By Channing Frampton
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CAPE CORAL, Florida (WBBH) — Invasive green iguanas have the potential to make your pets sick. We have talked a lot about the lizards showing up along the Gulf Coast. Now, one woman in Cape Coral is sending out a warning.
Linda Foster said she has lived in her quiet Cape Coral neighborhood for 40 years.
“I just love all animals,” Foster said. From hummingbirds to frogs to her 8-year-old Morkie, Kaylani, four-legged creatures are just part of Foster’s family.
But not all animals are welcome here. Foster said, “Every living creature has a right to live. They need to stay in their own environment.” Foster is talking about the invasive green iguana. Not long ago, one of those lizards got up close and personal with her dog, Kaylani. Kaylani had caught one of the lizards in the backyard!
“She wouldn’t drop it,” Foster said, “and I chased her around the yard a couple of times. Finally, she dropped it.”
From there, Foster dealt with the dead iguana. A few days after the encounter, Foster said her dog’s health deteriorated. “She was dragging herself across the floor. (Her) back legs weren’t working,” Foster explained. She rushed the dog to a veterinarian and explained what happened with the iguana.
I asked Dr. Sharon J. Powell about iguana encounters. She is a veterinarian at Edison Park Animal Hospital in Fort Myers. While she did not treat Kaylani, she said iguanas are a problem in more ways than one for pets.
“The one of the biggest risks is the transmission of salmonella,” Powell explained. “It can be transmitted through their fecal material.”
Salmonella can lead to severe digestive issues, but it’s not just the live iguanas that can cause problems. The dead ones can carry botulism, “and it’ll cause paralysis. It can cause, you know, lockjaw. And so that can be a fatal disorder, too,” Powell added.
But what about humans? Dr. Andrew Durso is an associate professor of wildlife biology at Florida Gulf Coast University. These iguanas are nothing new to him.
“Green iguanas have been in Florida almost longer than any other nonnative species. They were like the O.G. pet reptile,” Durso said.
Florida Fish and Wildlife says green iguanas can transmit salmonella to humans through contact with water or surfaces contaminated by their feces.
I asked Durso if there’s any hope of getting rid of the invasive species. “They’ve been in Florida a long time. We are absolutely never going to eradicate them. There are so many millions of them,” Durso said.
Foster’s dog, Kaylani, lived thanks to antibiotic treatment and Foster’s love and care. The ongoing iguana invasion is why Foster said she will be warning her neighbors about Kalyani’s near-death experience.
“We never believed it. We didn’t think that she would last,” Foster said.
If you want to reduce the risk of iguanas in your backyard, the FWC has some suggestions. It recommends removing plants that can attract iguanas and filling in holes to discourage burrowing. You can even hang wind chimes and spray the animals with water when you see them.
The FWC has a whole webpage devoted to dealing with iguanas.
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