Impacted Tegu? please help!

[slideaboot]

The guy at the reptile store fed her vasaline :x

How reliable is this guy at the reptile store? What's his background with lizards / tegus?

Did you avoid the mineral oil route altogether? That'd seem a bit odd to me, if so...

Either way, hopefully your little guy gets better ASAP!

 

[Guest]

Just how much mineral oil is given and how is it administered ??

 

[Guest]

The guy at the reptile store fed her vasaline :x

How reliable is this guy at the reptile store? What's his background with lizards / tegus?

Did you avoid the mineral oil route altogether? That'd seem a bit odd to me, if so...

Either way, hopefully your little guy gets better ASAP!

Hes in his mid 20s and the pet store is family owned. Hes been working with reptiles since he was a kid. They wouldnt do the mineral oil enema for me because they said if anything went wrong they wouldnt want to be held responsible and could get into trouble. I dont feel comfortable doing it myself either They said vasaline is in a lot of animal laxatives. If she doesnt get better in a week they told me to bring her back up there and they would see what they can do but I dont know.

One of the guys said he had recently had an adult Tegu as a rescue and that it was impacted. The tegu didnt make it but he said the impaction was about the size of a brick. Feeling my tegu he said it didnt seem like the impaction was very large, but of course that doesnt neccesarily mean it will pass.

 

[Guest]

Tegu still hasnt passed anything but urates. She's soaking again now. My grandpa agreed to pay for half if she needs surgery.

 

[slideaboot]

Tegu still hasnt passed anything but urates. She's soaking again now. My grandpa agreed to pay for half if she needs surgery.

This worked for me:

I got some stage one baby food, an oral syringe, and some mineral oil. I put about 5cc of baby food with 1-2 cc mineral oil and forcefed it to Aesop. I ALWAYS followed this with a good warm soak. Also, I massaged his belly, from underneath--on both his left and right side. Starting from the middle and working down toward the vent. I did this WHILE he was soaking.

I repeated this process a couple times a day (granted, I did the enema thing as well [no food in the syringe, of course]).

Granted, forcefeeding a tegu can be a daunting task, but it's doable. Txrepgirl has a video of her forcefeeding her blue (I believe it was a blue) tegu on youtube. Search "forcefeeding tegu" and you should be golden.

Surprisingly, during the enema and forcefeeding process, Aesop never once fought me, whipped me, or tried to bite me. He DID try to walk away from me at times (who wouldn't? a giant 6'4" dude with a syringe headed for his butt was probably good motivation to move, right?), but he never fought me. In fact, he started getting "used" to the forcefeeding, actually sitting with the syringe in his mouth while I injected the food down his throat.

Basically, the moral of my longwinded story is that even if you're not doing the enema thing, you could be getting the mineral oil into your tegu's body orally. Also, soak and massage! Multiple times!

Good luck!

 

[Orion]

I would try to do the enema. Read up as much as you can and maybe ask around if anyone here can give you some insight.

 

[slideaboot]

The enema really wasn't too difficult...

I took an oral syringe (a DIFFERENT one than the one I used to forcefeed him--YUCK!!!), put some mineral oil in there with a bit of warm water (I don't remember the ratio, but I'm guessing 1/2 and 1/2 would be OK). Lubed up the tip of the syringe, found the vent and GENTLY, I repeat, GENTLY inserted it. I never had to force it at all. You really don't have to go too deep with it, but make sure you're deep enough that it doesn't just instantly leak out (it should "hold" for a second. Note: You WILL have an oily mess when it's all said and done...it can't stay up there forever--have towels handy (not the towels you use on your body, that's just, EW, gross!!!).

Make sure you do this in a location where you can kind of be eye-level with your tegu. Not only do you want the process to go smoothly for your tegu, you want to be comfortable yourself.

OK...first of all, I couldn't believe it when I actually administered the enema. Now, I can't believe that I'm typing out step by step instructions for how to stick a syringe up a tegu's butt. Where did my poor mother go wrong?!??!

 

[Guest]

Tegu still hasnt passed anything but urates. She's soaking again now. My grandpa agreed to pay for half if she needs surgery.

This worked for me:

I got some stage one baby food, an oral syringe, and some mineral oil. I put about 5cc of baby food with 1-2 cc mineral oil and forcefed it to Aesop. I ALWAYS followed this with a good warm soak. Also, I massaged his belly, from underneath--on both his left and right side. Starting from the middle and working down toward the vent. I did this WHILE he was soaking.

I repeated this process a couple times a day (granted, I did the enema thing as well [no food in the syringe, of course]).

Granted, forcefeeding a tegu can be a daunting task, but it's doable. Txrepgirl has a video of her forcefeeding her blue (I believe it was a blue) tegu on youtube. Search "forcefeeding tegu" and you should be golden.

Surprisingly, during the enema and forcefeeding process, Aesop never once fought me, whipped me, or tried to bite me. He DID try to walk away from me at times (who wouldn't? a giant 6'4" dude with a syringe headed for his butt was probably good motivation to move, right?), but he never fought me. In fact, he started getting "used" to the forcefeeding, actually sitting with the syringe in his mouth while I injected the food down his throat.

Basically, the moral of my longwinded story is that even if you're not doing the enema thing, you could be getting the mineral oil into your tegu's body orally. Also, soak and massage! Multiple times!

Good luck!

Glad your guy was ok. Ive been forcing her to take the lactulose medicine by holding her in my lap and opening her mouth and having my boyfriend stick it in her mouth. She bites the syringe everytime....never tried to bite us though.

Ill make my boyfriend buy some mineral oil. I honestly dont even have $2 to my name. I still dont feel comfortable sticking it up her butt though

Maybe Ill get over it since it is her life at stake.

 

[Guest]

She still hasn't gone. I called the vet they said $58 for an office visit which I've scheduled for Monday at 5 and probably around $250 for surgery for impaction. I have no source of income for myself because I had my 2nd son 4 weeks ago so Im not working. I wont be working again until at least September because I wouldnt be making enough to even pay for 2 kids to go to daycare if I were to go. I live with my grandpa. He has agreed to pay for half of the vet bill (I told him it was $250 so thats $125) My mom is going to give me $60, and my boyfriend is going to give $20 but Im pretty sure I can talk him up to $40. I still need almost $100 to think about saving her. If anyone would like to help I would forever be grateful and Im sure my Tegu would as well. I set up a paypal donation button Im taking all the help I can get to save her life. Thanks to anyone who helps and even if you cant thanks for reading and thanks for wishing us the best.

 

[Guest]

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=UHCDDSFCWDR28

if anyone can.

 

[txrepgirl]

I recommend getting a Xray done first to see how big the object is. If she is still eating fine I would put some cod liver oil into the food. If she doesn't eat you can force feed her some chicken/turkey baby food with the cod liver oil in it ( just use a few drops ). Keep giving her the baths. Then wait a few days or a week if she still is moving around fine. Then bring her back to the vet and get another Xray done to see if the object moved. If it did there is a good chance that she will poop it out. If it didn't then she might need a surgery.
My female blue/red hybrid ate a rubber cap of a metal door stopper spring ( I thought at first it was mulch until I saw the Xray ). She pooped it out a month later.
If your Tegu is on her side sometimes it could be because the object is pushing against some organs.

 

[Guest]

I cant afford to have x rays done as well as possible surgery. Im taking her to the vet at 5 well see what they say. Ill let you all know as soon as I get back. She hasnt eaten in a week now.

 

[Guest]

Good luck !! I am glad you are taking him to the vet.. Keep us posted ..

 

[Guest]

The vet was able to get some watery poo out of her but she still hasnt passed any part of the impaction. She was given some mineral oil and an enema. He said if she doesnt pass it in the next couple of days he would consider doing some kind of colonoscopy type deal to actually pull it out instead of a cut open surgery and that it would be slightly cheaper.

 

[Guest]

Glad you went to a real vet .. It sounds like his treatment was little different than what was suggested on this forum . Sick babies are no fun and expensive and no fun .. Keep us up dated we care ..

 

[Guest]

$200 in vet bills later and she passed it. Im very glad because I dont know if Id have been able to get the money for surgery. Ive never been this happy to have my entire room smell like lizard poo! lol. Tomorrow when my boyfriend gets paid were going to change her bedding to something easier to get out if ingested. Thanks everyone!

 

[Guest]

What kind of substrate did you have him on ?? What did you settle on for a replacement ?? Glad every thing CAME OUT OK!!

 

[Guest]

Cypress mulch is what she is on now. Im not sure exactly what Im going to replace it with the guy at the pet store showed me something that looked like a soft hamster bedding or something he said he keeps his Tegus on it and they have eaten it and not had a problem. I dont remember what it was though so we will see tomorrow. I dont know how well it will hold humidity I guess well have to discuss that as well.

 

[Guest]

I would think about it before I would change from Cypress as it seems to be the standard.. Did you miss any feedings when you had your child ? Do you feed in your enclosure ??Why all of a sudden did he eat his substrate..?? Maybe treat the cause and not the symptom..

 

[Guest]

I was feeding on my bedroom floor. After I had the baby I started feeding in the enclosure because I didnt have so much time with a newborn and couldnt keep an eye on them both, was tired etc. I think some superworms got out into the enclosure and she was trying to pick them out and ate the bedding trying to get them. Either way Id rather not go through this again and cant afford to, so Im just going to change it.