Help! First Hibernation folley! Woke up early and WAY thin!

[Beasty]

My lil female extreme woke up today, first time I'd seen her anyway. She's WAY insane skinny guys! Holy crap! I'm not sure she'll make it even. Only animal I've seen in this bad a shape died.(not in my care)
Woke my boy up and he looks awesome. I put them in a tub with nice warm water which they tried to drink all of. So, what to do with her now? She's very sluggish though I'm assuming she just woke up and she's prolly weak too. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[mr.tegu]

kinda hard for me to say but how long was she in hibernation? off the top of my head the first thing that comes to mind would be some kinda parasite, worms maybe, But i am in no way a vet and i would take her to one before things get worse,
have she fed at all yet?
take a fresh stool to your vet and have it tested for internal parasites..its its cheap..

 

[Beasty]

They came straight from Bobby of course. They've been in hibernation for about 3 months. Best I can guess, she must not have gone down totally before I cut the lights and wrote them off as down. I work graves and didn't see any signs of movement and cut the lights after 3 weeks of inactivity. She wasn't as interested in food as he was but she did eat for me before hibernation.
Her tail is thicker at the base but sunken in underneath and thin at the end part. She has drank a lot of water as did he but neither ate the day old quail I offered.(which was a favorite taken quickly before) I'm putting a hopper(thawed) in with them tonight and hope she eats it. I'm thinking of taking her and placing her in a different tank for a while to try to fatten her up again. They're active now so we'll see what happens from here. If she doesn't eat within a few days I'll take her to the vet.

 

[RehabRalphy]

I can pretty much say that they were hibernating in a too warm of a temperature. Their metabolisms will not slow down unless its a certain coldness. Yours was hibernating, but at the same time burning stored fat.

 

[Beasty]

Hmm... well I kept the boy and girl together and he looks awesome and she looks like crap. From what I could tell about digging him out they were within inches of each other. She was not as good an eater as he though.

 

[DaRealJoker]

I can pretty much say that they were hibernating in a too warm of a temperature. Their metabolisms will not slow down unless its a certain coldness. Yours was hibernating, but at the same time burning stored fat.

I agree. Put your male back in hibernation with no food. Keep your female up and nurse it back up to proper mass. No sence feeding the male as it's in proper condition. Put it back to bed. No food so it can't rot in his belly.

 

[Beasty]

Sounds like a good idea. Was thinking that myself actually.
Still not hearing the warm bit though, he looks great, she's all skinny, they were inches apart in the same enclosure in the same room.

 

[DaRealJoker]

Ah then I say go to the vet then. She could have worms or like you said, maybe she's been active all this time and has been starving. Strange.

 

[RehabRalphy]

Could we clarify how cold the room is/was?

All tegus will hibernate differently.

 

[DaveDragon]

Post some pics to clarify how thin she is and the difference between them.

She could have parasites that have been feeding on her reserves.

Our big male Red Tegu hasn't eaten in 2.5 months and he still looks great. He's in a room that's heated to 70 degrees but since he's close to the concrete floor it could be cooler where he's sleeping. We used to see him for an hour or so on the weekend but I didn't see him at all last weekend.

 

[Beasty]

The room was about 68 to 70 I'd estimate. I didn't take pix but from what I can tell she's filling back out some with all the water she's taking in. She's sleeping on top of the mulch tonight. I left the MVB light on for her seeing the shape she was in and figured if that made her comfortable that would be fine. I have some Parazap I'm thinking of dosing her with just for good measure and also some Nekton-Rep, both of which are water soluble seeing all the water she's taking in. Those may also make her hungry too so we can get her fattened up. I had a tegu before but had never seen one so emaciated and it kinda scared me. I'm thinking these measures will take care of things without a trip to the vet. She's active and filling back out, now to get her to eat and stay awake for a couple weeks. Should do the trick.

 

[ashesc212]

You might want to try Zilla Jump Start Caloric Supplement too. I'm not sure if it would be too intense or not to pump her with this stuff from nothing, maybe someone else could help on that. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's good for all reptiles. My beardie is taking it right now because she hasn't been eating and is on Panacur for pinworms.

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[Beasty]

WOW!
How tough these guys are! She is almost completely filled back out without a bite of food! She was just dehydrated. I went to get her out to inspect her and she's ALL frisky and full of energy and plumped right back up. She could use a bite or few though. I put a few crickets in with her which got no visible rise out of her but I don't see them now.(who could see em in a ton of mulch anyway?)

 

[mr.tegu]

congrats,im happy you got her all fixed up,,good job!!

 

[Beasty]

Thanks for the input folks!
I guess I had a bit of a knee-jerk reaction there but it's better to be safe than sorry.
Merry Christmas! :cheers