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their cyclura outdoors. I had this week a rat learn how to enter the iguana's hide shed through a cat door and proceeded to gnaw three inches of the tail end to the bone on two iguanas tails. While they slept. My male lewisi and caymanensis. As I am still besides myself on how to handle this, I am nightly going to have to barricade both sides of the doors, and reopen every morning -total pain. I purchased tonight rat zappers and rat traps in hopes of killing this bastard who I saw running from the cage tonight. Now the question is, do I get the tail ends of these two iguanas amputated, let it heal (not sure if skin will regrow over exposed bone)and risk infection, or have the vet break the tail end in hopes of generating some re-growth (if cycluras re-grow tails).
This will be a depressing week.

Get the tails amputated because skin will NOT grow over the bone. Exposing the bone also could lead to a lethal osteomylytis..
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Mark,

I agree with Tom. The skin never seems to reg over the bone. I have dealt with this repeatedly in rescue here. Amputate is the safest and fastest way to create healing ESPECIALLY with a rat. Also see about if there is a need for antibiotics. Silvadene cream on the tail tip will help promote healing nicely. It will heal very quickly.

The damage a rat did to this savannah monitor resulted in death. It was left untreated for too long.

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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
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By the way Cyclura WILL regenerate their tail but NOT as nice looking as the Green Iguana will...thanks
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Sorry to hear about that. Rats normally go for cyclura food before they consider the cycluras for food, you must keep a clean cage. A Rat zapper with some kibble dog food works well.

Juvenile tails normally grow back a little better than half the orignal, Adults have less use for their tails. Unless it is a major loss, it seems to take a long time to regrow -- like 5 years later and still no regrowth. Amputation and antibiotics are a good choice. Good luck.

Iguanas were barricaded in last night and were safe. I went out to check the doors last night and saw the bastard running from the kennels. Every rat trap was tripped last night but no rat caught. I am dealing with a smart evil rodent. Trying again tonight. Here is the lewisi's tail with neosporin on it.

Caymanensis tail

My weapons

>>My weapons
>>

Holy hell that is an arsenal! Def get the tails whacked. Look to go at least 3 inches above the end of the wound. Until you can get into the vet clean with something like novalsen to keep infection at bay. If you have silvadene that will also work. Worst case scenario, until the vet is in, you can put petroleum jelly on it. Necrosis does tend to happen quite fast when it is dried. But if you have silvadene or even a nice triple ointment that would be far better.
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
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Wow, really sorry to see that. Hope you nail them dam XX^@#! Let us know how things work out, good luck.

Mark, get the tail cut off as soon as possible. If you don't there's a good chance you will lose the lizard due to infections. My opinion is that the skin will NOT grow back and cover the bone as the wound is too severe and extensive. Good luck and I'm really sorry it happened..The longer you wait the higher up the amputation will have to be to negate the possibility of leaving infected tissue....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

My vet isnt in until tuesday, but thats my plan. I e-mail pics to my vet but havnt heard back from him yet.

I'm gonna start profiling and put traps out tonight too!
good hunting Mark

jf

Yikes! I was always wondering if that could happen to my guys that are out free in the yard, especially in the winter. I've seen plenty of wild rats outside here, I wonder if yours were the Norway variety or something else, when you kill one of them, please post the body. I have two types around here, the Norway and some kind with big ears and white bellies, I call them night squirrels. I hope everything works out, I'm sure they will be fine, just a little shorter. KB

Kevin, I had rats in SP and RPV, I think the excess food laying around was a big help. Maybe bad husbandry, but kept the rats fed, so they left the iguanas alone....until I could catch them..... knock on wood. Check out the weather in Florida...Glad not to be there.

I have two types running around here. Roof rats and norway rats. The culprit is a norway rat. I have seen him. I did the amputation today with my brothers help holding the lizards. Right after I made the cut, they proceeded to eat. Weird. The flesh on the end looked nice and healthy. Gauzed the end and taped it up.

Now I think I need to get some Baytril and treat for 10 days.

I would not use baytryl. Just use a topical ointment..thanks
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

My vet text me this morning and said the same thing. Unless I see infection it should be fine as is.

>>My vet text me this morning and said the same thing. Unless I see infection it should be fine as is.

Most important is to keep the affected area clean and moist. See if you can get some silvadene as it is MUCH better than a triple.
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
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Cindy is 100% correct...
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Those are probably good traps to use. The Havaheart traps have never failed me nor have the rats been able to outsmart going for food with the door shutting behind them. Easy, One after the other, they are suckers for peanut butter.

Usually, the native Owls kept the rodent population in check but they seem to have dissapeared and rat pops have been on the rise. My take is that most of the locals used pesticides to kill/make the rats sick, the Owls eat the rat, Owl gets sick/dies.
So just a warning to try other methods other than poison, if you have a rat problem. Native snakes may be a good idea too.

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Peanut butter works good, but on traditional rat traps, I have had the rats lick it clean without triggering the trap -- better to use a zapper.

And 3 zappers I have. I still havnt caught this rat and do not "have a heart" for it (no pun intended) so i dont want to take him alive.

I hear you, as the rat is now your enemy, these traps are called haveaheart traps but should be renamed to "workslikeacharm' trap. You smear the peanut butter on the opposite end of the triggering "tray". Doing this, they have to trigger the door, it is a sure thing, 100% caught. No stealing, licking, whatever. I catch them one after the other. Smear, listen, get rat out, reload.
If you don't want the rat alive after it's caught, that's up to you. But you caught the bugger(s) and didn't spend a fortune on traps that may not work. I think these traps cost $10.
I would think those zappers would work well with peanut butter?, no?
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