# Nursing this Beautiful Girl Back to Health



## tresh (Sep 15, 2012)

So, today I went to pick up what I thought was an elderly male red tegu. His owner was surrendering him due to not having a place for him. I was told the tegu was missing his claws on his front feet due to bad humidity when he was little. It was a reptile rescue that put me in contact with him, so my assumption was that this was a legit story.
 
I picked him up, the person was in a hurry to leave, and having just driven two hours to pick the tegu up, I took a quick look at the tegu, and thought that he was just really small...maybe a runt tegu or some such. I wanted to leave him alone til we got home with him. He was stressed and upset, hiding in the towel I had in the kennel with him, so I just wanted to give him some quiet time. 

We made a stop at the pet store that knows tegus (I always bring my black and white there), and it was here that we discovered why the guy was in such a hurry to leave. 

The 'elderly male tegu' is a severely neglected, severely malnourished barely 1 and a half or 2 years old female. She's calm as can be, gentle and quiet and oh so loving. She climbed to perch under my chin from the moment I held her. 

We got her back nails trimmed...they were so long that they were actually nearly imbedded, and the nice folks at the store helped get a lot of the dead shed off of her. She was literally covered in shed. 

The true extent of the horror of her condition became apparent when we got home and I got her in a warm bath. Her jaw is deformed from what looks like injury due to hitting against a cage. The people at the pet store checked her mouth, and she can eat, she's just got a bad underbite and irritation to her bottom lip. 

She's in bad shape. I doubt she is going to survive. THat's not going to stop me from trying, but yeah, she's in bad shape. I'm going to try every food I can think of to get some weight on her, she's got a vet appt. being set up on monday. 

I take it as a good sign that she's seeking out warmth, she mouthed some food, and once in a large enclosure, she burrowed right down and is now currently mostly buried in damp bedding. 

If nothing else...she'll live a good life while I've got her. I'm going to do my best, but damned if I wasn't livid that she was in this shape! How do you let an animal as intelligent and wonderful as a tegu get like this? 

I'm posting pictures I took of her, so you can see for yourself just what sort of condition she is in. [attachment=5158][attachment=5159][attachment=5160][attachment=5161][attachment=5162][attachment=5163]


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## Steven. (Sep 15, 2012)

Wow.. I hope everything works out for her. For what its worth.. Im very proud to have someone like you on this forum. I know you'll do your best.

sent from my phone to your eyes


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## Logie_Bear (Sep 15, 2012)

Wow. Just... wow. 

I don't think I've ever seen a tegu so thin. I can see her whole skeleton. And all those missing toes is just heart wrenching.  

Please, please please keep us posted on her progress/ what the vet says. The underbite looks bad, but at least her mouth still closes. Does she tongue flick much, or is she pretty lethargic?


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## TeguBuzz (Sep 15, 2012)

Good luck with her, would really like to see her get into better shape. Keep us posted.


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## tresh (Sep 15, 2012)

She's really lethargic...she has only stood up (you know a tegu will puff up, where it arches up on its feet? That, but not with any puffing) twice now...most of the time, when I start petting her, she just lays completely flat. She is currently in an enclosure without the lid on it...she shows no interest in even trying to jump or move around. She just burrowed down and that's where she has stayed. 

She does flick her tongue some, but as of yet, she's got no interest in any sort of fluids. Tommorrow, after she's had a night to rest, I'm going to try both giving her a sort of meat-slushy made with ground up chicken organs and blood and eggs, which has always been a treat that my other tegu has loved. 

I do need some advice...should I force her to take fluids? I think she's just too weak right now to even try to eat...but should I treat her like a baby animal and get a food dropper and try that?


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## Logie_Bear (Sep 15, 2012)

tresh said:


> en a treat that my other tegu has loved.
> 
> I do need some advice...should I force her to take fluids? I think she's just too weak right now to even try to eat...but should I treat her like a baby animal and get a food dropper and try that?



I would wait till tomorrow and see how she does with eating on her own. If she goes for it, I wouldnt force fluids on her. If not, then I would definitely try some pedialyte. 

Also if she's having issues eating because of the overbite, perhaps some really mushy baby food (with vit/calc added in) would work as something easy for her to eat?

Do you have a nice warm light for her?


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## tresh (Sep 15, 2012)

Oh yes...my other tegu is currently hibernating, so she's not using the 'good heat lamp' at hte moment. I have two heat lamps, one of a lower wattage that I keep set up for the hibernating tegu. 

I can take pictures of the enclosure that this new girl is in, if you like. She's got several basking rocks, good strong heat source, and a humidifier set up. 

I am worried that yeah, that jaw is causing her issues. She definitely tried to mouth the meat I tried to feed her, I held it with tongs and she attempted to take it...but she spat it back out a moment later...so I'm thinking some ground up meat bites also might work.


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## larissalurid (Sep 15, 2012)

tresh said:


> Oh yes...my other tegu is currently hibernating, so she's not using the 'good heat lamp' at hte moment. I have two heat lamps, one of a lower wattage that I keep set up for the hibernating tegu.
> 
> I can take pictures of the enclosure that this new girl is in, if you like. She's got several basking rocks, good strong heat source, and a humidifier set up.
> 
> I am worried that yeah, that jaw is causing her issues. She definitely tried to mouth the meat I tried to feed her, I held it with tongs and she attempted to take it...but she spat it back out a moment later...so I'm thinking some ground up meat bites also might work.



Yea I'd try the ground up meat bites. Then it'll be mushy and hopefully easy enough to get down and make it very tiny pieces she can just swallow. Poor girl....that's just so sad and aggravating :[ I really hope she does well and gets better.


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## tresh (Sep 15, 2012)

That's what I'm hoping. Tommorrow, after she's slept for awhile, I'm going to get her back out and try everything I can with her. I've got a blender, I'll blend it all up and feed her a little at a time.


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## Logie_Bear (Sep 15, 2012)

Maybe try some raw egg? That way she can lick it and no chewing is required


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## chitodadon (Sep 15, 2012)

You are great person for.this thanx person u got.the Tegu from.should be ashamed and arrested I wish u the best pray and keep fighting

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2


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## KABIKANO (Sep 15, 2012)

YOU ARE A REALLY GOOD PERSON TRESH. I APPLAUD YOU.


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## kymzilla (Sep 15, 2012)

wow thats so disheartening.
Props to you, and i hope she pulls through!!


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## Ujarak (Sep 15, 2012)

I have a male b/w that was much the same situation. Luckily after some good heat i was able to get him to eat. His jaw is messed up too and to help him i made bite sizes meatballs and fed him with a fork. After a few weeks he was able to do it on his own


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## tresh (Sep 16, 2012)

This morning she ate a single chicken heart from the tongs...I could see her struggling to chew, so yeah, she's got something wrong with her jaw. But the fact that she ate that chicken heart...that tells me she's hungry, and she has some will to survive left. So today I'm going to mix all that mix together and use a baby medicine syringe to just keep trying to get fluids and nutrition into her. 

There is no emergency reptile vet around here...I did check, and I called the two emergency vets around here...neither is equipped to deal with a sick tegu...so no matter what I do, she has to survive until I can get her to the vet that I see tommorrow.


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## SnakeCharmr728 (Sep 16, 2012)

Don't lose hope! Find the thread on here named "kinky, the blue tegu" and Kinky the Tegu fb page, that tegu was just as thin, if not thinner than this gal and hes making a remarkable recovery. Its amazing what they can pull through! I just took in a rescue red as well thats in pretty bad shape, although not skinny like this one, but has bad MBD and stunted growth... 
Please keep us updated and i'll keep my fingers crossed that she makes a full recovery. I think you will have more (or less) hope once shes seen by a vet and you see what they say. Bless you for taking her in!


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## Orion (Sep 16, 2012)

It breaks my heart eveytime I see something like this. Keep faith. She has gone this long and is in good spirits and still has a will to hang on judging by the fact she is trying to eat. I would try an eye dropper with water or pediaylite to get her hydrated. I have had some sick Tegus before and had to spoon feed them.


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## laurarfl (Sep 16, 2012)

I bet she can recover pretty well. The jaw is likely a result of poor calcium/D3 rather than an injury. Jaw softening is pretty common since that is one of the first places the body goes to get the calcium it needs to function properly. Of course, I am not a vet, and a vet would be so much more helpful. Here's some suggestions though:

1. Get some fluid in her, whether it be water, pedialyte...orally or in a soak.

2. Give her some soft food to eat at first like chicken baby food, egg, finely chopped ground turkey or beef. Try some chopped fruit, too. It will give her some fluid, fiber, vitamins, and phytonutrients.

3. She badly needs calcium. If you get a small jar of baby food, put a 1/4 teaspoon of powdered calcium w Vit D in it. There is also liquid Calcium Gluconate that you can get at some stores.

4. She needs Vit D to use the calcium. Natural sunshine is best. If she can get outside for 30min daily of unfiltered or min 1/4" mesh screen, that would be best. Next best would be a MVB UVB source. It wouldn't hurt her to have calcium w D in it for a week or so.

5. Of course, proper temps and all.


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## tresh (Sep 16, 2012)

I've got the vitamin supplement, I've been dusting the chicken livers with it. She's eaten a total of 3 chicken livers this morning, and she's out of her little burrow and laying under the heat lamp. The type of heat lamp I have is an exo-terra solar glow 125 w. 

She seems to be enjoying laying where she's laying right now...between the heat lamp and the humidifier (repti-fogger humidifier, currently set on full-blast since it seems to make her happy). So she's got herself a nice hot moist little setup going on. 

She definitely showed some will to survive though! She was yanking those livers off the tongs, but after she dropped one she didn't want anymore to do with the food. So...at least she's getting a tiny amount of nutrition in her.

And she's got a facebook now, Ember the Tegu, so I can keep people up to date on her progress.


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## laurarfl (Sep 16, 2012)

Just to clarify, is it calcium only or multivitamin?


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## tresh (Sep 16, 2012)

Calcium only at the moment, though I do have reptivite as well. Was going to wait until she goes to the vet before I add anything other than calcium to what I'm doing.


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## Bubblz Calhoun (Sep 16, 2012)

laurarfl said:


> I bet she can recover pretty well. The jaw is likely a result of poor calcium/D3 rather than an injury. Jaw softening is pretty common since that is one of the first places the body goes to get the calcium it needs to function properly. Of course, I am not a vet, and a vet would be so much more helpful. Here's some suggestions though:
> 
> 1. Get some fluid in her, whether it be water, pedialyte...orally or in a soak.
> 
> ...



_Ditto,..with an emphasis on getting her outside for some natural sun. Besides the heat and helping process the calcium it will also help stimulate her appetite.

 With time and proper care she'll recover._


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## tresh (Sep 16, 2012)

At the moment, she's trying to burrow. I think I'm going to have to get a new bedding...I'm thinking with her lack of toes (poor poor baby...she's never going to be able to do 'normal' tegu things...), she's going to need a softer, more 'scoopable' bedding.


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## tresh (Sep 17, 2012)

*UPDATE AFTER VET VISIT*

So I just got home from the vet. The red tegu, now named Ember, is going to survive, given good care and a lot of tlc from me. 

She thankfully DOES NOT have MBD, her skeleton is fine, no abnormalities. Her toes were probably lost due to bad shedding, but they are all healed nicely. She's free of infection and irritation. 

Her jaw, while she will always have the underbite, is okay. She is missing about 6 of her bottom teeth, but she has all of her back teeth and top jaw teeth, so eventually she'll be able to eat prey foods like mice again. 

Right now, she's going ot be on a three-times a day feeding schedule, ranging from baby food mixed with vitamins, to chopped up food I'm ordering now, to things like mice. As long as I keep stuffing her belly, whether she wants to be stuffed or not (thus why I'll be using a feeding syringe...the vet tells me that I'm going to have to force her to eat if she refuses food), she should make a full recovery. 

It's going to be slow-going, but Ember should, given good care, make it. I've been told that she cannot be allowed to hibernate, despite her desire to, so I get to wake her up every few hours and pester her to get back under the heat lamp. 

I'm just glad that she should be okay, given good care and lots of love.


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## larissalurid (Sep 17, 2012)

She has a soft jaw right? Try massaging it daily to try to get it back into place. This might work over time. I've never tried it on a lizard but one of my macaws was born with a crooked lower jaw, so every time we would feed him (since young parrots still have soft-ish beaks) we'd massage it and try to get it back into place. After a while it actually did go back to where it should be. With more calcium, food, and all the other care needed, perhaps if you try doing this as well it could help get the jaw a little more where it should be. Just a theory, but it wouldn't hurt to try I bet.


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## tresh (Sep 18, 2012)

It's not a soft jaw...she's got cage-rub, so her jaw is irritated, but it's not infected. Basically, she's eventually going to be able to eat just fine. Right now, she doesn't even seem to know HOW to eat real food...so liquid/soft diet until she can grab food again.
My original 'bratchild' Ammy, wanted to know what this new creature in her space was! I was having to do some work in the computer room, which is where Ammy is hibernating, so I had to bring Ember with me, so she was laying in Ammy's 'box' (For some reason, Ammy has an attachment to the box, she went as far as dragging it out of the garbage! So now her waterdish is kept in the box, beside her heat lamp). 

Ammy just seemed to be like "wtf is this in my space?" and then left her alone. Ember was just enjoying the heat, lol. She seems to favor the red bulb, vs the natural light heat lamp I've been using with her, so I might switch them out. 

[attachment=5198]


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## Bubblz Calhoun (Sep 18, 2012)

_And another one, in case you missed the other posts on another thread, plus the one I'll post. Quarantine new pets, there should be no contact with pets you already have especially of the same species.
You don't know what she could be carrying that can be passed on to the other tegu. I'm sure the Vet visit was just a basic exam, no labs or fecals. Even with fecals it takes at least 3 negative fecals, over a period of time to rule out parasites.

It's just safer to keep them separated especially in her condition. If Ammy decided she didn't want to be bothered and or wanted her own space and went after Ember, she (Ember) wouldn't be able to properly defend herself in that condition. Why risk it?
http://www.tegutalk.com/showthread.php?tid=10322_


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## SnakeCharmr728 (Sep 18, 2012)

I thought red lights were a no-no? Can't it cause blindness?


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## tresh (Sep 18, 2012)

I asked the vet about quarantine, and she's the one that told me that it was probably safe for minimal contact. I didn't expect for Ammy to decide to wake up and want to get some water, so it wasn't long exposure, a couple minutes at best. I wouldn't house them together at this point, and as soon as Ammy decided that she actually wanted to lay there, I moved Ember back to her enclosure. It wasn't prolonged exposure, and like I said, the vet said that it would probably be fine for the two of them to meet under very very guarded circumstances, though of course she also said that Ember shouldn't be allowed to roam at all until she's much much healthier.

Edited: And I haven't heard about red heat lamps being bad for tegus...never had anyone say that before. And it's never seemed to affect Ammy at all, she's always loved this one much more than the nicer one that I used when she was in the enclosure.


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## Bubblz Calhoun (Sep 18, 2012)

tresh said:


> I asked the vet about quarantine, and she's the one that told me that it was *probably safe *for minimal contact. I didn't expect for Ammy to decide to wake up and want to get some water, so it wasn't long exposure, a couple minutes at best. I wouldn't house them together at this point, and as soon as Ammy decided that she actually wanted to lay there, I moved Ember back to her enclosure. It wasn't prolonged exposure, and like I said, the vet said that it would *probably be fine *for the two of them to meet under very very guarded circumstances, though of course *she also said that Ember shouldn't be allowed to roam at all until she's much much healthier*.
> 
> Edited: And I haven't heard about red heat lamps being bad for tegus...never had anyone say that before. And it's never seemed to affect Ammy at all, she's always loved this one much more than the nicer one that I used when she was in the enclosure.



_Is it a Herp Vet and did you do labs or even a fecal? Any vet can do a basic exam, fecal or even lab work. But for reptiles that actually have issues they should see a Herp Vet. For a Vet to suggest any type of contact especially without those two things, in the condition Ember's in,.... I would find another Vet. URI's, parasites and some skin conditions are most commonly passed from one pet (not just reptiles) to another. All of which can show few signs until it's a serious issue and don't require long periods of contact to be passed on just close proximity.

It's just safer to keep them separated. In time when she's doing better, healthy, has put on weight and no other issues pop up then you should have introduced them._


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## tresh (Sep 18, 2012)

I'm not planning on putting them together again at any point. Ammy has always been the curious nosy lizard, to the point where she gets herself in trouble to discover what something is. Ember is safe and happy in her enclosure, with no desire to get out, and Ammy can't get to the enclosure. 
The vet I see is an exotics vet, doesn't specialize in reptiles, but I've taken Ammy to this vet numerous times, so she does know what she's doing. 


And Ember quite obligingly gave the vet a sample while we were there. According to the vet, a good healthy proper colored sample. 

Regardless of all this, Ember is safe, she's actually taking to being fed with a baby medicine syringe fairly well. She's been eating baby food while I wait for a shipment of ground meat to get here, as well as the disgusting smelling concoction I made for her on sunday, which i froze into little lizard-bites. She currently has decided to be a lap-lizard whenever I get her out of the enclosure, which at the moment is every 4 or 5 hours, because she keeps wanting to burrow down in the cold side of the tank and she refuses to get warm. She likes to cuddle up against me, which is fine, when she's wrapped in a towel and kept warm. 

She's already starting to show a bit more spirit, which is wonderful. The weather outside has been miserable the last few days, so I haven't been able to take her on the porch for some natural sunlight, but the enclosure is near a window, so she's getting at least some coming in, if she would only quit being stubborn and actually bask.


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## tresh (Sep 22, 2012)

Today Ember voluntarily ate for the first time! Two days ago, she drank water for the first time, but today, I tested her with some ground up meat I got from Hare Today Gone Tommorrow, and she was ravenous! 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=355284324559052

So now I get the fun of making lizard meatballs, lol.


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## Logie_Bear (Sep 22, 2012)

What sorta meats Didja buy for her?


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## tresh (Sep 22, 2012)

I bought a BIG order from Hare Today Gone Tommorrow, to keep testing to see what she likes. Today, I tried the ground up chicken organs. This is a complete list of what I bought though, I"m pretty much going to try one thing after another to find out what she likes:

1 x Ground Turkey/Bones/Organs, 1 lb 
1 x Whole Carcass Ground Quail, 1 lb 
1 x Ground Rabbit, Whole Carcass- Fur and All, 1 lb 
1 x Ground Sardines, 1 lb 
2 x Ground Beef/Organs/Tripe and Bone, 1 lb 
1 x Ground Chicken Organs, 1 lb 
1 x Pureed Chicken Eggs -Free Range 
1 x Ground Atlantic Herring, 1 lb 
1 x Ground Green Tripe with Spleen (BEEF) 1 lb 
1 x Ground Chicken/Bones/Organs, 1 lb 
1 x Boneless Ground Chicken Breasts, 1 lb 
1 x Ground White Fish/Bone, 1 lb


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## tresh (Sep 23, 2012)

New pictures today! Looks like I am going to have to buy some rats for her...she's definitely got her appetite back! She ate a fourth of a lb of meat today! So proud of her, she's eating so well already. 

[attachment=5277][attachment=5278][attachment=5279][attachment=5280][attachment=5281]


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## SnakeCharmr728 (Sep 23, 2012)

Have fun with those sardines as well as the tripe, it REAKS! and their poops smells like it too and if they poop in the cage, even after you clean it, i swear it stains the walls of the cage.... never again will I feel sardines hahaha


What was your total including shipping for that order? Just curious


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## tresh (Sep 23, 2012)

My big tegu, Ammy, likes rotten things...so I am very very used to the stink of tegu poop. Doesn't help that she won't go in her cage, and wont' go in the bathtub, and with her having free range of hte apartment...yeah....nothing quite like stepping in disgusting staining fresh tegu crap, lol. The smell of tegu poop after she's eaten something she hid for a week under the couch....so foul. So incredibly foul.


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## tresh (Sep 28, 2012)

Well, I guess I know she's getting healthy now! She decided, since I was gone all day yesturday, to pull a tegu escape on me. Imagine my frantic scrambling trying to find where my lizard was. 

She found Ammy's old hiding spot, a spot almost behind a bookcase. 

Apparently she took offense to me attempting to feed her ground fish, and so now I have learned that if she does not get her massive intake of actual meat, she will go looking for it herself. I got her back in her enclosure, filled her food dish with ground beef, vitamins and two mice, and left her alone. 

I guess it is because she was starved for so long that she's got this extreme food aggression to her. It's crazy how aggressive she is about food! I'm not afraid of her, and I won't tolerate her striking at me, but yeah, it's definitely something I"m going to have to try to train out of her.


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