blood in his fecal *Lookin for advice*

[dodolah]

Sang, for now, just try to keep your cham as comfortable as possible.
I agree with Gesang's suggestion to keep him a bit warmer and perhaps stay hydrated as well.
I would not give him too much hard bodied insects and go with softer feeder such as silkies and hornworms.
Please keep us updated with the vet's findings.

if they dont chew their food its possible.

Even so, I hardly seen chameleon only shoot and not chew even a bit.
They instinctively bite as soon as the feeder went into their mouth to kill the insect. On top of that, chameleons have gastric juice as well.

and they had an autopsy done found "chew" spots on the inside of the intestinal track. nothing like omg a hole he going to escape, but enough to cause complication, and maybe even death. i didnt believe it either till our owner showed me the pictures of the autopsy.

I would love to see those pictures as well.
My suspicion of that case is parasites inflicted. Protozoans such as coccidia can cause such incident. Their reproduction happened inside the intestinal cell. When they are matured, they burst out of the their host's intestinal cell. In severe case, the intestinal wall can actually ruptured (with holes). Hence, the bloody stool.

Coccidia is very common in reptiles. I see it most likely to happen than a feeder survive under all that odds and manage to chew the lizard's intestine.

 

[Docility]

i dont have the pictures on hand i only got showed them at work as to let other people know it is possible for it to happen so we dont get sued. like i said you may contact the dealer once i find out the name. im sure he would be more than happy to send them to you. i think? anyway it wasnt like birth of something it looked more like actual insect chew marks. i was as skeptical as you, but seeing is believing like 70% of the time. If a cockroach can live in someones tung (eggs) and hatch still living until surgically removed in a human mouth i dont question anything anymore like that. insects are crazy hardcore hardy beings. grossest thing ever seen on a anatomy video hands down.

 

[Sang]

he won't eat horn worms, so i need to find a place local that will have silkies, chad will probably have some this up coming weekend.

otherwise ill check out some of the sponsors.

 

[Docility]

he won't eat horn worms, so i need to find a place local that will have silkies, chad will probably have some this up coming weekend.

otherwise ill check out some of the sponsors.

call me crazy, but live bait stores have a really good selection of bug, and some even carry horn worms. i was very excited to know i could get 120 crickets for 2$ at my local bait shop, and all of the bugs look tons better than what we get in at work!

 

[Sang]

damn, ihavn't seen a bait shop in god knows how long. the last few that were here closed down like 7-10 years ago, i should look in the local listings though for a bait shop.

 

[Sang]

Allright, well i just got back from the vet, DR. Funk. and he did the fecal smear/float. and it was positive for pin worms.

i looked through the float slide, and did see small eggs for pinworms.
basically what i saw... just in far less number.

SO other then that he is as healthy as can be, weights 118 grams. dislikes being fed panacur..


1.2ML dose for 3 days then a week/2 week break.


my next step will be sanitation of his enclosure. i gotta clean all his trees..probably replace a good portion of the potting soil.


scrub his branches... probably replace his biovines...



what is the best/safest cleaning agent to remove the chance of reinfection?

 

[Murrdox]

What's the prognosis for a chameleon infected with pinworms? Good recovery rate?

I hope your guy recovers, that's great you spotted it so soon and got him to a vet right away.

I'd do a bleach / hot water soak for those things in your cage that can be soaked. Probably I'd replace the plant. What about feeders? I'd be tempted to throw out whatever you've been feeding him, and clean their containers as well. He could be getting it from there.

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Well, that's kind of good news, because pinworms are very treatable. They clear up in a matter of days with the right treatment and post-treatment.

We did do fecal exams on these babies (just for the records) before they shipped and he was clean. So far all our babies have been clean.

As Murrdox said I would also recommend a bleach wash for his cage and furnishings. Also, do you have other reptiles? You may want to treat them as well.

 

[Docility]

i have started looking more at healthy more expensive crickets since the cheaper ones are raised on nasty farms, and have a higher chance of pin worm infestations. !yuck!

 

[Sang]

the feeders i get are from a petstore that gets them from mulberry. and i see how diligent they are when cleaning... washing hands.


i still can't figure out how he got them *probably that jacksons chameleon i had at one point*...i probably was the cause of his parasite.

so yah, i got him on panacur, im just wondering how bad of infestation must he have if he is crapping blood?

yah, ill be cleaning his tree with soap and water at least the leaves.. scrub the stalk and stuff .

i really liike that ficus, so does he.




and i need to wash his toilet schefflera..

 

[dodolah]

pin worm is very treatable.
Rounds of panacur should clear those stuff away.
As far as how he got them, he could have got it from anywhere.
Did he love eating soil?
If so, that could be one of them.
if you want to be safe, than anything you can boil; boil it away.
Plants and branch should be tossed away.
Or just use it for your garden.

the feeders i get are from a petstore that gets them from mulberry. and i see how diligent they are when cleaning... washing hands.


i still can't figure out how he got them *probably that jacksons chameleon i had at one point*...i probably was the cause of his parasite.

so yah, i got him on panacur, im just wondering how bad of infestation must he have if he is crapping blood?

yah, ill be cleaning his tree with soap and water at least the leaves.. scrub the stalk and stuff .

i really liike that ficus, so does he.




and i need to wash his toilet schefflera..

 

[Docility]

the feeders i get are from a petstore that gets them from mulberry. and i see how diligent they are when cleaning... washing hands.


i still can't figure out how he got them *probably that jacksons chameleon i had at one point*...i probably was the cause of his parasite.

so yah, i got him on panacur, im just wondering how bad of infestation must he have if he is crapping blood?

yah, ill be cleaning his tree with soap and water at least the leaves.. scrub the stalk and stuff .

i really liike that ficus, so does he.




and i need to wash his toilet schefflera..

even a small stomach irritation can cause blood in stool, but thats not to say there may be an underlying cause. just treat each issues as it arises, and thats pretty much it.

 

[Sang]

hmm i scrubbed the branches with a dilute bleach/water and 165 degree water.. and just did a base scrub down of the tree, warm water + anti bacterial soap.ill take a fecal in 2 weeks to be double checked to make sure..

 

[Dave Weldon]

...SO other then that he is as healthy as can be, weights 118 grams. dislikes being fed panacur..


1.2ML dose for 3 days then a week/2 week break....

Howdy,

For the typical 100mg/gram Panacur paste, a common dose is 1ml per Kg of chameleon weight. That would make your dose 0.12ml for your chameleon. Your Panacur may be diluted to 10:1 down to 10mg/gram which would make your dose 1.2ml for your 0.118 Kg chameleon. I'm just curious what strength Panacur you have. Fortunately, even with a 10x overdose, you aren't going to kill your chameleon but it would be nice to know that things are what they are supposed to be. By the way, it was during a lecture by Dr. Funk that I learned about the effectiveness of Ponazuril for treating Coccidia. I'd heard about it before but didn't know just how effective it was .

 

[Sang]

im not sure. he just told me to fill the suringe to 1.2 and squirt it in his mouth *not an easy task alone*....

anyways, he's doing much better today, just saw him poop. no blood, and a normal turd.... his urates still look a bit funky and not solid .. so hopefuly everything is turning around.


since i took his toilet tree out, he moves to the bottom of the plant pot,and poops on the rocks.. and then moves back up.

 

[Syn]

I'm sure Dr. Funk probably diluted it for you?

 

[Sang]

seems that way.

in another 2 weeks he'll get another treatment.
today he felt like he hasn't eaten anything at all.. but maybe thats just how he was moving his body *he felt empty*

 

[sandrachameleon]

Is it possible the syring isnt in ml?

 

[Sang]

he showed me exactly how much to fill it. so ima just keep doing it how he showed me.

 

[Sang]

Just a quick update.

today his fecal looked alot better, while still having a bit runny urates but everything is lookin better. i have upped his water intake and what not.