Back in December, we thought we were going to lose "Rex", our juvenile iguana, to renal failure. Much to our pleasant surprise, he survived -- and in the process we discovered a couple things.
First, that "he" was actually a she.
Second, the illness lead to a rather surprising change in color! The doctor thinks the medication may have affected Rex's metabolism -- has turned from lime-green to blue-green (hence the rechristening to "Spruce"
, and her brown-rust stripes are more prominent. For a while, Spruce looked rather odd, wearing two slightly different color schemes until the old scales were finally gone.
Renal failure is deadly and difficult to avoid, even with the best-kept iguana. In our case, Rex/Spruce's kidneys were put under stress by antibiotics administered for treatment of intenstinal parasites. Fortunately, we caught the situation early, and a few (expensive) days in the hospital managed to save her life. I didn't even know you could put an IV in a year-old iggy!
We've now added additional water sources to Spruce's home, including a perpetual pool she often bathes in.
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Scott Robert Ladd
0.1.1 Green Iguana (Tillie, Spruce)
1.1.0 African Giant Plated Lizard (Clyde, Cassie)
1.0.1 Uro mali (Wizard, Dizzy)
0.1.0 Corn Snake (Amber)
0.1.0 Red-Eared Sliders (Emerald)
0.0.1 Musk Turtle (Sausage)
0.1.0 Parakeet (Thor, Zeus)
1.4.0 Homo sapiens (Scott, Maria, Elora, Becky, Tessa)
blog: http://chaoticcoyote.blogspot.com/
