U. lineatus: *Graphic* Odd necropsy find

Salzy · #1 06-23-2011, 06:32 PM

A week or so ago our male U.lineatus passed away on us. For some reason, he wouldn't eat anything I gave him and eventually passed on. He was seemingly healthy otherwise...had been shedding well, would always be drinking, was active, etc etc. He may have been getting thin, but it's so hard to tell with a lineatus anyway.

I'm a scientifically minded person, and although I'm not 100% sure of everything I'm looking at when I do a necropsy, I still take a look to see if anything really stands out and would be a clear explanation of death. I thought that nothing was wrong besides the fact that his digestive tract was absolutely empty, but then starting thinking that something looked really odd and out of place. You guys be the judge....

To get past the ribs and actually see what was inside, I had to cut the sides off of the body.

All the organs look to be in good shape, except that it appears that the lungs are in the back and the liver is up towards the head! Am I looking at things incorrectly here? Is this common knowledge to other people? The tan colored organ definitely had another small organ tucked up underneath, which I'm assuming right now was the gall bladder.

The two lobed organ here makes more sense to be the lungs right? It was much softer and fleshy than the tannish organ which was much more firm.

This just doesn't make sense to me, so let me know what you think and correct me if I'm wrong. It just isn't looking right, and it took me this long to realize it.

LedgysLizards · #2 06-23-2011, 06:46 PM

That is nasty, but pretty cool at the same time

luevelvet · #3 06-23-2011, 07:45 PM

Great photo's! I will have to refer to my photo document of a lineatus necropsy to compare. I have a few necropsy's documented, one being a sikorae as well. May take some time, it's been a while...

Luis

pakinjak · #4 06-23-2011, 08:51 PM

I didn't do as good of a job with mine a few months ago, but I found the same thing. I'm pretty sure the liver is the whitish organ and the lungs are the reddish ones you've laid outside. When I googled for pics of lizard anatomy before, I found the diagrams to be similar to what I was looking at and they labeled the organs as I mentioned above.

LedgysLizards · #5 06-23-2011, 08:54 PM

its weird how their lungs are in the back....

jadrig · #6 06-24-2011, 11:52 AM

The size of the lungs are odd to me...I never opened up a lineatus though. I have some photos of a sameiti in my photo album if you want to compare the photos.

pakinjak · #7 06-24-2011, 02:44 PM

What the hey... I'll share these like I did on the other site, just in case it might be of interest. Kyle has done a much better job than I did, I was just looking to see if she was gravid or not and just for my own curiosity. This is a female fimbriatus-

pakinjak · #8 06-24-2011, 02:58 PM

It's interesting to me that the lungs on mine look better, but the liver on yours looks in better shape. I'm ignorant about this kind of stuff though, so it's just interesting.

jadrig · #9 06-24-2011, 03:43 PM

That might have to do with the flash and the eggs that your girl had in her. So...why did your female die...any ideas?

pakinjak · #10 06-24-2011, 04:25 PM

I don't think it was the camera. The lineatus' lungs are a mottled red, and my fimb lungs are a clean pinkish. However, the fimb liver is a icky mottled green/brown but the lineatus liver is a clean pinkish. It's just interesting to me how different they are.

I posted here about it (I think) when it happened. I didn't get many responses here, so I figured either I did something so blatantly stupid that people felt bad telling me about or they didn't have any ideas.
Here is the GU post- Uro death- curly tail, ground dwelling, lethargic

Here is the most comprehensive thread about it from another forum, I'd be excited to hear your thoughts. Uro death- curly tail, ground dwelling, lethargic - Gecko Resource Forums