Chinese Water Dragon
The image above is a healthy Chinese water dragon.
I ran the Charm City Reptile and Amphibian Rescue for 14 years (no longer in operation).
I got the call
A person called and said they had a Chinese water dragon to bring us. I didn’t really know too much about them at the time. The rescue had never accepted one at that point.
I did my homework on them before it arrived. I found out that they have problems seeing glass and don’t do well in aquariums. Chinese water dragons will try to run, and in a small cage, that’s not so good. A lot of times, these lizards end up banging their faces against the glass sides of the tank.
A big surprise
The person who was bringing the Chinese water dragon didn’t tell me if it had any health issues. I was shocked when I saw the animal. It had a smashed face with its actual jawbone sticking out. The probability of bone infections is high anytime bone is exposed. Most of the time, people say, “Oh, I forgot to mention…” Then they tell me about some horrible ailment or injury their animal has. By then, it’s obvious to me what the problem is.
Its face was shocking. First of all, the front teeth, both top and bottom, were all visible with the mouth closed. And the animal’s jawbone, under its bottom teeth, was also visible.
A little about Chinese water dragons
Interestingly, Chinese water dragons are a little skittish by nature. They tend to run away when they are afraid. Every time the owner came into his room, the water dragon took off running and smacked its face right into the cage. The owner did absolutely nothing to discourage this behavior. There is plenty of documentation available about water dragons. And, putting the animal in an opaque container, like a large plastic tub, would have cured it way before the lizard destroyed its face.
Finding a home
After months of rehab and trying to heal that facial injury, we decided to adopt the Chinese water dragon “as is” and just let people know that it was prone to bone infections. This type of injury cannot really be cured. There is nothing to sew together. The skin from the animal’s face was just gone. There are no skin grafts in reptiles. If there were, this one would have been an excellent candidate.
At the first sign of illness, a responsible owner would have taken this poor creature to the vet. A course of antibiotics and a better enclosure would have eliminated a lot of pain and suffering for this animal.
Eventually, the Chinese water dragon was adopted after about a year of foster care. It went to the biology department of a local high school. I was assured that they would keep an eye on that chin area.
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Read more by Holli Friedland.