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Rescued Iguana help!!!

Daenerys

Daenerys

Mother of Dragons
So I was getting ready to leave work and a coworker comes in with a little iguana in a cardboard box and says she just found it in the Petsmart parking lot. I offered to take it home since I am the only one with reptile experience.

The little guy appears outwardly to be malnourished and dehydrated so we gave him a nice long soak in the tub and a bowl of fresh veggies. He possibly has either some sort of skin condition or the previous owner just didn't give him proper humidity and he had shed problems. I am posting pictures to see what you guys think and if maybe some more experienced eye picks up on some other problem we aren't seeing.

If anyone has suggestions on how to get this little guy back on his feet and healthy again please don't hesitate to speak up!

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The bit on the head looks like just some stuck shed, but the bits on the body don't look good. Unfortunately, I don't know what they are. They almost look like cysts or abcesses? Maybe some polysporin would help. I hope somebody who knows chimes in. I think there's a big book on iguanas at work and I'll check it out today.
 
People on another forum suggested polysporin or panolog for the back legs and tail...what do you guys think?
 
So I have him scheduled for a vet visit Monday the 27th and I will try the polysporin up until then. It shouldn't hurt, maybe it will help, right?
 
I might try soaking him in weak tea-colored Betadine water. He's so lucky he isn't road kill...
 
I was thinking of diluting some pedialyte or gatorade and soaking him in that....get him some electrolytes
 
Is he eating and drinking? I wonder how long he was out in the wild. Do you have UVB lights on him?
 
Nanci said:
Is he eating and drinking? I wonder how long he was out in the wild. Do you have UVB lights on him?
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He was in a box in a shopping cart in a parking lot, does that count as wild? couldn't have been even a day, all the carts are accounted for every night and morning

And he is eating collards and squash with dust and multi-vitamin, and drinking plenty of water.
 
Sounds like he found the right box and parking lot to get lost in. Good luck with him!
 
Thanks. Does anyone know if polysporin and neosporin are different enough to favor one over the other? I've been suggested to use both.
 
Daenerys said:
Thanks. Does anyone know if polysporin and neosporin are different enough to favor one over the other? I've been suggested to use both.
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I don't know about reptiles, but they are pretty interchangeable for people, so unless a vet or a vet tech tells you differently, use whichever you already have.

Edit: It is probably a very good sign that he is eating & drinking well. And it sounds like you guys do know what to feed him (I kind of know because I had a professor who had a HOOJE classroom iggy who had lived in the classroom for about 10 years, and that prof was very careful to provide excellent care, a wide range of leafy veggies, some fruit and plenty of UV).
 
wstphal said:
I don't know about reptiles, but they are pretty interchangeable for people, so unless a vet or a vet tech tells you differently, use whichever you already have.

Edit: It is probably a very good sign that he is eating & drinking well. And it sounds like you guys do know what to feed him (I kind of know because I had a professor who had a HOOJE classroom iggy who had lived in the classroom for about 10 years, and that prof was very careful to provide excellent care, a wide range of leafy veggies, some fruit and plenty of UV).
Click to expand...

We have a friend who has many iguanas, plus that is the staple of our bearded dragon's diet, so it is what we had :dancer:
 
Yeah, the person who found him in a parking lot tried to give him crickets. I was like no...*take*

Brandon claimed he had neosporin but he couldn't find it so I went to CVS and looked at them...neosporin seemed to have more extra stuff like coco butter and I was a bit wary about that since I don't know if thats ok for reptiles or not so I went with polysporin since it had 2 active ingredients and then the stuff that makes it a cream, no extra "fluff".
 
I'm glad to hear you're taking him to the vet because I think those bumps may indeed be abcesses and that requires surgery. The book wasn't overly helpful, but it did mention that the toes was a common place for them to get abcesses. Good luck with him!
 
The vet appointment is a very good idea and try to bring a fecal sample with you. The vet may take blood which is probably a good idea to check his kidney function. It looks like he may have an abcess on his foot which is common with neglected Igs. If it is the vet will lance it open and clean it out. As long as he is eating/drinking and has the right lighting he looks like he will heal up fine. I would also put calcium powered over his food everyday. I've seen them come back from worse so I have hope for the little guy. I would soak him everyday along with misting him to get that old shed off and to keep him hydrated. I have never used neosporin on my Igs because I have a cream my vet gave me but it shouldn't hurt him.

Good luck with him and let us know what the vet says.
 
Last night I took him to a friend's house who has 5 rescued iguanas and has 10 years experience and she helped me clean him up a bit. She took a look at all his wounds and picked off layers of dead skin. She found sand in them, so he was probably kept on sand. I have found poops though so he isn't impacted too thank goodness. She did have to amputate two toes. They were caked in old skin so I didn't realize they were black and dead. He is still going to the vet Monday, of course, because she also agrees those bumps could be abcesses. We jsut cleaned him up and covered him in neosporin and bandaged him up. Hopefully he'll almost be done healing those wounds by the time he goes for his vet visit. Picture of the pathetic little guy (You can see how his tail wound is much cleaner):

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He looks silly in his bandages -- a mummy iggy! But I bet he feels better. And the bits of him that aren't bandaged look better already.

I think he's on the road to recovery with your good care. Let us know what the vet says & does.
 
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