Thanks! np

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Posted by caribou on October 31, 2002 at 21:56:13:

In Reply to: Heat shock? Calcium defiency? posted by caribou on October 30, 2002 at 16:21:55:

:I haven't posted here in a looong time, some of you might remember me as KittyDelTroppo. I've had my iguana, Dexter (aka Ambidexter) for about three years now, and in the past few months I've been keeping her as a free-roaming iguana rather than in an enclosure. So naturally, she gets a bath every morning.
:Yesterday morning, I was rushing around trying to do the laundry before I had to run off to class, and I put Dexter in the bathtub. I didn't turn on her heat pad and give her time to warm up, and I didn't check the water very well. When I came back a couple minutes later, Dexter was shaking violently and I noticed that the water was very hot. It didn't burn me when I put my hand in there, but it was certainly too hot to be comfortable. I immediately pulled her out and put her in the sink and ran some lukewarm water over her. In maybe a little less than a minute, she calmed down and went back to being her usual bossy self.
:This was about 10 in the morning, and I came home from class around 3. Dexter was eating and acting completely normal, but the digits on her front feet were still shaking, sort of the way my fingers do after I drink way too much coffee. They also seemed a little weak, and when I put my finger under them, she didn't pull away in pain but it felt like they were pulsating or there were muscles flexing and relaxing.
:I started calling some of my ig friends, and none of them seemed to know what was going on and had never seen anything like this. I started to get a little panicked and considered skipping work and rushing Dexter to the vet, but decided against that because she was acting just fine. So I made an appointment for today, and then put Dexter in a very shallow and moderately cold bath, in case her feet had been burned and there just weren't any visible marks yet. This did seem to help a little and her feet stopped quivering as much.
:This morning I went to the vet and explained what happened, and also asked if this could be a sign of a calcium deficency. The vet told me that Dexter looked like she was in perfect health, and didn't have any signs of a deficency other than the shaking which has subsided so much that the vet didn't even notice anything unusual with her feet. She also said that it didn't look like Dexter's feet were burnt, but I should keep an eye on her feet in case burn marks do start to appear. She also told me that if I was really worried about a calcium deficency, that I could have Dexter x-rayed.
:So my question is: should I have her x-rayed? I'm willing to shell out the $160 to do it if it's a good idea, but since Dexter has no other signs of a deficiency and she's never started shaking like this until the extremely hot bath, I'm a little reluctant to go ahead and do it. Right now I have her on the Kaplan diet and giving her calcium and viatmin supplements. On warm days I have an outdoor enclosure I put her in, but I haven't been doing that as much because of the weather and I haven't figured out how to get her under a UV light. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to do this, I would really appreciate it because I'm new to having a free-roaming iguana.
:If it doesn't sound like a calcium deficiency, what else could it be? Could it be a reaction from going from room temperature to very hot water? If Dexter could be burned but I can't see it yet, what's the best thing I can do to help it heal up?
:Any advice anyone could give me would really help me out and I'd appreciate it a lot. Thanks in advance!
:-Leslie >^..^<
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