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#1500065

Chickachicka
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HOW CAN I HELP MY MHD

We got Chica back in March of this year. We had a few problems here and there but pretty much able to handle it. She is a Coronada (I think that is how you spell it) For the last month she has looked like she was going to shed but really hasn’t. I know she need high humidity but I can’t seem to regulate it on a constant level. It usually stays around 47. We mist her 3 times a day and try and give her baths often but it doesn’t seem to help.

I bought a humidify and put that in her enclosure once a week and it raises the humidity to 90 but of course it goes back down when the water cools off. She has basically stopped eating and we now have to force her to eat. This has been going on for about 4 weeks as well.

I bought reptic aid and gave that to her for 10 days straight about 2-1/2 weeks ago but her appetite never returned. She pretty much just stays on her branch in her tank and will occasionally come down to drink and play in the water. Since I can only get about 1 - 2 mealies in her every couple of days, she only poops about every 3 - 4 days. It is a real ordeal to feed her and I am afraid we are damaging her mouth.

I have taken her to the vet and she said she doesn’t have parasites, but just to be safe she did give her more meds which have been administrated.

She moves around when we take her out of her tank but tires easily due to not eating. She has lost weight and alot of her coloring. When she gets stressed, her face around her eyes and snout get black. Her face is mostly black all the time now. As far as I can tell, we haven’t done anything any different than we did before so I do not know why she is stressed if she is. Although I know she hates being force fed.

I am at my wits end and don’t want to lose her. Can anyone help?

11/03/07 07:58pm

#1500333

Robin L
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Message To: Chickachicka In reference to Message Id: 1500065

HOW CAN I HELP MY MHD

Oh my you need to bring your temp up to around 80 degrees, I think that might be your biggest problem she is to cold. I keep my MHD’s between 80-90 degrees by using lamps.

11/03/07 10:26pm

#1500439

Emeraldman
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Message To: Robin L In reference to Message Id: 1500333

HOW CAN I HELP MY MHD

I think she was talking about humidity there. But yes, temperatures to my knowledge should be between 80-90, especially for an ailing lizard. As for the reason for her problems. I’m unsure of why.

-Trav

11/03/07 11:42pm

#1500492

Dericka
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Message To: Chickachicka In reference to Message Id: 1500065

HOW CAN I HELP MY MHD

Yes access to a warmer spot would be good for a sick lizard, 83-88 is what I’d go with? It’s great that you took her to a vet and had her checked for parasites, as that eliminates that possibility. Just to give you some comfort, my humidity is very similar to yours, I mist anywhere from 3-7 or 8 times a day, which brings the humidity up to 70-95% for a while, but the rest of the time it falls around 50%, a litttle drier in the winter... so I’m saying while humidity is very important, and apparently constantly very high in their natural habitat, unless you had it like, below 50% at all times, and didn’t mist the cage ever, the way you do it should not cause such a problem as your having. I can’t really say what could be wrong with her, but in my experience, she is probably having trouble shedding due to the nutrition factor, as opposed to anything to do with the humidity. I have only seen big shedding problems when a MHD is either sick or malnourished, or if say, it’s only being fed mealies or superworms, and basically just not getting the proper nutrition.
It’s a great thing that she comes down herself to get in the water and to drink, though I would continue to give her some nice warm soakings as that will help her get rid of that old skin and make sure she stays hydrated...
Force feeding can be stressful for her of course if she resists you doing it, I have been afraid of hurting thier mouths also, and that can happen...I would say though if you have to force feed her to get her food, try something other than mealworms, as they have little nutrition, and the little food you are abe to get in her should be better, I’d say use some medium sized calcium coated crickets, and maybe some waxworms, which are a bit more fattening and my MHD’s adore them. Maybe try to open her mouth from the back part as opposed to the front, hich would be easier to hurt, like try to gently slide a tounge depresser or something that shape into the corner of her mouth, alot of times if you can get that part just a little open, they open their mouths alot more willingly? I don’t know if that helps or not...
Another thing I use when I have a sick MHD is this stuff by Exo Terra called Electrolize, it is an electrolyte supplement. I put a few drops either by itself or mixed with a little water right on their mouth each day for a week or so just to give them a little extra hydration...that is just something that I have had luck with, it’s different than repticaid, though it may or may not matter if your girl is drinking and hydrated already....
geez other than that I dont know what else I would do for your girl, ummm do you have a UVB light? And what are the temperatures like in her cage? Just a suggestion, when you mist her cage right now use warm water, I do that if I have a sick MHD, otherwise I usually use just room temperature, I just have a feeling warm may be more comforting if they don’t feel good...Other than that it sounds like you’re doing things right and doing everything you can do for her, were you able to take her to a reptile specialist vet?
I hope she comes around for you, do you have any pictures of her? You don’t think she’s gravid do you?

deri

11/04/07 12:24am

#1501189

Chickachicka
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Message To: Dericka In reference to Message Id: 1500492

HOW CAN I HELP MY MHD

I will go tomorrow and get the electrolyte for her water to see if that helps. Her tank is usually kept around 82 - 88 during the day. At night she usually doesn’t go below 68. The few days we had cool weather and I didn’t want to turn on the heater in the house, I put her under a the red light to keep her temps from going to low. But now that I have thought about it, even though her temp in the tank say 86, she feels cold.

I have a 5.0 UVB lamp and a warming lamp on her for approx. 12 - 14 hours a day. Mealies are the only thing we can get in her mouth right now because she is so small and her mouth doesn’t open very big. I have tried crickets before on several occasions before she got sick and she wasn’t interested. I also tried silk worms and butter worms but she stuck her nose up at them. Before she got sick, she loved supers and mealies. I ordered some small crickets for my beardie but they are really too small for her, maybe I will try getting Chica to eat some of those, although I will have to kill them first as there is almost no way I can get a live cricket in her mouth. We will try to open from the back of the mouth instead of the front and see if we can stick some in during the Milli-seconds she has her mouth open. At this point she doesn’t eat on her own and when I checked on her just a few minutes ago, she hasn’t moved since last night and is still asleep. I will continue to give her warm baths every night in hopes that she will snap out of it. She is only approx. 2 years old and I know her light span is supposed to be longer than that.

Thanks for your help.

11/04/07 05:50pm

#1501200

Chickachicka
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Message To: Chickachicka In reference to Message Id: 1501189

HOW CAN I HELP MY MHD

Oh I forgot about the other information. She doesn’t look gravid when she isn’t puffed up as she gets when she is stressed. How often do they get gravid? I have had her over a year and I don’ t think she has ever been. If they do get gravid and are not able to lay eggs, what happens? Now I am more worried.

As far as picutures, my husband just broke our only digital camera ( his tenth camera to break or lose) and I haven’t gotten a new one yet. I only have picures of when she was healty. But maybe I can get a disposable camera and take pictures and have them put on a disk and then be able to download pictures of what she looks like now.

11/04/07 05:57pm

#1501445

Dericka
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Message To: Chickachicka In reference to Message Id: 1501200

HOW CAN I HELP MY MHD

Well it sounds like you are doing everything just right. If she’s gravid you would probably have some idea, she would be very fat and lumpy. Females are gravid and laying their eggs right about this time, so that’s why I thought it could be a possibility. I believe that a healthy female can lay eggs without having mated, or been with a male, there was a discussion about that on here quite a while ago, I can’t remember but I’m pretty sure if a female is helathy she can lay, obviously unfertilized, eggs...I brought that possibility up b/c it is that time of year, and that can be one reason a female stops eating...
Other than that, do you dust the mealies with calcium powder when you feed them to her? Something else that may be benificial to try is dusting them with some type of a probiotic for reptiles, it’s usually a powder like the calcium and it promotes the growth of good, beneficial bacteria that they need for digestion and stuff...I use it after deworming a reptile, which can actually make some of that good bacteria go away along with the bad things in their belly...if that sounds strange, it’s basically the same as when a human takes an antibiotic or some kind of medicine which will actually change the bacteria counts in the gut, and then how eating yogurt, which has bacteria cultures and helps get it back in balance...
Unfortunatley I can’t really think of anything else to suggest, an experienced herp vet might be able to help, b/c I’d say there might be something going on with her/inside her, since you are doing everything environmentally right...it’s sort of good in a very small way that she has the strenght to resist your force feedings, the only MHD’s that I have ever had an easy time force feeding were the sickest and weakest of ones...

deri

11/04/07 08:28pm

#1501772

Mad4You2
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Message To: Dericka In reference to Message Id: 1501445

Trick for getting the mouth open

Hi....looks like you’ve gotten great advice here....I just wanted to tell you about a trick the vet showed me to get their mouth open. Take a q-tip and place the middle of the stem at the front of her mouth between her lips...use equal pressure on both sides and kind of wiggle it between her mouth...she will open up and then slide the stem back until you’re making her keep her mouth open...go gently but I’ve put it all the way back to the corners of the mouth before....then she can’t close up and you can get food in her mouth....pull the q-tip stem out the front of her mouth and let her figure out she has food in it. I’ve had them spit a chomped cricket out but if you are persistent she will finally quit fighting so much and become resigned to it. I usually use this with my slurry mix for sick MHDs...I’ll see if I can find that post and copy it up to this one for you. Good luck....Angie

BTW....I keep my temps 73 - 78 with 80-90% humidity for all my MHDs....I keep a desktop fountain running in their enclosure and mist 4-5 x a day. If you think you’re having a hard shed you might try putting a wet warm paper towel in a deli cup and putting her in there for 20-30 minutes....that will help start the shed, She will hate it and be really pissed at you when she comes out. Make sure you have some air holes in the cup before putting her in.

11/05/07 12:14am

#1501778

Mad4You2
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Message To: Chickachicka In reference to Message Id: 1500065