Savannah Vomitting.

[desert_savage]

Originally Posted by infernalis

Ground turkey is bad, bad.. bad.

These animals need whole prey, meaning guts, bones and all. Ground meat lacks the nutrients.

Secondly we really need to know what conditions the lizard are being kept at, Temperatures of the coldest spot in the cage and the temperature of the basking spot.

Also need to know the humidity reading inside the enclosure, what are you using for an enclosure and how much dirt is in the bottom of the enclosure??

Vomiting is not a good sign, it's cause for real concern actually, because when my last sav started puking, he was dead 2 days later.

At the bottom of my post is a link to savannahmonitor.co, please read that site over and see if your conditions are anything close to the published information there.

I already know my conditions are less than ideal, essentially his owner has him in a roughly 3'x2'x2' standard terrarium (think iguanas at the pet store), temps are unknown because she doesn't have a temp gun and my budget leaves no room for picking up extras for him, humidity is questionable, I live in Oceanside California and ambient humidity down here is usually 50-70% (down to 56% today) this summer so I assume between that and frequent misting his humidity should be around or above ambient even with lights. His substrate is that dirt and wood crap people use as garden filler and at it's deepest point it's probably 6".

The reality of it is my friend got him as a rescue, before she could really set up a proper home for him her sister(whom she shares a house with) got engaged and turned into bridezilla leaving her unable to keep Monty until after the wedding and the extraction of bridezilla. I offered a shelf for his tank to sit on while they sorted all this out and to feed him.

[crocdoc]

Originally Posted by desert_savage

The reality of it is my friend got him as a rescue.

You mean your friend got him as a cheap pet, not a rescue. A rescue is when you take an animal from poor conditions and put them into better conditions.

It sounds to me like the monitor doesn't have access to enough heat. Without a hot enough basking spot, they can't metabolise their meals properly and start regurgitating. It usually happens when the meal is something tricky to digest - for example, an adult rat. Rats have thick skin which takes a while for the stomach acids to digest if the monitor isn't hot enough, so by the time the acids get through the rat has already bloated with gas from decomposition and the monitor may regurgitate it. When a monitor starts regurgitating ground turkey, which is like pablum/baby food for monitors when it comes to digestion, you're in real trouble.

Sort out that animal's husbandry as soon as possible. Get a temperature gun or some other means to find out what the temperatures are, give it a hot basking spot, seal the vents so it has more humidity etc.

[desert_savage]

Originally Posted by crocdoc

You mean your friend got him as a cheap pet, not a rescue. A rescue is when you take an animal from poor conditions and put them into better conditions.

It sounds to me like the monitor doesn't have access to enough heat. Without a hot enough basking spot, they can't metabolise their meals properly and start regurgitating. It usually happens when the meal is something tricky to digest - for example, an adult rat. Rats have thick skin which takes a while for the stomach acids to digest if the monitor isn't hot enough, so by the time the acids get through the rat has already bloated with gas from decomposition and the monitor may regurgitate it. When a monitor starts regurgitating ground turkey, which is like pablum/baby food for monitors when it comes to digestion, you're in real trouble.

Sort out that animal's husbandry as soon as possible. Get a temperature gun or some other means to find out what the temperatures are, give it a hot basking spot, seal the vents so it has more humidity etc.

As far as I know that was her intent, she was originally talking about building something for him in the spare room.

I'll see what I can do with a temp gun, there's a Harbor Freight not too far away and I've been keeping a dense blanket on top of the mesh to keep heat and moisture in. I'm just waiting to hear back from my local herp shop to see who in my area is a decent herp vet and we'll go from there. I don't want to see Monty suffer and I really don't want to see him die due to poor conditions, but I don't have the money for huge vet bills if it's something that's going to require surgery.

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by desert_savage

As far as I know that was her intent, she was originally talking about building something for him in the spare room.

I'll see what I can do with a temp gun, there's a Harbor Freight not too far away and I've been keeping a dense blanket on top of the mesh to keep heat and moisture in. I'm just waiting to hear back from my local herp shop to see who in my area is a decent herp vet and we'll go from there. I don't want to see Monty suffer and I really don't want to see him die due to poor conditions, but I don't have the money for huge vet bills if it's something that's going to require surgery.

That is the wonderful thing about monitors, if you get it nice and toasty it will begin to "heal" very quickly.

I hate to say it, but 90% or more of the veterinarians out there do not know as much about Varanids as they do dogs and cats.

Even an "exotics" vet has very little training in Monitor lizards, so there is a strong chance (more like a strong likelihood) that the vet will misdiagnose or just give Baytril without any real understanding about what is wrong.

So before you fork over $100 to a vet, I would use that same money on correcting the animal's environment.

[desert_savage]

Originally Posted by infernalis

That is the wonderful thing about monitors, if you get it nice and toasty it will begin to "heal" very quickly.

I hate to say it, but 90% or more of the veterinarians out there do not know as much about Varanids as they do dogs and cats.

Even an "exotics" vet has very little training in Monitor lizards, so there is a strong chance (more like a strong likelihood) that the vet will misdiagnose or just give Baytril without any real understanding about what is wrong.

So before you fork over $100 to a vet, I would use that same money on correcting the animal's environment.

Alright, in that case I'm going to snag a temp gun in the morning and some new substrate and see if I can find an affordable barometer for his tank at LLL Reptiles. Would you recommend holding off on feeding for a bit or should I just go ahead and snag some roaches/mice while I'm out and feed him tomorrow?