Impaction or Constipation? Help Needed!

[Draco D Tegu]

Ok so I spent a week away for work on TDY, and had my neighbor watch my herps. Everyone was fine upon my return, EXCEPT Gator, my tegu. I noticed when I got back that his food had been untouched and seemed pretty dried and bits of food were all around the enclosure.

Long story short, the neighbor was AFRAID of Gator because he wiggles to take him out and feed him. Ummmm, my SAV is scarier than the gu!

I had been feeding him in our bathtub, and he knows what the tub is and gets excited. Soooo, for an entire week after the first day she fed him in his enclosure. He seemed fine at first blush, despite not having eaten, and had consumed a good bit of water.

This was two days ago when I returned. I noticed today that he was struggling to poop. He is passing nothing but a tiny bit of urate and a little bit of watery stool. So, I'm afraid he ingested a good bit of substrate during my TDY.

I force fed him baby food with mineral oil and gave a long hot soak. As I was returning him to his enclosure, he gave me a little bit of a gift in his towel, more mucusy stool and a little bit of urate.

I did notice him straining to pass a little while ago (about 2 hours after I gave him the mineral oil). I know with horses, mineral oil either works after about 20 minutes of trotting or less, or it does not work at all.

He is NOT rolling, is very alert and responsive ( and annoyed) by my massaging his tummy. What more can I do here at home, how often should I continue to force feed the mineral oil baby food mix. And lastly.......

Does anyone know of a good vet in the central PA area??? The two I called didn't even know what the heck a tegu was.

 

[Draco D Tegu]

PS. Any advice and/or vet references are greatly appreciated!

 

[Guest]

Try a mineral oil enema ..

Nice warm soaks in the bath ...

Good luck !!

 

[Draco D Tegu]

Thanks I will try that when I get home. I was worried (am still worried) all the way in to work today. I HOPE he does not take a turn for the worse while I'm out at work. (Sniff) poor little gu. He WAS still alert this morning and his belly looked less "bloated" but unless he buried his poo, there still was nothing. Room did stink like gu-gas though.

 

[DaveDragon]

Some critters get used to a routine, if he's used to pooping in the tub he might be holding it and gotten himself impacted. Daily warm soaks will help. You could try cat hairball medicine. Both of those helped our impacted Blue a few years ago. He had a bad habit of eating his mulch and eventually pooped out a huge load of mulch pieces.

 

[slideaboot]

Some critters get used to a routine, if he's used to pooping in the tub he might be holding it and gotten himself impacted. Daily warm soaks will help. You could try cat hairball medicine. Both of those helped our impacted Blue a few years ago. He had a bad habit of eating his mulch and eventually pooped out a huge load of mulch pieces.

Could you elaborate on the details of the cat hairball medicine approach? Please, Dave?

 

[Draco D Tegu]

Thank you Will try some laxatone as well.

He is still very alert and was wanting to explore when I had him out to force feed him, but still no significant poop.

He did pass a little bit of feces (about the size of a pea) so that should mean at least he's not completely blocked, right?

He DID eat some of his turkey last night after having refused food for the previous two days. Just a little but this is a good sign right?

I did give some gatorade to him, just to keep his guts motile and replenish any electrolytes he lost, since dehydration can cause paralysis of the gut and a "log jam" (no pun intended) and worsen the situation. He did like it, so I offered a bowl as well as clean fresh H20.

I did bring him down and speak to one of the vets with more reptile experience here at work today (but not a herp specialized vet) and she says I'm doing pretty much everything I can short of surgery. Given that she's not really a herp vet but does have lots of impaction experience in other animals, she said with the smaller animals, she wouldn't be comfortable prescribing surgery on a small critter due to complicatons.

Ok, assuming we get thru this hurdle and he passes whatever this is, I am planning on taking him of substrate entirely. I know as they are active burrowers, they MUST have something to cover themselves in. And that substrate is needed to help with humidity.

I actually created a humidifier connection into his new (in progress enclosure) to offer humidity at a more constant state than ordinary misting would. If I were to use a pile of rags (changed daily of course) for him to "burrow" under and keep him on repticarpet, would this suit his psychological needs? Or what if I "halve" his enclosure, a section with bedding to burrow in, and the remainder "grass"? I do not want an unhappy gu, and want to make sure that his mental state does not suffer if I change him out. Or, try something larger like straw?

I DEFINATELY do not want to go through something like this ever again. I feel like a parent with a kid in the hospital!

 

[Draco D Tegu]

Ok after numerous forcefeedings and several enemas.....

WE HAVE POOP!!!!!

I put Gator in his new habitat today thinking maybe that would help because the lights are much warmer......and lo and behold about 20 minutes after I put him in it....he gave me a big ol pile of smelly, slimy, mulchy poo. (Too descriptive?)

I have him on newspaper at the moment, just to eliminate the eating of MORE bedding.

I'll come up with something else to put in there in a day or two. But now that he's starting to pass, that means he should be good to go right?

And how soon should I offer food to him?

 

[Guest]

Great !!!

Congratulations on your pile!!!

Keep up with the hot baths ..

I see no reason you couldn`t feed him tho I personally wouldn`t give him a mouse first thing but rather turkey and fruit

 

[Draco D Tegu]

Great !!!

Congratulations on your pile!!!

Keep up with the hot baths ..

I see no reason you couldn`t feed him tho I personally wouldn`t give him a mouse first thing but rather turkey and fruit

Thanks Montana, I am actually stoked over gu poo LOL:woot


Well I am not sure if you're still online or not, but do you think I should give tonight or first thing tomorrow? Right now he's kinda sleepin' I think that took a lot outta him (no pun intended). Dunno if I should just let him rest or not.

No, I'm gonna give him turkey. He also seems to love the bananna babyfood (hates peach).

I'm all scratched up from handling my rather mean iguana and I don't even care....my gu pooed!

LOL sorry, I'm just acting like a twit....

 

[Draco D Tegu]

Grrr.....he pooped again a good quantity. But he still will not eat. Time to bring him back down and get another Xray....Dagnabit!

 

[slideaboot]

You need to give him time to recover. His body's been through A LOT. He might not eat for a few days, and that's ok. You DEFINITELY do not want to give him any mice right now. Ground turkey with cod liver would be my go-to meal (in SMALL quantities).

Aesop went through the same thing and it took him a few days to recover. Eventually, he went back to eating like a pig.

But, you don't want to cause any undue stress on his digestive tract by getting him to eat too soon. He needs to recover...leave him alone, aside from soaking him or cleaning his cage.

 

[Draco D Tegu]

Thanks, I am gonna take him down just in case to get an X-ray done (it's free) to make sure the main blockage is gone. I tried turkey, with a little cod liver oil in it and his calcium powder.

But he has been acting like a total p!sser last night and tonight. He has never shown any signs of agression (in his old cage) but last night he stood up square on all fours and lunged at me with mouth open and tonight he did it to me three times, once when I reached in to remove his uneaten food, once when I tried to take him out for his bath, and the third time after I had him firmly wrapped in a towel, he opened his mouth as a threat. His old cage was top loading this one is front loading on the floor (well on wheels). I am trying to figure out what exactly to do to NOT encourage this type of behavior to continue. I can understand if he's had enough of enemas and force feeding (both of which were discontinued immedaitely upon his first poop) and maybe he's a little testy with that. But I do NOT want to reinforce bad behavior/and or cage braveness.

Leave him alone for a day or two? Will he think he's "won" the standoff? Or is puberty setting in? He'll be around 7 - 8 months this month. This tegu is a different animal than the one that got sick. I never had a bit of trouble outta him. Not likeing being squared off with and he's getting pretty strong and big, I don't want him to continue it as an adult. Once he was out on the futon, he was fine. Not happy but docile as can be.

 

[slideaboot]

That's the new environment for ya. It's kinda the same concept as bringing a tegu outside for the first time--a lot of them flip out and exhibit a lot of the behavior you're describing. Aesop is the most gentle, tame reptile I've ever come into contact with in 20+ years of reptile keeping and he did the same thing a couple weeks ago when he had to sleep in the bathroom for a night (he had a minor cage malfunction that couldn't be remedied until the next morning).

He was in the bathroom all night--totally fine. The next morning when I went to get him outta there, he got a bit huffy (no open mouth or lunging--just huffy--which never happens). Not crazy behavior, but definitely different than his usual behavior.

The first time I took him outside he FLIPPED on me (this was when he was only a couple months old, though).

He'll get used to the new cage (and the new angle from which you are approaching him) eventually. As with anything with tegus, time and patience are KEY.

 

[Draco D Tegu]

Thanks Slidaboot! I was thinking it might be something about the cage. He has always been a little huffy, but this challenging is new completely. I know he's not happy about not having his mulch, and I did disturb him to check on him.

I imagine I probably look pretty enormous to him because he's now at ground level and I stand close to 6 feet (tall for a girl LOL). Also I knelt down to get at his level when he did it, so maybe the eye contact? Do they dislike stares like dogs do?

Should I continue to try to handle him and put up with the lunging? Or give him a few days of alone time? He's had a lot of stress in the past two weeks.

I know my questions are kinda silly but I figure I won't learn if I don't ask / read

 

[slideaboot]

You might consider going back to a method that a lot of us utilize to get our tegus to trust us when we first get them:

With every new tegu I've owned, I've always spent some time just hanging out by the cage, eventually opening it (the cage--I have front sliding doors) and spending more time. Soon, I'll place my hand in there and simply leave it (awkward, I know, but incredibly helpful in building tegu trust). Of course, if your tegu charges you, get your hand the HELL out of there! But, eventually, I think, your tegu will start to recognize you as harmless (hopefully) and stop exhibiting the behavior you're describing.

Again, this is just advice from one person, but I think it's solid and will help with a lot of the issues you're describing. Not to mention, your tegu's been through A LOT the last couple of weeks with the impaction AND the new caging arrangement.

Time and patience.
Time and patience.
Time and patience...

 

[Draco D Tegu]

Gator'tude!

Thanks I'll start trying that tonight! I did the bathtub thing when he was a baby and the t-shirt thing (which I did again when I put him in the new enclosure) so I'll go back to the hurry up and wait game. It won't be so awkward, my futon is right next to his cage so I can just kinda hang.

Tonight I'll just pick up a book and read next to him.

I wonder if he'll like Michael Chrichton?

:shock: I'll let ya'll know how it goes!

 

[Guest]

Maybe some Tom Clancy [to technical] or maybe some Ann Rice [Too weird ]...

 

[Draco D Tegu]

Eh I dunno, I liked the Old Anne Rice stuff, the new stuff she's into just irks me LOL. I know! Lizards for Dummies (and yes I have that book).

 

[Draco D Tegu]

(Sigh) still won't eat.

Refused Turkey
Refused Tilapia
Refused Can O Grasshoppers
Refused Chicken Gizzards.

Next up, Chicken liver.

Very wobbly and wanting to stay in his towels.

He does come out and it looks like he's been drinking water.