Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello. My wife and I recently purchased a baby green iguana from Twin Cities Reptiles. Lizzy is the name (2 year old daughter named it) seems extremely active and loves to be held (gets a little crazy when you first try to pick Lizzy up) which is expected.

I am concerned about Lizzy's skin. Lizzy has red dots all over the body. They can range from the size of a . to the size of 3 periods ... lol if that makes sense. She never seems to scratch at herself which leaves me to believe it is not mites...but I'm no vet.

Also, it looks almost like there are gouges in her skin...almost like a scab but it doesn't seem to bother her when you touch them or pick at them. On one of her rear foots, it looks like she is shedding but seems pretty dramatic, like too thick of pieces to be peeling off, also does not bother her when you touch it.

Her cage:
50 gallon aquarium. Stays at about 83-85 during the day...sometimes gets down to 70 at night when we turn the night light on.

We have wood bedding with a little wood hut.

It gets pretty damp in there with our current set up (humidifier)

What scared me last night is when I lifted up the hut, on the under side there were a bunch of tiny white bugs, almost looked like a fruit fly or nat. I completely cleaned out the whole cage and got rid of the wood bedding/hut. Now only newspaper.

Am I just being paranoid? Other then that she seems fine. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow which I'm sure will help quite a bit for you. Any suggestions about the skin until then?

I try to bathe her at least 3 times a week. We've had her for about 3 weeks.

We are building a new cage for her this weekend. Mainly wood with side doors. Going to attempt to bring those temps up a bit along with humidity.

Thank you.

Im not sure about the red dots - could be a bacterial infection?

One thing i do know for sure, however, is you need to make some updates to your husbandry...

The basking spot should be 95-100degrees.

You should have more than a hide in the tank - iguanas need to climb - provide some branches to climb on...branches should be thicker around than the iggy.

You also need to make sure your iggy has a UVB light...you didn't mention it in your husbandry run down, so i suspect you maybe do not have one? Iguanas desperately need a UVB light to survive...you should purchase and set up a UVB bulb such as a repti-sun 10.0

Check www.anapsid.org for all you needed to know about Iguanas...there is a great caresheet you can download there...read it in its entirety! Iggys are great lizards, but they (like all reptiles) require very specific care parameters and lots of care.

Is your iggy eating currently? If so, what is she eatig?
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1.1 Bearded Dragons
2.2 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Uromastyx (Mali)
1.1 Corn snakes
0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake
1.0 Rosy Boa
1.1 Green Anoles
1.1 House Geckos
0.0.2 Flying Geckos
0.0.1 Red Eye Tree Frog

Do the red dots move? Do they come off in the bath? If so you have mites.
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Cindy
PHFaust

Email Cindy

Land of the Outcasts!

The red dots do not come off when you give Lizzy a bath.

As far as the current cage, we do have branches and a florescent UV light.

We can't really tell if Lizzy is eating all of her food. We have been trying multiple veggies (Bell Peppers, Collard, Squash, Mango-for treat) and some other randoms. We are going off of a list that informs what is good/bad to feed. We just moved Lizzy out of the bark bedding so it should be easier to tell now how well she is eating.

Uploaded pictures of the red dots.

Lizzy Weird Skin on Foot

Red Dots

Scab Type (center of pic)

The reddish brown markings are just skin coloration... my lil guy has blue dots... they seem to change with the temps and mood....
as for the spot on the tail and foot.. looks like a burn or gangrene or something. i'd have it looked at by a vet.

~kin
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~Sober Serpents~
www.freewebs.com/soberserpents
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When I first got my ig, he had 'scabs' like you mentioned, but worse. It turned out to be a dermatitis (skin infection) that needed to be soaked daily in a medicated bath, plus treated with antibiotic injections and ointment. It won't get better on it's own. For some reason, dermatitis is common in igs with poor husbandry in pet stores and poor transportation. If not treated, it will spread, and worse case scenario is gangrene that eats at the tail and toes.

The red looks like coloration - but that scab looks like it could be something kinda nasty....i would have it looked at by a vet It may be an old scab that will come off with a shed too...i would maybe give it some time, if it seems to get worse at all - get it checked, if it stays the same then i would wait and see if it clears after a shed.

Also, you mentioned you have a UV light - you also hasve a basking light with a nice hot basking spot too, right?
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1.1 Bearded Dragons
2.2 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Uromastyx (Mali)
1.1 Corn snakes
0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake
1.0 Rosy Boa
1.1 Green Anoles
1.1 House Geckos
0.0.2 Flying Geckos
0.0.1 Red Eye Tree Frog