Reptile & Amphibian Forums

DISASTER STRIKES!!!!! I had purchased a gorgeous pair of
long term captive V. prasinus, and they were delivered on tuesday. They arrived on time, as scheduled, however upon opening the box, I found both animals to be extremely cold and limp. I originally thought both were dead. I heated them up regardless, to find that both animals were still alive, although extremely weak. The male continued to have tremors/twitches throughout the day up until his death later that evening.

I noticed that both animals had what appeared to be a frostbitten front limb, where there was no bloodflow, and the animals had no control or movement of that arm. The digits appeared dried up and crusty, and were a bit discolored. I currently have the female set up in her own quarantine enclosure consisting of an old aquarium, due to the fact that she is unable to climb- a vertical quarantine enclosure would be useless.

She has been pulling herself around a bit, struggling, as her useless foot's claws keep getting caught on the cork flats I have in there for her to reach her basking spot. She is rather weak, and I do not expect her to survive. If she does, she will most likely lose her front limb, and will need it to be amputated. Regardless, she will never be able to carry out a normal tree
monitor lifestyle.

It really is a shame, as this female was such a perfect specimen; a 2.5 year captive, as I have been having difficulties trying to locate a healthy, established female to add to my collection. It is also quite upsetting about the male as well, as that was a 3.5 year captive. The package was insulated and taped up properly, however it appears that the heat pack did not activate, which
led to exposure to such cold temperatures... I will do whatever I can to save this female, as she has been a trooper up
until this point. It has been several days now, and she has not changed in condition. Whether or not that is a good or bad thing is yet to be determined. I will keep everybody updated as to any developments in her condition.

Here are a bunch of photos of the pair and the afflicted arms/digits. Has anybody ever experienced a frostbitten limb in any of their experiences when receiving reptiles?
female




male(dead)





treemonitors.com

I got in a load os senegal chameleons frozen one time, about 200 of them. I set them up all differntly by what i thought was degree of health. The surviving ones didnt need amputation even though there front limbs were dark brown, rears and tails too. I put boiling water in big bowls and a screen over the top so they couldnt fall in. I tried excesive heat/lower heat etc. didnt seem to make much of a differnce, but the ones in the warmer excessive humid setup seemed to do a bit better but not much. i force fed lukewarm water to the larger one's and they almost all lived but they were larger and stronger to begin with.

SAD SAD, those monitors look nice too.

Oh Bob, how awful. I am so sorry for your loss. Hopefully you will be able to save your girl. It's probably too late, but in humans the first thing they do is soak the affected area in a warm water bath to thaw. I know you will do everything possible to help her. Good luck, keep us posted on her condition.

Pam

Well today she appears weaker than she has the past few days, and I realized that she is also blind. This female sure is messed up. It would be some kind of miracle if she were to pull through, but today doesn't seem to bring any good news.

It's only delta dash for me from now on.....

Take care folks,

Bob

Well if you think shes is GOING to die, may as well try some water/pedialite 75/25, luke warm about 75-80 degrees and by tube/syringe maybe 15-20cc's try to get it into her stomach, i know im going to catch hell by the carebears, but this has worked for me in the past with many near dead monitors from frost from shipments. Some say let the poor thing die, but i wouldnt give up on her until she was dead stiff. If she pulls through then you can recommend it to others as a possible method to bring back frost strickin monitors which could benifit others.

Forgot to mention if your going to try this to make sure the tube is full of water too (no air).