So many
exiting things happening all at the same time makes it hard to decide where to
even begin...
Before the Belize Wildlife and Referral Clinic even opened its
doors, the first interns arrived in March 2012 and while I promised to focus more on animal’s
stories again – as opposed to all that mostly “human” stuff – I can’t resist to
also talk about our first 2 week interns: Sarah and Stacy. In 3 words: They
were awesome! What connects Interns and Iguanas? Probably the first letter...
and while all my students get their hands on iguanas, Sarah and Stacy saw a lot
more then the average iguana patients during their internship.
They knew the clinic might not yet be open and
opted for the “intensive rotation internship” where they would spend the
majority of their time at our conservation partners and BWCN member organizations,
get some basic theory and go around seeing patients with me. And they were
ready to jump in! On our way from the airport we saw the first patient – not an
iguana and possibly the subject of a different blog soon – a very sweet puma. The
next morning, with the official start of their internship, we received the
first iguana call.
In general
I do not see very many iguana patients in Belize, since people do not keep
them as pets here. If an iguana is found injured it will more likely end up in
a pot since they are considered a delicacy, especially pregnant females. I am
sure I do not have to tell you how bad eating the pregnant females is, from a
standpoint of trying to sustainably use and protect a threatened species for
future generations. But of course this is a different subject and I understand
that this cultural practice and its conservation conflict are a very complex issue,
despite the fact that a closed season during mating season has been legally in
place for many years. Fortunately for Belize, we still see the green
Iguana, even though several hunters report a drastic decline.
So the same
origin applied to our first patient that day: a female iguana, full with eggs,
that had been captured for consumption and was then purchased by someone who
did not want to see her and her babies eaten... In the typical fashion the
iguana had toes clipped and tendons pulled on front and back legs – to tie them
for easy transport and restraint with their legs behind their backs.
But upon our
first quick inspection, after she had an overnight post rescue, on a heating
pad (and after a drive in a car and good sun exposure for 30 minutes) she was
very lively, toes already dried and wounds closed, 4 good fingers remaining on
each foot, only one small scratch on belly and she had laid 3 eggs. So the
first impulse was to quickly send her on to San Ignacio Hotels Green Iguana
Project where she could be incubated and soaked in warm water and given sandy
substrate to lay eggs in, under the watchful eyes of Eddy and Humberto. We were
all hoping for a quick recovery, release of mom and likely incubation of eggs.
The next
day we arrived at the project and our lively rescue from the day before had lain
down in a corner of the enclosure. Fire ants we starting to attack her eyes,
ears and mouth. She was cold to the touch, barely responsive (it took a moment
to actually determine that she was still alive) and had not laid any more eggs!
So from a quick “lets see if we can give her a bit of recovery, good food and
then release in a few” – she turned into a life threatening emergency - an egg
bound iguana. And fire ants are truly an “evil enemy” when it comes to
debilitated animals that we are trying to recover and a very BAD sign. So we
quickly got into gear and did the usual – heat and fluids, some dextrose, Calcium
and finally Oxytocin. She soon started showing weak signs of contractions! We
were happy to see an egg emerge from her cloaca rather quickly! But the effect
did not last and one egg was all we got. And female iguanas her size will lay
about 30 or more. We continued our efforts and repeated treatments.
And then,
much to our embarrassment, we made one of those crucial mistakes one should
never make! Hopefully you can learn from us? We left the iguana, basically
comatose with no response to 2 injections! sitting in her soak bath, outside of
the main enclosure. To make it clear: she had not been conscious or responsive
for a rather extended period of 2-3 hours when we left her unattended in that
soak bath... and what happened? she „self released“ (which is an excuse used by
some to disguise what is ultimately our human mistake... sounds better sometimes),
meaning we turned around, talked and walked a few meters away... and she LEFT!
So not only did she regain consciousness but she climbed out of the bath and
fully disappeared! We were not able to locate her again, despite searching.
So let it
be a lesson: no matter how comatose a patient appears to be ALLWAYS keep them
inside an enclosure or under your direct supervision! Just never ever let your
guard down would be a basic rule working with wildlife (and sometimes that
seems to apply to life too).
Good news
is that she was inadvertently released in what could possibly be one of the
most protected spots for iguanas, right over the river at San Ignacio Hotel.
And we hope that she regained enough strength with fluids, energy, calcium and
hormones she was treated with.
Next Stacy
and Sarah bathed and treated all 70 baby iguanas for ectoparasites, and
retained skin and gave them a general check over. The majority was doing well
but we saw a few cases of digital necrosis, some due to retained skin rings
some possibly due to fungal infections. All iguanas came out greener and
“shiny” from their bath and some seemed to enjoy the shedding help.
.
Usually I
might go and see the Iguana Project once a month, but this time we got a rather
urging text 2 days later, asking if we could come by for a visit for one of the
stars of the project: Roxy! We were in the middle of other activities at the
Belize Zoo and planning on visiting Belize Bird Rescue but the report sounded
rather concerning: First Roxy had “disappeared”. Apparently Roxy used to
sometimes take a “day excursion from the enclosure” and then return to the
enclosure*...so no one was too concerned the first day of her missing.
And when
she was found a day later she had been inside the enclosure, trapped under a
collapsed cavity in the sand! She too was overdue to lay eggs! Nothing else we
had planned that day was “life threatening” so we quickly switched the schedule
and returned to San Ignacio.
Unfortunately
as we reached we look into the sad faces of Eddy and Humberto saying that Roxy had
died 15 minutes ago. When we inspected her she indeed still had some reflexes
left and a doubtful heartbeat with some respirations! Next lesson here:
diagnosing death in a reptile is challenging! So our first response for Roxy,
once again was efforts as resuscitation, with hydration, warmth, respiratory
enhancer and then also Calcium. But after about 20 minutes we had to agree that
the observed reflexes and irregular beats heard were “post mortem”, and further
attempts at revitalization fruitless. So then Sarah and Stacy quickly switched
to C-section to save Roxie’s babies! 32 eggs were recovered and are now
incubating at the Green Iguana Project. A sad end to one of the most personable
iguanas at the project in the past few years. She loved to be petted and
interact with humans. But her brief legacy will hopefully be passed on to the
next generation.
The
C-section also provided highly valuable experience and demonstrated the
difficulty of snake and lizard uteri that generally require multiple incisions
and can not safely be “milked”. Especially once they are egg bound and become
even stickier. Sorry medical sidetrack.
To end
Sarah and Stacie’s Iguana experiences at the end of their internship they also bathed
and checked a good number of the full grown iguanas in the main enclosure,
including Gomez! They got the obligatory (minor!) scratch and did awesome, as
through out their whole internship! Of course we saw and did lots of other
things, but the blog is too long already!
Feel free to comment...
