Hello Tegu Terra,

I am a tegu keeper from South Africa and being from the Southern hemisphere my Argentine tegus are just coming out of hibernation (4months) and starting to feed again. Yesterday one of my staff reported that the forearm of one of the 9 month old females appeared broken and has since been taken to the vet for treatment (as of today). We are keeping 1.3 juvenile Arg B/W tegus in this particular group with the oldest animal being 1.5 years old and the youngest being 9 months old. The tegus are housed in an outdoor pit enclosure and we have never observed any fighting or aggression before, but still the most likely suspect for causing the injury to the forearm seems to be the biggest animal in the group who is double the size of the smallest.

My intension was to raise this group together so that they are familiar with each other once they are mature as I intend to breed them in the future and ultimately house them together. We have not observed any dominance issues before and the group will regularly even bask in the sun on top of each other.

So my question is, have any of you experienced aggression or fighting between young tegus of different sized animals and would it be advisable to keep them separate from now on or should I suspect some other unrelated cause for the broken forearm of this individual??

Any advice would be appreciated

Regards

Warren

I do not think it was aggression. My guess is the larger one layed on top of the 9 month old. That would not break an arm but if there is a calcium deficiency the bones can become brittle and break under that kind of pressure. If there was a fight one or both should have bite and claw marks. The only way a Tegu can break the leg of another is to bite hard or tail whip. Since they bask together with no aggression I believe the calcium may be the cause of the broken limb. The Tegu that is healing should be seperated until she is better. What is in your pit for the Tegu's? There may be an explanation there. Tegu's are escape artist and she could have been injured in the act of trying to get out of the habitat. 

Earl G. Morse at September 7, 2011 at 12:51 PM

I do not think it was aggression. My guess is the larger one layed on top of the 9 month old. That would not break an arm but if there is a calcium deficiency the bones can become brittle and break under that kind of pressure. If there was a fight one or both should have bite and claw marks. The only way a Tegu can break the leg of another is to bite hard or tail whip. Since they bask together with no aggression I believe the calcium may be the cause of the broken limb. The Tegu that is healing should be seperated until she is better. What is in your pit for the Tegu's? There may be an explanation there. Tegu's are escape artist and she could have been injured in the act of trying to get out of the habitat. 

Very well stated,Earl!

Thanks for the response. Obviously there are not much concerns about keeping tegus of different sizes together. I know I would not get away with it so easily with monitors.

Their outdoor pit/ habitat is quite safe with no heavy objects that could fall on them or become unstable if burrowed under and we did not see any obvious marks or signs of fighting on either. After the trip to the vet it was confirmed that the forearm was in fact not broken but had a serious infection which we did not notice before because the animal was in hibernation for the last 4 months. A sample from the infected arm was taken and this is currently being cultured in the lab for identification and we hope to get feedback from the vet this week. This tegu is currently being kept indoors separate from the group and being treated with antibiotics and pain medication daily. I'm still unsure as to what caused the infection in the first place but at least it does not seem to be caused from fighting in the group. I will keep you posted on the outcome and the tegus progress. Thanks

I got feedback from the vet regarding the cultured bacteria which infected the tegus arm. Just for interest sake the bacteria was identified as Chryscobacterium Meningosbpticum, now that's a mouth full. The vet who specializes in exotic animal medicine said that it is quite rare and she thinks it might have been introduced to the tegus arm from the mouth of another tegu after a bite. The tegu will remain on oral antibiotic treatment for 6 weeks and hopefully it will clear up with this treatment but because of the damage to the bone (elbow) already caused by the bacteria C.m it may never regain full use of this forelimb. Has anyone ever had experience with this bacteria or heard of it affecting reptiles before?

I am going to look into that and call my Vet who also specializes in reptiles. She may not regain full use of the arm but in most cases manage to have a normal life.

 Years ago we got our youngest son a Bearded Dragon. At bedtime he was bonding with him so I told him to put "Ghandi", we called him Gandy in his habitat before he did anything else. While doing so he had an accident that caused something to fall on his right fore arm. The fore arm fell off but it did not slow him down in the least. Also we adopted the neighborhood stray who lived along the beach with coyotes. He got into a fight with one and got a tooth right in his left front leg in a joint. We took him to the best animal hospital in Boston. After $1200 and 5 visits for the infection they said he had to have an operation on the leg bone to repair the damage from the infection. I saw they were just doing a procedure for the money and told them so. Peaches regained full use of his leg and back to terrorizing dogs.

 I hope you have the same luck and will be back to you with information.

Thanks Earl,

Any additional information you could find out would be useful. I am concerned if this Chryscobacterium Meningosbpticum infection is contagious and if the other tegus in the group could have also contracted it even thou the others seem to all be healthy at this point. I have also seen various broken bones in reptiles heal considerable well. I just hope that she will still be able to use this limb for nest building as I had hoped to breed this female once she matures.

Tegu Habitat at September 20, 2011 at 8:17 AM

Thanks Earl,

Any additional information you could find out would be useful. I am concerned if this Chryscobacterium Meningosbpticum infection is contagious and if the other tegus in the group could have also contracted it even thou the others seem to all be healthy at this point. I have also seen various broken bones in reptiles heal considerable well. I just hope that she will still be able to use this limb for nest building as I had hoped to breed this female once she matures.

Hey,

The infection got worse during hibernation. During hibernation their organs slow down and the infection gains strength. I would recommend seperating the Tegu, as a precaution, as the infection could be contagious. I know someone that had the same experience and the limb had to be amputated! Hopefully, yours will improve, preventing this. It is always best to get the Tegus Vet checked before hibernation, or check the Tegus yourself thoroughly..

Thanks for the advice, I agree that the infection got time to manifest itself during the hibernation period when the animals metabolism was slowed down etc. This tegu has been separated and in quarantine since it came out of hibernation and we first notices the problem with the leg. The tegu did appear to be healthy with no obvious problems prior to hibernation and I'm not sure if a vet would have picked up anything thing at the time either. Hibernation can be risky even for adults and more so for juvenile animals and this one was only 6 months old at the time of her first hibernation. I would not have allowed her to hibernate so young if I did not intend to breed her in the future. However I am happy to report that since the start or her antibiotic treatment, the tegu has demonstrated more maneuverability of the infected limb which is a good sign the treatment is working.

I found some information however it is in Estonian the hardest language in the world. It is very technical and most people would not benifit from it. Johnny is the man, I follow his advise to the letter because time after time he has proven himself right. We have 2 of his Majestic's that's Natasha in the picture and Buddy looks like Johnny's Majestic Max. They are simply unbelievable Tegu's.

 I am compiling medical information for the site so it can be a one stop source for the Tegu community. Much of it has to be simplified so we can understand it the first time read when time is a factor.

 Glad to hear the patient is on the mend.