs; I will delve into this a bit.
Part of the reason I feel that your UVB light is not the source of your animal’s injuries is due to the fact that the fluorescent bulbs do not generate heat. Also, it sounds that this injury is only a localized spot on the lizard, if this injury were from over exposure to UVB (sunburn); you would see more tissue damage on the majority of the animal. Like I said, with more info, maybe some other sources of damage can be suggested.
It seems that many people are still split on the UV debate. The "purpose” of these bulbs, like the one you’re using, is to yield an artificial supplement of UVB to captive animals that would normally get this radiation from the sun. The reason this is believed to be necessary is that UVB plays a vital role in the synthesis of the "sunshine" vitamin, Vit. D. Vit. D is not directly produced by the animal but is synthesized by exposing a precursor of Vit. D (called provitamin 7-dehydreocholesterol), to UV which is then synthesized into Vit. D. This vitamin plays an important role in the absorption of calcium. To circumvent this lack of UV, keepers can offer foods that are supplemented with calcium with vitamin D3. UV also offers other benefits such as physiological one but that’s a different story. This is only the tip of a giant ice berg and I have ranted long enough. Hope this sheds some light to the confusion.

-Nathanael

Fluorescent bulbs do not produce heat. I suspect UVB Radiation burn and not heat burn !!!! The enclosure has very low humidity and there is a heating pad installed that is not attached to the terarium but it is installed 1cm away from the floor. It covers 1/3 of the terrarium. I use coconut shells as a hiding place.

Regards
John

I wouldn't expect a radiation burn, especially since these animals are ment to be in the sun. However, having a heating pad is not a good idea, for a couple reasons. Fristly, these guys like the feeling of heat from above, it's the natural way. Secondly, when you have a heat lamp from above, they can choose to sit on the hottest part, or sit on somewhere cooler. It gives then the ability to regulate their own heat, while heating mats don't. So, I would switch to overhead basking lamps and stack a bunch of clean rocks under the lamp so your little guy can choose which rock is the right temp for his mood.

The other problem may be that this is not a burn. Many types of skin infections can have blistering that looks like a burn, but are caused by a bacteria or fungus. The only way to know is by having a vet check him out.

Good luck!