impacted sav.. any suggestion

[Dom]

My large female is not doing so good now a days. She has been living on her own for quite a while and has not eaten for over a month now.

She was pretty badly impacted. She was given a shot of calcium and put on cod liver oil about 10 days ago .. I gave it to her everyday for 5 days in a row then I decided to stop ..

She does not seem impacted anymore but still is not eating.. sh'ell grab the food but not eat it.. Unfortunetly, her tail base is looking very slim. I will try live food tonight and then well .. Not quite sure.. I think shw is on her last string.


Any suggestions anyone?

[Jeff_Favelle]

Can monitors get impacted?

[Dom]

Well I though so .. and thats what the vet said..... She defenetly had something in her stomach and it was not eggs... I peronally don't see why she could not get impacted..


Are u asking that question to make me think or because u don't know..

Not to be rude but can u help at all - shes close to death.

Tx Jeff and anyone else..

[V.hb]

I assume you've done this but throw her in some warm water for an hour a day to keep her hydrated. Keep her humidity between 60 and 80.. Offer some ground turkey.. What did you feed her?? It's not too common for savs to get impacted.. or any monitor really, unless they dont have access to water or adequate basking spots. Offer cooked meats, stuff you wouldnt do often, just to get the feed response back.

[NiagaraReptiles]

Impaction is possible and as previously mentioned, often attributed to dehydration. There are other aspects of husbandry that if not met adequately could result in impaction.

If it were me, I would not be so concerned as to treating the effect, but rather discovering the cause and correcting that. Monitors are tough as nails and are born survivors. If their needs are met in an appropriate fashion, they can get through damn near anything.

Do you know the age of the animal in question Dom? This could be a contributing factor as well. Along with the animals' history (past husbandry, events, etc.)

Best wishes,

[mbayless]

Hi,
Yes, varanids can get impacted, often due to dehydration as said above, but also the urea can build up, creating a urealith, or rod-shaped deposit of urea crytal in the colon, sometimes blocking her cloaca from evacuation. Giving her mineral oil in small amounts can help, and cod-liver oil too.

It is the middle of summer in West Africa when Bosc's monitors adults go off feed for awhile, feeding again in march or so - they can loose alot of wieght during this time, but is completely normal = brumation behavior. Make sure they have clean water and know where it is, and may drink.

Try some cooked egg with pinky-mouse sauce and see if that interests them - offer them food but if they do not eat - ? Force feeding is very stressful to them and they can shut down completely from the stress there-of. If she is taking food but not swallowing it, try smaller food prey until she is comfortable with something to eat...it is frustrating, but like I said earlier, exanthematicus (albigularis, niloticus in drought, griseus) all do this.

Good Luck,
markb

[Dom]

I have been bathing her everyday ..

She was housed in a 6 x 4x4 with a 1 foot deep subtarte - a mix of dirt.. with a water bowl large enough for her to soak .. and a gradient as low as 75 up to about 135 in the hottest place.. Humidity was usually in the low 70's and occasionally in the low 80's depending on misting and such..

As I said she has a feeding response, she is just not eating.. iItried Live small fuzzy mice.. she did not show any interest.. She shows more interest on really warm FT mice..


Her history is HORRIBLE.. She is about 5 years old.. and had had a tough time.. when i got her she had a 6 inch long burn on her back .. as much as 2 inches wide and almost 1 cm deep.. It was bad .. she had a pulmonary infection as well due to the burn and was not properly feed before.. she was very ameciated.. but that was almost 2 years since then .. she recovered and has been doing great since then ..

Anywho .. tx for all the advice although .. I can almost garantee she will not make it. From what I have seen. a monitor stops eating for that long.. it will die..

Feel free to correct any of my husbandry.. or offer any other help

[dlucka]

Hi Dom it's being a long time,

Impacted was covered, the thing i don't like is that she got a food response but don't eat it. Did you have her mouth checked, she might have some thing like mushroom or any other thing that hurt went she eat.

Good luck, keep us on news from her.

[mbayless]

Don't give up yet! A poor attitude or fatalistic ideaology will usually end up like that! Be positive and keep trying.....be patient.

good luck!
markb

[Scales Zoo]

We have a savanna monitor at home that is not doing well either.

It was a rescue, it has had a bad go of captivity.

I think maybe that it's 4 years of very poor husbandry have really taken time off of it's life.

When we got it, it would not eat anything (and had not for some time) That is, until we tried eggs. It ate many eggs with vitamins and calcium, then got onto rodents and was doing really well.

It suddenly got skinny and we were worried. It was treated for parasites fed more eggs.....

He is definitly a survivor. I thought he would crash so many times, and then he picked up again.

His eyes never look really spunky any more, he is small, and I feel really sorry for the guy. He eats when he wants to, we try our best. All other monitors we have are doing really well, and for this guy, we try harder to keep him happy than any other of our monitors.

It is sad, but I hope he dies while well, and does not crash, slowly wasting away until death.

I realize I didn't really offer you any help, but I just wanted to let you know that there are other people with rescue savannas in similar positions, trying to do the best they can.

Ryan

[Dom]

Tx everyone .. I guess only time will tell ..

David - tx for the afvice but I checked her mouth . its seems fine..