Freya saw her favorite Doctor's again today. They are not as optimistic as they had been. They still don't want to remove the bad part of the tail yet, as they feel she still would not live through the surgery. They are afraid that the possible infection in the tail would advance up through to the rest of her body, so she is still on antibiotics. She has gained more weight though, and eyes are brighter everyday. She is now 5.5 pounds. She is steadily getting stronger, but has had a bit of a backslide. They feel she has some nerve damage possibly, as she is a becoming a little more incontinent, and in the last few days, is not using her backlegs quite as much as she had been in the last 3 weeks. She is on another 2 weeks worth of antibiotics, has had x-rays, that show the badly broken spot is not healing, or has refractured in spite of all precautions. In 2 weeks we will go back again. They say she is the most spoiled little thing they've ever seen! Her vet saw her kiss me when she brought her back in from the multi-vet consultation, and had to laugh, she's never seen one that actually wanted to kiss people before. Her vet also laughed at how she loves her tummy rubbed, and that's how they got her through the x-rays! She is not the typical ig, even all of the vets say so. We're hoping to have good luck with the antibiotics this time around.

__________________
Kat

I'm sorry to hear she isn't doing as well as they had hoped for.

I really hope she continues to improve. She deserves a long and healthy life from here on out.

__________________
"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.

I am a little confused, removing a tail is not that big of a deal and can be done without putting her under, They can give a local to numb that particular area. It doesnt make any sense to me as to why they leave it there as the infection will just spread and can become toxic in her entire system. As far as the incontinence and the not using the back legs, that is all signs of advanced metabollic bone disease. Are they giving her any calcium injections?
Is this an actual reptile,exotic vet?
I am sorry, I am not trying to be rude or anything but I have dealt with a ton of iguanas with these issues and a ton of vets, some good, some not, and some very expensive excellent ones, lol. The approach on how they are handling her case is very odd to me. That infected tail should have come off a long time ago and antibiotics administered for quite some time and calcium injections. I am by no means a vet, but just questioning the approach of this one.
Once again please understand I am not trying to be rude, it just makes no sense to me.

__________________




I have sucker tattood on my forehead

Nicole,
I value your opinion, as you have had a lot more experience with iguanas than I have. Freya has been on calcium since the first day we rescued her (we came home with more from the vet today). The head vet at the exotic vets has a good deal of experience with iguanas. About the only reptile we've found that they don't have much experience with is water dragons, but one vets husband is a researcher, and raises reptiles, so they call him in on water dragons. The big problem with the tail is right up close to the body there was oozing in the tail, and until they clear that up, they didn't want to amputate, and have ascending infection into the tissues in the body. She was so horribly weak and frail at first, they did not expect her to live through the first week. Their is still some possible infection in the base area of the tail they think after todays x-rays. Their current difficulty is exactly how much will have to come off, they also would end up with it being a large open wound because there is not enough good around it to pull it around and cover. We are going to try a couple more weeks and see if she becomes even stronger. Today they were leaning more towards euthanasia if the infection doesn't clear. The two who have done the most iguana work at Michigan State University are in agreement on this. A lot of the tail that was first real bad looking is now dried down totally. They are thinking it looks as if something was actually tied around the tail. The break is not healed, they don't feel it will, although they don't want to amputate too far up, and some of the damage goes to the pelvic area. Her eyes are bright and interested though, and the things in life she enjoys the most are "good food", her medicines (weird) and being with me as much as she can- vet's call her totally spoiled. I think I understand what you're saying, but also feel I need to go with their science, they've done a lot of good work for me in the past. As I said, I do value your opinion, and do not consider your questions rude Thank you.

__________________
Kat

I think this is a great thread and we all could learn from this
My other only question is why would they need skin to close around the wound of the tail after they amputate? Iguanas re grow their tail.
I had thishappen a while back with one of my free roamers, Oscar (my giant sulcata) stepped on her tail before I could get there to move him, It broke half way away, and she did not drop the rest on her own, within 48 hours the whole house was rancid with the smell of her infection that had settled in rather quickly. Me in my infanite wisdom thought, no big deal, take her to the dog/cat vet thats right down the road from me and save myself the 2 hour drive one way, to my exotic crew. its a tail amputation no big deal anyone could do it right,, BOY was I wrong, lol. I went outside for a few and this doctor dug into her tail, took some off then dug some more, then stitched it closed. I ended up doing the two hour drive and the first thing that happened was a quick WHACK snd the rest of the tail was removed. I was told that you never stitch an iguanas tail shut, They put gauze on it and told me to keep it clean and dry. Any others I have had in that had to have tail amputations have never been stitched shut. In the last year I have had 4 with amputations. One being my own fault (I think Alexis has finally forgiven me)
So once again its always my curiousity that kills me, lol. I am just curious as to why he needs to stitch it closed

__________________




I have sucker tattood on my forehead

They feel because of the location, and the fact that it would be open a long (possibly several months) time, they need a little more to work with than they have. We would take her in once a week for a check until they feel she is doing ok. (not an issue, it's only an hour away). By the way, where we live, anything "close" to us means about 1/2 hour drive, so no issues with drive. The biggest issue for them is it's only about 3 inches from her body, and that part feels "puffy" even. The infection has never gotten to the point where it's really smelly, just draining and it bothers her to have it touched too much.

__________________
Kat