Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My male DHL has been looking very sick this past week. He's not eating very many ants (maybe 5 a day) and all around he just looks unhealthy. He did well the first month I had him and all of a sudden he just seems really lethargic, skinny, (check his back legs and the base of his tail) and uninterested in food.
At night he doesn't even bury himself all the way anymore.
He is housed in a 60 gal tank with a female DHL. Plenty of heat, plenty of food available. I give them water on their nose almost daily. The female is doing great, but I'm worried that if this in fact some kind of parasite, it could be transfered to her, and more importantly, to humans?
Any advise you guys have would be appreciated.
Heres a couple pics of him.


-Ryan

LIsten-I see two issues here, one is this obviosly is ematiated needs hydration, but it looks as though he may have a parasite, you may have to get him to a vet, I would say you need to act on him very quickly, if he does have a parasite then everything in the cage needs to be cleansed with bleach and thoughrly rinsed. The substrate should be changed and the glass inside of the cage shold be cleaned as well. Lets hope the female doesn't end up with it. There is definately something serious going on here, and it's great he's still eating, might soak him in some warm water, but I think at this point it's going to take a vet to get him back........JUst my opinion. Goodluck Ryan
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Phrynosoma.com

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signature file edited. [phw 11/14/04]

Oh, man . . . breaks my heart to see this. Looks sooo sad. Hard to imagine he could come back but hopefully he can. I too would be very interested in knowing if parasites are passed on to humans and other animals as well as to the other lizards. Best of luck to your little guy!

Thanks for showing interest guys! Here is my problem,....about a year ago I had a snake that needed treatment for a resp. infection and I couldn't, for the life of me, find a vet that would treat it. I finally had to just walk into a vetrinary hospital and tell the vet I just needed Baytril to treat the snake. Bottom line is I couldn't find a reptile vet near me. I will pay my local reptile shop a visit tomorrow and see if they have any reccomendations.
His condition is declining rapidly. I am worried that he won't make it through the night. I have been soaking paper towels in warm water and wrapping him in it to try to get him re-hydrated as much as possible.
I will keep you all updated.
-Ryan

I agree with Lou in that he looks like he may be dehydrated. If you can, get him into the sun. You would be amazed in the improvements that happen when they have good sunlight during a part of the day. It will also stimulate appetite.
Parasites in HL's whose primary diet are actually fairly common, although there are some parasites that are not so common and cause more health problems than the others. Harvester ants carry parasites for HL's. I'm not sure if they are a problem for us, but they can affect an HL for a period of time. Usually they are eventually passed and pose little threat to the HL after that. Perhaps Lester can weigh in on this. These are just my observations over the last couple of years.
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Phrynosoma.Com

Well, just as I feared, he didn't make it through the night.
I woke up this morning and found him lying lifeless in his tank.
Again, thank you to all of you who tried to help.
This is definately a humbling experience. It kind of makes me wonder if I could have avoided this from happening?
I wish I knew what went wrong.
Again, thanks
-Ryan