Help. Tegu received unconcious.

boygenius · Member Joined: Jan 17, 2008 Posts: 11 Location: Kansas

I bought a tegu from a guy who improperly shipped the tegu. I received it today at approximately 2PM and it was shipped the day before at 6PM. The tegu was in a plastic box with holes within a cardboard box with holes, that's it! There was a small heat pack about the size of a teabag and nothing else to further warm the package or keep warm. I opened the plastic container and saw the little tegu upside down and not moving.. I called my friend who lives here and also has tegus and brought it over. We picked up my limp tegu's body and poop was dripping out of him and his insides felt frozen. Mind you its quite cold in Kansas right now between 15 degrees and 25 degrees. We put him in the tegu enclosure that he has and left him there under the basking light.. within about 30 minutes there was movement in his tails, then limbs and he slowly started to move. He was then bathed and put back into the enclosure where he explored his surroundings and went to sleep in one of the burrows.

I guess my question is, will he be ok? What's going to happen? Any long term effects? - He wasnt shipped properly and almost froze to death. He seems fine right now but I left the tegu at my friend's house for now and will pick him up when the week is over. I didn't want to move him too much and let him revive first.

I talked to the guy who sold it to me and he said if it died he would refund me half my money back. He said that the tegu was not fed 24 hours prior to shipping but he got it to drink a lot of water.

I'm just curious as to what to do now, will everything go back to normal, and hopefully he makes it through the night and so on and not drop dead.

Any help would be appreciated. As you can see I am new to the forums and my first few posts are grave posts.

tegulevi · Respected Member Joined: Mar 10, 2005 Posts: 489

assuming this is an argentine. its probably a little late, but you should warm him slowly. bring his basking temps up gradually. as to not throw him into shock. more than likely he will be fine. the real dangerous temp zone is actually higher, like 35-45 degrees. anything below that they tend to just shut down which may have saved him. obviously he will have some respiratory problems to clear up, but nothing heat wont take care of. i had a blue tongue i rescued that the guy left in his car overnight in january in ohio. she went through a simliar process of just shuting down and basically going dormant. this will allow them to survive harsh temps for a short period of time, extended exposure will obviously be fatal but in an overnight shipment itt should be ok. chances are you little tegu may try to hibernate now after feeling the harsh weather change he just had. but being late season perhaps not.

i wish you luck, keep a close eye on him and get thosebasking temps up to about 115 within the next couple of days, (surface temp) this will help keep out any respiratry problems.

Rick · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:38 am Post subject:

At this point only time will tell if there will be long term effects.

I have received tegus that were dormant from being chilled (35F), but I have never had one shipped when it was so cold that the insides were nearly frozen solid.

This is a good lesson for everyone, make sure that if you purchase a tegu, that the tegu is being shipped by someone who knows how to do so properly. Even when done properly, accidents can still happen, but the risk will be minimal. At this time of year foam insulated boxes are required. Hand warmers or other small heat packs from department stores are not generally suitable for shipping reptiles during the winter. Use a heatpack or heatpacks that are actually designed for shipping animals.

I hope all turns out well for your tegu, keep us informed.

Rick
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boygenius · Member Joined: Jan 17, 2008 Posts: 11 Location: Kansas

hey guys,

he looks to have made it through the night,.. he is about 4-5 months old, about a foot long from from head to tail and I got it from some guy on faunaclassifieds. it was a private seller who bought the tegu from beardiedragon.com ..

right now it has shedding problems, but hopefully after a few more baths he can finish his shed..

and he's a blue tegu.

Ben3233 · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:27 pm Post subject:

ishhhhhhh!

I hope he will get better!!!
Good luck!
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Ben3233
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon (Uresaii)

Lucille · Member Joined: Dec 27, 2007 Posts: 63

I'm glad he seems better, I hope he makes a full improvement, poor guy, what a rough trip.

txrepgirl · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:35 pm Post subject:

what a story.Scary.Welcome to the Tegu forum ( family ) and congrats on your new Tegu.I'm sooooo happy to hear that he made it threw the night.With the shedding thing make sure the enclosure has a lot of humidity.It is normal for the tale to shed a few days later ( some times 5 to 7 days later ).Do you have a name yet for him/her.If you have some time do you think you could be so nice and post some pictures for us.Thanks.Good luck with him/her and please keep us posted.

meanah · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:21 pm Post subject:

congrats on getting it and then bringing it back from near icicle state.. haha good job dude. and welcome.

boygenius · Member Joined: Jan 17, 2008 Posts: 11 Location: Kansas

thanks for the well wishes guys!, the tegu is still at my friend's house.. i will either pick him up friday night or saturday night and be sure to post pictures.

no i haven't decided on a name yet..

what do you guys suggest?

Lucille · Member Joined: Dec 27, 2007 Posts: 63

Ben3233 · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:33 pm Post subject:

greentriple · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:59 pm Post subject:

Imagine this with a deep Austrian accent: "How 'bout Mister Freeze?"

txrepgirl · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:49 pm Post subject:

I thought about Faith if it is a girl since that's what we have to have for her/him now to make it threw the hard times he/she has ( not with you,I mean that shipping part ).And maybe for a boy as a middle name miracle since it survived.We looked up our names ( Leonidas and Zeus ) from some strong greek names that were unique.Ok,Leonidas we got that name from the Spartan 300.

Cowher · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:15 pm Post subject:

Lazarus.. he came back from the dead

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You lock the door and throw away the key. There's someone in my head but its not me.

txrepgirl · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:18 pm Post subject:

Yep,you got it cowher.I think that would be a great name and it is unique.