Hey so thank you for the concern. Paarthurnax has definitely been a little stressed with all this going on. But he’s taking it like a champ and really doing so much better in my opinion.
Having to wrap him in a towel and gently try to put a syringe into the side corner of his mouth has been a little difficult. Some days he does really well! But then some days he’ll be a little fussy and bite down on the syringe and not let it go for a bit. He’s been doing so much better each day but like I said, some days he’s still fussy. I’ve been very slow and patient with giving him his meds, I just feel so bad stressing him out.
But okay, so his set up is pretty basic. My vet said it was fine. So we really don’t know the cause of his issues. Thankfully he’s been more active. The arm that was swollen is still a little swollen but not as bad and he’s using it again, which is great.
Here’s my set up:
The tank is 3ft x 18inch x 18inch
Huge water dish on the cool side in case he wants to soak which he doesn’t but I like giving him the option, plus he loves sleeping under that huge water dish. So I’ve got the water dish on the cool side, on the warmer basking side behind the light is another hide, his basking spot in front, and a big fake plant with vines to give more coverage. It’s not a lot. I’d like to add more rocks or bricks because his claws are getting a little long and I’m not able to cut them. I usually file them cause it’s easier and it won’t hurt.
The temp is 90-100 basking
65-75 cool side
I use repti bark substrate and spot clean daily. And then every few weeks or once a month I try to clean out and replace as much substrate as I can and when I do that I use lots of water to really get the substrate nice and damp but not too wet to where it’ll cause mold.
I do have a problem with humidity at the moment. I just moved back to my moms house and my room gets very dry. I try to spray his enclosure once to twice a day. But it’s still a little dry. I’m looking into buying a humidifier for my room.
I have a long horizontal tube uvb light that’s a 5.0. I think I’m going to switch to a 10.0 though.
I feed him 25% instinct grain free freeze dried chicken dog food, I add 50% zilla omnivore mix and 25% zilla fruit and vegetables mix as well. The serving size is about the size of his head. I also dust with calcium and once a month I add a multi vitamin powder as well. I feed him this once a week.
And then once or twice a week he gets Flunkers freeze dried Dubia roaches or sometimes a fruit I’m eating I’ll give him some after looking up if it’s okay to eat. But lately he’s gotten the roaches and It’s his FAVORITE snack ever! When the tongs come out he immediately gets so alert and in hunting mode it’s the cutest coolest thing ever! He LOVES those roaches. Maybe I’m feeding him too many at a time? I’m not entirely sure how many I can give him at once. Because if I don’t stop him he’ll want to keep eating more and more. I’ve given him 5 at a time once. Maybe that’s too much. If it is please let me know
And that’s basically it. He’s still eating and drinking. Thankfully he didn’t stop doing that.
UPDATE:
Also the vet called me this morning because they spoke to the radiologist and they told me so his liver is not huge or super abnormal but it’s not the regular size either. It’s slightly larger so it’s irritated and inflamed a bit. So they believe he’s got high levels of uric acid, he possibly has gout which is why his arm swelled up. And then they told me when they looked at his spine on the X-ray they saw signs of arthritis.
My baby boy is only 3 3/4. He’ll be 4 in June. When I got him he was healthy. Everything was going great. The breeder was so kind and helpful and knowledgeable. He told me Paarthurnax was definitely captive bred. So I really don’t know how this happened to him. I constantly try to keep up on research to make sure I’m caring for him correctly. I don’t know how this all happened. The vet doesn’t know either. She said my set up seemed fine. I was being really down on myself cause I want to correct whatever I did to let this happen. But she said they don’t know what caused it but let’s just focus on getting him better.
So he’s gonna stay on the liver supplement and gout medication. And in a month I’ll be taking him back in for blood work again to see if his levels went down. This whole experience has been very expensive. I’m not in a good place financially at the moment. Thankfully my mom was renovating the house and gave me some of that money to help pay for his vet fees. My vet also told me about insurance options for his health which I’m definitely going to look into and get because this process is probably going to cost me a lot more to keep him healthy and better with lots of future check ups. So hopefully I can get him covered before his next appointment.
So yeah, that’s my set up. And that’s the update on what the vet said. I typed a lot so I’m sorry if it’s too much to read. I just wanted to give as much detail was possible in case someone can help or maybe this post can help others, or even for anyone studying reptiles to become a vet or zoologist maybe this post can help as well.
Thank you so much for staying up to date on what’s going on with my chonky noodle boy. You guys are the best!
thank you.
