Reptile & Amphibian Forums

when i was in the 5th grade i bought a baby black roughneck monitor. At the time i didn't know that in order for the lizard to get vitamen D3 thay need UVB, and with out UVB they would not be able to get the proper calceum. not having the proper calceum the bones would break down, but i do know almost every thing else about it.now, 4 years later, he has bone deficience. this can be almost, if not completly fixed. but unfortunately he fractured his spine just above his rear hip. we took him to the vet and they took x-rays and gave him some calceum drops.now he has quit eating and his eyes will not open. the vet said if my monitor does not get better then i should put it to sleep. i really dont want to do that, but i want what's best for my lizard. if more people dont think i should ,and they think he will get better i wont. but i just fill so sick about this. all i want is for it to be healthy. the next vet check is Dec.10. what should i do?? what would you do if you were in my spot? please help me. everyones opinion counts.

thanks
jake

That is all that is wrong with him? How about his internal organs?

How was he being kept? temps, substrate, cage, etc.
What was his diet?

I posted an explanation on the use of D3 and UV in varanids, but somehow it must of gotten deleted with all of the other posts recently.

As for a vote, that is your decision to make. But if you let us know how he was kept we can certainly give insight to why this occured.

the only other thing is he has a slite mouth rot, but thats under control. otherwise there is nothing. he has been on bark almost all his life. the beginning of his life was on sand. he was on the for about 6 mounths. his main thing i fed him whin he was young was crickets and anoles, than i fed him mice and anoles and a few crickets. in the last 2 mounths i have been feeding him mice and anoles. he has frish water most of the time and befor he was paralyzed i would take him out and let him walk around the basement with me waching him.

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There are a lot of things to discuss in your posts, but I will highlight just a few here.

There is a tremendous amount of debate on whether monitors NEED UV lighting or not. Regardless of whether they need it or not, most of the light bulbs you can buy are worthless and do not provide very much UV or do not last a long time. They are not worth using. However, many of us have kept monitors for many many years and never used any UV bulbs or drops. Our monitors do not seem to have any problems without UV lighting.

What that means is that there was probably a different cause or contributor to your monitor's current health problems.

I realize that your vet probably told you that monitors is sick because he had no UV lighting or that you must absolutely give it to them to keep them healthy. However, just keep in mind most of us do not give them that lighting and do not have problems.

Second, only you and your vet knows how bad of shape the monitor is in right now. Most of us would hate to make a "vote" and be wrong. I, personally, would hate to tell you to fight on if your monitor is suffering and not going to get better. I would also hate to tell you to throw in the towel when it is possible to help your monitor get better. We simply do not have enough information here to tell, and we will probably never be able to tell since we cannot actually observe your animal. Ultimately, it is up to only you.

I know that does not help much (or at all), but that is the reality of the situation.

Best of luck with your monitor.
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^x^ Bloodbat ^x^
Monitors, monitors everywhere
and all the food they ate.
Monitors, monitors everywhere,
their parents loved to mate.

Mouth rot can be caused by many things and shows the lack of immunity your guy has. So you have to ailments atleast.

When the Xray was performed did it show the bones as a ghostly image very faint and hard to make out? I assume this is what the vet noticed and therefor said it needed UV. Does he have swollen limbs, any bones feel rubbery? Deviation of the spine?

If he shows none of those bone deficeiency symptoms I would say it is misdiagnosed. If it has mouth rot it has some sort of infection going on. This infection can cause problems if bacterial it can trigger the sort of paralysis you are explaining.

Your basking spot is on the cool end according to what you have said. If you explain more on the setup I can try and shed more light on this for you. Also how about the growth rate how big did he start out and how big is he now? How many mice is he feeding on and how often is he fed?

Is the vet your seeing a herp. vet or just a vet that will look at reptiles and exotics?

yes when the vet took the Xray the top of the hip was visible but as it went down it was very faint.he does not have any swollen limbs or rubbery bones, but he does have a kanck in his spine just above his hip.

ill try to get a better heat for him. how many wats should it have?

when i got him he was 10in long that was 4 years ago now he is 20in. he is in a 55 galon tall. i was going to get an 8x8x8 foot cage for him but that was befor this happened, and the vet(who is a herp vet) said that he should not move much.

i was feeding him 1 adult 2 times a week, and an anole or 2 in-between.

i will try to get a pic. tonight.

The wattage of the bulb depends on how it is placed and what your heating. I use 45-65 watt incandescent indoor flood bulbs. In my blackroughneck cage I have two of these bulbs heating the basking area to around 130-140. The cool end of that cage goes from 80 down to aound 75 at night.

when i got him he was 10in long that was 4 years ago now he is 20in. he is in a 55 galon tall. i was going to get an 8x8x8 foot cage for him but that was befor this happened, and the vet(who is a herp vet) said that he should not move much.

Growing 10 inches in 4 years is not a good sign. At that age I would expect anything from 3-5 foot depending on the sex of your monitor. My youngest blackroughneck is well under a year and 2 foot. As far as the vet saying it shouldn't move, it is not that it shouldn't it can't. Anything to offer better husbandry will help. Although it sadly may be to late.

i was feeding him 1 adult 2 times a week, and an anole or 2 in-between.

You should of been feeding more often. When young they need nutrients to use for growth, that means bone development etc..
Without support the body will fail, the less support the quicker it fails.

i didn't mean for it to sound like only young varanids need nutrients for growth. What I meant is the young ones are growing more rapidly and need more nutrients compared to an adult as they burn it up faster.

well when he was younger i wpuld feed him about 12 crickets every day or two and 1 anole ever so often.

he moves arond as much as he can(from his water to his baskingspot)(about 2 to 3 feet).

How many mounths has he been thru?

i dont know if you were making fun of me or not but thats the way i took it.

d

mean people suck

i felt real bad after that so im sorry to all. its just alittle hard to be losing a good pet.

.

oh sorry

np