Help my Green Anole is sick!

Question
QUESTION: I just got my baby green anole about 5 days ago. When I bought her the pet store failed to tell me all the things I had to do to keep her healthy. After some research I went out and bought her a UVA-UVB light bulb and it seems to be helping a little to keep her warm.

The problem is that for the few days she did not have the light the temp in her tank was way to cold compaired to what it should have been and I am afraid she might have a respritory infection.

The day we got her the lady said she just ate, but I have tried to feed her crickets for days now; both in her tank & in the tank with the crickets, & she still won't eat.

Today I bought her "Zilla Jump-start Caloric Supplement & appetite stimulant" and my boyfriend and I have given it to her twice already today. Everytime we feed it to her she has a lot of trouble swallowing it but afterwards she is a beatiful color and appears to be energetic and happy. But just recently I came home and she is stiff as a board, brown, skinnier than ever and has lost all her energy. & has either pucked or pooped the supplement back up.

So my question is, what do I do?
Do I continue to give her the supplement, stop and see if she will eat or what?
I do not have a reptile vet anywhere close and I don't have the money for one anyway.
I just love her so much it's undescribable
If you could help me that would be so amazing. Please please please. :(

ANSWER: Brittany,   First I would see if the petshop will exchange her or him. Since it is their fault she is in this condition. So for 5 days she has has food in her with no way to digest it. Its probably rotting inside her. If they wont.... anoles are not too hard to keep. The uva is usually fine for them. UVB is a plus but they can usually get plenty of vitamin d from your UVA and heat. The calcium supplements are fine. I would keep a nice piece of slate or a small heat stone on her basking side. She need a cooler side put a shallow water dish on other side large enough to soak in and small enough for her to get out of. Helps when she sheds and if she is like my babies are they think its their bathroom...lol Take her off the crickets right now too hard to digest. Get wax worms...they are soft full of fat and protein easy to digest. If she starts looking like she is getting a dark spot on her belly you can try a half of a small eyedropper of mineral oil and get that shell and food to pass. I know it is sad but, sweety it is not worth a reptile bill ....I hate saying that but reptiles are very expensive if you even have one in your area. If she passes it is NOT your fault and if it is a petchain you got her from you let me know. I have done work for most of them and know their policies and procedures. Get back to me for sure on her okay Brittany. Good Luck, Tina

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello again! So first of all I would just like to say thank you. I am so relieved to know that I found someone that knows something about anoles! Also I wanted to fill you in on what has been going on and what we've done & see if you could help me on a few other things.

A week ago we got "Fred" a larger male anole accompany Ollie. Our thought was that having another lizard would give her some will to live and would possibly show her how to eat crickets.

Since then we haven't made much progress getting her appetite back. On top of that day after day we put crickets in the tank and Fred hasn't eaten either. A few days after our purchase of Fred I read your answer and went out to get some wax worms. When we put the worms in the tank he pounced on them. Unfortunately Ollie showed no interest & still to this day will just walk right over top of them like they aren't even there.

To keep her alive we still feed her very small amounts of the appetite supplement twice a day. The thing about that is when we place her up to the syringe holding the gel she just stares at it. The only way to get her to eat it is if I take my finger around the side of her mouth and gently force her to open it. Once she swallows she turns bright green and energetic for a good while.

We definitely are seeing progress with her on the other hand. She seems to be gaining weight and she loves Fred. But my only concern is that she will never eat on her own. & why will Fred eat the worms but not the crickets?

Any advice will help. Thanks so much!

ANSWER: Brittany,    I am glad she has shown some progress. The supplement is great but, not enough to sustain her. What I want you to do with Ollie is cut the worm and try to give it to her. If she won't take it put it into the syringe and feed it to her. I know its icky and I am not a big fan of force feeding reptiles. Did you give her the mineral oil? What kind of substrate do you have them on? I hope not sand.Sand can be swallowed. Also she may have come from a breeder who raised her on the dead crickets (freeze dried). Not very nutritious and surprised she is not hitting the live by now. You may just have to keep babying her. She may just be sickly. I do not think it is a parasite. Now Fred, SPOILED ...lol nothing wrong with that but, the wax worms are very fatty. Since he's got a worm thing try mealworms too, to broaden his diet. Let me know how Ollie does with the worms. Good Luck, Tina  

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Tina, thank you so much for all of your help! We have a reptile carpet as the substrate and we wash it about once a week. We still haven't tried the mineral oil. We did finally got her to eat the wax worms. All we had to do was get her to open her mouth and she ate it right up. We have been feeding her one small worm every 2 to 3 days and she looks and acts so much healthier.

Unfortunately even after almost 2 weeks of eating them she still will not eat it out of our hand, let alone in the tank like she should. Recently she hardly will even take the worm, she just spits it out. I wasn't very worried because she looks so good compared to what she used to, but I have noticed a lot of dried poop on her and she also appears to have sort of wounds in the cracks where her back legs meet her body.I plan on going tomorrow to get neosporin for what I call wounds, but I was wondering if you knew what they were from. My thought was it could just be where she grew so much in so little time that her skin got weak and cracked. I have no idea though.

Fred, will still not eat anything besides the wax worms. He is also trying to mate with Ollie now. We have gotten him off of her a few times because she was trying to get away from him. I just wasn't sure if she was healthy enough for that or not, so I am not sure if I should separate them or if it will pass and be alright. He is on the other hand starting to back off and try less.

Ollie seems to be brown a lot lately. She is only a bright beautiful color when we are holding her. I haven't decided if it is because the brown carpet, log & rocks she is constantly on top of, or if it was Fred trying to mate with her that is freaking her out. I am also afraid the dried poop and still lack of appetite means she is still sick.

Any thoughts?
-Brittany

Answer
Brittany,   She is so dehydrated. You are going to have to put her in a bowl with a lid and some holes and soak her a couple times a day. Make sure the water is dechlorynated and tepid. You can use the triple antibiotic is better. Use it very sparingly. The cracks are definitely dehydration. Don't worry about training her right now. Keep feeding her the way you have to and soak her. Is there a shallow bowl of water big enough to crawl in and out of in their habitat? Always in the same place because they do not see standing water the way we do. Her body will absorb water just like drinking but quicker. I am glad she's doing better she is almost there. Ollie know's if she is not healthy to breed with. So the fact that he is trying is good but he has stopped because she is abit sick again. She is going to be a tough cookie. Slow to learn. Good Luck Hun, Tina