Mozilla is a Giant Green Iguana (Iguana iguana), currently about a year old and about 2.5 feet long. While I have been keeping many other reptiles, including Bearded and Frilled Dragons, for quite some time now, I had never owned an Iguana until Mo came into my life. Our household had a hard-and-fast 'No Iguanas!' rule (about the only reptile hubby wouldn't let me get) and I was not planning on breaking it. Beyond the fact that hubby really did not want an Iguana in our household, I knew that Iguanas need very specialized care, and was not sure I was ready for the responsibility of one. However, I was approached at work one day by a co-worker whose relative had gotten an Iguana from a friend but was unable to care for it properly. The Ig was also in pretty bad shape when he got her. Knowing I'd surely be divorced if I brought home an Ig, I told my co-worker that I couldn't take it, but I'd check with my herp society and friends in the reptile rescues and see if anyone could take it. When I got home that evening, I was talking to hubby as I emailed people about this poor Ig, and he said 'Well, if noone else can take it, I guess you can babysit...and if it turns into a long term babysit, oh well.' Not surprisingly, considering the glut of unwanted Iguanas these days, noone could take in this Ig, so I ended up agreeing to take her.

My co-worker brought her to school on Friday morning - thankfully I had a large tank set up in my classroom awaiting my Bearded Dragons that I could use to house her until the end of the day. When this poor Iguana came out of the cat carrier, I nearly fell over in shock. She was absolutely the most pitiful animal I'd ever seen. She was stick thin - you could see her hip bones and even the vein in her tail, and she was crawling with mites. She had a huge black lump on her nose, and was so weak she could hardly support herself. I felt like crying when I saw her. I put her in the tank on some paper towels, and put a heat light on her right away. I just kept telling her during the day 'please don't die in the middle of a class!' Somehow this poor thing made it to the end of the day when I could take her to my herp vet.

We went right to the vet after school was done. The vet and techs had a similar reaction to mine when they saw her. After an exam, during which Mo just hung limply from the doc's hand, we discussed possible treatment options. Dr. Link said she'd seen worse pull through, but she'd also had ones with fewer problems not make it, so she couldn't garauntee anything. Along with advanced emaciation and mites, Mo was also suffering from dehydration, anemia from the mite infestation, internal parasites, and lack of stomach bacteria needed to digest her food. The only good things were that the lump on her nose was a cyst and not a tumor, and that x-rays showed her bone density was pretty good, considering the rest of her condition. No metabolic bone disease.

By that time, I was already firmly attached to Mo, even though I'd only known her a few hours. I basically told the vet to do whatever needed to be done. They put her on fluids, antibiotics, and various medications for her myriad problems and kept her in intensive care for four days. I honestly didn't expect her to live through that first night. I called the vet the next day to check on her, and was extremely relieved to hear that she'd made it through the night and was showing some small signs of improvement!

After four days with the vet, Mo finally got to come home and join my reptile family. While she is doing much better now, she still has a very long way to go to full recovery. Her condition and progress is chronicled in her Rehab Journal.

From owning no Iguanas to owning a rescue requiring tons of care and rehab...what a jump! But even though my bank account is empty now and I'm up early every morning and late every night giving medications and taking care of Mo, I wouldn't trade her for all the healthy Iguanas in the world.

© 2002 - M. Martin