Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have read thru the threads and didn't seem to find anything on this subject... I have an iguana that was rescued from a reptile show in Pennsylvania and sent to me. I guesstimate her age at 3-4 years. She has the telltale signs of a slight case of MBD as her back is alittle hunched and her fingers don't work properly. Anyway, she is now gravid with infertile eggs and I am worried about her getting egg bound. She has been tested and is negative for parasites, but she is thin even tho, up until 6 or 7 weeks ago, was eating like a little pig. Now she is pretty much off of food and is getting pretty dehydrated. I give her daily soaks in the tub.. Anyway, to try to make this short, I am very concerned about her passing the eggs-- she has a nest box and has been digging some. I want her spayed so she doesn't have to go thru this anymore and she is scheduled for surgery on Weds. I guess what I am looking for is any input from anyone who has had their pet spayed and how it turned out. Or if anyone has the name/phone number of a vet who has done this surgery. I live in the middle of God's country, 80 miles from a town, but I have a vet that I trust alot, tho he has never done this surgery, he feels he can perform it for me, but I thought maybe I could come up with an experienced vet for him to consult if he feels the need to do so. Thanks

Honestly, if your vet has never preformed a surgery on a reptile, I would NOT doing unless the iguana is egg bound and it is a life or death situation. Reptile surgery is a specialized practice that does require some training. Reptiles react differently to drugs and doses and if your vet has no experience this could cause a fatal accident.
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Cindy
PHFaust

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Land of the Outcasts!

About 3 years ago, we had to have one of our bearded dragons spayed due to a massive overproduction of eggs (she laid more than 250 in a week). The vet that I see happens to also be at the clinic I work at. We discussed the options, the risks and the probable outcomes. I will tell you that my vet has a decent amount of reptile experience yet he had never done a beardie spay, only iguanas. The outcome - I was lucky. We had a LOT of post-operative care to deal with and a long recovery, yet she did well. Recently our clinic did an emergency spay on an eggbound 12 year old green iguana with renal disease that was discovered on her pre-operative bloodwork. If ever there was a case that we thought wouldn't make it, it was her. For us, it was a VERY hard surgery. The vet had a hard time with her as she was so loaded with eggs that he couldn't see anything else. She also went into cardiac and respiratory arrest on the table halfway through surgery - which is a HUGE risk with any reptile going under anesthesia. We did get her back and he was able to finish the surgery. Her recovery was slow and I spent the majority of the day doing just her postop care. In reality, the clinic will need to assign a tech to the iguana for the entire day and they will do nothing but her care.

Essentially, my thoughts are that if your vet isn't experienced in reptile surgery, you need to find someone that is since the problems we encountered with the iguana spay recently are not abnormal or unusual in any way. ANY surgery opening the coelomic cavity of a reptile is extremely invasive and is very different from opening the abdomen of a dog or cat. We do a fair number of reptile surgeries and they are all difficult, impossible to predict and require totally different care and treatment from mammals. It is one thing for a vet that is starting out in the reptile world to need to gain experience, but cases like this should be sent out to others that have done it and have the vets still learning shadow/assist to learn the ropes. Think of it like a person going to a plastic surgeon for a triple bypass surgery.

One bit of advice that we've found works great however. If you do the surgery, talk with the vet about putting in a temporary feeding tube at the same time. Lots of reptiles will refuse to eat postoperatively for quite a while, which slows the healing process. We have taken to placing pharyngostomy tubes on all of our invasive surgery reptiles so that they can be tube fed, get water and meds without fighting them to do it orally. It is a really easy and inexpensive procedure, and it greatly helps with the healing as you aren't stressing the animal out multiple times a day force feeding, giving water, giving meds etc. There is a food from Oxbow called Critical Care - it is a recovery diet for herbivores. They now make a fine grind formula that goes through the pharyngostomy tubes like a dream and it is an acceptable primary diet while in recovery. We've had great luck with most of our patients back up and eating like normal right around a week postop.

Hope this helps you decide what you feel is the best course of action for her! Good luck if you do the surgery!
Liz

Update on Sophie-- she had her surgery on Wednesday and everything went well.. she came home and ate a few small bites of banana that afternoon. Has been eating alittle everyday and is on the road to recovery!!!

What a relief!! I am so happy for you and for her. How many eggs were there??

Actually there were no eggs, just ovum.. like 15 nice sized ones and a few smaller ones. She had been not eating for about 7 or 8 weeks already, which the vet couldn't explain, because she was not near ready to lay yet. She is eating like a pig now and looks so much better than before!! My vet is an older, experienced vet and he has taken care of all my reptiles for me. He is one who will say "I don't know" but then do tons of research and consulting until he is sure he is on the right track. I would definately refer anyone to him...

glad to hear all went well.