Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a Gila that apparently has an impaction of some sort in it's digestive tract. From an X-ray it appears to be large--maybe twice the size of a mouse. The vet. has prescribed a stool softener but says if this doesn't work he'll have to operate. The stool softener doesn't seem to be working. Has anyone had this problem and what did you do? I've also let the Gila soak in warm water and have let walk around in the yard hoping this may stimulate some kind of movement. Urates are passing but no stool.

Is your vet a reptile vet.?If your gila is a female it could be folicles that are being aborbed.Is the animal feeding and or deficating?If it is indeed a fecal impaction I would say go ahead with the surgery.If you wait too long you could loose your gila.
Good luck,Chris

Gila Ranch

Yes he's a reptile vet., no it isn't defecating except for urates (white) and the X-ray shows dark 1" plus above the vent and doesn't appear to be egg follicles. The Gila has stopped eating and the vet. feels like it is about time to operate. He says the area that he feels is the impaction is hard. Have you had one operated on before and what was the outcome? Thanks for the response. TDK

I have never had one with a fecal impaction.I have had egg and folicle retention problems.The out comes were good on the ones that we found early enough.Usually when you notice the animal is not acting right it is too late.I would have the vet operate right away.Good Luck,Chris

Gila Ranch

I've called to schedule, Thanks Chris

I was an impaction and a rupture that had opened a small hole in the stomach. The vet said the hole had adhered to the lung and had blocked any leakage into the body. The surgery was Friday night, it's now Sunday morning and things seem O.K. at this point. She's active an moving around. X-ray plus surgery a little over $600.00

Gila's are pretty tough creatures.She should be ok.Make sure your vet has her on antibiotics.
Chris

Gila Ranch

So far so good. The Gila is on Amikacin injectable every 3 days for 2 weeks.

Hello
Hope your monsters recovered and thriving again by now.
I don't mean to pry in your business, but what was the gila impacted with? hair,sand,wood,bones,dirt......? What was its primary diet (adult mice, rat pinks....)

Just curious since I'm still a rookie keeper and not sold on any of the mediums the pros reccomend besides newspaper and I hear ear after ear of crap from a veteran keeper about feeding hopper rats only to avoid hair impactions...I figure a more mature mouse has more vits built up than something young but as I observe my gilas its pretty obvious they'd rarely be fast enough to catch an adult mouse unless it was trapped in a burrow or something. My gilas seem to digest very thoroughly but I'm always curious of others experiences.

peace n
Happy herps

The impaction was dark if color with lots of hair. I had the vet. save it in a zip lock bag so I could inspect myself. I usually feed one adult mouse once a week. I used to feed 2 or more per week but all of my adult Gilas appear to have a little fat in their tails. I suspected that the impaction may have been caused by the Aspen bedding used for substrate but I could find any or anything that felt hard or any piece of anything that seemed to be large enough to start an impaction. I felt this way because sometimes the Aspen sticks to the thawed and dried mice. I feed on a paper plate to help reduce this but they still drag the mice off the plate sometimes. The Gila seems active 3 weeks after surgery and has passed the Carnivore Care the vet. supplied 3 times now(dried powdered vitamin enriched food mixed with water and force fed). She'll stay on this food for a few more weeks to give her stomach more time to heal before going back to solid foods. It looks as if she'll make it. I haven't hear about the diet you're talking about but I would like to hear from other keepers about their feeding schedules. Thanks, TK

Thanks! Thats exactly the sort of info I was wondering about...
My lizards are going to stay in the newspaper for now..
I crumble up some and use plenty of layers and they seem quite comfortable. I can't seem to feed my young ones enough right now
so I switch between hopper rats and adult mice...I've been giving them smaller meals say 50% of what they'd eat every 4 or 5 days and they're growing fast
...they must have an amazing digestive ability though, I'm continually surprised at the cooler temps they prefer...and having kept monitors for years before, their feces can burn an indention in a porcelin bathtub or the finish on linoleum
so I'd imagine these monsters got some serious gut chemestry going on too...but then again I'm certain some folks on this board would have a lot better specifics... Thats just my 2 cents... really glad to hear your lizards recovering!

peace n
happy herps

That's funny I used to tell people that what came out of my monitor must have been the same thing that melted through the spacecraft decks in the movie "Alien".