Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Never thought I would be going to the vet with my pet iguana for metabolic bone disease. Carla layed her eggs on the 8/19. 8/20 She was attacking a larger gravid female whenever it got within 5 ft of its nest, so I moved her to another outdoor enclosure with cage mates she had cohabitated with earlier without problems. This time It did not seem to be going as well. Intimidation had kept her hiding, and on 8/27 she had swollen back legs, one of which she was not using. After a few days of isolation in her own area under a new uvb bolb with calcium carbonate suspension supplement, conditions did not improve as much as I would like, so she went to the vet today.
Xrays showed no fractures. She received, a shot of 0.15cc Calphosan, and 0.05 units of vitamin D. When I got back from the vet, I cleared out an outdoor enclosure for her. She is eating meager amounts on her own. If conditions do not improve she will go back for blood work.

This was the day she layed her eggs.

that we do everything possible to keep our iguanas healthy and happy. When something happens that's not expected I'm always caught off guard. Lately some of us have been having problems with our Cyclura. A dear friend of mine from Florida woke up one morning to find his 2 year old hybrid dead. I lost Doonie a few months back to egg peritonitis. Carole lost Tash to complications from surgery. Another well known keeper lost a beautiful hybrid male to cancer and another friend of mine lost a yearling to unknown causes.
This past week we have been battling illness with MiMi. Monday morning she started passing fresh blood and clots and she was diagnosed with enteritis. Treatment included oral antibiotics and kaopectate. By Wednesday afternoon there was no improvement and she was starting to look dehydrated. My daughter gave her a bath while I was at work, hoping that she'd take a nice long drink, and MiMi laid a bloody egg in the tub. As soon as I arrived home from work I arranged an emergency visit with a terrific exotic vet located 1.5 hours south of here. On the way she delivered another bloody egg. No more shelled eggs could be seen on xray. Blood work showed a good calcium level but high white count and her hematocrit was way low.....she couldn't afford to lose any more blood. She was diagnosed with a uterine infection. The doc gave her 50 cc's of fluid subq, a shot of Lupron (hormone) to try to shut down her reproductive system, and injectible ABX. Friday evening she laid another egg and fortunately there was much less blood. She does seem to be improving.
The scary thing is, MiMi didn't show any signs of being ill until she started passing the blood. She hadn't been eating but I suspected that she was gravid so I didn't feel that was unusual. She was alert, as active (or should I say, inactive) as she normally is, and looked good. I purchased MiMi as a breeder but when it came down to it, Wednesday night when a spay was a possibility, all I wanted was to keep her alive. She's a tremendously sweet iguana and is a joy to have in the household. Hopefully her condition will continue to improve and she'll be with me for many more years.
Now I'm questioning a lot of my husbandry practices. I feed the freshest produce that I can get my hands one, a wide variety of greens and veggies. I provide UVB to the best of my ability. The iguanas have fresh water available at all times. They get plenty of exercise. I know my friends that have suffered losses recently have wonderful husbandry habits and their animals appeared healthy at the event of their deaths. So, what am I missing here? Any thoughts?

Sorry to hear about her Jane, I hope she gets better; I am keeping my cyclura to the best of my knowledge as are you, so far mine are doing well, 2 of them being 5 yrs. old now, the only thing that I would like to do which I don't is get them outdoors once in awhile, I am working on that; Phil..

Get them some natural sun light. They say that 1 hour of natural sunlight is equal to 3 days of UV bulbs. Its getting late in the year so you may want to plan for and build over the winter an out door enclosure, or buy one. They sell them as large walk-in bird cages. Or you can can spend some big bucks and have custom kennels built. Luckily, I'm in Calif. so we don't get harsh winters, but even during Dec. and Jan, my cycluras catch maybey one hour of sun when it is sunny out. They even get "better than bulb" UV on cloudy days. How many have been sun burnt on cloudy days? The ctenosauras only go outdoors during the spring, summer, and fall. Unfortunately they havn't been outdoors for a year now since we moved, because I havn't built them outdoor enclosures yet. It is starting to show in thier attitude.

Just had a long talk with a UV guy testing cutting edge UV bolbs --check out his article in an upcomming IIS issue.

He said that even an overcast day is better than a UV bolb.
His favorite bolb is the trex 100w spot which tests better than 2 of the best florescent tubes (zoomed) at 12 inches away.

As far as glass he likes PPG Line Starfire which in a thin double pain will still block 40% of the UVB.

As far as plastic, nothing on the market that transfers enough of the right level of UVB to be worth buying.

As far as testing bolbs, he recommends the radiograph on myiguana.com, though he does not fully endorse that site. He also likes the Westron Lighting bolb on that site for a RELIABLE source of UV, but poor color, heat.

All of this stuff costs bucks, but atleast it's out there, and hopefully will go down in price with time.

from what I have found, unless you go medical grade bulbs, none of the UVB lights do much of anything! On an average sunny day UVB outdoors is 250 µW/cm2. at 3" yes just 3" the Sylvania Repti-star is 30µW/cm2 the Zoo-Med Reptisun 5.0 is 20µW/cm2 and at 12" they are 5µW/cm2 and 10µW/cm2

If you keep animals indoors make sure they get INDOOR calcium with D3 outdoor use outdoor. I have been told (dont know if it's true) giving indoor with D3 to an outdoor animal will overdose the animal and produce the same results as not enough.

for more info look here
http://www.reptilesdownunder.com/reptile/enclosure/uvlighting.php
Link

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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

True, but manufacturers are getting closer all the time. Just bought a Weston 60W reptile bolb with separate ballast. Initial readings at 8" ( where my igs head might be )were 800mWcm2 ! Of course that will diminish drastically within the burn in period, but if it levels out at 50mwcm2, and I get them to bask under it for 5 hours, that's the equiv. of one hour of natural, which is probably all they need for the months that I cannot get them outside.

Interesting web site you linked, I would like to see some values for the Sylvania reptistar after 3 months. It is my understanding that alot of the bolbs that start out powerful fizzle fast because they are not made to the same specs as the more expensive florescents.

As for the D3 supplements, Good for Beardies, but there is still alot of contraversy as to if it is of any value as a vitamin supplement for iguanas.

Everyone here is most likely informed about all the benefits of natural sunlight and other important herp husbandry aspects. I'm sure that people who make the time and have the desire to check this site on a regular and frequent basis are doing all possible for not only the health but also comfort of their animals.

Even healthy animals can get sick or have health problems. How many of you take good care of yourself? Eat healthful meals, excercise, don't smoke, don't drink (that's a bit extreme [lol]). You still get sick occasionally. The difference is that medical care for our species is much more advanced than that for reptiles. You also know that you are not feeling well and take early action.

Also remember that we are still pretty similar to reptiles anatomically and physiologically. There are differences but we are fairly close the the phylogentic tree. Both or us can get cancer, heart problems, infects, viruses, diabetes, and a host of genetic problems that have nothing to do with how well we take care of ourselves or how well someone takes care of us. (Again think of humans you know like this.) The wife of a friend of mine has terrible oral cancer. She has NEVER used any tabacco products. I had two unrelated dogs that both got epilpsy. That had nothing to do with how I took care of them. It just happened.

The only way to ensure you will never loose a pet is to never have a pet. We take on many responsibilities when we take on a charge. We also recieve many intangable benefits. Make your choice. I'm 6'2" with blonde hair and blue eyes. When I had to have my ferret put down I cried like a baby. I was good at first but than lost it when I remembered all the good times I had with her. Now those are the times that made the sorrow worth while.

I'm sure you are doing a wonderfull job!!!

Brian

see a 6" 2" dude crying like a baby. That was a joke before everyone starts beatin me up again. You have to also remember, that if you were kept indoors 24 hours a day for years on end, you would probably have some physical or psychological problems, not to mention that you would look like Casper the Ghost.