Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Spike Died
He looked ok (except for Closed eyes), the day I took him out of the Group, and put him in Quarentine.

His belly was Big and round, and I could see light shining through it, which lead me to worry that it was all water, not food. His legs were skinny, but not a lot skinnier than Trackers.

When I got him into the quarentine tank, he just stopped moving around, and just kept his mouth a little open all the time. I gave him pedialyte with some Lamb mixed in, and some repitical, but he just got skinnier and skinnier and after 5 days he died.

My Daughter burried him in her garden, and when my neighbor the vet asked what happened, and we told her, she offered to do a necroscopy (for free)

When My Dughter brought him out of the dirt he was TOTALY skinny, imaciated (I cannot spell) like a deflated baloon, looked WAY worse than he did even when I found him dead.

I WAS in contact with the vet for the first couple days. but there was not much he could do that I was not already doing. I am going to ask him for a single Cipro to keep on hand in case something like this happens again

BTW this is the orriginal pic I took of him, he did not grow much after I got him, and his hornes never did get bigger.

Any chance he was not a hachling when I got him??

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Elizabeth (ecb)

Make this world a better and more beautiful place that You have been in it
*Edward W Bok*

I am so sorry to hear that. I have had youngsters who were eating great and looked nice and fat who died for no obvious reason. I didn't have them necropsied so can say there was not reason, just no obvious one. I know that my adults have consumed fairly good amounts of substrate and seem to have never had a problem with it. I am concerned though that the younger ones could be more likely to forma a blockage.

For that reason I am now keeping my babies on paper towels to see if this will reduce the mystery deaths. So far so good but the oldest are just now 3 months old so I still don't consider them past the hump. I had a clutch of 9 last July that were doing great until I moved them to a tank with bed-a-beast at 2 months and 5 died within a month leaving only 4 survivors.

I sure hope tracker makes it. It's so hard losing these guys. They have such personalities and you just bond to easily!
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

groups.yahoo.com/group/agamid/join
(click the link to join the agamid group on yahoo)

I pulled out erowen to show Elizabeth (the vet next-door) what a full grown one looks like, and her legs are down right FAT, her belly is big and soft and round
and trackers legs (in comparison) are thin and scrawney
have you ever seen one (large or small) take in so much water it worked like a lense through the skin?
I did not see anything like that on your website
I wonder if anyone has a database of appearances and symtoms of some of the reptile disorders (like a new parents book on childhood illnesses)
maybe I should make one

My Vet called me to see how he was doing, and he told me that sometimes they just goet worn down by something and their normal intestinal Flora becomes pathenogenic. Then not only do they not have an appetite, but anything they DO eat does not get digested properly so ti cannot be absorbed into their bodies.
He thought that Spikes taking in all that water might be a sign of that. He was not at all surprized when I described Spikes body as being Emaciated, and said that they can go from looking really good to looking like that in a surprizingly SHORT period of time. I am SO glad I found him

When I thanked him for being so attentive, and considerate, and for treating me like an intelligent person w it came to my animals, his response was that I AM an intelligent person, and that he had done nothing

I like that we have a mutual admiration society thing going on. He has agreed to let me keep some baytril on hand in case I need it in the future (I asked for Cipro, he said Baytril keeps better) and I am looking to get some Calcium Gluconate on hand for these guys
He says they metabolize it better then the other calciums

back to work for me
ttyl
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Elizabeth (ecb)

Make this world a better and more beautiful place that You have been in it
*Edward W Bok*