Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just thought I would swing by here and get some reassurance.

I "rescued" Smeigal last december and nursed him to health. He has been the spunkiest little lizard Ive ever had. I never really tried to tame him, because he seemed to really hate being held, and I didnt want to put him through extra stress. So he was more of a display animal, and just did his own thing. What a beautiful little guy he was with super bright orange and jet black bands. He would have been a sought after breeder...

Heres what happened. I had a 30 hour power outage. Smeigal dropped from 85 degree ambient/ 160 basking, straight to 40 in a matter of hours. When I found him after work on the first day of the outage, I thought he was dead(the power had been on in the morning). I warmed him up and he seemed to come around. Until the power came back on, I had him at a friends. He died just over 2 days later.

Although it seems obvious that the temp. fluctuation was the cause of Smiegals death, I really need someone, who knows uros fairly well, to say, "yeah, you know what, thats what killed him." He appeared fine up intil that happened. I just feel sooooo bad, considering I was the one who was supposodly protecting him. I brought him back from the brink of death almost a year before the day of his actual death. Man, this hurts.

First off VERY, very sorry to hear about your loss.That has to be very hard, especially at this time of year.My condolences and RIP little Uro.

Now for the details...Straight to 40 in a matter of hours? Was he kept indoors? Maybe i'm being ignorant but i'd think that a dwelling would be insulated enough to maintain heat for some time and take a while to gradually drop temps? Anyways i s'pose that part is irrelevant really though...

I've heard of people actually refrigerating their Uro's to brumate so i'd like to think that one day of 40 degree temps should just slow the guy down some, but that he should be able to recover from it.I don't think that that short amount of time would be enough for any undigested food to rot in him an go necrotic, especially at that low temps.

I'm no doctor, nor an expert by any means so take what i'm typing for what it's worth, just trying to help make some sense of it.

To me i might look towards another source, perhaps he was weakened from an illness, injury, or parasites already? Then again maybe the sudden drop sent him into shock? Were there any other changes lately in his environment or behaviour? How was he kept at the friend's house? Do they have anything that may have been dangerous to him?

Lots of questions

He was kept inside. All I know is that when I got home that night, the thermostat said that it was well below 50(it was down as low as it goes) and I could see my own breath.

His behaviour before then was normal. Eating, running around, etc.

Ouch, that's terrible!

I haven't done this myself but i have heard of people brumating their Uro's in the refrigerator.I'd assume based off this that a day in under 50 degrees likely *shouldn't* kill em, at least in theory.We all know how well theories sometimes stand up though, and unfortunately something killed your Uro.Most likely would have to be the cold then if it was normal up until that point.Is it possible or affordable for you to get a necropsy done? If for nothing else to ease your mind and possibly prevent anything similar in the future if it turns out to be something other than the cold.

Tragic at any rate, sorry to hear.