Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

Laughing_Lizard_Lady

I'm a bit worried about my male Collared Lizard. He is eating and behaving normally and he has recently mated with my female and she has laid 11 eggs that so far look healthy. I have showed him to a friend of mine who owns a reptile store and he thinks he looks like a healthy mature male, but I've looked at many many pics on the internet of mature male collared lizards and none of them look quite so swollen!

However, he seems to be retaining water, his throat/chin is overly swollen and looks like a full sac of water and the sides of his body are all saggy.

I'm not overfeeding him and his viv parameters are correct for his species. I use RO water in his water bowl to prevent build up of salts. The female in with him is very healthy and completely fine.

There are two possible things which may have influenced this:

1. I cooled him down for two months (not hibernated) by gradually lowering the viv temp. every week from Oct/Nov and then around Jan I gradually increased it weekly back to normal - would this have made his body store excess fat?

2. He has a growth on his head which he has had for a couple of years, I treat it with high strength Manuka honey (it works brilliantly for this and loads of other reptile skin problems!) and periodically the scab falls off and he is fine for a while. I read somewhere that reptiles may retain fluid as a response to pain, so maybe his head could hurt him more than it appears (as he's behaving normally) and so the excess fluid is a response to this?

I will try to attach a photo of him, please can anyone help or offer any solutions for me to try.

Thank you very much!

Laughing_Lizard_Lady · Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 2:32 pm Post subject:

I can't seem to be able to attach a photo! I put the file name in the section below and clicked 'add attachment' but the page keeps going blank - can anyone help please??

Laughing_Lizard_Lady · Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 3:45 am Post subject:

Here is the photo of my Male Collared lizard Perkin. Note how extended his chin looks...and you can just make out his saggy sides I think.

Laughing_Lizard_Lady · Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 3:54 am Post subject:

Another pic, different angle, this time with Pootle, his girlfriend!

trese · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 12:10 pm Post subject:

that does not look right at all i would rush him to the vets, couldn'yt even suggest what that could be about but a vet visit needs to be high priority

hope he'll be ok
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8 snakes
43 lizards
plus eggs

Laughing_Lizard_Lady · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 12:21 am Post subject:

Thanks...I 'phoned the vet a specialist in London and he said that as long as he is feeding and behaving normally (he is breeding for the second time this year at the moment!) don't have anything to worry about!

He's been like this ever since I cooled him down at the end of last year to prepare him for breeding season.....

Thanks for replying, all the 'experts' I've shown him to or who have held him have repeated what the vet said. But I'm with you on this one...
I'll keep you posted! Smile

trese · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 11:26 am Post subject:

yeah just keep an eye on him for changes, maybe when he was cooled he retained alot of food to sustain himself good luck with him and any eggs u may get from the breeding.
_________________
8 snakes
43 lizards
plus eggs

DeanThorpe · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 2:54 pm Post subject:

The vet that said its nothing to worry about ,did he actually see the pic? was he not atleast curious to find out the cause?
Have you heard of this in other collards?
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