DONT DO IT!!!! DONT TAKE HIM TO THE VETERNARIAN!!!!!

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Posted by pgross8245 on May 09, 2003 at 16:12:08:

In Reply to: DONT DO IT!!!! DONT TAKE HIM TO THE VETERNARIAN!!!!! posted by shad925 on May 09, 2003 at 15:40:42:

Although everyone is entitled to their own opinion, you as the reptile owner need to make a choice that you feel is the best for your animal. Nobody wants to see any animal suffer needlessly, but you have to think your decision is right for you and your pet. As far as getting a Tegu instead of a uro, that's quite a leap. The size, indivudual temperments, (they can bite, very hard) amount of space needed to properly house them and the cost of feeding them makes the two species worlds apart, and not interchangeable. A bearded dragon would be a closer comparision pet wise to a uro. I agree we do not know enough about the uros and the vets don't either. There is a lot of guesswork involved, but I would defer to the uro specialists, Doug Dix, Lyndsay Pike, Audrey Vanderlinden and Randall Gray to name a few. They are far more qualified than any vets as of this time. Good luck with your decision, I hope he does well. We will all be thinking of you.

Pam Gross
:I no longer have a uromastyx after my horrible experience with a baby Mali. These animals for the most part do not like to be handled. You can tell that most of these animals hate captivity, some exceptions would be "Boulder" that guy is tight.
:Anyways my story is that I had a baby mali, he ate sand probably from his food that he would stupidly drop and then eat it with sand, and what happened is that he had an impaction. Also these animals get stressed very easily. He had seizures (mostly what it was is that he could not move his hind legs), I took him to the vet 200 bucks later he was handed back to me (the gave him an enema and a calcium shot (even though I had been giving him plenty of calcium, they just wanted to screw me, they even wanted to give him an Xray that would have been a HUGE mistake on my part), So what happened is of course the inevitable...HE DIED ON THE WAY HOME..wtf...never going back to the vet...I'ma do my own shiet later in life(Im pre=med) and I plan to learn all the aspects of reptile biology..anyways what im saying is that PREVENTION is your best bet, I wouldn't be surprised if your dies...I'm just saying, but by no means give up, try YOUR best to help him, more likely the veternarian unless a reptile specialist (not a dog vet that takes in reptiles for more money)...But my ADVICE is to NOT take him to the vet, he will die, a surgery will do nothing but help him die faster. I suggest you invest that 200+ dollars in saving another uromastyx...If it gets worse, I would just put him to sleep, and I'm not talking about taking him to the vet so they can do that...gas him with CO2 that should work great like it does with mice.
:I know ppl will leave messages saying that your responsible for the animal, you should pay the vet bills, its what you get yourself into when you hold an animal captive, but if you think about it, most vets are not that much better than home remedies. Reptiles and amphibians are very delicate animals and surgery will more likely kill them. I would do it if the vet says that they GUARANTEE that the animal will live, but they wont because they are unsure as you are...they will try their best...There just isnt the support/medical/research for reptiles as there is for dogs and cats. An example would be that I tried to do a research project on Gila Monsters a couple of weeks ago for my neurobiology class. There was almost NO research for them, just because they are not a health problem (the only ppl that get bitten are the fools that keep them). I had to do it on scorpion toxins b/c it is a public health problem around the world.
:thats my 50cent on that

:Mike

:I recommend getting a TEGU, these are by far superior animals compared to a Uro...smarter and are very hardy compared to these animals...Uros need to be in the pet trade longer, or need to be researched more in order to for them to live healthier lives in captivity. You can just tell that they have no research on them b/c there is no staple diet you can feed them, you look online and you get no ratio of bugs/veges that you should feed them...all the info is very vague

Follow Ups:

Forgot to mention shad925 05/09/03 (1)
- Forgot to mention. A.Slattery 05/11/03 (0)