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Blue Tegus butt hangs out when pooping.

Systemerror

New Member
Messages
5
Hi all so my my Blue Tegu had had issues pooping for quite sometime now. I actually thought it was due to impaction and got him over to the vet. Vet took some x-rays and noticed no impaction but expressed his concern for the bone fractures he saw. Ended up being something with his bulb and it being to bright so he/she generally disliked basking. Swapped the bulb and noticed they became more active and not so sluggish.

But the butt issues are persisting. While he was at the vet he didn't poop so the vet couldn't see what I was talking about. I'm not sure how worried I should be of this since its honestly been going on for months now and we'll they seem to be doing fine otherwise. For all I know this is just generally how they poop?

Little insight. I feed em ground turkey/eggs regularly with pinkies every now and then. He will not eat veggies unless I mash them in with the ground turkey.

Might anyone know whats going on here maybe? I'll add some pictures. The pink part typically ALWAYS goes back in at some point it just may take 10 minutes or so after they've pooped. I mainly worry because while its out they'll drag it around on the substrate, rocks, bedding etc and it'll get clumped with all the substrate making it really dirty. I typically give them baths to wash it and make sure it stays moist and not dry however even after a 20 minute bath it might still not have receded and if I put em right back in the enclosure it'll get clumped again immediately. Again I don't know how detrimental it is to their health. Ive debated swapping out all the substrate and just using towels if this is generally his life and might cause issues down the road. I appreciate any and all insight!
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LizardStudent

Active Member
Messages
118
Location
Nashville, TN
Are you heavily supplementing calcium and general multivitamins into the turkey and things you feed your tegu? Pinkies in particular have little nutritional value as they are not very developed and should also be heavily supplemented, or better yet upgrade to fuzzies. Not sure if your guy is big enough for hoppers. I don't know if diet would be the main cause of the butt issue, but it is probably also affecting your tegus behavior especially if you've noticed some sluggish activity, etc
 

Systemerror

New Member
Messages
5
Are you heavily supplementing calcium and general multivitamins into the turkey and things you feed your tegu? Pinkies in particular have little nutritional value as they are not very developed and should also be heavily supplemented, or better yet upgrade to fuzzies. Not sure if your guy is big enough for hoppers. I don't know if diet would be the main cause of the butt issue, but it is probably also affecting your tegus behavior especially if you've noticed some sluggish activity, etc

I do sprinkle D3 over his meals about 2/3 times a week. As far as activity hes surely been more active since the bulb change and started giving him ground turkey as his staple meals over eggs. He used to slide everywhere before which I was scared might be MBD, but he's definitely improved and actually picks himself up when he walks now. Hes still not a very hyper fellow as I've seen some other tegus to be where they will run at the sight of food but I think the diet is good where it's at now. I just can't for the life of me figure out the cause of the butt issue.

They have good temps (day & night), good diet, good lighting, good humidity. The only thing I really haven't done yet is a fecal check to see if it's parasites maybe?
 

LizardStudent

Active Member
Messages
118
Location
Nashville, TN
I do sprinkle D3 over his meals about 2/3 times a week. As far as activity hes surely been more active since the bulb change and started giving him ground turkey as his staple meals over eggs. He used to slide everywhere before which I was scared might be MBD, but he's definitely improved and actually picks himself up when he walks now. Hes still not a very hyper fellow as I've seen some other tegus to be where they will run at the sight of food but I think the diet is good where it's at now. I just can't for the life of me figure out the cause of the butt issue.

They have good temps (day & night), good diet, good lighting, good humidity. The only thing I really haven't done yet is a fecal check to see if it's parasites maybe?
It may be nutrition that's causing this partly. Eggs really cannot be used as a staple for the diet, your tegu will be malnourished if they are. Ground turkey can be used if it is heavily supplemented with calcium/vitamin powder everytime its fed. The best nutrition option is whole prey, like mice, quail chicks, etc so they get all the hair and bones and things they would get in the wild. If you feed them any meal that is not whole prey, then the meal should be supplemented with those vitamins, otherwise you will likely see issues. I think you should try offering more whole prey that isn't pinkies and more bone-in meat and you might see some improvement.
You can check the feces for parasites, you can also give it a bath in sugar water to get the pink bit less inflamed and probably it will go back inside quicker
 

Roadkill

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
497
Location
Earth
The issue you are seeing is called prolapsing, which can be caused by a number of issues: parasites, straining hard to defecate, nutritional imbalance, congenital defect, dehydration, etc.

The food you are giving him is nutritionally imbalanced: ground turkey (or any meat for that matter) is primarily just protein, most importantly it is low in calcium. Eggs are primarily protein, low in calcium, and if not "cooked" high in avidin which will bind up biotin, leading to nutritional imbalance. You say you "sprinkle D3 over his meals 2/3 times a week" - I doubt it is just strictly vitamin D3, likely a calcium/vitamin D3 supplement but this still strikes me as nutritionally deficient. Most people when they say this are by no means giving enough calcium to make up for all the bones that are not in the meals they are presenting.

You also mention that the vet didn't see anything of concern with impaction, but concerned with bone breaks.

You mention switching out bulbs, but not what was the type of bulbs either before or after.

I'm looking at all these, and I see a host of husbandry issues. Primarily nutrition. I highly suspect your tegu is hypocalcemic, which could account for bone breaks, the tegu pushing itself around instead of walking, and the constant prolapsing. However, for proper calcium metabolism you need vitamin D3 - but it's not as simple as just putting a little on their food now and then. Whether it is supplemented or naturally in their food, vitamin D3 is not really the compound the animal's physiology uses for the proper handling of calcium. First it goes through some changes when exposed to heat and UVB - and this is where your bulbs come in. If your bulb was too hot, yes the animal is going to likely stay away from basking and therefore not get enough vitamin D3 conversion. So this is another area you need to look at with your husbandry: what is the basking temperature? Do your bulbs produce UVB? What temperature is your tegu able to achieve?

LizardStudent mentions that you can bathe the tegu in sugar water, and while this is often said, it is kind of misleading in what you should be doing. Sugar water will keep the prolapse wet (which is good) and the tissue supplied with nutrient (which is also good)....but what you really want to be doing is more making a paste of sugar & water and then coating the prolapsed tissue with it. You'll get the same benefits as stated above, but a paste will not be osmotically balanced with the tissue, and it will in fact draw water out of the tissue, thereby reducing any swelling, making it easier to retract the prolapse.

Also as LizardStudent has said, beings as you are feeding calcium poor foods, you really need to supplement with calcium with every meal that doesn't constitute whole prey (ie. with bones). You also want to try to get more plant matter in the diet as this will not only help nutritionally, but acts to mobilize gut contents so that it is easier to defecate. Problem is, most people tend to think of plant matter in the manner that they themselves would eat, and the fact of the matter is tegus are not shopping at Safeway down in South America, and while we may not be able to provide the exact same sorts of vegetative matter as they'd find in their native habitat, we can do a lot better by at least trying to mimic it. With leafy greens it is often hard to get tegus to eat them at all, but I find chopping them up finely and mixing them into the ground meat you offer often works well. Stay away from root type vegetables. For fruit, you either want to go with semi-soft, mushy (mango, banana, cantaloupe, papaya) or small and round (berries, grapes, cherries).
 

Systemerror

New Member
Messages
5
Thank you for the detailed write up.

The bulb was a mercury bulb. Thing was pretty big to be honest and my guess it was the lighting that it really didn't agree with it was just very very bright. I swapped that out for a halogen light, basking area is 110-120ish typically.

After I swapped the mercury to a halogen I also got a long 34" UVB tube bulb so it covers his entire enclosure. I definitely had husbandry issues and have been working to correct everything. I think the lighting, temperatures, and humidity is all good as I've seen major improvements to their behavior since the changes.

However the diet I thought would be suffice as long as I mixed D3 in which is in fact a supplement. It's just what the vet suggested to do since I had a hard time getting pinkies regularly at that stage when he went to the vet. They've certainly grown since and can probably go with hoppers but would probably have to chop it into segments just to be safe they pass it just fine due to rectum issues. I've already started feeding them those as the previous person has suggested. Aside from trying staple whole mice as meals as I've said I can't seem to get him to eat fruit/veggies unless I mix it in the ground turkey. Perhaps I can try to mix less and less ground turkey and hope they'll eventually be open to eatting just greens.

While I have been doing the sugar water (I've even been suggested to try Vaseline by someone else with experience) it still may not go in after a 20 minute bath but eventually it always does. My concern with doing the paste is, I can rub the sugary paste on it but the second I put him back in the enclosure hes going to have a clump of substrate on his butt as they drag it around till it goes it. I can't keep that area 100% clean and have him in the enclosure at the same time. I'm really stuck on what to do there other than remove all the substrate entirely till the issue is resolved then go back and use substrate again. However if it's really not all that serious that he gets a ton of dirt on his but then I guess I could stop worrying about it and focus on the diet issue.
 

TheTeguNovice

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
168
Location
California
The issue you are seeing is called prolapsing, which can be caused by a number of issues: parasites, straining hard to defecate, nutritional imbalance, congenital defect, dehydration, etc.

The food you are giving him is nutritionally imbalanced: ground turkey (or any meat for that matter) is primarily just protein, most importantly it is low in calcium. Eggs are primarily protein, low in calcium, and if not "cooked" high in avidin which will bind up biotin, leading to nutritional imbalance. You say you "sprinkle D3 over his meals 2/3 times a week" - I doubt it is just strictly vitamin D3, likely a calcium/vitamin D3 supplement but this still strikes me as nutritionally deficient. Most people when they say this are by no means giving enough calcium to make up for all the bones that are not in the meals they are presenting.

You also mention that the vet didn't see anything of concern with impaction, but concerned with bone breaks.

You mention switching out bulbs, but not what was the type of bulbs either before or after.

I'm looking at all these, and I see a host of husbandry issues. Primarily nutrition. I highly suspect your tegu is hypocalcemic, which could account for bone breaks, the tegu pushing itself around instead of walking, and the constant prolapsing. However, for proper calcium metabolism you need vitamin D3 - but it's not as simple as just putting a little on their food now and then. Whether it is supplemented or naturally in their food, vitamin D3 is not really the compound the animal's physiology uses for the proper handling of calcium. First it goes through some changes when exposed to heat and UVB - and this is where your bulbs come in. If your bulb was too hot, yes the animal is going to likely stay away from basking and therefore not get enough vitamin D3 conversion. So this is another area you need to look at with your husbandry: what is the basking temperature? Do your bulbs produce UVB? What temperature is your tegu able to achieve?

LizardStudent mentions that you can bathe the tegu in sugar water, and while this is often said, it is kind of misleading in what you should be doing. Sugar water will keep the prolapse wet (which is good) and the tissue supplied with nutrient (which is also good)....but what you really want to be doing is more making a paste of sugar & water and then coating the prolapsed tissue with it. You'll get the same benefits as stated above, but a paste will not be osmotically balanced with the tissue, and it will in fact draw water out of the tissue, thereby reducing any swelling, making it easier to retract the prolapse.

Also as LizardStudent has said, beings as you are feeding calcium poor foods, you really need to supplement with calcium with every meal that doesn't constitute whole prey (ie. with bones). You also want to try to get more plant matter in the diet as this will not only help nutritionally, but acts to mobilize gut contents so that it is easier to defecate. Problem is, most people tend to think of plant matter in the manner that they themselves would eat, and the fact of the matter is tegus are not shopping at Safeway down in South America, and while we may not be able to provide the exact same sorts of vegetative matter as they'd find in their native habitat, we can do a lot better by at least trying to mimic it. With leafy greens it is often hard to get tegus to eat them at all, but I find chopping them up finely and mixing them into the ground meat you offer often works well. Stay away from root type vegetables. For fruit, you either want to go with semi-soft, mushy (mango, banana, cantaloupe, papaya) or small and round (berries, grapes, cherries).
Thank you so much for all of this insight! I'm not having this issue but definitely benefiting from this post. In regards to leafy vegetation, are you referencing spinach, mixed greens, mustard greens?
 

Merlot

Active Member
Messages
139
Please have your vet do a fecal sample- my Gu had this issue with its rectum pro lapsing and it ended up being parasites and they gave him medicine and cleared it all up
 

IrieRogue

New Member
Messages
18
Hi all so my my Blue Tegu had had issues pooping for quite sometime now. I actually thought it was due to impaction and got him over to the vet. Vet took some x-rays and noticed no impaction but expressed his concern for the bone fractures he saw. Ended up being something with his bulb and it being to bright so he/she generally disliked basking. Swapped the bulb and noticed they became more active and not so sluggish.

But the butt issues are persisting. While he was at the vet he didn't poop so the vet couldn't see what I was talking about. I'm not sure how worried I should be of this since its honestly been going on for months now and we'll they seem to be doing fine otherwise. For all I know this is just generally how they poop?

Little insight. I feed em ground turkey/eggs regularly with pinkies every now and then. He will not eat veggies unless I mash them in with the ground turkey.

Might anyone know whats going on here maybe? I'll add some pictures. The pink part typically ALWAYS goes back in at some point it just may take 10 minutes or so after they've pooped. I mainly worry because while its out they'll drag it around on the substrate, rocks, bedding etc and it'll get clumped with all the substrate making it really dirty. I typically give them baths to wash it and make sure it stays moist and not dry however even after a 20 minute bath it might still not have receded and if I put em right back in the enclosure it'll get clumped again immediately. Again I don't know how detrimental it is to their health. Ive debated swapping out all the substrate and just using towels if this is generally his life and might cause issues down the road. I appreciate any and all insight!View attachment 15451View attachment 15452View attachment 15453
This definitely looks like a prolapse. For temporary relief soak the baby in warm water that contains as much white granulated sugar dissolved within it as possible. This will reduce swelling and allow the cloaca to retract. I would have the vet test for parasites, as this can be a symptom. I would add a high quality multivitamin to the diet, as well as lots of fruits and veggies. I puree mine and stuff chicks and rodents when dealing with a picky baby (all animals are babies imo, in case of confusion lol). I also puree and chop them, and then mix them with ground turkey, ground/chopped whole prey, a fish fillet, a dollop of lean beef, Mazuri carnivore mix, calcium, and multivitamin. Reptilinks are also balanced with good nutrition, if you don't have the time or means to create a mix yourself.
 

Systemerror

New Member
Messages
5
This definitely looks like a prolapse. For temporary relief soak the baby in warm water that contains as much white granulated sugar dissolved within it as possible. This will reduce swelling and allow the cloaca to retract. I would have the vet test for parasites, as this can be a symptom. I would add a high quality multivitamin to the diet, as well as lots of fruits and veggies. I puree mine and stuff chicks and rodents when dealing with a picky baby (all animals are babies imo, in case of confusion lol). I also puree and chop them, and then mix them with ground turkey, ground/chopped whole prey, a fish fillet, a dollop of lean beef, Mazuri carnivore mix, calcium, and multivitamin. Reptilinks are also balanced with good nutrition, if you don't have the time or means to create a mix yourself.
Thank you for the suggestion! I love the idea of the Reptilinks! I just want them to get the best diet possible at this point. I can figure out how to reduce cost later!
 

LizardStudent

Active Member
Messages
118
Location
Nashville, TN
Thank you for the suggestion! I love the idea of the Reptilinks! I just want them to get the best diet possible at this point. I can figure out how to reduce cost later!
Good thinking, and in my opinion, the reptilinks are not even as expensive as some people make them seem. Their young tegu blend is $80 and sold as a 6 month supply, which is about $13 a month to feed excellent nutritional food to your tegu. I do reptilinks and weekly whole prey for my girl, I think that it doesn't hurt to throw them a chick every now and then
 

Dylan koch

Member
Messages
311
Make sure you add calcium to diet a good mix is reptilinks super easy has everything tegus need for younger ones I mostly feed insects and evt
 

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