Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female i think ater a pice of her cypress mulch and is not passing anything. the cloaca is a lttle bit swollen and she still pee's. i called the vet and he said to use KY and a Q-tip to help with stimulation. does anyone else have any more ideas and tricks. or poiunters on how to do the KY thing

I faced this problem with my female red tegu back in May and it took awhile to really get her back on track. She got to the point where she was regurgitating before I realized what was going on, and over a 3-4 week period lost 25% of her body weight. After vet treatment (see below) and a few months of special attention, she's back on track.

Some ideas:
I'd suggest soaking for 20-30 minutes in warm (not hot!) water. Sometimes that helps them defecate.

If that doesn't seem to get the plumbing going, you may need to visit a reputable herp vet. I took mine in, and the vet palpated (felt) some blockage in the digestive track. She provided me with a medicine (also used on humans) that would serve to "gum up" the blocking material and help it pass. This worked for me. I switched to feeding multiple pinkies for a time as well so that the hair did not contribute to further blockage.

Be sure to look at your husbandry. It would be a good idea to feed your tegu outside of its enclosure to avoid the ingestion of substrate.

If you'd like, I can look into what the medicine was that I used.

Dan

Mine was never "blocked" but its cloaca opening was swollen. So I took him into the petstore they told me she had a mild prolapse I immediately took him into the vet. They gave him an enema, some meds and $120 later I was out of there. The vet told me he was all blocked up with hair. So I gave him the meds and his diet cosisted mainly of pinky rats and the occasional crickets for like 4 months. I now use the mice and rotate it with he SDZ diet. No more signs of prolapse and he has regular bowel movements. I would rec. taking it to the vet so possibly they can do the same thing... they did tell me if the prolapse was too bad they would have to do surgury and sew him back up. Hopefully it will pass on its own or I would take it to the vet. I know a vet visit is the last resort and it can cost as much as your tegu but as a responsible owner we should all know that some day we might have to spend a reasonable amount of money of them if they are sick or have problems. An enema might do the trick it worked for mine. Good luck I know its frustrating.
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1.0 Argentine B&W Tegu
0.1 French Bulldog

thanks to both for the help. if it doesnt pass in the next couple days then she is going to the vet for sure.

Well for all of those who tried to help me i thank you. evewn though i never got a chance to do any of the remedies before she finally passed whatever it was on her own... and damn did it stink. i think it wa the chick i fed he she has never had one before