Hades is a sub-adult Argentinean Tegu who has had a tough life. Captured from his native habitat as a hatchling, he was shipped with many others to a popular Pet Store in Edmonton. He was purchased on a whim by someone who thought he looked like a cool pet for only $89.00. The staff neglected to tell him that Tegu's do not stay small; on the contrary, they can reach up to six feet!

After a few months, Hades was as long as the aquarium purchased for him and his owner wasn't prepared to care for him. Kept on a mixture of stones and dirt with a small heating pad, he was neglected for the first few months of his life in captivity. He was a decent weight though a bit malnourished due to only being fed mice and hardboiled eggs.

When he first arrived, Hades was very aggressive. He chased us, jumped and snapped. He saw us as potential food! But with a bit of time and patience, Hades is now a lot more gentle and tolerant of handling. He loves to come out and explore and is obviously upset by his lack of free choice and movement forced upon him by captivity.

One evening in the middle of January, we noticed that he was circling on his basking spot, unable to get comfortable. This was abnormal behavior, so we took him out to see if I could see what the problem was. The problem was obvious; his intestine had prolapsed and protruded 1 inch from his vent....

The next morning, January 17th, we rushed him to The Park Veterinary Clinic in Sherwood Park. The Park Clinic has an excellent reputation for working with reptiles and amphibians. The vet palpated his belly and felt a mass in his gut, so we had him X-Rayed. A dense egg shaped object was lodged in his bowels, most likely a stone. Him straining to pass it caused the prolapse. The vet said that it was hard to say when he could have swallowed it....it could have been there for months, allowing food to pass and not causing significant problems until now. His substrate is digestible coco-fiber so where he picked this stone up is a mystery to us.

She pushed his prolapse back in and we went home with Baytril (an antibiotic), Metacam (a painkiller), Dextrose, and lube. He received his medications once a day and we coated the prolapse in dextrose and lube over 4 times a day.

When we got home from the appointment, much to our dismay, he had pushed the prolapse back out. We treated it as we were told and attempted to push it back in as directed. Nervous about hurting him, we booked him another appointment for the next morning so that the vet could show us how to do it properly.

The next morning, January 18th, we were off to Sherwood Park again. The Dr. showed us how to properly push the prolapse back in but immediately afterwards he began straining and prolapsed again within seconds. Despite being given mineral oil, the stone didn't feel as if it had moved. It wasn't looking as if he'd be able to pass the stone on his own.

Dr. Kwantis, the reptile surgeon at the Park Veterinary Clinic, was out of town until January the 22nd, so we made a surgery appointment for the day he returned to have the rock removed and have his cloaca stitched to prevent him from prolapsing again.

Hades has been dealt a bad hand in life. Stolen from his native habitat by humans, shipped across the world, and neglected, Hades doesn't deserve to go out like this. We want to make his bad past up to him, we believe that humans owe him a lot....he wouldn't be in this position if it wasn't for human interference.

Despite our constant lubing,  soaking, and maintenance of a very moist environment, prolonged exposure resulted in the outer layer of the intestinal prolapse to die and peel. We booked him an appointment immediately and the Dr. told us not to worry, that they'd be able to repair the damage during surgery. They gave him an injection of pain killers and some more antibiotics to provide some additional relief. We continued to give him his metacam orally until the day of surgery.

We dropped Hades off at 8:30 am at the Park Veterinary Clinic and picked him up in the evening. He slept the entire ride home and for a few hours once we got him into his hospital enclosure.  He was still very dozy from the anesthetic. They removed the rock with no problems, and Dr.Kwantis says that he had a nice thick stitchable intestine which made things easier! He has a large incision on his belly, which you can see slightly in the picture to the right.


   He has a 'purse stitch' on his cloaca (seen in the picture to the left) to keep the swollen tissue that was prolapsed from coming out again, and once it's back to normal the stitch can be removed. Until then, he has to eat pureed food and have 2ccs of mineral oil everyday to keep everything moving smoothly. He did really well and Dr.kwantis is optimistic.

Sleeping off the anesthetic!

He's doing really well so far!  He pooped a bit without any harm to his Purse Stitch which is fantastic. He's been eating pureed canned dog food and Herbivore Critical Care..all very liquidy, to keep him from straining at all.  We give it to him through a 2ml syringe, he's being such a good boy, if we warm up a magic bag before we bring him out he'll just sit on it accepting whatever we have to give him. You can tell that he likes his food because none of it dribbles...when you give him his medication or mineral oil, he lets it run out of his mouth, not wanting to swallow. Poor guy!

Bad News.

On the evening of January 28Th, Hades prolapsed again, which was a possibility but not expected. He went to the vet early on the 29Th and Dr.Kwantes was unable to push it back in. He thinks that there might be a mass on one side of his rectum pushing the prolapse out, or that the skin on that piece of the intestine is too damaged. He has to have another surgery to remove that piece of the intestine tomorrow. They'll pull it out through his vent, cut, and stitch as they go along. If they let go of that piece of intestine and he retracts it, they'll have to reopen his stomach to retrieve it. If that happens, the cost can sky rocket.

He has to have the surgery tomorrow morning. We left him overnight because the roads and the weather are extremely hazardous  and his condition may worsen overnight. Also, we thought it best not to take him outside in these ridiculous temperatures.  We do take every precaution from the house to the car, etc., but better to be safe.

The surgery went very well and Hades is doing well. We are hand feeding him pureed food with a syringe, which he has taken very well to! He now needs a lot of rest and relaxation to allow himself to heal both inside and out. It will be awhile before he can get back to eating his favorite meals!

After months of TLC, hand feeding/finely chopped meals and a very clean environment, Hades has completely healed and recovered from his traumatic surgeries. He is back to eating whole small rats and is much more active during the day. He is very happy to have deep dirt in his enclosure again, as he wasn't able to have it for a long time after his surgery. He still needs to gain a bit of weight as he lost a lot when he was ill, but he is quickly packing it on and doing well! He is available for adoption to the right home. Please view his picture and bio on our Adoptable Animals page.