Chameleon cold?

[Silkyslim]

Hey guys what's up?

These past 3 days I have noticed Samson cough at least once during my observation. This is not a frequent, nor very heavy sounding thing. (Once every 2 hours if that, it really is few and far between but daily from what I can see) Just one quick contraction of his lungs. Also, today and yesterday his poo was a bit watery around the urate (perfectly white, as always) His poo is as normal as I have ever seen it. It almost seems like he has a cold.

Can anyone who has had a cham with a cold provide their insight?

My fish tank heater I put in my mist king reservoir shat out on me bout 6 days ago, so his mist isn't warm like it should be. (going to get a new heater in the next hour or so, waiting on the storm to calm down some), that and the recent change towards the fall season in the house has had my temps fluctuating lower a few more degrees than I would like.

He is still very active and has a very healthy appetite still. His colors are good and he is still acting "normal" as I have seen in the past and completed his shed fully yesterday.

To counter act this and boost his system some. I injected a hornworm with 2 drops of Rept-Aid. Elliot at Cham NW suggested use of Rept-aid once a month for a span of 2-3 days, one drop per day to fortify the animals immune system so I am hoping these mild doses will help fight it. The directions say to give a much higher dosage for a URI but I don't want to over do it.
Has anyone used Rept-aid for this type of "boosting"?
What are your thoughts?

I have the next 2 days off and I have been keeping a close eye on him since I heard the first cough. Mostly, I am just trying to see what other peoples experiences are in this particular area. If he worsens or becomes lethargic in any manner I am fully prepared to take him to the vet. I just think at this point it's not all that serious, so I would rather save the money.

Thanks

 

[jannb]

To my knowledge chameleons don't get colds. They get URI's. Fill out the ask for help form and post a picture and lets see if we can figure out what's going on. Incase you need one do you have a chameleon vet?
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

 

[Silkyslim]

Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - 7 mo. Male Sambava Panther. Have had him for 3 weeks now.

* Handling - Every other day, hes very chill. I have held him 2 times outside the cage for a few mins each time. Slowly easing into this one.

* Feeding - crickets, hornworms and supers (dubias in near future) gutloaded with lots of various fruits and veggies (no cabbage family or spinach)

* Supplements - RepCal Herpative & Cal w/ D3. Sticky Tongue farms Minerall indoor I will go Fridays alternating between the RepCal products with the sticky tongue the other days.

* Watering - I have a Mist King installed, that mists 3x a day for a total of 7 mins. He drinks i have seen it a lot.

* Fecal Description - White urates (past 2 days some excess water is around urate few drops....1/4 tps perhaps.) Brown poo looks like it always has

* History - have had Samson for 3 weeks or so now. He is a very active cham with a huge appetite.
Cage Info:

* Cage Type - 2x2x4 LLL Reptile aluminum screen

* Lighting - 18" ReptiGlo 5.0, 18" 5000k color "natural Sunshine" bulb, and 75 W reg. bulb in 8.5" ceramic heat lamp. Lights on @ 7:00 am and out at 7:30pm. Will be adjusting lengths with the seasons too.

* Temperature - Basking spot is at 87.9. Cage floor reads 73.4 right now. Lowest overnight temp so far was 68 bottom and 73 top. I use 1 Fluker's digital thermo/hygrometer on bottom and a digital thermo/hygrometer from Menards for outdoors.

* Humidity - Right now after 2nd mist its at 80%. Usually drops down to 60% by night time. Maintained with mist king on schedule listed above.

* Plants - Yes, 3' Ficus, and 2 umbrella plants. 12" of fake vine and lots of sticks of various depth within the cage.

* Placement - In my room it is very low traffic. The top of the cage is over 6' from the floor. The cage is close to a picture window with the shades closed.

* Location - Central Wisconsin.

My concern is his little cough he has once in a great while (but at least once per day) He is very active and good appetite yet. His urate had excess water surrounding it. Been like that 2 days now. Thought maybe he has a cold of sorts?

Yes, Jann I have a vet to take him too. It is bout 30 miles away in another town but he is the best in the area as far as small reptiles go so I will drive to him if I must. I can post a picture later, I need to get a new SD card reader from the store. I have a ton of pics though.

 

[tdotcham]

can you describe the sound? is his mouth open??

i heard mine do this today when i was moving him from his cage to his free range tree. his mouth was closed but it sounded like he cleared through his nostrils for a second

 

[beeze]

I sometimes I hear my female do a little cough. The hornworms can cause the runny fluid around the poop.

 

[SpinyFranky]

Jann is right. Reptiles in general do not get colds. The bacteria (germs, microbes) that result in the cold have no reptilian counterpart as far as we know of. The cold that a dog gets is a different strain of the cold humans get, and they can not be passed off to each other.

Reptiles get respiratory infections, commonly in the lungs.

How is the animal's saliva? if he salivates or opens his mouth and the saliva is stringy (as in it strings from the top of the mouth to bottom) he probably has a respiratory infection.

These infections usually come from over misting, with the water building up on the bottom of the cage, the lights go out and the water chills the cage and the animal gets sick.

Do you check at night to make sure the cage is completely dry?

Some solutions:

Raise the temps to 90 for a few days. This helps his immune system go into over drive and fight off bacteria. I would also cut misting to 5 minutes a day.

Also give reptaid once daily in the proper dosage, ide say for a week to ten days.

Last winter both of my males caught slight respiratory infections because a family member had the cages too wet before lights out. I raised temps and tried to help them fight it off, but it did not really help.

They became sluggish and lazy, and sometimes had "hiccups" which are signs of a URI. Thankfully the came from Chameleons North West and Elliot overnighted me some reptaid. 1 week of reptaid and higher temps and everything was back to normal.

 

[SpinyFranky]

I sometimes I hear my female do a little cough. The hornworms can cause the runny fluid around the poop.

This is very true!

hornworms are comprised mostly of water, as are most worms. Constantly feedings worms will make the feces seem a little runny.

Make sure you decipher it actually is a respiratory infection before starting and medical treatments on the animal, no need to harm it and put the liver into over drive for no good reason.

Best way to check for a URI is the saliva and sluggishness, as well as heavy breathing and "hiccups".

 

[PedroANDAshley]

Reptaid is a all natural product,
there should be nothing wrong with giving you chameleon some just to boost his immune system so if it is a URI coming on it'll get stop before it turns bad.

 

[Chamero]

I would think that for an indoor cage, three 7min mist sessions a day is too much. Try lowering those to like 5 mins and make sure the cage fully dries out in between mists.

 

[Elizadolots]

I sort of associate a weird random cough with "sick"...so, I guess I'd do the reptaid, extra warmth scenario proposed by SpinyFranky.

 

[Silkyslim]

Done and done! Thanks guys. Mostly it was the watery poo that got me curious. I guessed it was the hornworms since the seem to be nothing but water to me. Do any of you guys that feed hornworms follow any sort of guidelines? I use 3 different feeders right now (see card above) I really like the hornworms as does Samson but I don't want to give him too many (if possible)

These little coughs are very few and far between been up for 3.5 hours with him so far and nothing. I sat last night when he was sleeping about 2" from him because he slept right next to the screen for 30 mins listening to him sleep. I could hear nothing, no snores, wheezing, nothing out of the ordinary.

Edit: Heard 1st one at 12:26pm

I just hand fed him 12 crickets and there was no stringy mucus, or mucus in excess or anything suspect near his mouth. He also ate 2 hornworms.

I woke up this morning to the mister and I thought that maybe it could be too much. I actually adjusted the timer before I logged on. I have it down to 1.5 min intervals, 3 times a day. Drainage has never been an issue as I have never seen standing water within my cage.

Right now my basking temps is at 86.7.
I really can't see a way to boost it a few extra degrees short of moving the basking spot an inch or so higher....should I? How do you guys fine tune temps like that when need be?

I know I said I would have pics last night but some friends came over and we got very very "lazy" Will be hitting up the store shortly.

 

[SpinyFranky]

Raising the temperature is as simple as moving the bulb an inch or two closer to the basking spot.

Without hearing the cough myself or seeing pictures of the mouth gaping, I cannot confirm for you if it is a respiratory infection or something else, perhaps even something very common that we are all escalating.

Though I do say it sounds like a respiratory infection to me. Chameleons don't generally wheeze unless the infection is very very advanced. Some reptiles (snakes are most common) can carry the infection for months, and that is when breathing actually becomes very difficult for the animal. Saliva becomes stringy in the mouth as well as overflows, the lungs can even fill with fluid/mucus.

The point is, even though he is not wheezing, it can still be a premature infection, and the animal is coughing to clear his lungs.

Reptaid is comprised mostly of natural herbs with no real artificial or human composed ingredients, making it the safest medication for reptiles, since it makes the smallest strain on the kidneys and liver.

Though it should be considered that I would say reptaid is more like taking airborne when you feel the onset of a cold. It doesn't cure the cold, or make it magically disappear, rather is gives the immune system the boost it needs to fight off bacteria and harmful infections.

Still, I personally, as well as many other forum members have used Reptaid to great success, and I personally adore the product. Compared to forcing baytril down the animals throat, followed by a week of rehydrating it and probiotics to resume normal eating habits.

Hornworms are mainly water, with little nutritional value compares to other worms, mainly due to the diet the worms eat. Though the "horn worm chow" is a pretty good artificial diet for them, so they could actually be a good nutritional feeder. Im not exactly sure.

Where hornworms and most other worms really shine is the fact that they are comprised mostly of water, and since they are soft bodied they are easily consumed. They are a wonderful way to rehydrated a sick or post sickness animal, and I would say to even help with blockages.

There is no real "limit" to the amount you "can" feed off hornworms, besides the fact that they are not cheap and come in small quantities.

I believe someone on the forums has a blog posting nutritional content of feeders, as well as comparisons. Im sure a forum search could tell you how many crickets = 1 horn worm, as well as the recommended number for feedings.

S.F