Chameleon Health Declines after Another Batch of Eggs

[darthink]

Hi, I was curious if anyone has any suggestions about a chameleon laying batches of eggs several times a year. My chameleon lays 2-3 batches throughout the year, and it has caused MBD in her.

She just had another batch, and now she's really inactive. She seems to sit around a lot, sleep a lot. I am scared she's on the last leg of her life. How do chameleons in the wild get over this problem? I of course feed her calcium and have special calcium medicine, and I've seen some improvement, but overall I just wish her health was top notch.

Thanks for any tips!

 

[Sanababit]

What type of chameleon?, how old is she?, how many eggs?, do you breed her?

Sana

 

[jannb]

I'm sorry to hear about your female. It's best to try to keep them from laying so many clutches or at least keeping the clutches small. You have an excellent chameleon vet ther in Charlotte. Dr. Matthew Wheelock. I recommend you take her to him. I'm attaching some info for you below about keeping females and egg laying.
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html

 

[darthink]

Sanababit: Veiled, 3 years old, about 20 eggs this time, but much more normally, and no, I do not breed her. She stays alone.

And jannb, right now I've taken her to a vet named Dr. Dunning in Morganton, NC. That's where I got her current medicine from. She was on Carnivore care for MBD and a pain medication. The only thing I can really do to fix the problem is hysterectomy, but that's super expensive. But I'll look over these pages and see if I can learn some more. Thanks for your info, jannb!

 

[repdog]

Carnivore Care is not for MBD. You can't fix MBD but you can stop it from continuing. Carnivore Care does have some calcium in it as it depends how low she is really is on the calcium side. Blood work would show this.

Otherwise fill out the form on how to ask for help and send photos. We would be able to help out more.

 

[ridgebax1]

Repeated laying of eggs for a captive female is quite debilitating. You asked how this goes in the wild and while I am no expert, chams in nature are living in their natural habitat where environmental conditions such as UVB, heat and humidity coupled with an extremely varied diet keeps them healthy. Also because it is the wild, chams do not live as long a life as those in captivity with proper husbandry. You just cannot replicate this in captivity so the alternative is to let them lay endless batches of eggs which is known to hasten their demise, or provide the care as outlined by the folks who are very experienced in keeping females healthy by restricting their diets along with other factors which limits egg production and prolongs their lives. If your vet is the one who prescribed the Carnivore Care for MBD, I would go see Dr. Wheeler. That does nothing for MBD. As far as treatment for it, you need to be precise with the diet and supplements. You can halt the MBD and in some cases improve the calcium content of the bone but you cannot reverse damage that has been done. Producing eggs over and over contributes to the MBD by depleting the bone stores of calcium. Most of the folks I have known who have treated MBD have given the chams calcium glubionate (AKA Neo-cal Glucon which is often given to infants with calcium deficiency). You really should complete the How to ask for help form at the top of the health clinic forum list.