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I thought one of our baja's was shedding its skin, while doing a cage clean up. Turns out, it has small blister like bumps filled of clear liquid around its body. Just a few, but a few is more than enough. Is there anything I can do or should apply? What could it be? All other bajas are housed in similar cages, with no differences noticed.. its only on this one male. I currently placed him outside for a bit of unfiliterd sunshine (of course there is shade), but I wont be able to see my vet til tomorrow morning. Any ideas?

Hrm, ok this is a new one to me at least, how do you keep your collareds, temperature, lighting, heat, type of tank, substrate?

Doesn't look like this from the bootom of this page on Eve's website does it?
http://www.suncharmers.com/id15.html

Let me be a bit more clear... baja blue rock lizard (petrosaurus).

We have this young male whom broke his arm about two weeks ago... (pictures included). Anyhow he was taken to vet, splint was applied, and that was it.. (there were no other issues at the time)check back in two weeks. Since the splint, i kept this male by himself, with paper towels as his substrate, and egg crates for hides and perches. He has 75watt spot lamp that gives him a thermal gradient of 100-110F in a small corner of the cage. He has a 18" reptisun 10.0 running length wise. The tub dimension are 24x24x12...

Adult pairs are housed in stock troughs 4x2x2

These are pics of his current "sunning cage" and of him right now.. He will see our vet tomorrow first thing in the morning.

Hi, Gorgeous critters you have. Well from pic it appears to be some sort of blister disease, looks like clear filled blisters in many areas, I see them on back and legs.

Since SOME blister diseases can come from humid/ wet or dirt enviornment and yours looks very nice , there are other things that can cause oozey blisters such as any kind of toxic chemical that may have been used in his cage and there is some sort of residue left behind..... OR they can also get a "TOPICAL Salmonella" which would look like clear filled or oozy blisters.

IN any case it is pretty serious and I would act fast on it because he has the broken leg, and probably already is stressed, and his resistance is down. So whatever this is could spread or make him go down hill faster than normal. He's too darn pretty to get sick

I would get that Vet on the phone asap, maybe it was something he put on him? Or gave him?

** Maybe he is having a reaction to something, the dressing thats on his leg ???? Anything different that was put on him?

** While waiting to see Vet I would soak him in a nice warm Betadine or povidine(spelled wrong) solution, a few times a day. Pour in enough to make Light tea colored water, hold him in, and let him soak abit. Dry well. But do not RUB try to NOT break any of those blisters until ya know what they are. So as to not spread them.

Let us know how he is .
-----
Eve
Suncharmers

Thanks Eve

I had read your article, but I still had throw the questions out there. He will be seeing the vet first thing in the morning. I did get ahold of her and inform her of the situation. She just pretty much told me to keep it sterile and clean til she sees him. Yeah.. I know the little guy isnt too happy

I think it was the crickets I got in... or something they brought along with them. I never have issues with them eating but since his arm broke, he refused superworms. So I order a shipment of crickets recently, and the whole box came in with like 50% of them dead. I cleaned out most if not all, and kept all the live ones... i fed him one cricket, and this literally almost appeared over night.. (probably within a day or two), anyhow thats the last time i chance anything with a crappy order of crickets. Everyone here eats roaches or supers, the crickets where just for this situation...

ugh.....

I've been working/producing the Petrosaurus thalassinus
for the last 10 years and have never seen this in any of my
collection.

The crickets could be the culprits. Could be they bit him
or that in his stressed/rehab condition his skin is more
susceptible to infection from them merely crawling on his
curently shedding skin.

You mentioned you had him outdoors recently. Was this
before you noticed the bumps? This might also be from
bites from mites or ??? while he was in an outdoor cage.

I wish you well with your BBR during the vet visit.

Please keep us updated on his condition.

John

Hey John, he was currently placed outside the same day I found the blisters(i figured maybe some unfiltered sun would help). I just got back from the vet this morning, and she pretty much gave me the same stuff Eve had mentioned (betadine), and some oral apple flavored baytril. Our vet is very good, and pretty much the only one who works with reptiles in our area. Since the little guy has a splint, she recommend I make a small batch of "tea like" betadine and water mix, and just apply to his skin via q-tips twice daily aswell as one drop of batytril. As far as his arm goes, she asked if I wanted to come back in a week or two to take off the splint, I suggested i'd come back in another two weeks just to be sure he really healed well (i'll get the x-rays of his arm to just to post up as well)

I cleaned out and disinfected his tub for the time being... he will be kept on paper towels and egg crates for now. I will continue to place him outside as weather permits.
I threw out all our crickets, I dont want to risk having a similar issue with any of our other lizards, so I'm back to just superworms and roaches for feeders. I honestly do think they could of had something on them... We have never had this issue with any of our lizards (bajas, chucks, bearededs, etc..) so this a first for us.

And I'll keep you guys updated on how it goes.

OFF TOPIC: John, do you know whom or where RARE EARTH INC. recieved they're stock of Petrosaurus from? I always look at they're old ads in Reptiles Magazine from 2001 and I noticed the baja they have pictured has swirls and reticulations on its back vs. mine and others which dont. I know there is variety among locals, but I would love to know who ended up with that group.

It's too coincidental that the blisters appeared about the same
time that he was outdoors.

If it were one of mine, I would hold of on the natural sun or
at least make his sunning periods very short. It could also be
that due to his stress from his rehab that his skin could be
somewhat tender/sensitive and the warm sun may be causing
something similar to our sunburn. I keep some of my petros in
outdoor caging but they are not stressed or rehabing so they
do great out in the SoCal climates through most of the year.

Young babies and juveniles are of course kept indoors,
especially during really hot days as their body mass is small
when so young and this could prove fatal.

I have a number of blue phase and have also been working
with some of my recently produced black phase.

Check this link below which will show you a blue phase male
and a black phase female if you like.

Feel free to mail me directly if you like from there if you need
more info on this OT subject.

Thanks,
John
Link

Two of the females were dropped into their
prospective mate's tanks yesterday and in
less than minutes both pairs took care of
business.

Here's my alfa male doing what he does best!

John