Posted by:
Cable_Hogue
at Sun Sep 3 07:25:25 2006 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Cable_Hogue ]
I have a couple of thoughts to throw out on this. I think it was Lester that said it a while back. Parasites are a natural part of an HL's life. A healthy HL can shake off the effects and usually pass these pests. When you start adding chemicals to the mix you mess up an HL's natural chemical balance. I'm not necessarily saying never treat them. But I would consider it a last resort. Lou also offered up a more natural way to administer medicine than by prying their mouths open. I never like doing this and have only trid it once. HL's mouths are fairly fragile compared to most lizards. Something hard like a credit card can easily damage their teeth, which are very small.
One last thought. Some HL's are not going to make it. This is true of both captive and wild HL's. I had a platyrhinos pass away a couple of weeks ago. It was just over two years old. I raised it from a hatchling and it never was quite right. It was a weakling. Couldn't run well and was just always a little quirky. In the wild it probably wouldn't have made it through it's first summer. HL's can die for a number of reasons, which don't always reflect on poor husbandry. To artificially prolong their lives by extravegant means only ensures that the weak survive and pass on bad genes. An early death is natures way of ensuring the survival of the species. My point here is not to perpetuate poor husbandry by any means. But I do feel there is a time to draw the line and let nature take its course. It may seem a little callous, but in the end I believe it is best for the species as a whole. It takes some experience to know the difference between poor husbandry and just natural causes when it comes to the loss of an HL. I don't know that it's anything that you can understand simply by reading alot. -----
Phrynosoma.Com
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- fireside3 - treerich4, Fri Sep 1 18:48:35 2006

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