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Hello there, this is one of my first ever posts here after a couple of years of lurking! But I thought you guys might be interested to see this. When I first took on Diega, my female T.merianae a couple of years ago she came with a lump on her wrist. Took her to the vet and checked it out and he said as it isn't causing her any grief not to worry about it unless it changes. So anyway, a couple of years later and it's changed! So she was taken straight down the vet. This is how she was presenting:
And she was in obvious discomfort. So she was taken in for radiographs and this is what he found:
I was shocked to say the least and so was he as upon first manipulation it possibly appeared she had an abscess and the procedure was to open and drain it under general anaesthetic. We don't know how she came around getting this but it appears that she's had an infection which has got out of hand and as she's always had this lump we never thought it was anything serious.
So now we're not sure how to proceed as the calcification appears to possibly be attached to her accessory metacarpal bone and we're wondering if that can safely be removed with the weight of the Tegu at the front and have her live a comfortable life afterwards. We won't know until she's opened up if it's attached.
So for the moment she's being treated for the pain with Metacam (meloxicam) and being treated with Fortum injections (ceftazidime) to combat any infection. We're measuring the growth every 72 hours now when she gets her next dose of Fortum as we've noticed it's starting to look more pleasant than before so fingers crossed it at least reduces in size because as we know if she goes for an op to remove it, on top of the complications of putting her under general anaesthetic, and the growth involving any bones etc... Tegus also don't have huge amounts of skin to stitch up!! So just fingers crossed really.
I didn't put the photos up for any reason other than it might be interesting to see other peoples' opinions and if there's a possible shared experience, but mostly because I think they're fascinating and always appreciate seeing these things when other people offer them.
As you can see, (even from the radiograph) Diega is a chunky monkey so i'm even more worried about her having to have a general anaesthetic. Has anyone else had their Tegu go under? Diega means the absolute world to me and we share an incredible bond, I want to do what's best for her but i'm a concerned mummy at the same time.
Here's a happy picture of Diega:
ETA: I don't know the history of Diega, when I took her from the bloke who was keeoing her she was kept in a 3ft glass aquarium, no light or heat source and being fed on liver and apples.
And she was in obvious discomfort. So she was taken in for radiographs and this is what he found:
I was shocked to say the least and so was he as upon first manipulation it possibly appeared she had an abscess and the procedure was to open and drain it under general anaesthetic. We don't know how she came around getting this but it appears that she's had an infection which has got out of hand and as she's always had this lump we never thought it was anything serious.
So now we're not sure how to proceed as the calcification appears to possibly be attached to her accessory metacarpal bone and we're wondering if that can safely be removed with the weight of the Tegu at the front and have her live a comfortable life afterwards. We won't know until she's opened up if it's attached.
So for the moment she's being treated for the pain with Metacam (meloxicam) and being treated with Fortum injections (ceftazidime) to combat any infection. We're measuring the growth every 72 hours now when she gets her next dose of Fortum as we've noticed it's starting to look more pleasant than before so fingers crossed it at least reduces in size because as we know if she goes for an op to remove it, on top of the complications of putting her under general anaesthetic, and the growth involving any bones etc... Tegus also don't have huge amounts of skin to stitch up!! So just fingers crossed really.
I didn't put the photos up for any reason other than it might be interesting to see other peoples' opinions and if there's a possible shared experience, but mostly because I think they're fascinating and always appreciate seeing these things when other people offer them.
As you can see, (even from the radiograph) Diega is a chunky monkey so i'm even more worried about her having to have a general anaesthetic. Has anyone else had their Tegu go under? Diega means the absolute world to me and we share an incredible bond, I want to do what's best for her but i'm a concerned mummy at the same time.
Here's a happy picture of Diega:
ETA: I don't know the history of Diega, when I took her from the bloke who was keeoing her she was kept in a 3ft glass aquarium, no light or heat source and being fed on liver and apples.
