my caimenis sick

[gatorG]

my caimen is sick i think cause its just laying there
eyes r open sometimes bodie seems limp and lookin skinny which it never has b4

i think it threw up two days after its last feeding cause i found it all over the pond it was chicken (raw) the feedng was two days ago . i feed it chicken cause it hasnt been eating the rats just killing them then holding onto them for days till i cant take the smell and wrestle it for the dead rat .it really dont like giveing up its food .its also stressed cause i moved the enclosure around to make space for a larger cage .

what should i do right now i got it out o the water under lights keeping it warm .

its about 3.4 feet and have had it for 2 and a bit years

[gatorG]

now its lookin worse now its even more limp eyes r almost closed
lets me touch him no fuss that not normalbreathing is real slight but i can still feel a pulse just behind its front leg.
i been openning its mouth and watering it every half hour or so .
i fear the worst but im trying .
one moment hes fine no problems ever now its lookin like its done but i will fight for it till the last moments but i got hope .
his name is jakar coroa thats what they call the trigs in south america

[NewLineReptile]

What are your temps? And put him back in the water as he will just get stressed maybe take him to the vet. Try to feed him small prey and see if he can keep that down.

Brandon

[gatorG]

water is 78 the rest of the enclosure is real warm i know well into 80sor higher .

[chappy]

I don't know very much about caimens, but is feeding raw chicken ok for them, isnt there the risk of salmonella poisoning???

[gatorG]

many caimen owners fed chicken raw i have as well a few times along with salmon steak and a steady diet of rats but i also think its the chickenthats causing the problem
but its not looking good

[gatorG]

RIP jakar

its all over

[KrokadilyanGuy3]

Did these reactions start up the day you wrote this post?

By the sounds of everything from the amount of stress to the weak eyes, to the limp disposition, sounds like Hypoglycaemia; If I had to diagnose the animal myself from what you have told us. Then again, I am not a vet.

If these problems have been going on for a while you should have seeked a qualified vet.
If the raw chicken was store bought, there is no telling what may have happened to the animal. A type of Salmonella; Steroid problems; some other induced drug farmers use, maybe even a poison the bird came in contact with before it was 'harvested.' I do not feed my crocodilians store bought anything.

Your animal holding onto it's food item is a common thing if it were to big to swallow at the time being. Had a young American alligator who held onto a squirrel it had caught for 2+ weeks before it was finally eaten. All part of the game. If you was displeased with the smell (who wouldn't be) I would have went with something smaller until he did. Stress can cause Hypoglycaemia as well as lack of food or sharp degrees of temperature differences.
Personally, the minute my animal regurged I would have made a vet stop that or the next day. Not a very common encounter in my experience.

All in all, you're temps sound good, you did good putting the animal on a dry surface but what was the humidity like? How often did you interact with your animal once you realized something was wrong? Did you or anyone else happen to spray chemicals (bleach, Pinesol, etc.) near/in the enclosure?

Either way, sorry about the loss.
Xain

[gatorG]

no no bleach or chems used and the trig never showed signs of any problems like i said i have owned the animale for most of its life never any probs or or signs of of problems to give me a head start at helping it .
i threw up its food saturday morning and it was dead buy sat at 330 am .when it threw up i thought it was a bad stool so thought nothing of it sept that it now needed a cleaning,when the water cleared i saw the chicken at the bottem
at the point i noticed a problem sat at 700pm or so i pulled it from the water put under heat and the forced clean water into it every half hour till the end ,i couldnt think of anythingelse i could do for it .
i live in ontario canada and theres not much vetenary help gators/caimens here .
i have talked to a taxedermist to have it stuffed 8 dollars an inch .

if u dont feed store bought meat then where do u get it from ?
i thought of wild feed but was scared of pariscites and stuff.

but thanx for talkin with me in my time of need this is a good forum

[KrokadilyanGuy3]

if u dont feed store bought meat then where do u get it from ?
i thought of wild feed but was scared of pariscites and stuff.



I normally breed my own feed animals. I am also a hunter so anything I catch I usually set aside some parts of deer, pig, fowl ect. If you're worried about parasites and diesease, freezing and cooking are a good way to emliminate that. You still have a chance for chemical poisoning, but I figure, if I'm going to die, might as well everything else comes with me. heh. (I eat everything I shoot.) And, if I live, then I'm sure they will too. Also, parasites really aren't that big of deal, normally. Every wild animal has them and yet they are still alive so why worry? Vet checks or giving Flagyl and Panacur to the animals when recommended will help you there as well.

About your animal, I'm quite amazed at how fast your animal died from notice to departure duration. I've never heard of anything like it that hasn't involved chemicals, especially in crocodilians. If you could, I would probably see about a vet checking him out when you can. If not, he would make a rather impressive statue. I'm quite jealous really, having a 4.5' Paleosuchus.
Xain

[gatorG]

yea this really sucks but its done now .
it was really fast it upsets me couldnt do much .

i was just finishing its new enclosure he was to move in in 4 days after i made sure all temps were set where i neededthem

i dont wanna just replace it makes me feel guilty trading life but there s a yung yacar caimen in i was offerd a couple weeks ago but wasnt interestid seeing i had a trig at that time .

yacars get big for a caimen but i cant find much info on em
got any

[KrokadilyanGuy3]

Why is it that I seem to be the only one who can't find a yacare? Are you in Canada?

I wouldn't worry too much on size, Yacares don't normally reach their full size potential for many reasons. Pretty much to sum it all up, Yacares are housed exactly like Spectacles. Actually, pretty much everything is identical to the spec. Size, housing, food, breeding, ect ect.
So if you can't find anything on them, look up Spectacles and just reenact it towards the Yacare.
As for feeling bad, things happen. Take extra precautions. Besides, eventually you'll get another and there really is no difference from now to then. Learning from mistakes and taking extra criticism to your care and methods is the key, not waiting a certain time period. -Not saying anything negative towards your care and the such.
Good luck,
Xain

[gatorG]

yea im in canada ontario actully
but the yacare has my intrest .
how yould a young one do in a large enclosure the space is 4x8 and 5 feet of that is pond 16 inches deep ihave herd that it coould stress some young lizards and other reptiles think this is the same for caimen .
the yacar is probably just less then a foot and fiesty.

o when i took it to the taxedermist i ask that when he cleans it if he could at the very least look for worms and stuff cause for awile after it was dead i could watch its bodie rippel like when they r full and turning the food in there bellies

[KrokadilyanGuy3]

Depends. Is this enclosure heavily vegitated?
Personally, I would put it into something smaller before I threw it into something that large.

[the_frog_man]

sorry about your caiman man it allways sucks when somthing passes a way R.I.P.

[gatorG]

yea there lots of vegitation real and fake to give cover seeing as it was for a trig and they tend to like to hide or burrow .

i was thinkin of limiting land mass buy sectioning part of the encloser off an filling the pond with brick then gravel over that to make the water shalower .

and yea it still sucks i havent gotten over it yet