Phantom the Lace Monitor
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My little Phantom!
Isn't he cute! This is Phantom, a juvenile Lace
Monitor that came into my care. We have had a few ups and downs with
this little guy so I thought that he was so special and everybody
loved him that he deserved his OWN page!
Click on the Thumbnails to view bigger pictures
Phantom's Story has been
featured in the QLD edition of 'The Pet Directory'. |
Day 1 - just hanging around!
 This
is Day 1. As you can see his skin is quite dull and he looks very
skinny. He weighed in at 86grams. At this stage Phantom was in
someone else's care and was being brought in daily to work to be
tube fed with an egg and Nutrigel mixture. He was kept in a
Humidicrib (which I don't think is the best for a reptile) until he
escaped one night....hence being called Phantom! After much
searching he was nowhere to be found...until a week later when he
waltzed out from behind the TV. Phantom was then passed over to me. |
Mmm...whats on the menu today?
This is about a week after I got him, he ate his
first fuzzie mouse! YAY!! and as you can see by the look in his eye,
he is really enjoying it! |
 Houston...we
have a problem
This is his Right eye with a rather nasty looking
horizontal Corneal ulcer. This picture was taken about day 3. As you
can see down the bottom of the eye it is starting to vascularise
which is good...that means that it is starting to heal. We treated
his eyes with Soframycin ointment 3 times daily and also a special
betadine wash 3 times daily. I also liberally applied numerous time
throughout the day liquid tears to keep his eyes lubricated. |
Houston...I said we have a problem!
This is his Left eye, as you can see it is a lot worse than
the Right. This picture was taken at the same time. As you can
see he has a very thin cornea that is oedematous (fluidy) on the
top left of the eye. Possibly a Descemetocele has occurred (herniation
of the Decemet's membrane, which is the posterior lining of the
cornea). On the bottom of the eye he has a Stromal Abscess with
a possible Hypopyon (pus in the anterior chamber of the eye)
which is starting to vascularise, which is a good sign! We have
now glued his eye shut to stop it from rupturing and will check
on it in a about 10days.
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 Houston....the
problem is fixed!
This is his R eye about 12days after it
started. There is a HUGE improvement in it! Only a little bit of
vascularisation on the lower part of the eye but it is nearly
100% YAY!!! He can now see again out of that eye and was happy
to snatch a fuzzie mouse out of my fingers yesterday!
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The Phantom.....well 1/2 anyway!
This is his L eye 12 days after. I will leave
it covered for another week unless it un-sticks. This is our
creation of electrical tape and superglue! Those Specialist can
come up with anything!!! It has come undone once last week and
the eye still looked dreadful, this time it has stayed for
longer so hopefully it is healing well under there. I will keep
you all posted as to his progress......The Phantom lives on!
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 Nearly
there...
Today I removed his blue tape from his L eye and
this is what we see. HEAPS BETTER!!! YAY! It is still not 100%
but he does have sight in the eye and we didn't have to
enucleate it. This is 20 days from diagnosis. Hopefully we won't
have to glue his eyelid shut again but if there is any
deterioration at all then I won't hesitate to do so as you can
see how well it has healed with it shut.
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Comparison...
This is a comparison picture of his Left Eye. Day
3 on the right and Day 20 on the left. I know I put them around
the wrong way but oh well! As you can see he still has a nasty
ulcer there but the rest of the eye looks great! I am so
pleased. I will continue with soframycin ointment 3times daily,
liquid tears ad lib and betadine washes 3times daily.
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 Phantoms
home...
This is the current tank setup that I have for
him. All the lights that I use are Exo-terra Repti Glo products.
The overhead fluros are 2 different strengths. The back one is
2.0 and the front one is 5.0. There are 2 spotlights, one is a
100w Day Glo and the other is a 75w Night Glo. All the lights
are set on separate timers. The water dish is terracotta, the
rock and the log are from my backyard. This is a 4ft glass tank.
I also have 3 thermometers in his tank. One at each end and one
in the middle which also has a hygrometer. He now has a large
upright log in the middle which he loves hanging off.
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Progress Report
Whilst treatment has been
effective in reducing the corneal ulceration there is no true way of
determining if there is any permanent damage or reduction to
Phantom's vision. It has therefore been decided to err on the side
of caution and to place Phantom in a captive home through the
Queensland Species Management Plan. This is an equitable process by
which native animals that are unable to be released can be placed in
zoological collections. |
Release
Phantom now
has a new home. He has been moved to Kuranda Rainforest Station in
Kuranda, Cairns NQ. I spoke to the curator there and he said that he
had settled in well. I hope to get up there to visit him one day
soon. I promise I will take some pics for you!
I am so glad
of this outcome, this is what is the best about being a carer.
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