Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everybody,

So I bought a female blue tree monitor and to my disgust she was misrepresented and arrived in horrible condition. She is emaciated and lethargic. No meat on her and bones sticking out really far in her tail. Stomach is sunken inwards bad. Loose stool. I got her to finally drink water yesterday after feeding her egg. She is not interested in eating anything else. I've tried insects and mice to no avail. I tried dipping prey items in the egg but she is not fooled and won't touch it. The egg is running right through her as her feces look like eggs today. Urate today looks good and white but I think she is prob still dehydrated. I hope she is not too far gone to save. If she makes it to monday she will be going to the vet.

I am going to try and feed her pureed chicken mixed with the egg today and see if she will take it. I just want her to eat solid food but I don't know how to get her to eat it. I don't want to force feed her but I may have no choice. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Kathy

Try some ground turkey with mice or insect parts in it. See how that goes. Good luck, hopefully in time the conditions you provide will bring her around. Does she bask atleast?

She does come out of her box to bask but not often. Her box is right next to the heat so it is warm. I tried the chicken with the egg and she took a mouthful and then didn't want anymore. I'll try what you suggest next time I see her out.

The arboreal monitors in the prasinus group are not what I work with so I am not claiming any expertise here at all but here are somethings that have worked with me with water monitors and other lizards in the past.
Shrimp work really well with newly acquired waters that are not feeding well (I have occasionally gotten these as freebies) and not taking the normal fare of monitor food. I obviously wouldn't use these long term but it may be worth a try in your situation right now.
I have done a lot of work with chameleons over the years and wild caught chameleons can be very picky sometimes especially when it comes to the normal gamut of commercially available insects out there. I have found in these cases that grasshoppers almost always work without fail moths are another good candidate as lizards seem to find them quite tasty. The grasshoppers go over very well with monitors btw and if you can possibly find them where you are right now katydids are the absolute favorite grasshopper of them all among monitors. My rudicolis monitor goes bonkers over them and they are na arboreal monitor just not in that same sub-group.
Like I said I am not an expert with this type of monitor at all but hopefully my advice will help you for now. I know there are some people on here who really get into these and hopefully they will pipe in and give some more help.

No grasshoppers where I live yet, it's still too cold outside I've offered crickets,roaches,hornworms and superworms but she just looks at them

Hmm not sure about the shrimp.

Do not worry about food, no offense but that is a very naive thing to think about.

Dehydration is KEY. The first thing you want to do is make sure your animal is hydrated and not compromised. That is, are its kidneys functioning.

The first thing YOU WANT TO DO is get it in a cage that allows for hydration, not a beef jerky machine and proper temps for it to heal from the effects of dehydration. And of course drinking water. You want to stop further damage. Then off to the vet as soon as possible.

In order for a monitor to process food, it must be hydrated and must have functioning kidneys. If its not up to the minimum necessary for the processing of prey, then more harm is done then good.

Remember it takes energy to digest food. When animals are compromised, they divert energy away from the stomach and use it elsewhere. Do you ever wonder why compromised individuals regurgitate? Enough on that.

I do not know what Monday your talking about, but if your lizard is severely dehydrated, and your not experienced, then a vet is needed NOW, not Monday. There is many things a Vet can do that a private keeper cannot. The first thing a Vet will do is hydrate the animal internally. Think IV.

Sadly, your chances of saving this animal, from what you described, is very low. Monitors are very strong, so by the time they show extreme dehydration, they are already dead with a heartbeat. That is, fatal organ damage has already occurred. (liver and kidneys)

I wish you all the luck, but I strongly suggest you get it to a Vet in a hurry. Good luck

The soonest I can get her to be seen is Monday as the vet is booked up Otherwise I'd have to drop her off and she would have to sit there till close and possibly overnight. They do not have the proper housing requirements for this monitor and I dont feel she would do good there that long sitting in a container. My normal herp vet is on maternity leave so I'm not sure I trust her there that long anyways without me.

I do have experience with rehab and rescue but I have never rehabbed a blue tree. I've rehabbed many savs and niles but they are a lot hardier. When I have had them in the past emaciated/dehydrated (one was worse than this blue tree) I have syringe fed them critical care which worked until they were strong enough to eat on their own. I am nervous about doing this to a blue tree as they are more delicate. Maybe they are hardier than I think? Maybe I should do the critical care?

I did get her to drink a considerable amount of water yesterday but this morning not so much. She did eat a mouthful of chicken mixed with the egg but that was it. I have been misting her constantly. She spends most of her time in her nest box where there is damp moss inside. The box is warm and she does come out a little to bask but not much.

I do have experience with tree monitors btw but not sick ones. I have a pair of green trees I raised that are a little over a year old now. They are thriving and just started breeding for me

I agree with what Frank had to say. This was supported by my vet as well who has a lot of experience with reptiles. Hydration is the starting point.

It is important to note, that while mine was really dehydrated, the bigger problem was a respiratory infection. I think you will be as shocked as I was too see how hardy they actually are provided they aren't too far gone.

I know you have experience so cage environment I am sure you can handle. I just left mine alone as much as possible.

Good luck!

Steve - sdi

How's the baby? Did it recover?

I gave the female critical care yesterday and got some water into her. She is starting to perk up and actually basked on my arm in the sunlight coming through the window before putting her back. She hasn't done that before. She would sit under the basking but not flatten her body out like normal. She did not want to go back into the enclosure which is a good sign because before she just didn't care and wouldn't move.

I weighed and measured her too while I had her out. She is 32 in long and 11 1/4 in STV. She is 173 grams Way under weight!

She does not appear to have respitory issues or external parasites. I think she just is emaciated/dehydrated with internal parasites. So far nothing visable in feces.

Good luck with her, tuff situation. Have you tried mice at all? My black tree will only eat mice and egg for the most part. occasionally she will eat insects but thats pretty rare. As far as eggs go she seems to do better with a flash boiled quail egg than normal eggs. Have you contacted the seller? I would to tell them how the animal arrived in horrible condition and to see if they had any luck with certain food items, even though they will probly lie, its worth a shot.

Thanks. I tried to contact the seller but no reply back yet. It's been 2 days now. I know he got the message but probably doesn't care as he got my money I thinks it's awful as he still has a male in his care and it's probably dead by now if it looked like the female.

(if you haven't already) Try putting visual barriers in front of the cage so that way it's not startled if someone enters the room. Simple newspaper over the glass works fine. I'd leave it like that for a while.