iguana skin problem

Question
QUESTION: My iguana has areas of thick gray crusty skin along her back and on top of her head. Today I noticed that one of her eyes is sealed shut.  There is no oozing.  She has had this thickening for awhile but it has not seemed to bother her.  But now I am concerned about her eye.  She is about four years old. I thought it might be a shedding problem.  I have not put her in any water baths.  I have another iguana the same age and she is much larger and has no problems at all with her skin.  They live in an open screen cage but I am about to move them to a bigger cage.  They have UV and heat lights.

ANSWER: Hi Charlotte,

Because the affected areas are her back and the top of her head my first suspicion would be that it is related to her heat light with perhaps a lack of humidity contributing. It sounds like it may be very mild burns. If the areas are concentrated along her upper back just below her spines then that would also suggest that it is caused by the heat bulb as opposed to a bacterial or fungal infection which would have a more random distribution.

Do you have some way to check the temperature on the exact branch area that your iguana basks? A temperature gun or a thermometer with an external probe would work best. Otherwise you can just temporarily attach a thermometer to the branch to get a reading. I like to keep it in the 100 to 105F range and avoid letting it get over 110F. This often means putting in a lower watt bulb between the winter and summer seasons or simply raising the bulb height. You might also need to switch from a "spot" style to the "flood" type bulb to disperse the hot spot a bit more.

I think the problem might also be complicated by dryness. Heat bulbs will naturally dry out a cage and keeping an appropriate humidity level in a large, open screen cage is a challenge.

I keep a large water pan (for evaporation) in with my adult male and also run a small "cool mist" humidifier right in his cage (it was only around $25.) to combat this same problem. I also spray him directly every day to wet down his skin. Despite this, he sometimes has dry, retained skin around his spines, top of his head and around his eyes after a shed which I have to remove manually. Retained skin around the eye can easily seal the eye shut. The muscles that open the eyelids are not very strong.

In addition to checking the temp. I would suggest trying to increase the air humidity if you can. You might need to cover a portion of the cage with plastic to accomplish that. If you don't see some improvement after her next shed then that might be the time to have a vet rule out other possible causes.     

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

QUESTION: Thanks for your response.  I keep the heat lamp on all the time.  Should it only be turned on at certain times of the day?  The iguanas are in my classroom and it gets cool in the room.

Answer
Hi Charlotte,

The iguanas are in your classroom? Lol, you definitely would have been my favourte teacher by far!!

Your heating and lighting should be on for about 10 to 12 hours and then off for the remaining time. That will give your iguanas a normal day/light cycle which will allow them to regulate their eating, basking and sleeping behaviours more normally. You may find it easier just to put the lights etc on a timer for this purpose.

It is quite normal for your iguanas to have a temperature drop at night. That will give their metabolism a rest. As long as your room stays around 70F at night then that is fine. If the room consistently gets below 68F at night then you may want provide a red bulb which will provide some heat at night while not disturbing their sleep patterns.