HELP: Emaciated/Dehydrated Spiny Tail Monitor

Someone brought in an ill taken care of Spiny Tail monitor to the pet store I work at. It was a kids pet that he didn't take care of and the parents brought it in and gave it to the store as they didnt want the kid to have it anymore. I wound up taking it home hoping I could save it.

This guy is really thin, you can see the bones in his tail. He also hasn't opened his eyes at all. He does walk around the cage a bit and he still sticks his tongue out somewhat regularly, but if you were to look at him you would think he was at deaths door.

I set him up in a clean 20 gallon tank with a 150w heat light and a brand new Repti-Sun 10.0 Coil Lamp. Air temp hit about 90ºF on the hot side, close to 70ºF on the cold side. Gave him a rock cave directly under the light and a good size water bowl on the cool side. Very basic setup but I figured that's better for the time being.

He totally ignores crickets, he seemd a bit interested in canned snails/grasshoppers but wouldnt eat any, just smelled them. I put him in the water bowl several times and he sits for a little while but doesn't drink.

After a day of ignoring all food/water I decided to gave him some pedialyte mixed with some fatty gravy from a packet of nutro cat food (had to use a small syringe and hold him upside down so he wouldnt aspirate from it), and I was able to open his mouth and get him to eat two pieces of the cat food (just placed it in his mouth and let him eat it, I didn't force him). I am hoping this small boost of electryolytes/protein might help him gain an appetite again, but I'll have to wait and see.

Does anyone have any other recommendations? Do you think it would be worth contacting a vet? Could they possibly give him a shot of fluids?

make sure he has a 140+ degree basking spot....(check with an actual temp gun) ambient should be in the 80's as a low btw)

he doesn't need the UV



If it was here....

I would try ground turkey and yes I would force feed if necessary.

If you get it in his mouth and he spits it out...there is a major problem.

I would check temps....150W light on a 20 gallon tank should not yield such low ambient unless it is 6 ft away or the room is sub freezing

I wish people would give me ackies.

I'll double check his temperatures with a temp gun once the lights go on and the cage warms up a bit, but from the digital probe thermometer I have on their all the time, the ambient is usually around 90º

He did spit out the cat food the first couple times, but then I pushed it back a little further into his mouth and then he took it down the rest of the way. He still hasn't shown any interest in eating on his own.

My friend is a vet, and was saying that he could maybe give him a shot of Normosol to get a rush of fluids/electrolytes back in him. I unfortunatly have to order the Normosol online as he doesn't have any, so it will take a couple days to get some.

You really need to focus more on hydrating first because reptiles will not eat if they are dehydrated. Also, he can become impacted if you force feed and he is too dehydrated to process his food.

You need to make sure your ambient temps are below 90 so that he can cool off if he needs to, or he could become even more dehydrated.

If your friend can do injections, why wasn't subcutaneous fluids suggested or tube feeding fluids? I can't stress enough how important it is to hydrate. It is more important than food right now.

Go and get a product called Jump Start. It's sold at either PetSmart or PetCo. It's filled with good fats, calories and an appetite booster. Mix that with a little bit of ground turkey and make into tiny little bite sized balls. And give one or two.
Soak the monitor in just a little bit of lukewarm water in a Rubbermaid container. Enough to drink out of and not have to worry about picking it's head off the floor and certainly not to full to drown it. Leave it be for 5 - 10 minutes checking very often. Give it a chance to drink. With monitors this ill it usually takes them a while.

I do not advocate attempting to put IV fluids into a monitor or forcing water into it's gullet when it's that emaciated and weak. That causes more stress then the monitor may be able to take and could kill it. It's never good to add more stress to an animal that's already got two legs in the grave.

Keeps us posted please and hope it drinks for you.