Reptile/Monitor

My monitor is sick.... He hasn't really been eating and has lost a significant amount of weight in the last 1 1/2 wks... I've tried feeding him myself, but he still refuses... Because he's lost so much weight he isn't very strong. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get him to eat??? Please help. Thanks. Dawn

Hi Dawn,

I've never dealt with a monitor before, but I do know with iguana's, they sometimes go a week without eating and are fine. Reptiles can go quite awhile without eating, its normal. If it doesn't eat soon or your too worried about him now, please call a Vet. How old is your monitor and how long have you had him?.

[Love Bird B]

Hi Sweetangel,

This is a question better answered by my hubby who has written a book on monitors! -

To even attempt to answer this one would need to know what it is being fed, how emaciated it is (i.e., what sort of condition it is in). The weight it lost in such a short time implies severe dehydration, which compounds the problem. In addition one needs to know how warm it is kept, light-dark rhythm, enclosure size, and whether it has any external lesions. Finally, the species would be a great help, since there are over 40 species of monitor.

We hope to hear more from you. It's been our experience that most vets aren't well trained in treating lizards.
B

Wow, thats wonderful about your hubby B!, whats the title of his book?. I'd love to read it!.
Thats sad to hear about your experience with vets. We have two vets in our area that are very skilled in the reptile dept.

Dawn, hows your monitor doing?

[Love Bird B]

Hi Squawks,

Mike's book is:

The Care and Maintenance of Common Species of Monitors and Tegus, published by Advanced Vivarium Systems by Michael Balsai.

It's available in petstores as well as online through:
A1 Books, Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes&Noble, Booksamillion Buy.com

There are also several articles about him online.

Dawn, we hope to hear from you soon about your monitor.

B

How exciting....I'll look for it !!

Ummmmm......Think he'll autograph it for me?

[Love Bird B]

Jan,

I'm still getting names straight.

I should check for you to see exactly where the book is still available. It's several years old. In fact, Mike was still working on his Ph.D. He mentioned that it may be difficult to get, which was something I hadn't thought of.

Later-
B

[Love Bird B]

Jan,

There are plenty of places that still have it available! I checked out this site to compare prices.

http://www.anybook4less.com/compare.html

[Love Bird B]

Dawn,

We're still wondering how your monitor is doing.

B

Hi Squawks & Love Bird,

Thank you both for your replies. It's very rare I find people who own a monitor lizard. I didn't know where else to turn for info and found this site & thought I would give it a try... Anyway, First of all, our monitor is, we believe about 8-10 yrs old & we've had him for about 3-4 of those yrs. Next, he eats chicken livers & gizards (which was told to us by the previous owner). In addition I do sprinkle a powder vitamin supplement over his food. As I said before he has lost a severe amount of weight suddenly, I give him fresh water every time he eats and the last time he ate a usual hearty meal was approx. a 3 1/2 wks ago. I fed him two weeks ago (we usually feed him every week), and noticed the next day he had hardly touched anything.. I didn't notice the weight loss right away, I'm sure it was evident then, but sometimes things are just very hectic around here and I guess I just missed it.. (feeling terrible)... Anyway, He does have a heating pad underneath his cage, and his cage size is approx. one and a half times his size. (We are currently building him a larger cage so he has more room to move about more freely. We also give him regular "baths" for him to swim around, which he loves and even allow him to roam around the house when we are home sometimes... he has no exterior lesions and as for his species, I am unsure. I do have a bit of good news since I posted my thread... Buddy has eaten a little bit. He is nowhere near his usual amount of food.. but I have been trying to get him to eat whatever I can by hand. I assume his stomach has shrunk and can't eat alot right now, so I have been trying to get him to eat just a little at least once, if not twice a day. I have also been trying to get him to drink by holding him up to his water and literaly putting his mouth into the water bowl.. when I came home tonight I noticed that his water bowl was empty, which seemed a good sign.. I appreciate both of you replying, I really didn't expect to find a reply at all... I will also look for your husbands book "B" since it might prove to be useful even if I do get Buddy back on his feet again... I also want to say, that we also had a "Tagu" prior to the monitor, unfortunately he died from a large tumor on his leg.. . I am not going to give up on Buddy... and I will keep you both posted as to his recovery.... any additional thoughts or advice would still be appreciated and I will continue on my current "nursing methods" for the time being. Thanks again to both of you..
Dawn

[Mrs.Birdy]

Hello: I am a "bird" person and admit to not knowing anything about monitor lizards or any reptiles/lizards in general, but I found this forum so interesting that I did some of my own research......

Sweetangel11: I found this website on the identification of Monitor lizards and it has many pictures to help you identify your Buddy. Also has some other info.

Here it is:
http://www.photovault.com/Link/Anima...orLizards.html

Lovebird B.....I was also inspired to look up more info when I read that your husband was an authority and has written his book......facininating.

Sorry...I hope I didn't step in where I don't belong, but I did find researching these creatures fun and very interesting.

Hope it helps.

[Love Bird B]

Mrs. Birdy, it's a pleasure to have your interest and thoughts whenever and where ever!

Thanks for the info!
B

[Love Bird B]

Dawn,

I sent your response to Mike in an e-mail. From my point of view what he's been eating hasn't been quite right. In the wild they wouldn't just eat the liver and gizzards from the animals they've found. Have you ever tried giving Buddy dog or cat food that would be more balanced?

We'll be keeping you posted.

B

[Love Bird B]

Dawn,

Here are Mike's replies:

"I didn't know where else to turn for info and found this site & thought I would give it a try... Anyway, First of all, our monitor is, we believe about 8-10 yrs old & we've had him for about 3-4 of those yrs. Next, he eats chicken livers & gizards (which was told to us by the previous owner)."

-This diet is already a good part of the problem for at least two easily identified reasons.

(1) if the chicken parts are served raw, then he has made the lizard a good rich source of Salmonella.

(2) chicken livers in great quantity may be inducing hypervitaminosis A which can account for the anorexia (there are distinctive symptoms for this condition, but little really useful information has been supplied so far).

"In addition I do sprinkle a powder vitamin supplement over his food."

-May be of additional questionable value and further harming the lizard [see (2)] above. In addition, where is this powder coming from? If it is from a pharmacy counter then it has further reduced value because reptiles require certain vitamins in alternative forms (such as vitamin D). Excessive amounts of A result in, among other things, depression, anorexia, skin sloughing, vomiting, possibly even the weight loss.


"As I said before he has lost a severe amount of weight suddenly, I give him fresh water every time he eats"

-Give him fresh water every day at this point.

..and the last time he ate a usual hearty meal was approx. a 3 1/2 wks ago. I fed him two weeks ago (we usually feed him every week), and noticed the next day he had hardly touched anything.. I didn't notice the weight loss right away, I'm sure it was evident then, but sometimes things are just very hectic around here and I guess I just missed it.. (feeling terrible)... Anyway, He does have a heating pad underneath his cage, and his cage size is approx. one and a half times his size."

-Both are barely adequate environmental conditions. He should really have a good basking light and area and the ability to move back and forth from this area. He is also probably not warm enough, either.


"(We are currently building him a larger cage so he has more room to move about more freely."


-Bigger the better.


"We also give him regular "baths" for him to swim around, which he loves"


-Ensure no exposure to drafts when wet.

and even allow him to roam around the house when we are home sometimes... he has no exterior lesions

I wonder if he has bone lesions, another symptom of too much vitamin A.
and as for his species, I am unsure.

-This is very important. Send a good photo or something so maybe someone else can identify it.


" I do have a bit of good news since I posted my thread... Buddy has eaten a little bit. He is nowhere near his usual amount of food.. but I have been trying to get him to eat whatever I can by hand. I assume his stomach has shrunk and can't eat alot right now, so I have been trying to get him to eat just a little at least once, if not twice a day."

-If he is continuing the above diet he is only compounding the harm! Try feeding him lean dead mice for now.

Mike
============================

I don't know if you can get 'lean dead mice'? Is this possible for you?
B

Thank you Love Bird B!!... I'm finding this so interesting.
This site is very educating, great info...... http://www.anapsid.org/balsai.html
I will also check into getting Mikes book.

We have Iguana's and Bearded Dragons, so I continued searching the site. I love it!.

While checking out the Bearded Dragon page, I read this... could Dawns monitor possibly have this? ...
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Adenovirus in Reptiles
Per Juergen Schumacher, DVM, author of Viral Diseases, in Mader's Reptile Medicine & Surgery:

Adenovirus has been reported in a bearded dragon (Pogona barbatus), Rankin's dragons (Pogona henrylawsonii), and a savannah monitor (Varanus exanthematicus). The actual route of transmission was not known, but suspected to be direct (fecal-oral).

The bearded dragon exhibited recurring loss of appetite before dying. The Rankin's died soon after exhibiting limb paresis, loss of appetite, and lethargy. The monitor died suddenly with no prior signs of illness.

The post mortems found no gross abnormalities in the monitor and bearded; in the Rankin's, the lungs were congested and liver swollen and pale. Microscopic exam found multiple spots of necrotic tissue in the livers of all three species. Eosinophilic intranuclear bodies were found in the bearded's liver cells (hepatocytes). Basophilic inclusion bodies were found in the monitor's and Rankin's, and inclusion bodies were also found in the endothelial cells of the monitor. EM exam the viral particles were found in all the animals examined.

Diagnosis is made post mortem.

There is no treatment for the adenovirus; antimicrobials can be given for secondary bacterial infections.

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Praying Buddy gets better soon.