Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted a few days ago about putting my two argus monitors together and they not getting along. I have more bad news that someone may have had similar experience with.

RECAP: I put my 2 argus in the same enclosure and the big one attacked the smaller one. I quickly separated them and I thought that the little one was no worse for wear. I was sadly wrong!!!

I thought that I had checked the smaller of the 2 very closely and there was no damage to the little one. I noticed a spot on the back thigh yesterday (the next day). It looked to be a bit of dirt mixed with the shedding skin and there was no loss of motion. I saw that it was still there today. I touched it tonight and saw blood. I soaked him to clean the dirt off and washed the area. It is a bite that is fairly deep and looks infected. I feel so bad for not noticing it earlier!!!!

My wife grabbed her medic kit (she is a former paramedic) and cleaned the wound and put Neosporin on it. She will take the little guy to the vet tomorrow since they are closed now. I put him in a small, clean aquarium with paper towels on the floor and a cloth towel for him to hide under. I did not put him back in the cage that has dirt as a substrate.

If anyone has had a similar experience please tell me the outcome. I sure hope that I don't lose the little guy for being stupid!!! or have him paralyzed!!!

Picture taken on 8-26

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Ed

There are chameleons, pythons, and monitors in my jungle room.

I don't usually post here, and apologize up front if this is obvious. Injured reptiles need "hot" hot spots that they can get in and out of on their own accord. They can work self-healing wonders all by themselves if they have that option to choose their temperature.

I would leave the injured one in its old cage to reduce adding "new environment stress" on the already injured critter. If one needs to be moved, move away the uninjured one.

You might ask FR for advice on how to proceed. With all of his experience I bet he may have had a bite or two thousand to deal with along the way??

Good luck.

Also, neosporium is a no no, it is not recomended, something about being a pertoleum based product.

Also, I am not sure you understand that your dealing with monitors or even that they are animals. Please don't scream at me because you may be naive, but, monitors bite eachother(like dogs and all other animals, even mice) they do so even when they get along. So, if you think its a horrible thing if one bites the other, then monitors/dogs/mice, are not for you, at least in a group setting.

Please forgive me, but you sound like a doting parent. Please understand, monitors are wild animals. They do not respond well to doting.

Let me say, if one individual wanted the other dead, it would be dead, it would not matter which one is smaller or larger, that thought is not even accurate with humans. Guns make humans equal and razor teeth make individual monitors equal, and they do know how to use them.

I am not sure what you saw, but if you had a hard time seeing the injury, then it was not very serious. Kinda like a dog nipping another(method of comunication) or a bird pecking at the other. Again if one wanted to harm the other, you would not have any problem seeing the damage.

FYI, fighting is not limited to opposite sexes, any combination will fight and kill eachother(if thats what they want to do) So, thinking they are both males is not accurate. In 91, when we first kept and bred this species, we had WC's and our proven(laid eggs) female, killed several really large males, before she decided to like one of them and pair up(as many here will tell you, logic, may not apply all the time to monitors) With captive hatched, killing is rare, but poking holes in eachother is common, in fact, impossible to avoid. Heck, a healthy monitors even pokes holes in themselves without the help of others.

Lastly, please understand, the above is only my opinion and experience. If you do not like or agree with it, then please ignore it. There may be many different opinions givin, pick one that suits you and run with it. Thanks and good luck, FR

Ive had a few bad experiences with introductions, or just noticing an injury from a spat between a pair. Ive seen claws ripped completely out, scratches, rips, and cuts from bites from the nose to the feet, to the tail, they heal fast in their cage if set up somewhat close to the way it should be. Ive had one that I learned the hard way wanted to kill the other, but luckily saved him. If they want to kill each other they can do it quick, I had a female grab a male by the base of the head/top of the neck and clamp down trying to crush his head and neck then whip him around like a pitbull with a rag beating his body against the top and bottom of the cage, luckily I interupted very quickly and got her to release. If they wont get along you will know quickly. But they heal small injuries fast. Ive seen a spat between a timor pair where the male ripped the skin around the females shoulder and pulled it down almost to her elbow (looked alot like a bloody torn sleeve) cleaned it with betadine, let it heal, in a week or so.

Thanks for the replies to this post. I'm the "former paramedic wife" and have decided against taking this guy to the vet. I am amazed that the argus is as tough as he is... the bite is deep (over a 1/4" deep) with muscle appearing to be sliced. I am also impressed with the scapel precission of the bite. Just reminds me to do my best NOT to get bitten But overall, he is acting normal; still climbing and basking. He's in a 4'wx4'dx7'h cage with the hottest hot spot topping out at around 125 degrees.

I did treat the bite with Betadine before applying the neosporin so I'm hoping it all heals up. As a former paramedic and vet tech, my training has always been geared towards mammals so I really appreciate all of the helpful feedback.

Thanks again,

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Tammy
Owned by:

1.0.1 Argus Monitors
0.0.23 Veiled Chameleon Eggs
0.1 Ball Pyhon
0.1 Siamese Cat
1.1 Rescue Dogs (Lab & Bernese Mountain Dog)

If you want to use a topical ointment do not use neosporin, use silvadine cream. Clean it with betadine if you like. But most important is to keep the temps. up.

Reptiles are wild animals they are geared to heal themselves. If they relied on others they certainly would not go far in nature.

Thanks a lot guys!!! The Argus does not seem to be suffering from the injury too much, and he has full range of motion. If a mammal had a cut that bad it would be having difficulties. My wife and I are amazed at how tuff these guys are. We have only been keeping reptiles for a few years, but we have rescued a bunch from bad husbantry or unwanted owners. We have found some good homes. We really care about our animals and try to help as many as we can. When we saw the bad slice and could look into the muscle we probably did act like over protective parents. I have no doubt the monitor will be ok.
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Ed

There are chameleons, pythons, and monitors in my jungle room.