Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Today, I came home to find my peachthroat monitor dead. I know I only had him for 3 weeks but i became very attached to the little guy. I will miss him very much. I guess i will try to move on and get another monitor in the future.

Thanx,
Will

I know the feeling, I just lost two of my black tree females this week.. Both had developing eggs inside. My condolensces,

BM

you lost a second one, Bob? I wasn't aware of that. That really sucks. How long have they been in captivity for?

Sorry to hear that, Bob. I sent your necropsy photo of female #1 to my university vet, quizzed her about it today, because the innards looked fine to me also. Her comment was that the liver lobes were distended by excess fluid, indicating some acute problem with blood transport there. This could arise from many things: something toxic that the liver cells could not process, a Salmonella infection that rapidly went systemic, or even a blood parasite with a cyclic pattern of reproduction. Other possibilities too, she had no diagnosis other than that, as you saw, whatever killed the animal killed it quickly -- an acute problem rather than a chronic one.

Btw, it is often important to be able to see the kidneys in trying to eliminate potential causes of mortality. Let's hope you are not taking more photos, but for those who do, try to spread things out so that as many of the organs are visible as is possible.

Sympathies~

I would be interested in what the university vet thinks of this picture. It is the throat of a male jobiensis. I have seen this discoloration in two jobiensis and I don't know what it is, doesn't seem to be blood.
I am also interested in the discoloration around the gallbladder that bleeds into other organs. I have seen this on many monitors that suddenly drop dead (I think Bob's beccari shows the same thing). Is this normal?
What does your vet think of worming meds?
Thanks

rsg~
Lemme check on these things, it'll probably take until early next week to get some answers or leads. I'm not a vet, but I teach anatomy and can understand vet-speak. Much of the time, I think you are not going to get anything definitive from looking at necropsy photos, but instead some hints about what to consider further. In other words, several things might cause a visible anomaly, and it's only a first step toward a diagnosis.

That jobiensis had something nasty, no question -- almost looks like a bruise, but how there? On gallbladder "leakage" seen in fresh-dead animals, I think that can be either acute (e.g., a blockage) or chronic (if the digestive systen is shutting down, for any of several reasons), but I'm rapidly going beyond my depth.

There is a reasonably detailed section on medical management of Komodo dragons by Lucy Spelman in J.B. Murphy et al. (eds.), 2002, Komodo Dragons: Biology and Conservation, Smithsonian Inst. Press. A lot of this seems relevant to monitors in general, and it is worth a look, particularly for the discussions of captive maintenance and problems with ovulation.

The interesting thing is that it occured on two different individuals that were acquired from the same place.
I have a friend who is a pathologist, next time I will have him prepare and read slides of anything wierd, like the throat or the discoloration around the gallbladder.
Thanks for the follow up.

I have seen this in one 7 foot male V. salvadorii as well, and one V. jobiensis - I thought it was pigmentation....it was not blood filled tissue, as I checked for that too...

mbayless

unfortunately, yes, I lost a second one today. She was very lethargic, and wouldn't open her eyes when I awoke this morning. I set her up in another rubbermaid with a waterbasin, and cork to keep her out of the water, in an effort to rehydrate her. When I got home from work, she was in the same place I left her, and had been dead for a couple of hours. I did notice that this female had a mucousy secretion in its mouth, and upon dissection, found it to be in its esophagus and stomach. It reminded me of what you would see in boids with a severe case of URI. Now, the problem that I have is that I have yet to find a vet on Long Island that is qualified, or has my trust with varanids, or reptiles in general. I don't constitute somebody who spent a weeks worth of reptilian medicine surgery in their eight year degrre, as being a "reptile specialist". So finding a reputable vet is proving difficult. The one vet that I used to deal with was clueless; somebody who was feeding a chaco toroitse straight up cat food as it's lone diet while it was in his care..

What I don't understand is that all four of my becarri(1.3) have each been in the country for over a year now, and have been in my care for at least five months. Each animal was put through a sixty day quarantine period, before any were introduced to one another. They were all administered parasiticides, to make sure all those "indo bugs" were out of their systems. I know that reptiles do not "show" their illnesses sometimes, and sicknesses can drag on for months until the animal dies, however, there have been no noticeable signs or symptoms suggesting that they were sick in the first place... I am tending to believe that it is a mycoplasmid which is responsible, but then again, I am not a vet, nor am I certified to accurately make such an assumption. Anyways, I anticipate on finding a good vet promptly, does anybody have any recommendations for the NYC/long island area?? Thanks again, wish me luck...

BM

I am really sorry to hear that, I had hoped for some nice beccari hatchlings.
I have lost a female beccari the same way and I have no idea what happened.
Did the second one have ovum as well?

Oh, Bob, I am so sorry to hear of your loss. It must be heartbreaking to lose two of your animals in two days. I hope you are able to determine the cause as that would certainly help with future animals if it is something that you could do something about. It is hard when you take good care of an animal and it has no apparent sign of illness and then just dies. Good luck finding a vet, did you contact the state veterinary registry to see if any vets in your area specialize in reptiles? It really is hard to find a good vet as many say they can treat reptiles but know nothing. I called our Milwaukee County Zoo curator of reptiles and asked for the reptile vet that the zoo uses. I now go to his clinic if there is a problem...perhaps you could contact your zoo. Good luck, again, I am sorry.

Pam