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Very Dehydrated? or Gout?

22 14:08:39

Question
Hello - I have a fifteen year old spayed green iguana. I live in Florida and she has always gotten the proper care. Last week she stopped eating on her own and became lethargic. Took her to the reptile vet where they did subcute fluids and baytril and full panel bloodwork (results attached). I was thinking kidney or liver failure but the results don't support that I don't think. Her urates and feces have looked good all along and I have been syringe feeding her baby food and fluids. She eats hibiscus when placed into her mouth. I went over these results with dr and she is thinking gout because of muscle loss levels in her bloodwork (CK and LDH) and wants to give her steroids and painkillers. I am leaning towards just dehydration because it was very hot here recently, in the 90s, for a week staight and I caught her panting quite a bit in between spray downs. She gets an hour warm bath everyday too. I think maybe she needs a few rounds of sub fluids and not steroids or painkillers. Her nutrition has always been perfect and her levels are good there, so it's hard to see gout as the diagnosis since that mainly comes from poor nutrition. What do you think should be my next step from here based on her bloodwork? Is it possible to regain the muscle she's lost with supplements? She doesn't seem to be in pain to me just a little weak but then again it's hard to tell with iguanas. I couldn't upload image because its pdf. The results showed everything in normal range but (CK 1847 u/l and LDH 488 IU/l) Uric acid looks great but WBC is high 19 - thousand ref range. Thank you! Sorry this is so long.

Answer
Hello Lisa,

If you want, you can send me her bloodtest to my home email & I will take a look at them.  It is Drache613@cfl.rr.com
I have a slight problem however, with the vet just automatically giving baytril without confirmation of an infection.  That alone, will do her no good & dehydrate her worse, if she was dehydrated to begin with.

Are you using a UVB light?  If so, what type & brand are you using, is it a flourescent tube bulb or a compact & how old is it?  
What type of basking light are you using?
What type of thermometer are you using?  What are her temps?

At age 15, you must have been doing something right, or she would not have made it this long though.

Does she have any swelling of any toes, fingers, hands or feet?  Gout comes with nutrition, but, it also comes due to chronic dehydration which will cause kidney damage, too.  I do not think that is what it is.

Her CK level is not really all that high.  It could have been elevated simply due to the tail stick, or stress from being dehydrated, etc.  The LDH is a bit high but is still within range.  The levels can be elevated during brumation or prior to brumation.  It could also be indicative of cancer, pancreatitis, meningitis,  or hemolysis.  How long did they store the blood before they tested it?
Sometimes if blood is handled incorrectly before testing, it can damage the cells & show false positive high levels of LDH.  Just throwing out possibilities.  I would hate to miss something.  I hope that it is not cancer.  However, since the white blood cell count is high, that is what I am looking at, is possible cancer.  
Her body seems to be fighting something pretty big if her white cell count is that high.  

Did the vet not even consider cancer?  

You are more than welcome to continue our conversation via my home email, it is up to you.

Tracie