apocalypse910
Active Member
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A few weeks ago I discovered a discoloration on the roof of Loki's mouth. I took him to the vets office immediately and it turns out that he'd developed an abscess there. I think we caught it fairly early as he was still eating and not showing any signs of distress.
They couldn't even look at it without knocking him out so I had to bring him back the next day so they could put him under, examine/clean out the abscess. We had to give him daily baytril injections (which was terrible - don't think I've ever felt so guilty in my life). They also had to do a followup appointment 10 days later to make sure that it was healing - Loki does not like people messing with his mouth so this required general anesthetic again.
For the first appointment they went light on the anesthetic - Loki is overweight (and now on a diet) so they were worried about putting him under too deeply. He woke up as they were preparing to look at his mouth... broke away from the tech that was holding him and grabbed a piece of equipment off the table and bit it so hard that his mouth started bleeding. They gave him a higher dosage but he continued biting it for about ten minutes. When I picked him up hours later he had his back arched and was growling (yes.. literally growling). He halfheartedly tried to bite my husband which shocked me - Loki is one of the best tempered animals I've ever encountered and my husband is his favorite person by far.
The second appointment they tried to put him under again and he went nuts. He attacked a pole they were using to try and keep him at bay. Eventually they had to gas him to put him under on top of the injected general anesthetic. When I came to pick him up he was insanely stressed - back arched, hissing... Enough that I thought twice about taking him out of the cage. Finally he started walking towards me very slowly while making eye contact. He then launched himself in the air and tried to bite my face. I tried to throw a blanket over him but he jumped up, twisted the blanket away from me and sat there looking me in the eye while biting it. Eventually the vet came back and helped me wrangle him in to his carrier. He was back to his normal puppy-dog personality when I got him home.
I'm curious - has anyone else experienced this with their Tegu? Do they normally get crazy when partially sedated or is it just a stress reaction. Also are they particularly resistant to certain anesthetics relative to other reptiles?
Loki is doing great by the way - the abscess is healing and he seems to be over his ordeal. I'm going to try to bring him by the vets office for treats and attention to overcome the negative association. He absolutely loved visiting the vet up until this point so I'm hoping that he forgives this incident. Likewise I think he scared the hell out of a few people in the vets office - he normally is such a sweetheart and loves visiting with them so hoping this incident doesn't change that.
They couldn't even look at it without knocking him out so I had to bring him back the next day so they could put him under, examine/clean out the abscess. We had to give him daily baytril injections (which was terrible - don't think I've ever felt so guilty in my life). They also had to do a followup appointment 10 days later to make sure that it was healing - Loki does not like people messing with his mouth so this required general anesthetic again.
For the first appointment they went light on the anesthetic - Loki is overweight (and now on a diet) so they were worried about putting him under too deeply. He woke up as they were preparing to look at his mouth... broke away from the tech that was holding him and grabbed a piece of equipment off the table and bit it so hard that his mouth started bleeding. They gave him a higher dosage but he continued biting it for about ten minutes. When I picked him up hours later he had his back arched and was growling (yes.. literally growling). He halfheartedly tried to bite my husband which shocked me - Loki is one of the best tempered animals I've ever encountered and my husband is his favorite person by far.
The second appointment they tried to put him under again and he went nuts. He attacked a pole they were using to try and keep him at bay. Eventually they had to gas him to put him under on top of the injected general anesthetic. When I came to pick him up he was insanely stressed - back arched, hissing... Enough that I thought twice about taking him out of the cage. Finally he started walking towards me very slowly while making eye contact. He then launched himself in the air and tried to bite my face. I tried to throw a blanket over him but he jumped up, twisted the blanket away from me and sat there looking me in the eye while biting it. Eventually the vet came back and helped me wrangle him in to his carrier. He was back to his normal puppy-dog personality when I got him home.
I'm curious - has anyone else experienced this with their Tegu? Do they normally get crazy when partially sedated or is it just a stress reaction. Also are they particularly resistant to certain anesthetics relative to other reptiles?
Loki is doing great by the way - the abscess is healing and he seems to be over his ordeal. I'm going to try to bring him by the vets office for treats and attention to overcome the negative association. He absolutely loved visiting the vet up until this point so I'm hoping that he forgives this incident. Likewise I think he scared the hell out of a few people in the vets office - he normally is such a sweetheart and loves visiting with them so hoping this incident doesn't change that.
