I made a huge mistake (AKA: Never feed your tegu a duck foot)

[apocalypse910]

I gave Loki a duck foot from the Asian market the other day. I figured it would be a nice treat and he seemed to love it. Today he seemed to be struggling to poop and nothing came out.

I took a closer look and part of the bone was protruding from his vent. I soaked him for a while and he made no progress. Without going in to all the horrifying disgusting details I helped him work it loose, being very careful not to force it.

Apparently the bone was completely undigested. I would not have expected him to have any difficulty with that but I was really wrong. I believe they were raw, however, they weren't labeled so I could be mistaken. His basking temps are good (115 surface temp) and he had plenty of time to bask afterwards. I think there was just too much bone for him to digest.

Should I be concerned about internal injuries? There was no blood and the bone seemed to come out fairly easily - i'm terrified that something that size did some damage on its way through though.

 

[TheTeguGurl]

Well the good thing is there was no blood. I would watch him for 24 hrs to make sure he is acting ok. If you noticed he is either bleeding or pussing out the vent end I would call the Vet ASAP.

 

[Dubya]

Holy crap! I was going to give Gwangi whole drumsticks when he gets bigger. I am rethinking that. I read that Laura whacks chicken thighs with a meat tenderizer mallet to break up the bones. I will make sure to do that.

 

[TheTeguGurl]

That is what I do now after midgard impaction scare as well

 

[apocalypse910]

He seems to be doing great right now. His mood has visibly improved and he's exploring like mad.

Now that I think about it I may know what happened. I let him eat in his cage (he's been really stubborn about eating outside of it lately). He was doing his normal bone crunching routine on the foot. Part way through he picked it up and got a huge piece of moss in his mouth at the same time. I grabbed the moss out of his mouth so he didn't swallow it and he immediately downed the duck foot so I didn't get it. He always thinks I'm going to steal his food - wonder if that made him eat it before he was done breaking it up properly.

Thanks so much for the advice - I will keep a close eye on him.

 

[Deac77]

I'm glad you warned me about this I almost bought some was going to the store this weekend

 

[dragonmetalhead]

I'm glad Loki is okay. What a scary ordeal! Does Loki have issues with the bones of whole prey, or was this an isolated incident?

 

[apocalypse910]

I'm glad Loki is okay. What a scary ordeal! Does Loki have issues with the bones of whole prey, or was this an isolated incident?

Thanks. This is the first incident I've had. He had a fairly large amount of bone in his diet and I've never seen any pass undigested before.

Happily he's fully back to normal now - although I don't think he'll want another duck foot anytime soon.

 

[laurarfl]

Couple of random thoughts....thicker skin on duck feet, thicker bones to support weight, perhaps temps had cooled?