well, we're gonna do it

Alika · #1 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 02:08 AM

My dear sweet iguana who has never bit anyone in his life decided to bite me in a hormonal fit on Saturday morning. He's no 6' monster, but his bite gave me something to think about... and sent me to the emergency room. (It's worth noting that I did NOT want to go, but he tore through a good sized vein and we couldn't get it to stop bleeding. An hour and a half later when we walked into the ER, it was still bleeding copiously).

The whole escapade was a pain in the butt. The bite is to the fatty portion of my left palm under the thumb. Of course the tears are jagged, and the folks at the ER were extremely worried about infection. After an x-ray determined that there were no teeth left behind, I got to endure SIX Litocaine shots to the already sensitive area so that a resident doctor could do a 'high powered flush'. My hand was numb for the rest of the day.

To add insult to injury, they put me on a very high dose of Augmentin for five days. If you know anything about Augmentin or antibiotics in general, you know that this has made me very sick all weekend.

Finally, they gave me a tetanus shot. Initially, it wasn't nearly as painful as the Litocaine... but later that night I awoke in searing pain. It felt like someone was stabbing my left arm with a knife! It's still extremely sore today.

It's ironic, because the wound itself is healing quite well and I don't think it will be an issue for too much longer.

I was not able to do my eagle court of honor program on Saturday night. We handle birds with our left hand, as per tradition, and there was no way I was putting an eagle up there... even if my hand WASN'T too numb to hold the jesses!

Which brings me to the title of this post: we're gonna get Xander neutered. This was the last straw. We've been chewing on the idea for two or three weeks after the vet recommended it at his last appointment to help curb breeding season activity (he has torn a nice size sore in his nose). We were hesitatant, because I've heard that neutering doesn't always solve the problem. Doing our research, we learned from several reputable ig people, that the younger you do it to them, the better the results are. Apparently, there is a widely held theory that as the years go by, breeding behavior becomes as much a set behavioral pattern (psychological) as a response to physiological hormones.

Rather than risk all the crap we're seeing now amplified in the years to come, we've decided to take a chance on the procedure. Our vet is wonderful, and I trust her whole-heartedly. She has plenty of experience with iguanas, and the price she quoted us is very reasonable ($230).

Just thought I'd share one more reason NOT to get a green iguana.

Heidi · #2 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 02:55 AM

I'm sorry about the bite. Sounds horrible. At least it made a difficult decision a lot easier.

Alika · #3 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 02:58 AM

Thanks.

I should clarify that I still love my iguana to pieces. If anything, I wish I hadn't gone to the hospital... I'm still not convinced it was necessary. But it really was a wake-up call: yes, he has been sweet up until now, but that's all changing now and there is a chance that he could one day be one of those finger amputating iguanas. I'd like to do everything I can to prevent that, from spending oodles of time with him to neutering...

...not to mention that I'm hoping to decrease his restlessness so maybe he won't hurt himself as badly in the future.

snakebitten69 · #4 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 03:03 AM

sorry to hear that! augmentin is the pits the side effects of that stuff is always worse than the original ailment!

Sphynx · #5 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 03:08 AM

Glad you are feeling better

Yungair23 · #6 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 03:10 AM

WOW im really suprised great i have a male 1 year behind yours thats just shown his first breeding season changes and they were very mild i hope that next year isnt like your breeding season this is opening my eye's even more every male i hear is agressive and well i got a male i wish the best for you and xander sorry to hear about the ordeal and please let us know when the procedure is done i want to hear how he is doing i may consider this resort also since you have heard the earlier the better.
Nick

Alika · #7 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 03:12 AM

Thanks, guys.

The augmentin really has been horrible. It's been one thing after another... and if you know the side-effects, you can pretty well guess what they are. I'm wondering if it's really necessary. I have to go back to work tomorrow, and I'll be by myself all week... I'd rather NOT be sick from preventative pills. However, I DID pay for the prescription, and I took the time to have it filled, so I figure I might as well just suck it up and ride it out.

Alika · #8 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 03:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yungair23

WOW im really suprised great i have a male 1 year behind yours thats just shown his first breeding season changes and they were very mild i hope that next year isnt like your breeding season this is opening my eye's even more every male i hear is agressive and well i got a male i wish the best for you and xander sorry to hear about the ordeal and please let us know when the procedure is done i want to hear how he is doing i may consider this resort also since you have heard the earlier the better.
Nick

I never would have thought to see this from Xander. Everyone who's ever met him says he's the sweetest ig they've ever met. It's just this stupid breeding funk... and he's only like that with me. He's fine for my husband, and he was an angel for the vet when we took him for his check up... if I hadn't been so busy being proud of him, I would have been quite angry about it!

My vet said it's not unusual for hormonal males to target female owners, and I guess I've read as much, but that doesn't make it any better for me!

NicoleRussell · #9 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 11:41 AM

Have you read or heard about that iguana in iguana magazine that suddenly after MANY years decided to flip out on it's owner?
It was a long sad story---the owner was a great woman who took excellent care of the animal for a long time....he flippd for no apparent reason one breeding season---nothing helped. Surgery---relocation---he was even taken in by an Iguana specialist...to try and correct the problem. The owner stoppd at nothing to try and get her sweet animal back.
The lizard seemed to change temporarily---but went back to bad behavior after a while and could not be trusted.
Finally the animal was put to sleep.
Be aware that even though the surgery has been known to help some animals it's usually done before breeding seasons start for the best results....
Alika PM me--I'll give you someone's email who is a rehabber....and also someone who works on staff at Iguana...you can tap their brains for info.

Nexus · #10 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 02:19 PM

I posted on another thread about my iguana having to be put down in what sounds like similar circumstances to the the one you are talking about in the article. It was almost as if someone had thrown a switch inside his head. The one wall of my bedroom has an alcove 8' tall x 6' wide x 2' deep that I converted to house him. It had 7.5mm thick laminated glass sliding doors on it and he would make them distort when he tried to get at me every time I entered the room. Due to this behaviour he ripped two of his front claws out.

I tried to get him to calm down over the next twelve months but in the end had to concede and have him put to sleep.

So I hope the neutering works for you.

Cheers
Nick

unluckyseventeen · #11 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 08:41 PM

Hey Alika - a little tip:

Eat yogurt. Augmentin and other antibiotics kill all bacteria they can find in your body, which is exactly what they are supposed to do. Unfortunately it also kills your STOMACH bacteria and it really, really hurts. If you eat yogurt, it replaces the natural bacteria with the live bacteria in the Yogurt, and the antibiotics don't kill it.

I've been on amoxycillin for 6 month stretches at a time to prevent me from getting sick every 3 weeks, and if I don't eat yogurt when I take it, the next day is unbearable. My stomach goes nuts... it hurts to even sit or stand up.

Eat yogurt. Ironically it "augments" the side effects of "augmentin".

Try it!

Adrya · #12 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unluckyseventeen

Hey Alika - a little tip:
Eat yogurt. Augmentin and other antibiotics kill all bacteria they can find in your body, which is exactly what they are supposed to do. Unfortunately it also kills your STOMACH bacteria and it really, really hurts. If you eat yogurt, it replaces the natural bacteria with the live bacteria in the Yogurt, and the antibiotics don't kill it.
I've been on amoxycillin for 6 month stretches at a time to prevent me from getting sick every 3 weeks, and if I don't eat yogurt when I take it, the next day is unbearable. My stomach goes nuts... it hurts to even sit or stand up.
Eat yogurt. Ironically it "augments" the side effects of "augmentin".
Try it!

Also antibiotics can give you a yeast infection cause it kills the good bacteria down there as well.... so eating yogurt will also help with that.

NicoleRussell · #13 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 11:09 PM

I was trying so hard not to think about it and she had to go and say the Y word

Pork Chops N' Corn Bread · #14 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adrya_Webb

Also antibiotics can give you a yeast infection cause it kills the good bacteria down there as well.... so eating yogurt will also help with that.

Glad I don't have to worry about that. lol

Alika · #15 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 11:44 PM

Oh wow, guys!

Nicole: Yes, I had heard that story. I refer to it a lot when I try to talk people out of buying iguanas. The older Xander gets, though, the more stories I have of my own

Nexus: I hope so, too.

Unlucky and Adrya: Yes, I know. My boss was actually put on Augentin a week before I was, and she made a big deal about how she had to eat lots of yogurt to stave of yeast infections. So when I was put on Augmenting, that was the first thing I asked the nurse: "is it true... should I...". Apparently, this is true of all oral antibiotics. So along with my prescription, I picked up a bunch of extra yogurt and I have been eating it religiously for the past several days.

In case anyone is curious, the other side effects of Augmentin are nausea, fatigue, and diarrhea... along with generally feeling like crap. The nurse told me this when we talked about yeast infections and gut bacteria. Now I have experienced them all first hand, lol.

TheBoaGuy · #16 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 11:53 PM

All this talk about yeast infections bring up a funny story. My girlfriend was at work one night and called me saying she needed monostat but was getting off to late to pick it up so she asked me to go get it. I said fine but there was one problem wrestling was coming on in like 10 minutes. So what did I do???? I called my best friend and told him the situation and how i really wanted to watch wrestling. And dont you know he went to the store and got it for me. Nothing beats a good friend. especially one that will goto the store to buy your girlfriend femine products when you really dont want to

chrispaine · #17 (**permalink**) 02-14-2006, 11:56 PM

thats no good, hope you get him calmed down... I have a argus and He hasnt tried to bite and I hope he never will cause I am sure he could do some damage too. I already have to wear gloves because of his claws. Fun stuff.