Bosc Monitor Recently Died, Any clues as to why?

[Creative Junkie]

Hey,

Marty my Bosc monitor passed away coming up to a month ago now, and i was wondering if anybody could figure out why? I followed various caresheet advice and when the caresheets opinions differed I tried to stick to the option which would represent his natural environment the best. There were many 'chinese whispers' on the net and would like this thread to help clean some up. (discussed below)

Here's the story:

Marty: roughly 3years old, owned by me since the age of 2, 2 and a half feet long, no health problem history and no symptoms before the day of death. Not over weight, regularly handled and exercised. Diet was, large locusts, medium - large mice, chicks and the occasional boiled egg, he paid no interest to veggies

I arrived home from work at around 2pm to find that he had been sick, (never happened before) the sick smelt horrid, worse than any deification or smell he had ever made. Then he tried to whip we which was very unusual as he was extremely tame. I finally calmed him down and got him out and he seemed fine, i cleaned the sick up and aired the viv out for 20mins put him back in and thought it must have been a bad locust, and he whipped me because he was scared that he'd been sick.

I checked back at 5pm and he looked terrible, got him out and we has very limp and weak, shortly after getting him out his eyes lost all response and he began to struggle with his breathing, i tried to make him as comfortable as i could but nothing seemed to improve his condition, it was about 2 hours before he finally passed away, all the vets were closed or didn't have staff on shift who could deal with reptiles =(

Now since then i have been trying to find out a logical cause, I didn't want an autopsy because i didn't want him to be cut up.

After speaking to a guy with over 25 years experience with iguanas and other reptiles, he said it wasn't good to feed them rodents???!!! This was very contradictory to all the caresheets i'd read and video's I'd seen,
however once he explained to me why, it made sense...aparently marty couldn't digest the fur on on the rodents therefore clogging his bowls up to the point where he couldn't digest anything, this is why he was sick and why it smelt so bad...the food he had eaten the previous day had started to rot inside him and thats why he died.
It kinda made sense because he showed no symptoms of illness in the days leading up to the death, but at the same time every other source of info ive had has said to feed them rodents???

A second possibility is that he had an absyss in his stomach which could have burst and poisoned him??

So yeah a bit confusing but if anybody could shed some light that would be great!

Im currently looking for a baby iggy to fill Marty's old tank, should last the igg a good 18 months before i have to build a bigger enclosure! Was just preparing to build marty a big VIV before he died =(

[sparkle]

If you dont know why he died i wouldnt put anything into the old tank.

without a PM theres no way to tel what it may have been and it could have been infectious etc or something like crypto ..who knows..

I personally dont keep boscs I have only ever handled them so i cant really answer in relation to WHY.. but then without a PM noone can , i appreciate you not wanting him cut up but really without the answers a Pm would give you wont ever know which is sad since its impossible to tell over the internet no matter how much you describe things what went on

sorry for your loss

[joeyboy]

hmm but surely in the wild a bosc monitor would eat small mammals and birds if it comes across them.

[Creative Junkie]

The tank has been fully disinfected, so there won't be any problems there.

The other main point i wanted to raise was whether the statement below could be true?? I've never heard of not feeding a monitor rodents???

"After speaking to a guy with over 25 years experience with iguanas and other reptiles, he said it wasn't good to feed them rodents???!!! This was very contradictory to all the caresheets I'd read and video's I'd seen,
however once he explained to me why, it made sense...aparently marty couldn't digest the fur on on the rodents therefore clogging his bowls up to the point where he couldn't digest anything, this is why he was sick and why it smelt so bad...the food he had eaten the previous day had started to rot inside him and thats why he died.
It kinda made sense because he showed no symptoms of illness in the days leading up to the death, but at the same time every other source of info ive had has said to feed them rodents???"

[Creative Junkie]

Originally Posted by joeyboy

hmm but surely in the wild a bosc monitor would eat small mammals and birds if it comes across them.

The gentleman i quoted from in my previous msg said he had a friend who had 'flushed' some wild monitors to see what they had been eating for some research and he found mostly snails and insects.

There is such a variation of information on the internet regarding monitors I don't know what info to trust or not...

[Bosscat]

Not knowing too much about monitors, had he been passing stools normally before? As what your friend was saying, I would have thought rodents were fine, unless they were too big for him to digest, which could then cause impaction.

As Sparkle said, we can only speculate, only a PM would give the exact cause of death

[Creative Junkie]

He seemed regular, passing stools once, mostly twice a week. No Strange behavior patterns or symptoms before death and an animal of that size to drop dead in a day is quite rare...

He seemed fine with the mice and chicks, he fed on one mouse and one chick a week with large locusts every day in between.

But yeah your right a PM was the only way to get a definite answer.

I think I should follow up this 'non rodent' feeding speculation in a new thread or the existing monitor thread, what do you think????

[Creative Junkie]

Just had a private message sent from somebody who had recently bought a tegu, which showed signs of constipation.

The tegu has just had surgery and a buildup of fur was causing the problem and she would of died if the operation had not gone ahead...

So does this support the argument for not feeding monitors rodents, or just cut down on them or what???

[monitor mad]

To be honest you may never find the actual cause of death without the autopsy , but your feeding regime of rodent's chicks , locusts i would say wouldent have killed him , although in the wild bosc's do eat a lot more insects and mollosc's than rodents or birds , to me it sounds as if there may well be a blockage but what it might have been will remain unknown.
Could he have ingested any other item's , where did you get your supply of mice and chicks from? was it a reliable source? could any of the rodents have been poisened? (just a maybee's)

[johne.ev]

I agree with MM without an autopsy you'll never know for sure. Unless their was something wrong with the rodent you fed that wouldn't have killed him. You can get problems by feeding too many rodents, especially if temps are not high enough or animal is dehydrated. Was its lower abdomen swollen at all? How many? and how often? did you feed him rodents