Anyone have any thoughts on the bloody stool issue? Sorry I know everyone is probably at Easter with their families but I'm just getting nervous. So far I saw him only have his eyes closed 1-2 times today. Other than that he has been making his rounds around the cage, he's upright when he walks ( not dragging his stomach ) he is not clumsy, eyes are nice and round, he looks really healthy compared to yesterday. I wouldn't even be spazzing if it weren't for the blood this morning. I just cleaned his crickets out and he ate not one again today, so that is 2 days without crickets / food. Not really gonna spaz on that considering my female went about 5 days without eating when I first brought her home. I know it's not good either way. Hmm, going to try and go to Walmart and see if I can't locate some small wax worms or something, I just called and they are open.
Baby Panther is going downhill, Help!
- Thread starter lojack13
- Start date
Elizadolots
New Member
I'm sorry I can't be more help. I don't recall ever even reading about something like this. I'm glad you aren't freaking out about the not eating thing. If it were my chameleon, I would concentrate on keeping his hydration level up and make a vet appointment first thing tomorrow.
Yeah it was a couple posts back. Might have been overlooked because I posted it and then replied to someone else's post and bumped it back. He basically pooped 2 drops of blood today. I guess I don't really know how my vet can help 100% because I can not get a good stool sample when he is not eating. Taking a drop of blood in seems impossible and I doubt they could do anything with it anyway. I'll have to call and see. The only thing I can think at this point is parasites but obviously they would have to determine which ones to get the right medicine. I'm going to continue to monitor him closely and see what he does tomorrow morning in terms of pooping.
I have been doing a lot of reading about bloody stools and a large amount seem to relay back to a coccidia infestation. Anyone want to chime in on this? I have heard they cause diarrhea, but he had no diarrhea that I could see. He just did the bloody urate today. I know this is totally a vet question and I understand if no one wants to answer, but if I suspect coccidia, should I treat him for it even if I do not know for sure? I don't see how the vet is going to get any viable sample for parasite testing when he is not remotely pushing anything out but bloody urate.
birdlover71
New Member
Sorry
I cannot help... But can suggest is he impacted? He hasn't eatten but maybe it is for a reason parasites and or fecal impaction? I am sure it is possible. I have heard people doing the mineral oil in water things. I am not sure of the ratio but I have used it in other animals.
I would definitely try and keep him hydrated till Monday and go to the Vet.
Best of luck to you and your little guy wish I could help but I am too new at Chameleon to give any safe advise.
I will be thinking of you both.
Amy
I cannot help... But can suggest is he impacted? He hasn't eatten but maybe it is for a reason parasites and or fecal impaction? I am sure it is possible. I have heard people doing the mineral oil in water things. I am not sure of the ratio but I have used it in other animals.
I would definitely try and keep him hydrated till Monday and go to the Vet.
Best of luck to you and your little guy wish I could help but I am too new at Chameleon to give any safe advise.
I will be thinking of you both.
Amy
ecoreef
New Member
Hi,
I'm so sorry to hear about the condition of your little guy. I know how stressful it can be to have a sick chameleon. Blood in the stool is most likely due to parasites in his digestive tract, probably coccidia. A lot of chameleons are carriers of coccidia and can live completly healthy long lived lifes. Some people even think coccidia is naturally found in the gut of all chameleons and is just kept in check by the chameleons immune system. Unfortunatly stress can cause an outbreak of coccidia that the chameleon cannot come back from without treatment. If your guy does have coccidia he probably had it in his system and the stress of shipping and a new environment caused an outbreak and resulted in where he is now.
First things first,
1.) Up his ambient temps into the 80's 24/7. Chameleons being cold blooded cannot manually raise their body temperatures to fight off diseases and such like warmblooded creatures can(fever). So in order for him to have the best chance of staying alive you need to keep his temps elevated so his immune system can try to do it's thing. This is jsut to keep him in the best condition possible until you can get him to the vet.
2.)Get him to the vet!
https://www.chameleonforums.com/veterinarian-resources-67/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/area-area-country-vet-list-32880/
You can use those threads to help find a good cahm vet in you area. The vet will run a fecal exam(save all his poops in the fridge, never throw them away cause the vet is gonna need a fresh sample) and try to figure out was is causeing the bleeding in his digestive tract. Bring all the poop you can cause some vets need a certain amount in order to run a fecal but know which one is the freshest in case he only needs a little bit.
3.) If it is coccidia(most blood in the poop is caused by this) try and get a drug called ponazuril NOT ALBON. Call the vet ahead of time to see if they use this drug for coccidia cause it's kinda new and some vets don't use it yet. The reason you want ponazuril and not albon is a.) albon is very hard on the organs of your chameleon and can cause many problems b.) ponazuril actually kills the coccidia where albon just supresses it enough for your chameleons immune system to fight it off. You will also have to continually clean his cage several times during the treament because coccidia is transmitted through feces and every time your chameleon poops he basically drops coccidia eggs that get spread around by him, prey items, and such. These eggs(oocysts) last a LONG time and if your chameleon reingests one after he is treated he may get infected again. You should look up on the forum how to do this cleaning. Basically your gonna wanna boil or use highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide(the stuff for bleaching hair) to kill the eggs every time you clean. I know this is a pain but it's what you gotta do.
4.) Lastly keep him quarantined from your other chams. Those eggs I talked about can be spread to your other chams very easily if you touch him, inside his cage, or anything that has been inside his cage and then go deal with your other chams. DO NOT put uneaten feeders from his cage back in your cricket bin or to another cham. The best thing to do would be to buy some latex disposable gloves for when your dealing with him as washing your hands is not guarenteed to get everything off.
Thats all I can think of for now. Keep us updated and let us know how he does! I'm pulling for the little guy!
Good luck!
-Alex
Alex,
Thanks a lot, brother! That was awesome. I actually was thinking about the fact that he has been stressed that it may have lowered his ability to fight off the coccidia if he does in fact have them. I have read about the negative effects of albon so I will definitely call ahead about the ponazuril. Trying to get him in to the vet first thing in the morning if possible.
I have also read about the coccidia clean up. Ugh!! I will have to have my female tested if he comes back positive. I noticed he is basking a lot so he probably is trying to bump up that immune system. I'll crank the heat up some in the house and maybe try and put an electric heater in the room just to keep the ambient temp up.
I am still concerned about the absolute lack of fresh stool. The past 2 days it has been nothing but urate, and bloody urate today. I'll have to ask my vet if she can possibly test that bloody urate of if she can possibly find eggs in poo that's a about 5 days old.
Okay, just got back from the vet. Took his stool samples in. Negative for coccidia. Hmmmm...happy yet worried at the same time. Stupid to say, but if he had cocciddia at least I would have known what to do.
The vet actually said she could see now parasite activity at all. I know absolutely for sure he is drinking, watched him drink a lot today, so that is awesome. Not sure about eating until I clean his bowl and fetch the remaining crickets. Just put some smaller wax worms in there, ( little late in the afternoon but oh well ) Hopefully I am just dealing with a stress / hunger strike, which still does not explain the bloody urate. He is not getting worse at least, in fact I'd say he is getting better, I never have seen him sleeping today, so plus on that. I swear if he would just eat I would think nothing was wrong with him at all the way he has been acting the past 48 hours. Any thoughts on impaction? His vent area looks a bit swollen, but I am not sure. I did not physically take him to the vet today for fear that he would get too stressed out about it, and given the fact that he is doing better I don't want to hinder that progress. Vet said if I start seeing him go the other way to bring him in ASAP.
Hmm, that is possible. Though the urate was seriously crimson in color. But I guess I can not rule it out either. I have been checking his nostrils for bubbles making sure it's not a respiratory thing too. I just don't get it. I am seriously about to chalk this up to stress. I have been reading a lot of medical articles about bloody stools during bouts of stress, I guess bloody diarrhea is not unheard of with depression and anxiety, though admittedly all the articles I read were for humans / mammals, I don't know about herps. All I know is that we had his cage in the living room, right beside the passage between the living area and the kitchen. Being that he was new to the house I'd say this high traffic area was a bad idea on my part. And we had been handling him everyday as well. My female was never handled for 2 weeks after I got her and it had been minimal, she has been thriving. Her cage is away from everyone, still in the living room but in a far corner that we do not get into much. The first day we got the male he ate 14 crickets, the second day 9 crickets, after that it ranged form 5-9 per day, and then the last week it went down to 3-4 per day, right down to nothing for the past 2 days.
Hmmm, his eyes do look a slight bit sunken. I just caught him sleeping by the way....man this sucks. I guess I am getting ahead of myself on his condition. I had a female acting very similar, got her tested for parasites and she came back clean. Over about 5 days she just kept getting worse, would not eat or drink. Finally resorted to syringe feeding and she ended up dying that same day. By the way I did not see any white in the urate. Mmmm, better make an appointment to take him in I guess. God I just don't know what to do in the meantime! I don't want to lose this little guy.
drcrossfire
Avid Member
To continue with this idea--
if you are not seeing a white part in the poop, it should be obvious and at the top, then you probably are having hydration issues.
sunken turrets are also a sign.
Increase the amount of times you spend misting~ foods such as silk worms and horn worms help dramatically. They love to eat them and provide excellent hydration.
A method that I have used for a cham that doesn't drink well is to spray them in the mouth when they feed--
Well I just got him out to weigh him and he is down from 5 grams to 4 grams in a week. This is not good. He is noticeably weaker and his turrets are a little sunk. His vent area looked irritated so I cleaned it with a q-tip and he put out a nice big urate for me. Just liquid, but not red, thank god. It was slightly yellow, so I think he isn't drinking enough. I seen him drink a lot this morning. So perhaps it might be turning around from yesterday being that it was reddish in color and I did not witness him actually drinking yesterday. I am misting about every 2 hours now. Honestly, I am giving him everything I can, I just don't know what more I can do. He just will not eat. This is day 3 and no food. Considering he is a baby it is making it so much harder to help him.
carol5208
Chameleon Enthusiast
you've been on the forum for four years and this is only your second post!??!
