Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am sitting here today in my office with a sav recovering from Sx. he was raised on a diet of rodents and insects. while i went back to school my new husband did most of the feeding, and did not realise that i gave this boy insects durring the week and rodents on weekends (just cuz thats when i fed them to my snakes) after a while he regurgitated a few times, and then we realised he had not produced much feces in a while, i took him to work and took an x-ray ( i work at a cat/dog vet) and he was very full of fecal material. we tried enemas, and lots of fluids. my exotic vet was afraid it was a tumor or that his colon had not been working and had me prepared that we may have to just put him down while he was under if we found something like this. well when he went in today and they started Sx he thought it was a tumor, and almost did put him down, but he did searcha little more and found what had blocked his colon was a giant hairball, he said it was bone dry in the center, all the fluids i had been giving could not have broken it up. he removed this all and closed him up, its still iffy what will happen from her, but he is home and relaxing now, hopefully all will be find from here on out. now ive only had a few monitors, but ive always given them a varied diet and didnt have any problems untill now when all he got was rodents (not blaming the new husband, i should not have assumed that he knew) but to everyone who just feeds rodents you may want to reconsider. i will be starting this boy (as long as ge gets up and moving after the drugs) the san diego diet from the san diego zoo from now on.
Po

sorry if my spelling is bad!

is that it was dry. Generally it should not be dry in the digestive tract. I think it may be prudent to make sure conditions allow the monitor to keep hydrated. From what I've seen mice are fully digested and expelled typically in 24 hours or so, unless it was a very large meal.

There should be no harm in feeding crickets (I feed all of mine crickets in addition to mice), but I really think the problem is more about water (retention) and temps than hair.

Good Luck,

--Robert

sounds to me like a humidity and basking temperture problem..i wonder how hot the basking spot is...and if your monitor has to pass water to its skin from inside out your in trouble...good luck..billy

he has been in the same cage and conditions for years, the only thing that changed before he got sick was his diet...and yes, 12 hrs latter he is waking up from anastesia and seems to be doing fine

We were just trying to help you, in looking at the other possibilities which you do not seem concerned about.

I thought your monitor just had to have surgery to pass a hairball. Do you think a monitor can't pass a hairball normally?

--Robert

PS: If you are so confident of your 12 years of experience, why oh why are you completely changing diet (turkey/sdz) now?

i was just trying to share info on what can happen with a rodent only diet, even for only a short time, and im sure many liz. are fine like this, just trying to share what i learned, maybe to help other sometime.
why am i changing his diet now? because he had his colon cut open, and im thinking a gentle diet might be good for that...

Just kidding about the fury part but he never thought twice about a hairball.

Neither did they.....

by asking us to reconsider feeding an all rodent diet? Do you not see the contradiction? We who have been feeding our monitors this diet you speak of for years in most cases along with proper temps and humidity have never had this problem. I would love to hear the set up you working along with temps ,humidity levels, etc. I do believe thats where your attention should be.

Jaye

maybe your "kids" are fine, maybe mine was used to a varied diet and for the few months he only got rodents this happened, i was back in school and working full time, so i counted on a person with limited time with herps to take over, his humidity isnt as high as it was when i lived in FLa and he had a whole patio, but its still great, hes in a room with my boas and balls and they rarely have a bad shed so i may not know an exact # for you but its been fine for years. i thought boards like this were meant to share ideas, but the more i come here the more i see you can only share ideas if they are the same as everyone elses...

1.. from what I understand, a monitor's system does not "get used to" on specific diet.. or else they'd all be specialists and not generalists like they are. That being said.. any monitor will take advantage of any food source it comes across and can overpower/kill. For your monitor to have had a hairball stuck inside it.. there HAD to have been a problem other than diet. Monitors can digest bone.... hair doesn't digest but helps to keep things flowing through the intenstinal tract.. Same thing with insect chitin... or Fiberous material for humans and other primates. Its called roughage which should be passed without problem given that dehydration isn't a factor. It is only when an animal is stressed amazingly that things go wrong.. like RI.. impactions etc. People have been feeding Bosc's and other monitors an all rodent diet for decades now without problems and with good success for those keepers who realized what they were doing and how to keep the animals well.. The SDZ diet is going to result in looser stools and more water loss for your monitor. I've tried the SDZ diet and I hated it. Not only were the stools looser but they smelled worse than normal... Not to mention my Sav wasn't enthusiastic over the stuff.. Just because your monitor has been good for however many years you said.. doesn't mean that that hairball isn't a secondary symptom of something much worse wrong with your husbandry. If a monitor can't pass hair.. there's something wrong. Boscs in the wild are big insect eaters but they will take advantage of rodent or other furred prey when given the chance.. Think about it.. and if you can't give us specific numbers on your humidity, temps etc.. then how do you know they're right? Impactions can result from too low temps too.. inability to digest properly due to it. Consider this before you jump on people who are just trying to help you reconsider the so called "perfect" conditions you profess to have. Monitors can survive a wide variety of conditions that aren't considered optimal for them. But mere survival isn't living. Its not about you and your feelings.. its about the monitor and what it should be....If it gets sick.. its telling you something is wrong.. and limiting your investigation to simple diet.. is a tragedy waiting to happen.
-----
Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
2.1.1 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short) and 1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
1 Gerbil
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Sahara and Hercules)

That post was spot on, great job. FR

I think the fact that you didn't tell everyone your husbandry specs, after being asked several times, makes everyone a little suspicious...