Unfortunate incident

oreodigs · Member Joined: Sep 11, 2006 Posts: 45 Location: Alabama

I have some tegus that are kept outside all year. I have been home very little in the last 2 weeks and have not been in my enclosure as much as normal (usually daily). I have fed/watered the tegus regularly and have seen them scurry to underground hides. When feeding them last Sat I noticed that the were all in shed but noticed nothing too strange. When I fed them earlier this week they ran to hides. I just left food secondary to other obligations. Enclosure was covered in shed skins. Last night I was checking on them, pulling from hides, because they have been out little due to heat (last report 2 wks ago- 264,000 gal of water missing per acre of land). We need rain. The tails of 3 animals were scratched severely and a few places on the backs of animals as well. Some areas deep and bleeding. The best I deduced that the tails had bad sheds due to heat and the tegus were scratching to shed. I had been running sprinkler in enclosure but see that it had not been enough. Partially shed skins are still present on 2 of tegus but hard to assist with shedding secondary to sores. I have been soaking the tegus all the time that I am home but can not leave them in water when I am not there, even a low level of water. If they defecate in the water I have fear of infection to wounds. I have brought the tegus into my garage into 2 enclosures. One is an 800 gal aquarium/terrarium I was given recently. They are on newspaper substrate and I am addressing he wounds. I have administered Baytril to one animal thus far but may need to hit the others well.
These animals have been sharing the enclosure for 2 yrs without problems or incident. Shedding has not been a past problem, and yes I offer a varied diet. Their nails are trimmed/cut/dremeled. However, the shear weight and strength of adult tegus were too much for Their usually armor tough skin.
The animals will all survive but probably be scarred. I wrote this post thinking it might in some way help someone else.
Well, I'm home to soak.