Salthan Lizard-folk biology

[Foolster41]

(x-post) I may have posted about this before, but I can't find the topic and figure it's better to just start new.

I was thinking about more stuff to add to my world of lizard-Folk "Salthans", and one thing I was considered was lizard-folk biology and physiology.

Specifically, I was thinking what this would mean in terms of treating sick/injured Salthans (both in general treatment practices and in surgery) that would be different from humans, and what maybe a manual would look like for doctors in a non-sathan country (e.g. humans) for treating Salthans.

I was looking at images of insides of lizards and they seem to have basically the same parts, besides the cloaca. Are there major differences in systems between humans and lizards that I'm missing?

How would being cold-blooded potentially be different for a doctor if at all? (I guess it would be easier to anaesthetize a Salthan, just get it really cold and it'd go to sleep)

Other things that might throw off a doctor (lack of nipples, navel, do doctors use those as "landmarks" for determining inscission area?)? Other things that would need to be considered for a lizard-person patient?

Here are some the notes I have so far:

Determining Gender (For example if the patient is unconscious, and this is for any reason needed for lower-body surgery)
A clear indicator of being of the biological male sex is that males starting near puberty (around age grow a row of spines across the center of the skull. These grow very slowly. They are generally around an inch or so tall by the time the child has reached puberty, and grow to be about 2-3 inches at adulthood, around age 20.

Females, both at childhood and adulthood tend to have slightly shorter beaks than males, though because this is only an average rule of thumb and there is much variance this is not a hard and fast rule.

Injection

Only inject into arm muscles. because of 3-chambered heart, injecting into the lower half may cause filtration of the drug through the kidneys. For this reason the thigh and buttocks are not viable injection points for Salthans. [1]

To inject, one has to carefully insert the needle between the scale layer of the skin, to pierce the muscle. One needs to be careful not to break the needle, or damage the scales which can cause painful damage.[2]

Feeding Tubes

Because of the lack of a secondary Palate, procedures that require inserting objects into the esophogus such as feeding tubes are not safe and will cause the Salthan patient to suffocate.

[mèþru]

There are so many differences between lizards and humans. Start with reading a bit about reptiles in general and about squamates.
Points which I can think of right now:

• Reptiles have vastly lower caloric needs than mammals of similar mass. Large carnivorous reptiles, which probably describes your species, can sustain themselves on a single meal for months. This means that the reptiles are unlikely to invent agriculture on their own, as hunting and gathering is much less of a resource waste.
• Reptilian skin is very thin and scaly, making it awful to the level of uselessness as a source of leather. Male lizards and snakes, as opposed to crocodiles and turtles, have two hemipenes instead of a penis. The tuatara lacks any sexual organs at all.
• The cloaca serves as the hole by which both sex and excretion are done.
• Breathing in lizards is done by the same muscles used in moving. Some lizards have additional stuff that allows them to keep breathing during intense movement. The take here is that lizards move slowly and are not very fit for strenuous exercise. This presents another reason for Salthans to not employ agriculture.
• Reptile organs that are analogous to mammal ones still have different structures and abilities.

As doctors in our world are generally trained to only be able to work with humans, I imagine that they are completely incapable of handling non-humans. Either some doctors in major hospitals could train to handle Salthans, areas with enough Salthans hire doctors who are Salthans or there are completely separate human and Salthan medical practices. This problem would likely occur in the other way as well - an inability to treat humans in Salthan hospitals. The problem's solution could also vary from place to place, even within the same culture.
Regarding what you wrote:

• I think that the first clear indication of a male lizard is a hemipenis becoming erect (aka coming outside of the body), which can happen under certain circumstances before puberty. For more on sexing, see this article which I found in the top results for "sexing a lizard" in Google.
• Feeding tubes can be used with reptiles.

BTW, your signature spells "foundation" wrong.

[Foolster41]

E: I noticeed I failed to specify, that these are evolved from Viviparous lizards specifically.

Reptiles have vastly lower caloric needs than mammals of similar mass. Large carnivorous reptiles, which probably describes your species, can sustain themselves on a single meal for months. This means that the reptiles are unlikely to invent agriculture on their own, as hunting and gathering is much less of a resource waste.

I didn't think about this!

As doctors in our world are generally trained to only be able to work with humans, I imagine that they are completely incapable of handling non-humans. Either some doctors in major hospitals could train to handle Salthans, areas with enough Salthans hire doctors who are Salthans or there are completely separate human and Salthan medical practices. This problem would likely occur in the other way as well - an inability to treat humans in Salthan hospitals. The problem's solution could also vary from place to place, even within the same culture.

True. I guess one the things I was thinking about is, in situations such as emergancy rooms/EMT treatment where they don't have resources to hire Salthan specialists, what would basic training look like?

I think that the first clear indication of a male lizard is a hemipenis becoming erect (aka coming outside of the body), which can happen under certain circumstances before puberty.

To be honest, I was thinking they have a more human-like penis, just because having the species with a hemi penis would be a bit too weird.

Feeding tubes can be used with reptiles.

Can they? From research I found they can't swallow and breathe at the same time.

BTW, your signature spells "foundation" wrong.

Good catch!

[mèþru]

The feed is taken in liquid form, and I imagine feeding time would have to be extremely short. There is a small level of gas exchange through the cloaca, and I am sure that squamates (the order including all lizards, as well as snakes) can hold their breaths (seeing that many are aquatic/rainforest species).

True. I guess one the things I was thinking about is, in situations such as emergancy rooms/EMT treatment where they don't have resources to hire Salthan specialists, what would basic training look like?

If there aren't any Salthan specialists, the doctors ask the patient if conscious or responsible members of the family of the patient if not and they are available about whether it is okay to continue after communicating the lack of experts. If consent is reached, they make the closest approximations they can and hope for the best. A veterinarian or herpetologist is called to help if there is one that knows enough to help.