Personally I would not.... Unless you get a positive fecal and are treating a specific parasite. Not all meds work on all parasites. The med is parasite specific typically. So by doing the "preventative" deworming your just causing stress on the cham and its organs.
Okay that's my inclination but they are fairly insistent (understandable to an extent). Of course if the fecal comes back with parasites I'll treat but I don't think that this is exactly like you would do, for say, routine deworming for dogs.
Correct so if it was me I would deny the deworming... Wait for fecal results... Then if it is positive provide the correct treatment. If the cham came from a good breeder that does routine fecals the chances of it even having anything would be really low. So treating it then just causes stress and in turn we know meds can cause harm to organs. But we do not know to what extent. Most of us choose the path of not medicating unless it is actually warranted.
Haha yeah I hate the concept of unnecessary treatments. I'm happy to wait for the fecal to be done to be sure. At least he's so tiny that it won't cost a ton if I have to get it...
Yeah when they are young especially meds and shots are just not something you do with a healthy cham. You wait. Even on a full grown cham they can be very very hard on their bodies. So babies its always better to be safe than sorry. I have seen babies within this forum die because they were given the wrong treatment from a vet.
Ooo that's a good idea. I've got two dogs that I keep up on with annual vet appts and stuff, so I'm unfortunately familiar with vet bills (thankfully my guys are generally healthy). But pet insurance for this guy may be worth it... We shall see! Either way I don't mind spending the money if it's needed. I certainly mind spending the money if it isn't, AND it's potentially harmful.
For example... the last blood draw I had to get done on my boy was $225... This was only for the full blood panel. Then I had another $125 on top of that for the actual visit. So that was a pricey vet visit. Had I gotten insurance on him at the time almost all of that I could have gotten back.
ok so baby is in what now? You would want to wait to move into a new cage with new everything until you get at least 2-3 clean fecals. Spot cleaning constantly in the mean time. His numbers are low so just keeping everything cleaned up wiping all branches off. Don't leave fecal in there. Pull out low plants so it can not fall into it.
Okay this is all good info.
Ok buy the flukers bendable vines. These have an easy to clean surface and are cham safe.
Look, panacur is pretty safe, so it likely won’t hurt; but just the act of handling and force feeding your Cham a medication is stressful. So regardless of the drug itself being mild, it’s administration never is. If you’re getting a fecal done anyways, why not wait for the results?
I opted out of the general deworming since I'm going to have to force feed him two medications now... I'm really glad I waited on the fecal results. Unfortunately the result came back with a yeast presence as well as coccidia. :C
Ok. Before you loose your mind, I have some advice. Coccidia is a direct life cycle parasite with a fecal/oral mode of infection. I know Coccidia is a keeper’s nightmare, but that isn’t because it’s necessarily so pathogenic. It is basically always present in wild chameleons. The difference is that wild chameleons are pooping on the ground 20 feet below, and the chances of it eating a bug that has walked on it’s poop is very low. So the rate of reinfection is very low. In captivity it becomes a problem because they’re pooping in a small area where feeders are way more likely to come in contact with feces. Also, Coccidia oocysts are extremely stable, so they can hang around for a long time, and their outer shell makes it hard for many cleaners to kill.
