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A fecal turned up positive for pinworms, so I've started treatment with panacur (which is very hard to do with a lockjaw like Sam). I also felt that since some of her urates have been yellowish, and since she is exceptionally fat, I should get bloodwork done to check for liver problems. So basically I left about $100 poorer, but it's worth it for Sam. She's a trooper.

My vet said that she appears to be an old uro (he said they usually don't get that fat until they start getting more towards being elderly uros, and her general appearance is also a pretty good hint). I'm pretty sure he's right because from all of information we've compiled from the guy that I rescued her from, we suspect she was imported 7-10 years ago as an adult. We could be wrong. I hope we're wrong. It would be nice to think that somehow she was captive bred (unlikely) 7-8 years ago and still has a long life ahead of her. But it just sort of scares me now because I know that she could very well be coming up on the end of her life. It's sad to think that she had such a bad life with her past owners and everything, so I try to make it as nice as I can here.

So I guess all I can do now is hope that the blood test turns up negative for liver problems and hope that she does still have a lot more good years ahead of her. The vet said that he didn't feel any enlargement in the liver...he didn't feel it at all, and he said that the yellow urates could be from something else (something in the food I'm giving her, etc.), but I'll have to wait until wednesday to be sure.

Sam should be just fine with a loving reptile parent such as yourself taking care of her.

I'm glad you now know what's wrong with her and are treating it. I hope everything goes well for you.

About the urates, Iris has yellow urates from time to time. I think its the mixture of food I have her on trying to get her fat and I'm trying to also fight off that pneumonia she's got. She's on a mix of green peas, green beans, escarole, endive and occassionally she gets a wax worm (they help put on weight, they did with my leo kalypso * I got kalypso from petco and she was underweight, she gained 10 grams in the first 4 days I had her because she actually got food*).

I really hope Sam turns out fine and I also hope that she's only 7 years of age that way you can spend more time together.
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2 Mali Uromastyx-Ares & Apollo
2 Bearded Dragons- Draco & Hades
1 Saharan Uromastyx-Iris
1 Leopard Gecko-Kalypso
1 Tokay Gecko-Sid Vicious
1 Tarantula-Peter Parker
1 Amazon Red Head Parrot-Pancho
1 African Gray Parrot-Keya
1 Dog-Cheeka
3 Fish-no names
1 Beta Fish-also no name
1 Zebra Finch-Beeps (we used to have 5, but some went on a killing spree).

Thanks. I know a lot of reptile keepers tend to frown upon it, but I love my reptiles like some people love their dogs or their cats. I understand that they don't like to be held and all that jazz, and I know what anthropomorphizing is, and I don't think I do either. I do know that some reptiles (like my beardie and my mali) adapt well to a captive lifestyle and seem to even interact with me and my family. My mom thought reptiles were basically just living decoration until she got to know my beardie and Sam. Now she comes in my bedroom every day before work to check on them and she even talks to them. We know of course that they have no clue what she's saying, but we like that they actually recognize us and instead of being afraid of us (like my leo, though he's a very cool lizard too), they're actually very inquisitive.

So you can understand why this is distressing me so much. Sam is a very special uro. As I've pointed out a lot, she's very intelligent and doesn't poop in her cage because she doesn't want to be walking through it all day. She also runs over to you when she thinks she's going to be fed. At least, she did until recently when she's fallen ill. I miss it a lot, which is why I'm hoping for a speedy recovery, and I'm really really hoping that she doesn't have and liver complications. The vet said that he didn't feel the liver at all, which is actually a good sign, because that means it isn't getting bloated or enlarged or whatever it is. She's had somewhat yellowish urates since I got her last year, so I would think it is safe to assume that they aren't yellow because of liver disease, because I think it would have been very noticable before now or even worse, she wouldn't even still be alive.

So yeah, basically I'm hoping that 1)the blood tests will turn out to be that of a healthy lizard. 2)I'll find away to get her mouth open and get that panacur in her and rid her of those pinworms. and 3)she has many good years ahead of her.

Thanks again for the kind words. How's the uro with pneumonia doing?

>>Thanks again for the kind words. How's the uro with pneumonia doing?

Iris, she's doing pretty good, what you would expect from a reptile with pneumonia.

She also isn't liking taking meds by mouth.

Now, I was told that if you cannot get their mouth open willingly then you can do this: get a toothbrush with a rubber end and try to get their mouth open with it since it's soft, and then let them bite down on it while you give them their medicine.

I had a needle (like you would use to give someone a flu shot with) given to me with mine. So when Orion (my saharan that had the flu before Iris, he's dead now) didn't take the meds anyway, I inject his peas with it and he ate those.

If your Sam eats green peas, then maybe you could cut a little hole in them and then inject the panacur into them so she eats them (that is if she eats them right away, if the uro doesn't then the med could evaporate from the heat of the tank).

Good Luck with Sam and her speedy recovery.

I also believe that these reptiles are more friendly then what people stereotype them as.
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2 Mali Uromastyx-Ares & Apollo
2 Bearded Dragons- Draco & Hades
1 Saharan Uromastyx-Iris
1 Leopard Gecko-Kalypso
1 Tokay Gecko-Sid Vicious
1 Tarantula-Peter Parker
1 Amazon Red Head Parrot-Pancho
1 African Gray Parrot-Keya
1 Dog-Cheeka
3 Fish-no names
1 Beta Fish-also no name
1 Zebra Finch-Beeps (we used to have 5, but some went on a killing spree).

I'll have to try some of those suggestions.

Also, I don't think that it's even really that they're more friendly...they're more responsive at least. But yeah, my uro and my beardie tend to be what I might call "friendly". They're definately not mean or unhappy, even today when I had to try to force Sam to take her meds, she still came back to me.

My vet set me up with a small 1cc syringe for force feeding my "Dude" when they wanted to hospitalize him for anorexia. With the help of a friend, we were able to coax his mouth open by putting our fingernails between his lips towards the backside. Restrained from going anywhere, he would eventually start to protest/fatigue and we could then open the mouth further and insert the syringe. It takes practice but not a ton of effort. Your Mom should be up for it

In the same time frame he was dehydrated so they shot him up with some fluids and THEY weren't able to open his mouth for deworming so Panacur was out. As an alternative, they have been injecting willful animals with Levamisl as a dewroming treatment. You might inquire. I didn't notice the cost was any higher but it may traumatize them (the animal and the vet) less.

In the meantime, both animals have put on a ton of weight as they've been somewhat socialized and I've been playing reptile diet roulette and subjecting them to almost daily measures of weight. Each has gained almost 30-31% in weight over 31 days, most of it in the past three days. "Dude" went from a leathery bag of bones with big brown eyes to a balloon with legs.

Seems he sure found the RIGHT home !

Keep doing your BEST, hw should do well
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Eve / PHEve

well, helga never wants to open her mouth either so i just hold her for sometimes a few minutes, sometimes a while and put drops on her lips and wait for her to open up. usually once she tastes it she does not mind, it is the initial mouth opening that takes forever.
she is so stubborn about it that when i first got her she needed antibiotics so badly that i had to give her injections myself. it was a very depressing thing to do
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vonnie
***There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it. Mary Wilson Little ***