Shingleback frothing at mouth...

[Manie]

Woke up this morning to find my shingleback frothing at the mouth. There is a fair amount coming out He's about 1year old and ive only had him for a week, he is such a lovely boy. I and am just waiting for the vets to open so i can take him. Has anyone had this happen? what can it be?

I noticed one of his eyes partially close last night (like sleep in it) and he didnt take food.......

 

[Helikaon]

Woke up this morning to find my shingleback frothing at the mouth. There is a fair amount coming out He's about 1year old and ive only had him for a week, he is such a lovely boy. I and am just waiting for the vets to open so i can take him. Has anyone had this happen? what can it be?

I noticed one of his eyes partially close last night (like sleep in it) and he didnt take food.......

probably a respiratory infection, could possibly be stomatitis. either way it'll need to see your vet if it is pretty bad. they will tell you more

 

[cjpossum]

It would be a respiraty (spelling?) breething infection most likely due to high humidity levels, stress. Could be also lack of heat and uv.

Please describe your setup so I can help you further, and your location

Hope this helps

 

[Manie]

Yeah i was thinking my set up might not be right. I have them both in a 4ft x 2ft x 2ft melamine front sliding glass enclosure kept in the sun room (concrete floor). It has thermostat light and UV. there are 2 vents on the back, approx 20cm each. Both of the shingles came from SA. I am in Sydney. Any help is much appreciated, cheers

 

[melgalea]

doesnt sound too good. my girl is 8 years old and never seen that in her once. good idea to go straight to the vets.

 

[falconboy]

Yeah i was thinking my set up might not be right. I have them both in a 4ft x 2ft x 2ft melamine front sliding glass enclosure kept in the sun room (concrete floor). It has thermostat light and UV. there are 2 vents on the back, approx 20cm each. Both of the shingles came from SA. I am in Sydney. Any help is much appreciated, cheers

By light I assume you mean heat? What temps do you keep it at?

 

[Manie]

Its a 60 Watt spot one globe, temps are arround 40 on top of the basking rock. She goes on and off the rock so i assume that is the right temp? The other one hardly comes out of her hide, i figured she is just getting used to the changes. She seems fine.

 

[cjpossum]

OK to start with this infection can be contagous (I think) so may have to separate them.

you need a hot spot of around 30-40 degC, UV light set at about 150mm (15cm) from the shingleback at the hot end.

Keep the enclosure dry. Put a water bowl in once a week for about 1 day. You may also need a small fan to create a small amount of air movement to keep things dry. Shinglebacks are hard to keep indoors due to their love of hot sun and pleanty of uv.
Have you got room for an out door pit. They are great for the health of the lizard and once set up correctly all you have to do is feed and water.

Example of out door pit

 

[Helikaon]

OK to start with this infection can be contagous (I think) so may have to separate them.

you need a hot spot of around 30-40 degC, UV light set at about 150mm (15cm) from the shingleback at the hot end.

Keep the enclosure dry. Put a water bowl in once a week for about 1 day. You may also need a small fan to create a small amount of air movement to keep things dry. Shinglebacks are hard to keep indoors due to their love of hot sun and pleanty of uv.
Have you got room for an out door pit. They are great for the health of the lizard and once set up correctly all you have to do is feed and water.

Example of out door pit

some types of RIs can definitely be contagious. in this case a basking temp is not gonna be enough you will need to get the ambient temp up to 32 just to one allow the lizard to start healing and secondly so that the antibiotics you get actually work. im not a big fan on people keepign shingles in out door pits, but it does depend where you are, if i kept mine outside they would be dead within a month due to humidity alone.

 

[Manie]

I think Sydney would be too humid for an outdoor pit? I have got an outdoor enclosure, my sons ex cubby house, i was planing to take them out there on sunny days. They will have to share it with 2 blue tongues. Im off to the vet now, ill post the outcombe. Thanks for your suggestions, any advise on my set up or alternative would be great, cheers, Manie

 

[cjpossum]

some types of RIs can definitely be contagious. in this case a basking temp is not gonna be enough you will need to get the ambient temp up to 32 just to one allow the lizard to start healing and secondly so that the antibiotics you get actually work. im not a big fan on people keepign shingles in out door pits, but it does depend where you are, if i kept mine outside they would be dead within a month due to humidity alone.

Where abouts are you?

We are in Central Queensland, near the coast. We have set up our pit in a way so they are kept dry. We use a hardwood chip and pea gravel mix 50/50 and this allows any rain water to quickly drain away and therefor keeping the pit as dry as possible. We also use large old doors so the shinglebacks can easily get out of the rain and keep dry. I think the trick of out door pits for shinglebacks is dont allow the lizard to get wet itself. We have bread shinglebacks now for 4 years using these pits but you still have to keep an eye on them just to make sure all is OK.

We dont allow any grass or weeds to grow in these pits as this raises the humidity within the pit and cause problems. This was the mistake we made in the beginning with over half of the lizards getting RI and most died from it. A very sad year. But now we havent had a sick shingleback for years.

NOTE: the recovery time for sick shinglebacks with RIs can take a long time. WE had one a few years ago (in the learning days) that took 2 years to fully recover and others about 2-3 months.

 

[Mz-Froggy]

Aww poor guy, doesn't sound good

It's great you noticed & check on him, cute you adore him

Hope all goes well with him

I'm getting a pair in a few weeks, the female has a yuk eye, like conjunktivitis ( spelt wrong )

I told them, as i want it fixed or on the mend at least before i pick them up !

I don't want any thing to happen to her, i'd be shattered !

Male seems fine, but if it's contagious, then they can't be in together like they are now !

The Shinglebacks are AWESOME reptiles, ah i luvvvvvv em

Cjpossum, your information & knowledge is GR8 ! I say Thanks for your post

To keep this post for future reference how do i save this to Favourites ?

 

[LullabyLizard]

What did the vet say?? Is he OK?

 

[cjpossum]

Aww poor guy, doesn't sound good

I'm getting a pair in a few weeks, the female has a yuk eye, like conjunktivitis ( spelt wrong )

I told them, as i want it fixed or on the mend at least before i pick them up !

I don't want any thing to happen to her, i'd be shattered !

The symptoms for any RI problems that I have noticed are :- Weeping eyes, Runny nose, froth at mouth and excessive sneezing.

Mz-Froggy, I would be careful with the shingleback with the "eye problem" (cant spell it either) as it could have an RI infection. I have found that any problem with eyes, nose and mouth can quckly lead to bigger problems and it can take a long time. On the other hand it might have a saw eye. Another thing I have noticed is if the eyes appear "sunken in" then they may have problems also. They should look clean shiny and slightly proud from the head.
Just be careful

Thanks for your comments.

 

[Manie]

Im back from the vet. It was as you all mentioned a respiratory infection. It got worst from the short time i left him this morning till i picked him up for the vet. He is now sneezing and its obvious he is having a bit of trouble breathing. The vet gave me 21 syringes filled with antibiotics, one per day. He said he wil be fine and that i got it in time. He also mentioned that it should be ok to keep them both together, however, i have a spare enclosure so did separate them for now. Im so relieved that he will be ok, thanks fo all your comments and i will look at the enclosure set up and monitor humidity a it closer

 

[ShnakeyGirl]

Good to hear he will be okay Manie

 

[Mz-Froggy]

Ah that's GR8 Manie

Yay, glad he will be OK.

Keep us posted please

In the coming days with anti's

 

[cjpossum]

Good to hear Manie
Good luck
Keep us posted

 

[spongebob]

I too live in Sydney and got a pair late last year. My understanding to keeping them in the humidity east of the Great Divide is to use a heat lamp to drive the moisture out.

Mine are in an open topped enclosure to give good ventilation and heat is from a 50watt halogen spot light.

It may be worth revisiting the enclosure you keep them in. If there is not enough ventilation then moisture from food/crap etc may not be able to escape. Just a thought.

 

[JasonL]

Shingles generally have trouble in most parts of Sydney, it is too humid. I have kept a few Shingles for 5 odd years, and have had on and off problems appear. These problems take some time to appear (years) and disappear as Shingles are tough critters and hide the problems well, for this reason they don't breed nearly as well to those being kept further west, even though they appear to be fine. Saying that, "Sydney" is a big place with many "micro climates" and some people do OK keeping them in different ways. The idea is to keep them on the hot end of their heat tolerance with plenty of ventilation to burn off as much humidity as possible.