Yesterday was Guandas first visit to the vet. I'm not sure how well it went either. I told him about the swollen toes, so the cure for that was to cut the toes which were swollen (2 toes). i dont know whether what he did was ok. then we found out that she had red fleas on her, so he gave me medicine to put on her and to clean the cage, twice every week for 2 weeks. Then he gave me a gel-like medicince called "Zylafen" for the big chunk of dead skin my iguana had under her belly, i have to apply the medicine twice every day for 2 weeks. He also told me to empty the cage and throw all limbs, branches, etc. because of the fleas. So now my iguana is in a cage with nothing else except her water, food and newspapers as subtrate. Plus the pet shop owner tryed selling a medicine for fleas the day we went to get her but he never mentioned she had any. He might of been scared that he wouldnt make the sale if he did mentioned it.

What do you mean cut the toes? Cut them open or cut them off?

Iguanas do not get fleas.
Sounds like what the ig has are mites. They are a blood sucking parasite as well but are arachnids, not insects like fleas. This makes them more difficult to get rid of.
Getting rid of all the cage decor would be appropriate. However I would have one simple branch or peice of wood so the ig can climb.
What is the name of the medication that you were given for the mites?

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Hi. What your iguana has is mites, not fleas. You didnt mention the type of medicine he gave you for it. I'd be interested in knowing what it is. There are 2 great ones on the market. Reptirelief is one, and for some reason I cannot remember the name of the other one. Good luck with you ig. Hopefully the mites will go away for you.

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Warmest Regards from Lyn

sorry its mites. Their is no name on the bottle he gave me for the mites but it has a strong smell, he put the medicine in the bottle, i dont know the name. For the toes he cut them off but he told me to apply Zylafen on them aswell. I am going to see him after 2 weeks so that he can tell me how shes doing.

Cut off!!

Was there any specific reason why he decided they needed to come off? Depending on the problem with the toes this generally isn't a problem as long as infection isn't involved. Zair has several swollen toes left over from his bout of Metabolic Bone Disease 9 yrs ago and he does fine with them.

Something tells me you might need to find another vet. I would also like to know what's in the bottle.

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Veronica
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Exotic Animal Rescue of Henry Co.
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yep cut off my iggy didnt have Metabolic Bone Disease it was swollen, i didnt know from what but he said if he had left it in the future their might have been a risk of cutting her whole leg but I said to myself there cant be no other way to cure it but cut her toes off, there must be some kind of medicine to fight it off. About the other medicine, im happy with it because yesterday the part of her belly was black since it was dead skin and when you touched it, it was hard. Today, its more greeny like her usual colour and feels much better so im happy with the results, as for the mites medicine I am going to have to see after 2 weeks. But ill try finding out the name and post it. And about changing vets, thats highly unlikely, since he is the only one I know in cyprus and lives in nicosia so its about 1 hour road from were I live.

First, you need to find another vet! I drive over two hours to get to mine because their are NO vets here with exotic experience. Sometimes the drive is longer if I hit Seattle traffic.

As far as cutting the toes off, I have never heard of that! If that was the case for all swollen toes and limbs that have come in here, there would be a ton of legless iguanas and toeless iguanas running around here! That simply is not the case. Swollen toes and legs can mean a lot of things! The first thing I would have thought of would be Metabolic Bone Disease, or injury, or infection. Metabolic Bone Disease is not treated by cutting off parts of the animal. Injury can be treated many different ways, which does not involve removing of the toes. Infection can be treated with injectable antibiotics.

As far as him telling you that he does not have Metabolic Bone Disease, I would question his experience with that, if he is willing to cut off toes! Did you do a reptile panel on him? That will help you to know how the kidneys are functioning, with Metabolic Bone Disease kidneys start to fail, and limbs start to swell. That is treated with proper diet, and uvb, hydration, and in extreme cases kidney meds.

Since he has already cut off the toes, did he give you injectable antibiotics? You have now just opened yourself up to a whole different set of problems, if those toes actually do get infected from him removing them.

I would be curious to know why this vet took the route he did. My first guess would be that he does not really deal with exotics very often, if at all. That just leaves him guessing as to the treatment, which is a shame, as there are vets all over the U.S. that he could have consulted, which would have led him in the right direction!

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I have sucker tattood on my forehead

when I first went to the vet I had a whole list of questions to ask him, as soon as he took my iggy and cut off her toes I was in such a shock I forgot everything I wanted to ask. He did not give injectable antibiotics. Just the two medicines I mentioned above. The vet actually does deal with exotic pets, especially turtles and he has treated other iguanas in the past. i just found this "cure" very extreme and I believe their was another way to deal with problem. For Metabolic Bone Disease I really believe she doesnt have it because she has access to sunlight, uvb light and from the day I got her im carefull with what I give her to eat and she also has clean drinkable water all times.

No Kidding! If he had preformed this procedure without asking me, he would not have liked my reaction very much!
Performing an amputation without prescribing antibiotics is asking for infection and possibly more serious problems!
That still doesn't mean that he has the foggiest idea what he is doing! There are dog and cat vets in this country that will tell you that they treat exotics but often the owner discovers that THEY already know more about the animal than the vet did!
I agree. In all my years I have never heard of cutting off swollen toes as a cure for anything! In my opinion this is dark ages butchery! That vet would never see another one of my animals!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Are you supposed to mix the mite solution with water? The only thing I can think of that would smell real bad is either of the mange dips used for demodectic and sarcoptic mange in dogs. Mitoban for demo and paramite for sarco.

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Veronica
,,
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..._//......_\\
Exotic Animal Rescue of Henry Co.
~~Rescue - Rehab - Rehome~~