Reptile & Amphibian Forums

About a year ago I had to leave one of my uros with my parents to care for. My step mom just informed me that the uro hasn't pooped in a long time (she's not sure how long) and that he refuses to eat, but appears bloated.

Is there anything she can try before taking him to a vet?

Try soaking it in warm water for about 15-20 minutes. The water should be quite warm to the touch, warmer than lukewarm for sure. Hopefully it will drink and the warm soak may help it express its bowels. It may be an impaction due to substrate ingestion, or eating too much pelleted or dry foods and not enough moist greens.

Forgot to mention, the water should only be about chin deep on the uro. Just deep enough it can easily keep its head above the water for sure. It does not need to go swimming!!

The warm soak is a good place to start. I recommend that
while in that soak you gently massage the lower half of the
torso (where the intestinal track is) for at least five minutes.

Keep adding hot water to the soak for the 15 minute
soaking duration so that the water remains good and
warm so as to be more effective. After the soak be
sure to dry it off good, especially the tail (between the
tail whorls/spikes).

Lastly, give it approximately 1/2 ml (1/2 cc) of vegetable
oil orally. If you have some other cooking oil handy you
can also use canola or olive oil as an alternate. This dose
should be good for a subadult to adult size medium to
larger size uro (mali, saharan etc). If you don't have an oral
syringe with cc or ml increments, you can give it 8-10 drops
with a plastic eye dropper. Do not use a glass eye dropper
as they can easily bite down on it and shatter it.

Then put it back under the basking light so that he dries
off completely with the cage heat.

I've found this natural laxative to work quite well for
intestinal blockage with great success. He may not pass
anything for a day but chances are good that he will
sooner than later.

John

Thanks Kevin & John!! I will try that!