Rescue of a rescue, Iguana advice needed

[Wippit Guud]

A couple is moving away, had to give up their iguana, which was a rescue. My fiance decided to get it, and the enclosure, for free. But, we have some issues.

First of all, he's quite a bit dehydrated.

Secondly, he's not eating. According to his former owners, he had to be force-fed. What's worse, he's only been eating calcium dusted red peppers. For over a year. Now, my herp knowledge may be limited to carnivores, but that can't be healthy.

I also notice the second-half of his tail is brown and rather dry.

Let the advice commence.

 

[passiontiger]

Hi this would be Wippit's other half. Let me first start by saying how absolutely pissed off I was when I saw how this gorgeous creature was being treated and how badly off he is especially when I was told that this was an IMPROVEMENT.
Apparently up until a couple of weeks ago this guy wasn't able to hold up his own weight on his legs, thus couldn't walk. The mother of his owner said that she started adding some Calcium dust to his food as she said he hadn't been getting any calcium at all. She felt this made the change to walking. She also noted his colour has improved as he was almost completely "tan" when her daughter brought him to thier home.
She started giving him "swimming baths" every other day so that he could get mobility again. She stated that over the course of a couple weeks she started noticing that he was greening up again.
His spine spikes are damaged.
The list of things for this guy go on and on.
The point that I had to bite my tongue to the point of bleeding was when I said " how long has he been dehydrated?" and she looked at me quizzically and commented that he didn't drink anything and wasn't he supposed to get water in his baths....
/rant

Okay, he is here now and I have had iguanas before but never one as sick as this little guy. Other than checking him into the local herp hospital what is the best way to get him on the road to recovery?

/hates people who don't at least research what thier pets need.

 

[Chad55]

Well make sure he has plenty of room in his enclosure... big water dish he can soak in. Offer him all types of veggies until he finds something he likes. This may take some patience but I am sure that he will start eating. Make sure his temps and humidity is correct and he should be getting some sort of UV. Also warm baths once a day or so is not too bad of an idea to keep things moving on the inside and get him hydrated. Also it may help him gain some strength. Just put enough water in so that he can keep his head out of the water.... Don't give him calcium every meal. I only give it every other or so. The tail is fine it may have broken off at some point and the damaged spines from what I have seen is fairly normal as long as they are healed or not causing any pain.

Chad

 

[Chad55]

Also see if you can get him eating some high nutrition iguana pellets. Get some "plant protein" into that boy. He needs something to build muscle. Make sure the pellets have the right kind of protein though.

Chad

 

[passiontiger]

Thanks Chad
Do you know if a non vet can do anything for his claws? Or is that going to need a vet visit for sure?

 

[Chad55]

Are they just overgrown?

 

[Wippit Guud]

Here's a couple of pics

 

[Chad55]

He actually looks pretty good. Kinda stunted and skinny but other than that. Um yea you can just clip those nails. Let him run around on the house every once in a while he will keep them in check after that

Chad

 

[bfhslilred93]

yea he looks a little on the skinny side but a good looking igg. food and water does wonders.

 

[varanio]

Just give it some nice thick logs to climb on, that will keep the nails in check, you can also put a piece of slate on the basking site. What you should do is go to the super market and find all the fruit and veggis available to consume, find what it likes best... (probably gonna be grapes since they love grapes) and then offer that for the next several days. This will help stimulate the immune and digestive system and then you can start cutting back on that favorite food and start supplementing it with other items.

Dont get the nails cut, sometimes the cut too much and get the nerve and the toe and nail eventually falls off because of loss of circulation.

Good luck and keep us updated.