# RIP Bacardi



## isdrake (Mar 3, 2010)

Today we had to put our beloved Bacardi to sleep. He's only a year old. We have only had him for about two months.

He suffered from very bad MBD. Two weeks ago he got a prolapse. The vet helped us with that and he got better. Then we moved him to his real enclosure he could hardly walk... =(

So yeah, it was a bad MBD, the risk of the prolapse to return was big and he had also broken BOTH his forearms. Just from living in a box with nothing more than a moist towel and a water bowl. He was in really bad shape.

The chances of him recovering from this was slim. And even if he got better he would probably never be able to live a normal life. And the whole recovery would be a long and painful process.

We decided ti put him to sleep. We don't want him to suffer anymore.
We will really miss him, even thu we only known him for two months.

Bacardi had a lot of energy. He wanted to be in all different places at once. He was much more brave than Whisky, our other Tegu but he hated baths. He used to sneak out of the enclosure and explore the sofa once the door was open.

I was really looking forward seeing him grow up. But I'm happy for the little time we had together. Feels like he have been here for a long time.



I will really miss you my friend...



*A small tribute:*
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSLhAFQroyI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSLhAFQroyI</a><!-- m -->


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## reptastic (Mar 3, 2010)

MAN IM SO SORRY TO HEAR THAT, I KNOW HOW MUCH IT HURTS TO LOOSE A BELOVED PET! I SEND MY CONDOLENCES!


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## kaa (Mar 3, 2010)

I'm so sorry isdrake he was a beautiful animal. My heart go's out to you.


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## Adam87 (Mar 3, 2010)

Sorry to hear that i delt with the same thing when i had to put larry down my savannah


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## KSTAR (Mar 3, 2010)

sorry to hear


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## Dparks87 (Mar 3, 2010)

Im so sorry, not but a month ago we had to put my girlfriends chameleon down who had suffered from terrible MBD. My girlfriend and I were broken, reading your post makes me tear up a bit man. Im terribly sorry for your loss


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## chelvis (Mar 3, 2010)

OMG this caught me so off guard. I'm so sorry for your lose. You really do take care of your animals better than most zoos do. I'm glad Bacardi got to have a few happy months in his short life.


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## Orion (Mar 3, 2010)

I am sorry for your loss. I know your heart break. I had to put my Tegu down last summer. It hurts for a long time when we love our pets as much as we do.


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## mis jaksin (Mar 3, 2010)

aww, i'm soo sorry for your loss... at least he had the best care possible while he was with you...


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## isdrake (Mar 4, 2010)

Thanks for the support. It was very weird not having to take care of him last night, not having to prepare two meals and such. =/

I'm still surprised about everything. It happened so fast. I thought that Bacardi was the healthy one and that would be Whisky who might get problem. But I guess there is a large risk of illness then you don't get the animal directly from a breeder. IF we get another one someday I will really try to find a breeder. There must be someone in Europe... Don't Bobby make trips to Europe? That would really help... ^^
until Whisky grows up. She will have plenty of room, that's for sure.

Whisky have become skittish in these last two weeks. She even hides then we enter the room. She wasn't like this before. Is it possible that she feels unsecure now then Bacardi is gone? We have been focusing to much on Bacardi lately that we haven't been spending any time with her.

But that will change now. Going to spend my time on her from now on and try to make her a happy Tegu. 






_Last picture we got of him (at the clinic). You can see that his forearms are swollen. _


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## txrepgirl (Mar 4, 2010)

May he R.I.P. At least you tried everything you could to get him better. I'm very sorry for your loss  .


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## isdrake (Mar 4, 2010)

I made a video of a few clips we got of him. The quality is pretty bad though.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSLhAFQroyI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSLhAFQroyI</a><!-- m -->


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## merlinsdrgn (Mar 4, 2010)

R.I.P. Bacardi... I'm sorry for your loss... My condolences... :-(


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## bubbategu2 (Mar 4, 2010)

Poor Bacardi - He looked so happy and healthy in your video. How nice that you have that to remember him by. I only have two pictures of my red, Bubbategu-none with me, unfortunately. R.I.P Bacardi


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## txrepgirl (Mar 4, 2010)

This is such a cute video. I still can't believe he is gone  . He looked so healthy and happy in this video.


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## isdrake (Mar 5, 2010)

bubbategu2 said:


> Poor Bacardi - He looked so happy and healthy in your video. How nice that you have that to remember him by. I only have two pictures of my red, Bubbategu-none with me, unfortunately. R.I.P Bacardi



I'm very happy that I have a few clips of him. I have also taken tons of photos which are precious to me . I'm going to frame some of them and put on the wall.

May I ask what happened to your red? =(


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## cornking4 (Apr 15, 2010)

I know what you're going through with Bacardi, I lost Zzyzx a couple of days ago due to unstoppable MBD and hyperosteoclastic activity. I'm good friends with who many regard as the best herp vet in America and he and I worked on her for months... she was just really unresponsive. We gave her salmon calcitonin (usually can stop mbd in any stage), calcium, and checked all of her bulbs, but nothing seemed to work. She finally passed after he and I infused her with calcium to reverse a sudden spell of lethargy. I assisted in the necropsy and found that her ribs had actually healed together and that almost every one of her spinal disks had been damaged... Anyway, she had fractured arms like Bacardi and I couldn't help but thinking how similar their situations were. It's so hard not seeing her out on her basking rock everyday after I get home from the vet clinic


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## txrepgirl (Apr 15, 2010)

OMG kornking4. I'm so sorry to hear about what happend to Zzyzx. May she R.I.P .


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## preston897 (Apr 15, 2010)

im very very sorry. MBD is a terrible thing. and it can be very hard to work with. at least he does not have to suffer anymore. and you will always be able to remember him by those beautiful pictures you have.


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## isdrake (Apr 19, 2010)

I'm so sorry to hear that cornking4. =( I understand that if must feel empty, that was your only Tegu right? At least I had one left which made it a whole lot easier.

Does Tegus develop MDB easier than other reptiles?


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## cornking4 (Apr 19, 2010)

Yeah, she was my only one. I still have to keep the lights on to keep the plants alive though so I have an excuse to keep it running.

I had a long conversation with Dr. Driggers about that exact subject. He's treated thousands of lizards for MBD, usually successfully, so he has the experience to recognize this stuff. Anyway, he said that when lizards are in their first year, their bones are constantly growing and expanding, and that any interruption in nutrition causes osteoblastic activity to come to halt or slow while osteoclastic activity increases because of increased hormone output by the thyroid. This is typical MBD, but when it occurs in babies, osteocytes are more difficult to regulate and the MBD becomes uncontrollable. What's different about tegus is that they're unresponsive or hyporesponsive to salmon calcitonin, an "MBD miracle drug" that stops osteoclasts from destroying bone. So once we start the ball rolling with them, especially as babies, it's difficult to control. Sorry to ramble but that's it in a nutshell.

Zzyzx was also a weird case because she would not respond to anything we did. I brought her with me to the vet clinic once every week so she was getting constant treatment, she just continued in a downward spiral since she prolapsed.


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