Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well my one anole is obviously sick. Just laying around not eating and stuff. I bought this stuff tonight at PetSmart, along with a few new furnishings for his side of the tank (I have the tank sectioned off in 2) it's a reptile intestinal conditioner.

I managed to get his mouth open and feed him a few drops. After I did, he was breathing hard, but not rapidly, normal pace, and his mouth was wide open for a few minutes. I placed him in his temporary cage i use for when I'm cleaning the tank, and his mouth opened up for a few minutes, and he was breathing hard..not rapidly..normal pace, but his ribs were expanding wide..i don't know if it was because he was mad for being handled or what...But after I was done cleaning the tank, i put him back into his newly furnished surroundings, right on the perch under the lamp, and after a few minutes, he opened his mouth again for about a minute or 2, and he was looking around, then he closed it and moved away from the lamp a little and layed in the leaves.

His breathing is all normal now. i was reading online and something said that if their mouths game then it's a sign of respiratory infection, but he never did it until i dropped that stuff in his mouth. I know the only way to be certain of anything is go to a vet, but it's not my lizard it's my cousins, and him being in 3rd grade, he doesn't have cash to blow on the vet, and neither do i right now. So i'm just looking for any advice at all.

i meant to say "gape" when referring to the mouth in the last paragraph, not "game".

Your biggest problem is not being able to see a vet. This happens to often with pets that only cost a couple of bucks.

A anole will "Gape" for a couple of reasons (these are the most common) 1)vomiting. Did you see anything discharge from the mouth? 2) Overheated. The reason they "Gape" when hot is to release heat. That it happened right after medicine though so he may have been trying to vomit it up, and if you did not see anything come up, was unsucesfull.

I really would not worry about it to much though unless it keeps happening. A one time occurence could be just trying to throw up the medicine, or a temporary overheating. IF IT HAPPENS MORE, then you are going to have to find out who bought the anole, and tell them to pony up the money for a vet visit.

Yeah i am going to tell his dad today that he needs to take it to the vet. No discharge came up by the way. And he's also not eating. Weird thing is that he's not really too brown either, and i was thinking he'd be pretty dark considering his condition.

Well I told the father of the Anole's owner that it needs to see a vet and of course as expected , i get the "hahah yeah right watch me take a lizard to a vet."

O well. Sad. Some people.

You might consider politely telling him that you will under no circumstances take in another animal that he has purchased on a whim. If he is unwilling to care for it either in housing or in vet visits, then he has absolutely no business making such a purchase.

Ask him if he would do the same to a puppy or an orphaned child. It's no different.
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Torey
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