In the wild, female lizards spend time seeking what they deem to be a good place to lay their eggs. Unlike mammals, egg-laying reptiles have the ability to retain their eggs if they choose to do so. If the eggs aren’t laid on a timely basis, they will rupture and rot on the lining of the abdominal cavity, creating an infection called egg yolk peritonitis that is almost impossible to cure. Since most of us lizardkeepers don’t have a sandy beach or appealing dirt pile in our homes, our female lizards may choose to retain their eggs. The obvious signs of gravidity (making of eggs, fertile or not) are that the lizard stops eating but doesn’t get skinnier, and especially that the lizard spends a lot of time digging and scratching in her habitat.
Other reasons for dystocia are eggs that are poorly formed, out of position, or lacking in calcium due to a poor diet and/or access to UVB light.
One might argue against unnecessary surgery, and relatively expensive and hazardous surgery at that. Depending on the locality, the vet, and possible complications, a lizard spay can cost between $250.00 and $2,500, and takes about two hours under anesthesia. The entire chest wall must be cut because the ovaries and oviducts are long and narrow, not round. If there are no eggs in the oviducts, many vets choose to leave them in place and take only the ovaries because the surgical site is very close to the vena cava, the main blood vessel back to the heart. If the eggs are still small follicles in the ovaries or if they are huge, shelled groups of about 50, either way it is difficult for the vet to see what he or she is doing. This is far different from spaying a dog or a cat — a quick and easy snip-snip.
Veterinarians that routinely see snakes and lizards for problems like respiratory infections or parasite treatment may be completely untrained and unqualified for doing spays. Always ask the vet how many spays he or she has done before agreeing to the surgery. One person I know took his iguana to a well-known local reptile vet for a spay. When he got her back, her hind legs were paralyzed. The following year she was digging and scratching again. We took this iguana to a specialty clinic, where they found that the previous vet had removed only one ovary because she cut a major blood vessel and had to terminate the surgery quickly before the iguana bled to death. The x-rays at the specialty clinic showed 17 staples down one side of the iguana and none on the other side. When questioned by the vet that did the second spay, the first vet admitted what had happened.
This example sounds like a strong argument against spaying your lizard. However, even if your lizard seems to be laying her eggs promptly, she may retain one or more just because of its position. Therefore, to be sure there are no more eggs that could rupture and cause egg yolk peritonitis, an owner that has chosen not to spay should take the lizard to the vet for an x-ray after she seems to have finished laying. The cost of annual x-rays adds up too, so it’s not necessarily less expensive to forgo a spay. If the x-ray does show one or more retained eggs, the lizard will have to be spayed anyway.
I’ve encountered dystocia and/or egg yolk peritonitis in iguanas, snakes, and most recently (two days before writing this) in a bearded dragon. In writing this I hope that lizard owners will be more aware of all sides of the issue and think carefully about spaying their females.
Northern California Herpetological Society