# Impacted Tegu? please help!



## Guest (Jan 8, 2011)

So I had a baby about 3 weeks ago and I havent been paying much attention to my Tegu since then. Well earlier today she was opening her mouth and lifting her tail up I figured maybe she was trying to poop. Then a little while ago I noticed her kind of laying on her side in the cage. She is soaking in the tub now. I cant afford a vet right now havent worked in 4 weeks. Does it sound like she could be impacted? Anything I can do if she is?


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## Guest (Jan 8, 2011)

Tegu is definitely impacted. She started doing the wiggley butt trying to poop thing. My friend told me to give her half water half baby laxative can anyone confirm that this is ok?


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## Guest (Jan 9, 2011)

I havent heard of that. If he is eating try to get some cod liver oil down him . The hot baths are good ...One member gave his an enema and his came out of it .. Im sorry about your tegu .. There is a good chance he will pass it and we will all hope he does .... Other wise a vet is your best option ...


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## Guest (Jan 9, 2011)

I gave 2 hot baths yesterday and nothing but a tiny bit of urate. Going to try again today and see how much a vet will cost


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## Guest (Jan 9, 2011)

Good luck!!


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## eddyjack (Jan 9, 2011)

A this point I think any thing reasonable is worth a try. The baby laxative (if it is eating) is well worth a try. Otherwise just let nature take it's course and things should work out for the best.


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## Guest (Jan 9, 2011)

I took her to the vet. She had an enema and they gave me some medicine to take home to try to get her to poop and said to give 2 warm soaks for 20 min a day...She still hasnt pooped.


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## VARNYARD (Jan 10, 2011)

Drearydragon, give me a call 850-215-7308


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2011)

Glad you took her to the vet ! Bobby is on your side ... I`ve got a good feeling about the out come ...


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2011)

I called my local pet store and asked them if theyd be willing to help me with the mineral oil Bobby told me about. Taking her up there around 5 I sure hope it helps.


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## slideaboot (Jan 10, 2011)

I had an impaction recently and Bobby also suggested mineral oil. In conjunction with that, a lot of soaking and massaging, Aesop managed to pass a RIDICULOUS amount of feces.

Bobby knows what's up...


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2011)

Ive been soaking her twice a day for 20-30 min. I hope the mineral oil helps... if it comes down to surgery I dont know what Ill do.


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2011)

What was said about the mineral oil ???


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2011)

From my experience with bearded dragons (which are much smaller of course), when I was having an issue with one of them, the BD forums suggested that I added a couple of drops of mineral oil to a couple of her meals. 

As well as the rubbing and soaking, it seemed to help the dragon pass the issue.


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2011)

The guy at the reptile store fed her vasaline :x


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2011)

How did he go about that ?


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2011)

opened her mouth stuck his finger in the vasaline and put it in the back of her mouth. He said it would help loosen stuff up.


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2011)

Not sure if anyone can or would be interested in helping but if it comes down to her needing surgery Im going to try to set up a paypal donation button for my facebook friends and Ill probably post it here as well. I normally wouldnt ask people for money but I figure its worth a shot if it could save my tegus life. It hasnt come down to that yet but if it does that is what Im thinking of doing. Im going to give her like a week to get it out...


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## Orion (Jan 11, 2011)

I am so sorry your Tegu has to go through this. Mine got impacted right after he came out of hibernation last year. He has a habit of eating everything especially substrate. We finally had to get him into surgery because his body was starting to give out on him since he could no longer process anything and he was getting no nutrients. in the end the vet bill was over $1500. He has come through it perfectly and is a happy boy now. It was well worth it. I would keep trying what your doing now and leave surgery as a last option.


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## Kingwolf26 (Jan 11, 2011)

Fitzgerald, the reptile vet here gives impacted carnivorous animals a vegetable mix and it goes right through their system. I tried that when my first tegu ate tissue and she passed it the next night. Might I add this this tissue was bounty paper towel. The veggies were mixed veg from the local food store. If she still swallows try them chopped up really small


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## slideaboot (Jan 11, 2011)

Drearydragon said:


> 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!


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## Guest (Jan 11, 2011)

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


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## Guest (Jan 11, 2011)

slideaboot said:


> Drearydragon said:
> 
> 
> > The guy at the reptile store fed her vasaline :x
> ...




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.


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## Guest (Jan 12, 2011)

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


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## slideaboot (Jan 12, 2011)

Drearydragon said:


> 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!


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## Orion (Jan 12, 2011)

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.


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## slideaboot (Jan 12, 2011)

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?!??!


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## Guest (Jan 12, 2011)

slideaboot said:


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



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.


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## Guest (Jan 15, 2011)

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.


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## Guest (Jan 15, 2011)

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

if anyone can.


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## txrepgirl (Jan 16, 2011)

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.


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## Guest (Jan 17, 2011)

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.


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## Guest (Jan 17, 2011)

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


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## Guest (Jan 17, 2011)

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.


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2011)

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 ..


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2011)

$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!


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2011)

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


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2011)

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.


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2011)

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..


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2011)

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.


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2011)

Let us know what kind of bedding you choose....


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## Orion (Jan 18, 2011)

I am really happy for you and your Tegu. Surgery is hard on an animal. I have 3 Tegus. My big guy seems to have an appetite for Cypress mulch these days also. I was keeping him and my small female on a 50/50 mix of Eco-Earth and Cypress. He was having issues the last couple of days and almost completely stopped eating for 3 days and I noticed he had not had a BM in as many days. Yesterday when he was in the shower I noticed he had tried to go but he had something hanging out of him. I thought he was prolapsed. I tried to help him and noticed it was hard, I gave a slight tug and out came a piece of cypress. He is back to his old self by the afternoon. I am going to switch over to Eco-Earth since I can get 3 bricks for $5 from Petsolutions.com and that will cover a 3x4 foot area. My other male eats everything, rocks,dirt, plastic, I have to keep him on news paper. He was the one that needed surgery for being impacted.


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