Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, we have two yellow saharan uros that we got about a month 1/2 ago...as soon as we got them we noticed that they were fairly skinny so we gave them plenty of food right away, one of them ate a bit but the other did not. A little while went by and we decided to start force feeding her, and we gave her some electrlye with water in a syringe, man was she ever thirsty! she was drinking it like crazy. Anyways, the past couple weeks they've been doing alright, they're both eatting a bit but not at much as we'd like, and today we noticed on one of the guys (the one who wouldnt eat at first) that he seems to have a swollen back leg....we made an appt right away with the vet but its not til Tuesday.....what can we do til then!? Does anyone have any suggestions whats wrong with her?

I presume your saharans are wild caught... I would guess they have been sick ever since being in captivity. I had a pair of red nigers that were in similar condition to what you described. The male was very very thin and the female was healthy-looking. However the male died within a few days and the female developed a similar condition a couple of weeks later. Apparently our pair had floating amoebas in their systems (Doug Dix helped us out). Luckily he helped us treat the female and she survived. If I remember correctly she was tube fed baytril and then Nutribac. Tube feeding electrolytes helps to an extent, but they probably need medication.

My suggestion is go to the vet and see what they say. If yours are eating a little then that's a good sign. They could simply have worms, but don't quote me I'm no vet. If you need any help try contacting Doug, he's always willing to help if he has time. He overnighted the medication we needed and it didn't cost an arm and a leg. Good luck!

Dan
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