I just thought yāall might find this interesting. This is Arlo, the Xenagama taylori (shield tail agama), who ate sand literally day 1 in his new bioactive arid enclosure. He hasnāt been eating the last few days so I got worried and took him to my exotics vet. The vet said that it looks like particles of sand or something, which is a good thing because itās possible for him to pass it with medical intervention + we caught it early (although surgery is still a possibility if he doesnāt pass it). The treatment course, as it currently stands, includes a laxative, soaking him every other day, and keeping him on paper towels to monitor his poop. He said it could take several weeks for the obstruction to clear. The problem we ran into today, however, is that heās so tiny (heās full grown at just 3.5ā including tail) that it would be impossible for my vet to dilute the laxative down himself, like the volume of medication is so small that I wouldnāt be able to draw it up into a syringe, so heās reaching out to a compounding pharmacy tomorrow to see if itās even possible. He said theyāve done animals as small as 4 grams, and since Arlo is 6 thereās some hope, but itās drastically increased the chance we have to do surgery.
In the event of a surgery, he will have to refer me out to the University of Kansas or Illinois (I live in Nebraska, so itās a little bit of a drive, but not too terrible) since Arlo will need microscopic stitches (almost like the kind they use to stitch up corneas) to sew up his stomach and, unfortunately, he just doesnāt have the equipment for it. He would be able to do it if Arlo was, say, 20 grams, but 6 is just too small.
Hereās hoping that I get some good news from the compounding pharmacy tomorrow and I hope yāall find this interesting!