Wild injured anole....any advice?

[Sonya610]

Yesterday I found a small green anole on the dog bed in the house. Needless to say he didn't come into the house on his own and has suffered some trauma.

Only obvious sign was a tail hanging by a thread, but the little guy was barely moving, eyes are completely shut, and while primarily green there are various brown discolorations along with black spots behind each closed eye (supposedly black spots are a sign of stress).

Soooo....only cage I had was an 8 gallon critter keeper with a plastic top. Put a heating pad around that, a plastic plant, and misted it down. With the plastic top on the critter keeper I can't use a lamp for heat.

This morning the little guy is still alive and currently more active, trying to walk around a bit however his eyes are still closed, I haven't seen him open them. Is that a sign of eye injury?

Any advice? I feel encouraged that he survived the night. Should I just keep things as they are, providing warmth, misting and keeping the little guy quiet for 2-3 days? I don't want to invest in a setup unless/until I believe he will survive.

Photos below:

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[d_virginiana]

It could just be the pictures, but it also seems like he might have a lot of retained skin or something. Instead of just misting, put a humid hide with either wet sphagnum moss or paper towels inside and let him hang out in there for awhile.

Can you get a closeup of the eyes? If both are closed and there is no obvious swelling my guess would be that it's stress and not an injury. I just find it unlikely that he'd get two pretty much invisible eye injuries.

[Sonya610]

It could just be the pictures, but it also seems like he might have a lot of retained skin or something. Instead of just misting, put a humid hide with either wet sphagnum moss or paper towels inside and let him hang out in there for awhile.

Can you get a closeup of the eyes? If both are closed and there is no obvious swelling my guess would be that it's stress and not an injury. I just find it unlikely that he'd get two pretty much invisible eye injuries.

Thanks. He does have what looks like some retained shed on his tail.

And I think you are right about the closed eye thing. After googling I found a few other references to anoles with closed eyes due to illness. Weird thing is he wanders around like that! Not a very good survival strategy.

[d_virginiana]

One more thing; if the tail is injured, you should let it soak in a betadine solution probably daily until it either heals or falls off. Don't want infection to set in.

[joeysgreen]

I'm going to sound like the broken record, but for best results, seek veterinary help.
If that's not desireable on your part, then surrendering it to a licenced wildlife rehabilitator is almost as good (most will have a vet that they work with as necessary).

As of right now what you are doing is certainly not wrong, it's just essentially gambling on it being able to do all the work itself. You are providing proper husbandry, which is a replication of what it experiences outside, minus the predators.

Ideally what would happen is a thorough physical examination, offering of pain and wound management as needed, and fluid and nutritional support while the body is recovering. All of this is more difficult simply because this animal is so small, but it can be done.

I hope this helps,

Ian

[Sonya610]

One more thing; if the tail is injured, you should let it soak in a betadine solution probably daily until it either heals or falls off. Don't want infection to set in.

The tail was shrivelled and dead, I sterilized some nail clippers last night and snipped off the dead part (it had a sharp angle and was getting caught on the plastic plant and the little guy was getting stuck). He didn't even feel it when I snipped it, he was sitting at the bottom of the cage and didn't even flinch (and since his eyes are closed he didn't try to run because he couldn't see me). I will look into putting putting something on the tail.

No point in offering prey items since he wouldn't see them much less try to eat them. I did read that they can be fed when ill by placing a small dollop of pure meat baby food on their snout, they usually lick it off and that provides some sustenance. Apparently some lizard keepers use that method to keep non-eating hatchlings alive until they start to eat on their own.

[Sonya610]

I'm going to sound like the broken record, but for best results, seek veterinary help.
If that's not desireable on your part, then surrendering it to a licenced wildlife rehabilitator is almost as good (most will have a vet that they work with as necessary).


Thank you for the advice but there is no way I can afford to spend a few hundred on vet care for this little guy;
I doubt if the vet would do much other than charge hundreds for xrays and the like (possible exception would be antibiotics). This is a tiny little lizard so examining would be difficult, little guy is about 1.5" from snout to vent. I may consider a wildlife rehab person if there isn't a change in a day or two.

[d_virginiana]

I would also suggest searching for reptile rescues in your area. A lot of times they will have access to vet care, and they may be more willing to help if you volunteer to foster him until he is ready for adoption or release. They're also a lot more informal than a wildlife rehab (in my experience wildlife rehabbers tend to be more focused on mammals and birds too).

[Sonya610]

I would also suggest searching for reptile rescues in your area. A lot of times they will have access to vet care, and they may be more willing to help if you volunteer to foster him until he is ready for adoption or release. They're also a lot more informal than a wildlife rehab (in my experience wildlife rehabbers tend to be more focused on mammals and birds too).

I know there is a snake rescue organization an hour or so away. Don't know if they do tiny reptiles though. They do go out and rescue large pet snakes that are found outdoors and also facilitate adoptions.

[Albert Clark]

Wow, kudos to you for your efforts! The poor little guy probably escaped a preditor and is extremely stressed. IMO, I would ditch the aspen and put him on paper towels. The humid hide addition that Lora proposed along with the betadine is spot on. The baby food is also a great idea. Maybe use a reptile multivitamin powder fortified with calcium if he takes to it. Remember reptiles heal slowly so everthing you can do is helping him.

[joeysgreen]

Admittedly I agree that proper care can be expensive. It's also expensive for rehabber's, rescues, and wildlife veterinarians, so consider offering a donation to whomever you send him too; any little bit helps.

If you have a veterinary college nearby they'll likely do wildlife rehab as part of their exotic's department; I'm at OSU so not your state, but UFLA, LSU, U of Georgia all have excellent programs.

Ian

[Sonya610]

Sadly the little guy passed on today. I always suspected that there could be severe internal injuries involved (since one of my dogs obviously caught him and carried him into the house, and they are none to gentle when hunting small critters in the yard).

Thanks for all the great advice.

Joeys I know you probably believe that if only the little guy had received trauma care from a veterinarian he could have been saved. I personally believe he likely had serious internal injuries and could not be saved. I live in the country and there is a lot of wildlife, my chickens have eaten baby snakes, a snake ate a bunch of chicks, my dogs have caught/killed lizards, armadillo's, etc.... and in return they have had a couple of close calls where they were nearly bitten by a rattler and a copperhead. In short, stuff happens and with lots of little critters about the incidents are more common than I would like.

[d_virginiana]

Sorry to hear that. Whenever I am dealing with wild animals my rule for vet care is that if it's going to cost more than about $50 I let nature take its course. I also don't bother with a vet visit unless the problem is very obvious and easy to treat (like a localized infection or something). Spending time to rehabilitate one is one thing, but spending hundreds of dollars is another.
Frankly, spending the money it would take for a case like this would just be ridiculous. You gave him somewhere warm and calm to die, and that's more than most people would do.

[joeysgreen]

I'm sorry for the loss. I'm not about to say that vet's save everything either. I was just offering options for the greatest chance of a good outcome.

Perhaps this would be a good thread to discuss wildlife rehab and everyone's opinions on the topic. Lora, consider what you said with a limit of ~50 dollars or letting nature take it's course. $50 for a person treating wildlife like it's their pet won't take you very far... the examination alone is often $30-50. If that amount were donated to a wildlife center it would go much further.

"letting nature take it's course" I think this is at the very root of wildlife rehabilitation. These animals are mostly injured due to mankind (our top reasons for admission is caught be cat/dog and hit by car). Saving one anole, or one bird, or one squirrel, doesn't make a difference to the population of that species. They die in the wild all the time. I think rehabilitating them is just one means of giving back and reducing our impact as a society.

So then perhaps the biggest part of wildlife rehabilitation might be to spread the message on how to reduce our impact before these animals are injured. From my point of view the biggest change a single person can do is to keep their cats indoors or only let them out on a leash or under supervision. Dogs might be confined to a fenced yard perhaps.

Ian

[d_virginiana]

Actually I got opthalmic antibiotics for about $30 for my Turtle who ended up so attached to us over the six or seven months she was recovering she is now a permanent pet. Plus we moved so we were out of her home range. I don't think that money would have been better spent for a donation. With rescues I only spend money if there looks to be a specific problem with a straightforward solution. I'm not stupid enough to take an animal with vague problems to the vet and expect a battery of tests to cost $50. I frankly don't have the money to treat random wild animals like they are my pets.

A lot of the time, just TLC is enough to help out even some really bad cases. Another pretty horrifying rescue that I helped supervise this past year was a blacksnake that got caught in some netting and looked like someone had just taken about a third of its skin and rolled it down like a sock. No vet visit was made and he ended up being released near the end of summer completely healed after two successful sheds (my parents don't live near a reptile vet, so it wasn't even an option).

My point is that whether because of finances or location, a vet visit typically isn't in the cards for a wild rescue for most people, leaving either TLC or some sort of animal-oriented charity/student vet school/ect if you're lucky enough to find one that will take something like an extremely common species of snake or a baby anole.

[Albert Clark]

Well, I think it was a valiant attempt to save a life even though the anole didn't survive. At least he was given a chance. Sonya610, kudos to you! These guys (anoles) have very complicated and intricate systems that require special microinstruments , it would have been difficult for the vet to save him also. Good call and great job! :)

[joeysgreen]

With rescues I only spend money if there looks to be a specific problem with a straightforward solution. I'm not stupid enough to take an animal with vague problems to the vet and expect a battery of tests to cost $50.

Lora, I think that's the root of the problem that I'm getting at. You are deciding the fate of this animal based on your interpretation of what might be a straightforward solution. And you are taking my suggestion of offering a donation as a measure of what can be done. Don't give anything if you wish. The care will still be there because they (wildlife rehabber's) have access to it and funds dedicated for the care of wildlife. Even without "a battery of tests", simple fluid therapy and pain management will see a lot more cases survive, or at least die a comfortable death (euthanasia is sometimes an unfortunate part of wildlife care). Your state fish and wildlife website should have an extensive list of licenced wildlife rehabilitators, and yes, many do take in reptiles. The small state of Oklahoma for instance has several hundred options to choose from.

I see a lot of excuses why things are done the way they are. I'm offering advice as to how things can be done better, to raise the bar.

Ian

[d_virginiana]

You are deciding the fate of this animal based on your interpretation of what might be a straightforward solution.

Yes, I am deciding the fate of that animal when I find it struggling around half-blind in the wild and decide not to let it get eaten by the neighborhood cats.
No I am not deciding the fate of that animal based on my interpretation. There's usually a vet phone-call or two involved at the very least, and a turn-over to a rehab organization with the volunteer of fostering if it's something that can't be handled at home.


I see a lot of excuses why things are done the way they are. I'm offering advice as to how things can be done better, to raise the bar.


No, you're making someone who came here with the best intentions and an animal that was so small it probably couldn't be effectively treated feel bad for not donating to a wildlife charity or spending money on a vet visit when she did more than what most would do.

I'm a graduate student, currently unemployed, and barely making ends meet. I find it a little insulting when people tell me I should donate or take a sick animal (that I did not sign up to have any responsibility for) to the vet. Yes, I take advantage of low-to-no-cost options when possible, and I suggest those to others. I didn't presume that the OP had money to give a donation to cover medical care (she may, she may not, I don't know), so I suggested that maybe she could offer to foster instead. You say "Don't give anything if you wish" like it's my choice rather than my financial reality that dictates these things. If I donated or took injured wild animals to the vet on my own dime it would be very irresponsible, as it would deplete the money I have saved up in case one of my pets needs emergency vet attention. Frankly, a lot of the suggestions you offer on this site, while they may be medically correct, are completelyoutside the realm of what a casual hobbyist can/will spend on a garter snake. I'm not criticizing your intentions, just the plausibility of a lot of the suggestions.

You say you "see a lot of excuses as to why things are done the way they are". If you can find anything to criticize how Sonya handled the anole situation then I think you're holding people to an unrealistic standard. She did just fine, and more than what should be expected for an animal she has no responsibility for.

I'm confused as to why you're acting like someone who calls a rehabber or rescue organization without an offer of money is somehow not doing their best, when in reality they are doing more for the animals than most would.

[joeysgreen]

Lora, and Sonya, first and foremost, I don't want to make you feel bad for doing what you did. You did the best with the information and resources that you had available to you and as discussed, the first, best treatment for most wildlife cases is to reduce stress.

Lora, I understand that most good samaritans have nothing to donate. If my suggestion to offer something was offensive, it wasn't meant to be.

It is free to bring the animal to someone with the resources (money and expertise) to take the animal off your hands and give the best treatment available. I don't understand how this suggestion is insulting or not in the best interest of both the animal and the good samaritan.

As for the level of information I offer here and elsewhere on this website, I think that an informed hobbyist is a better hobbyist. And while I want to make this world a better place, I do realize it isn't my world and others will do as they wish. No one is forcing anyone to do what's best, but if there is a trend for better care, or for less wild-caught, or to take that extra step, then I can't say I'd frown against progress.

[d_virginiana]

There is nothing offensive about suggesting that someone take an animal to a rescue/university/whatever. If I sounded like I thought that I didn't mean to.

Oh, I'd love to be able to realistically recommend a vet visit on a lot of the sites I visit, and often do even though I know it won't happen. The sad fact is that 90% of people who keep exotics do so on a whim (this site is one of the few that seems to be largely made up of more dedicated keepers which is why I've been on it so long) and won't bother to spend the time and money. Then you run into the issue of exotic vet care not being at the level vet care for more common pets is. For example I find it hard to recommend a vet visit to someone for something like a vaguely ill frog or a sick baby garter because the odds are they will end up with a huge vet bill, extra stress on the animal, and still end up with a dead animal. I've run into that several times with my garters since they are smaller than a lot of common pet species and I'm lucky enough to be able to go to the nation's first exotic vet practice for civilian purposes (all previous ones had been for zoos and what have you).

I didn't mean to sound so harsh, I think we just have different views on when vet care is a realistic option for reptiles.