Hi guys and gals!
I need some advice.
Around 3 months ago, Puddle ( our 1.75 year old .90 lb beautiful little guy) pooped blood, so we took him to vet where he tested positive for coccidia and pin worms. We dosed him twice with a recommended wormer. No more bloody stool but his appetite and energy were down.
Three days later my daughter was putting him to bed in his tank and he fell onto the carpet. He seemed fine. He started limping 5 days later, not too bad. We went on vacation and left him at home with a sitter, who took great care of him but said his appetite was down.
We ve been with him the past 24 hours and he is limping pretty badly on his left side. He went to run this morning then stumbled on his front left side and fell a little.
Should I just take him the vet or try something first.
Sorry for the long email!
We just live our buddy so much and aren't sure what to do!
I appreciate this site soooooo much!
Katie& puddle
I recommend you have a vet take a look at the injured leg, and maybe take xrays of it. If you are lucky it's not got a break in it, and is just a soft tissue injury (a dislocation, strain or such) and will just require time and maybe some activity using it to come good.
Our big bluetongue boy George somehow broke his right front leg in his tank when he was about 9 months old , very rambunctious boy always into everything and though he was a water skink (tried climbing everything in site).
Wound up having a pin inserted and his front leg (in the bone between the shoulder and elbow), spent about 2 months in special castes that had to be changed as he grew, and which never seemed to slow him down (even if the leg was kept pointing straight out to the side while the bone was healing) . He still has a slight limp even now after about 5 yrs.
He was given precautionary antibiotic injections - mixed with anti-inflammatory for a couple of weeks .
Oh the poor guy! Can you review your tank setup with us, just to make sure everything is all correct?
It sounds like he fell & sprained his leg, but hopefully it isn't broken. I would however, consider getting an x-ray done on him to check it out.
How often do you give calcium supplementation?
Is his beard darkened at all?
I would recommend keeping his basking area a little lower just so he doesn't have to climb more than necessary to bask & hurt his leg further.
Let us know how he is doing.
So I dust puddle's greens every other day with calcium. He has a 22' t5 high reflexive uvb. His basking spot is 95-100 degrees.
I talked to vet; she said to try to rest his foot. She doesn't think it's broken b/c he puts pressure on it.
He is not interested in his super worms. After we deepened him, he was not eating his greens, so he went from 1-2 worms/ day to 4-5. Could he have tired of them?
He's popping daily but lethargic and not too much for hunting.
I've blended his greens and he will take a few surenges full. He ate 1 cricket today.
And he seems to really want to cuddle.
Poor boy!
I will attach a pic of his habitat.
Thank you again!