Hello all, I've found this forum in a desperate attempt to save a Western fenced lizard that currently resides at our home. Here is the story: It was picked up by my kids on a camping trip in the end of April 2012 - it was entrapped in a duffel bag with firewood and who knows for how long has been in there until discovered - was probably weakened, seemed slow and did not seem to attempt to escape. After bringing it home, I did research to identify the lizard and find proper care instructions. It is a male Western Fenced, for whom I've set up a 10 gallon tank with part sand/ part fishtank-gravel on the bottom and some branches and rocks, light fixture with 60 W Sun Glo Daylight bulb by Exo Terra (switch off for the night), with daytime temp around 83F and night betwen 65-75 F. It seemed to have adjusted instantly, was basking on the log and burrying in the sand for the night and vigorously eating mealworms and any other bugs we would bring from the yard - larvae, fly, caterpillar, moth. I tried to vary his diet and he happily hunted for the bugs I'd put in, wich was fun to watch. Waterdish has also been present though I've never seen the lizard use it for anything,but I read somewhere they get most of their water from food anyway, so it did not concern me. I talked to children and warned them not to handle the lizard, since it is not the kind of pet that enjoys interaction. However, about 2 weeks ago, my son ran to me crying and he confessed that he held the lizard which caused the tail break. There were no blood at the break, and I think tail was released naturally from the fear. But this event has caused so much stress to the liz, that he has not been eating since and for the last 3 nights he has not even covered itself in sand overnight - just hides under the log cover or sits on top of it. He moves very little nowand I could not get him interested in any food. He also has excessive white buildup around nostrils, and his skin seems somewhat shriveled (dehydration?). He has not been touched since the day he lost his tail but I am worried now that since there is no improvement in behavior I need to interfere and do something otherwise I am just watching him to fade away. I also noticed today a small rust-colored spot on him near the back leg on his back and when I looked closely those were tiny insects crawling on him in between his scales. Is that a parasite? Is there anything I should do about that? Please share any advise with me, what is the right way to act to help this lizard. I grew to care about the little guy and his well-being, even though I strongly objected bringing it home at first. Should I try and give him some more time to recover on his own? Should I chance stressing him out even more and try to wipe up white stuff of the nose and put some mush of mealworm with water in his snout so maybe he'd lick some off? Please help me help him.
Alright im shooting from what I know about lizards in general. First things first, sand, get him off of it. It may not be attractive but keep his substrate as papertowel for a while. Second get his temps up, get a heat bulb or something of such nature to keep warmth all the time. As for his tail, and the bugs from what i can tell you the best thing to do is get him to a vet quick ( i realize this might not be possible) So for an alternative i have some suggestions if you really truely cant get him to a vet. First, bacitracin, you can put it and swab it on the wound where his tail was. Second warm soaks. Just warm water to the touch of your forearm, not hot, Keep him in the tupperware for around 10 minutes. As for his nose and such he might have some sort of infection. Does his mouth seem deformed or crusty? Anyway, as for his dehytration, what i can reccomend you to do is get a spray bottle and mist one side of his tank a few times a day. And make sure he has a good selection ,of hides, one warm, one cold, one moist (Can all be made out of household items, tupperware containers, old boxes, etc.). Right now you have to take action, dont try to let him work out himself, he wont, you are gunna have to handle him, hes not gunna like it and hes not gunna realize you are helping him, but its worth it. As for food, you can make a slurry, you can make a simple one with crushed mealworm, water, and calcium powder or you can use a recipe such as this one.http://repticzone.com/forums/Geckos-Leopard/messages/1758235.html The best thing you can do now is just soak him, swab his nose and wound with bacitracin (Which i forgot to mention can be found at cvs, riteaid, pharmacies, etc. ) and very gently with a qtip. Some pictures of your lizard and his tank would be great as well.
Thank you. The poor fellow is so weak it is heartbreaking. When I checked on him this morning I thought he was dead. Then he blinked and I rushed to soak him as you suggested. That seem to help some, at least he pushed himself up by his front legs. While he was soaking (I propped his head up on a clean sponge), I dumped the bottom sand cover and all the branches and rocks out, washed the tank and put paper towels in, and made 3 hideouts. One made of an upsidedown plastic plant pot with holes on what was the bottom of a pot now has layered wet paper towel is a makeshift moist cave, 2 others on either side of the tank. I don't know if he would even go into any of them though he does not seem to want to move at all. I made the mush for feeding and put some over his mouth but he would not lick it off, and I don't know how to make him open his mouth so I could put a little bit food in. His mouth does not look deformed or crusty, and white rings over his nose were gone today. But he looks dry and his back thighs are skinny and I read that is where they store food. We live in the mountains, and the vet clinic in nearest town does not have reptile specialist. Nearest Petsmart is 30 miles away I hope they or pharmacy will have bacitracin. Any tips on how to make some food go into this guy? Or water... I don't want to give up on him even though everyone even my husband think I am a little "off" caring so much about a picked up tiny lizard but I do care.
Its no problem that you care for him, i think its great. Im glad you took the time to soak him and re arange his tank, his moist hide seems good, like i said make sure you are misting the tank. As for the food mixture if you keep poking his nose with it, eventually they get annoyed and lick it off. IT is a very long patient process but it works. If you have a local cvs or pharmacy im almost 100% sure they will have bacitracin, its a very common thing used. Your tank setup seems good now. Just make sure you are misting the tank too, to get him some moisture and some water. As for getting his mouth open, i know for leos if you gently stroke both sides of their jaw (Like with your thumb and pointer) towards the end of their jaw they open up giving you the perfect oppurtunity to put something in their.
It sounds like your lizard is dealing with two major issues right now. First, dehydration: The wrinkled skin and white crusts around the nose point to this. The white crusts are most likely just salt deposits and are not harmful to your lizard (although the cause of the excess deposits is of concern). Many lizards excrete excess salt from their nose, which helps their body retain water. These salty deposits usually aren't noticeable in most species, but if an individual becomes dehydrated, their body may start expelling more salt to hang on to what little water it has. Please do not apply bacitracin or any topical antibiotic to his nose or mouth area. Not only is it unnecessary at this point, but he'll likely just end up licking it off, and you don't want him ingesting it. Warm soaks will help considerably with the dehydration. I'd be giving him a warm soak about 3 times a day if you can. If you really want to give him a boost, you can try a pedialyte soak; you'd be amazed what electrolytes can do for an animal. Just use unflavored or berry pedialyte at room temperature. (Make sure you refrigerate the bottle after opening, but allow the solution to get back to room temperature before soaking your lizard in it. Do not heat the pedialyte.) You can also try to get the lizard to drink some of the room temperature pedialyte by dripping it on the tip of his nose. Again, I can't put enough emphasis on how much a good electrolyte soak can help a sick and/or dehydrated reptile. Second problem, mites: The bronze colored cluster of small insects are indeed a parasite. Mites, or chigger mites, are a fairly common problem in the reptile hobby. They can usually be treated at home, thankfully, but it is going to take a good amount of hard work and dedication. These mites can be very persistent, and their treatment needs to be equally so. The first thing you need to do is treat the tank, which it sounds like you've already started to take care of. Make sure every single surface and crack of the cage was disinfected and rinsed out thoroughly. Continue to use paper towels as your substrate until the mites are gone completely. Change the paper towels and wipe down the cage 1-2 times a day--mites will lay eggs on the paper and in the corners of the cage and they need to be eradicated or they will keep reinfesting your animal. Keep the cage simple and bare until this problem is taken care of--a few smooth surfaced hides and a water bowl should be all you need in there. Rinse these off daily as well. Don't use any of your wood or textured decor from before until the problem is resolved, as the mites will burrow and lay eggs in pretty much any conceivable crack. Make sure these pieces are soaked in hot bleach water and are thoroughly rinsed off before using them in the future. To treat the mites that are actually on the lizard, simply continue with the warm soaks. I would consider picking up some betadine (you can find this at your local pharmacy) or chlorhexadine and giving him at least one diluted betadine/chlorhexadine bath each day. Mix one part betadine/chlorhex to ten parts water (or pedialyte). The betadine/chlorhex will disinfect the wounds from the biting mites and will help prevent these wounds from becoming infected and turning into nasty lesions. This will also disinfect the tail if there is still a healing wound there as well. When giving him the soaks, use water up to his chin so that it covers his back, and use a small q-tip to make sure all of the skin above the water is rinsed off as well. (Diluted betadine and chlorhex are safe around the nose and mouth in small amounts, so don't worry if he drinks a couple drops--although you shouldn't encourage it of course.) Basically the objective is to drown the mites. Some of the mites will try to escape to any parts of the body that aren't submerged, which is what the q-tip is for. It will take multiple soaks to get rid of all the mites completely, but just be diligent and keep fighting them until they are gone. As far as food goes, please don't resort to force feeding just yet. Lizards can go many many weeks without food, and forcing food into him will likely cause more stress than it will actually do good. You can try putting some slurry or organic turkey baby food on his nose and seeing if he licks it off, but don't make him eat it. Right now you should just focus on getting him well hydrated. Keep offering a variety of foods, but again, don't get too concerned about him not eating just yet. He's under a lot of stress right now and it's pretty normal for stressed reptiles to go off of food for a while. There are, however, some things you can do that might help stimulate his appetite again. Obviously getting the hydration and mites taken care of will help. You can also keep stress at a minimum by keeping his cage in a quiet area, and covering all the glass sides of the tank with construction paper or paper towels taped flat to the outside. This creates an enclosed feeling, which helps reptiles in glass tanks feel more secure. Obviously make sure no one is disturbing the little guy unless it is time for his necessary soaks/cage cleans, etc. Finally, I'd order a bottle of Acidophiliz+, which is a supplement for reptiles containing lactobacillus acidophilus, a beneficial bacteria which aids in digestion. You can order it online here: http://www.reptilesupply.com/product.php?products_id=227. Administer it the same way as the pedialyte; just drip it on his nose and he should drink some up. How is his weight? I know you said his legs look pretty skinny, but see what he looks like after he's been rehydrated. Are his ribs very noticeable? Are there indents at the top of the base of the tail or does it look round and full? If he does start to lose weight considerably, he'll definitely need to see a vet, but we can hold off on discussing that unless it becomes an issue. It sounds to me like you are doing everything in your power to save the little guy. I can't tell you how nice it is to see someone come to care for a little critter that was unexpectedly thrust upon them. You even did research and got him the proper UVB light and everything! It gives me warm fuzzy feelings knowing that there are still people like you out there. Don't worry about your hubby giving you a hard time about caring so much about a little lizard. It's not weird at all and I have an army of fellow reptile and non-traditional pet owners to back me up on that. "A person's a person no matter how small." =) Keep us updated on the situation. I'll definitely keep your little fencey in my thoughts. I hope everything works out. Good luck! Let us know if you have any questions at all. We're happy to help. Welcome to the boards! =D
Listen to Cammy, smart person right there, lol As for the bacitracin, i asked my vet if ingestion is bad, considering my leo licks it off his eyes, he told me not to worry about the ingestion of bacitracin it will not affect him
Hello and thank you again for your advise and for your kind words Here is our update: we are still kicking it! I have not quit on him and he has not quit on me. I continue to soak him and I developed sort of a holding trick while holding him in the water, when just his nosetrills and top of his head stays above the surface. This way after about 10 min he would actually drink some water. The first time I saw that little jaw move I could not believe it, but sure enough he was drinking! That made me hopeful, and I am guilty as charged at holding an encouraging speech over this tiny lizard. And I did see him gag and throw up some slime, but I did see him drink, too. I did not succeed at getting any food into him though - any mush I would make and put on his nose would end up on a paper towel. I even got the "Zilla Jump-Start", thinking that the paste might stay on his nose better, and tried dissolving a little bit in the water in front of his face while bathing him, so he might swallow some when he drinks. I don't think that any noticeable amount got eaten, but I just could not bring myself to force-feed him, that syringe was about as wide as the little guy's snout. However, I noticed that he started pooping again tiny but normal (as far as I could judge) stools, so I figured that getting water into him helps. As far as I can tell, the mites are gone now, too. I noticed that if I bathed him longer and sorta rubbed him down gently, they would float on the surface afterwards, so there we go eat that, beochez, me says, and drown them all. I also put some bacitracin on his sides, where I saw them crawling before. And on the tip of the tail too. I did not put any on the face, I was scared that it might plug his nosestrills. And, I kept misting tank and changing water even though he never once got into it. As far as his weight, I can't see his ribs but his spine is showing. His belly is still round at the lower end though - he has this potbelly kind thingys before the hind legs area. I don't know if its good or not, I am just hoping that its due to the fact he was eating really well before the incident. One time, right before the tail loss crap, I caught a moth that was literary 2/3 size of the lizard, and I put him into the tank mostly out of curiosity. Tell you what, it was something to see when the little guy actually got the moth by the head and started working him. It sort of looked like if I myself would have sat with a hand-glider in my mouth - that's how ridiculously large the moth was compared to the liz, but my guy ate the whole darn thing. Looked quite content afterwards, too. So, maybe all that fresh and various bugs from before were keeping him sustained for awhile? Ok, so rounding up my post: last night when I was giving him a bath, he actually tried to walk away from the water. I thought that seeing some attitude in this case is not bad at all. And today, even though he spent most of the day in the middle of the floor in his tank, not moving, he climbed up the rock later on. And when my hubby decided to put a mealworm into the tank ("just give the man real food!") - liz (who I started to silently call "Spiky" for the rough scales, shhh, don't tell anyone I named him) - actually ate it! He gobbled down a live mealworm. I know it is too early to celebrate and I am knocking on the wood as not to jinx it, but so far he's kept it down and I think we are on the mend. I'll give him couple of more worms tomorrow and see. I'll let you know if there is any more progress, too. Thank you again, I am so glad I found this forum. And I am grateful that you guys took time and cared enough as to answer me. Nat.
