EMERGENCY carpet care

maya2

Member
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Carpet, male, he's been in my care about a year and he's just a few months older than that.

Handling - Every week or so. He's not shy at all and I like to take him outside weather permitting.

Feeding - Mostly crickets gut loaded with various dark greens and Dino-Fuel. Every two weeks I buy a cup of silkworms and hornworms. Usually the horns are too big for him but if there's a small enough one he'll get one, and he loves silkies so for about a week he'll get silks instead of crickets.
He gets a small dusting of calcium every feeding, calcium w/d3 twice a month and same with herptivite.

Supplements - Oh I already answered that.

Watering - My girlfriend gives him a long misting in the morning and I mist him two more times when I get home from work.

Fecal Description - He typically has a white urate, I keep on the look out for yellows and oranges but I haven't seen any recently.

History - He came from Kevin Stanford and he's been the picture of health since I got him.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 21.5 W x 16 D x 36 H, screen front and top.

Lighting - Arcadia 6% and 6.5k daylight bulb

Temperature - Hottest point is about 82, lower in the cage goes to 75. I use a digital thermometer and take readings every week or if the temperature in my house feels any hotter/colder.

Humidity - Humidity for the most part is only 45-50, obviously it spikes when he gets misted.

Plants - Pothos and Umbrella

Placement - In my bedroom, no traffic area, top of the cage is about 4 and 1/2 off the ground.

Location - New Mexico - high desert.

Current Problem -

I fear my baby boy is really sick.
When I came home from work he was SUPER bright yellow and white, not at all his normal colors.

I turned his heat off right away, turned the AC in the house on, misted him like normal and used a syringe to give him water just to make super sure he was drinking. In my haste I forgot to take the temperature.

He is drinking, and I gave him two crickets which he ate, but not any more than that (I fed him yesterday though so I can't say it's strictly because of his illness).

In addition, he seems a bit weaker than normal. His grip is good but he would prefer to not be moving around. His eyes are a little sunken in as well.

I put him in the shower with luke-warm water facing the wall. His color is still way wrong, but he did become more active in the shower.

I'm afraid he may have gotten over-heated during the day and dehydrated.
What else can I do for him? How can I tell if it was something else?
Is it possible that he's dehydrated even though he was misted this morning? About 7 hours went by between mistings.

I've already PMed Kevin about it and he said he would look him over and give me some advice tomorrow ('cause he's amazing) but I'd be VERY appreciative of any advice anyone has for me regarding tonight.

Sick%20Telo.jpg
 
Besides the color change is there anything to make you think something is wrong? Unless you changed your basking bulb to a higher wattage or your air con died his temps shouldn't have changed that dramatically. If he is still bright and active and he is eating I would think that he is in a mood for the day. Relax and wait to see what tomorrow brings.
 
In addition, he seems a bit weaker than normal. His grip is good but he would prefer to not be moving around. His eyes are a little sunken in as well.


His lights are out now and I took a quick peek and he's still way too bright. It's definitely not just a mood.
 
Bump.


This morning he looked a little better, I was able to feed him a cricket and get him to drink some water, but now he's super bright again and his eyes are starting to sink again.

I'm really worried about my guy.
:(
 
Update:


I took him to the vet today. Vet said his eyes weren't too sunken. They're still a little sunken, but not so much that she was alarmed. She said he's not so dehydrated that she felt she needed to give him fluids, but that I should just keep doing what I'm doing.


On a scarier note, she noticed his tail is kind of off. I noticed that he didn't seem to want to use it, and she noticed he's got these sort of... not bumps... but points where it doesn't curl so smoothly. It kinda looks like when your finger joint gets locked and you can't curl your fingers smoothly.
She basically told me to monitor it and see if it gets worse...

He didn't seem to be in pain when she was touching it, but his bright yellow/white color remains.

Someone please give me some insight on this color thing. He is way too bright, he doesn't really wanna use his tail, and if it's dark enough he prefers to have one eye closed.

I did have the vet look at his eyes too, and she didn't seem to think there was anything alarming about them. But one eye closed...? C'mon, that can't be a good thing...
 
Have you checked for parasites? Parasites can cause sunken eyes, poor coloring and lack of appetite.

Not sure what is going on with the tail - do you have pics?
 
Additional update:

Right as I was posting the last update,

he just fell from his branch!!
He's slowly working his way back up to the top, but still... just falling out of nowhere??? My guys in trouble!
 
he looks EXTREMELY thin in that pic. His spine is protruding and he has no fat pads on his head - in fact they look badly sunken in. You mentioned what you are feeding but how much are you feeding?

Emaciation can also be a sign of parasites and other illness, if you are feeding a good amount and he is that thin it is definitely a problem.
 
I'm feeding him around 8 crickets every other day. He doesn't usually want to eat more than that, but if he lives through this I will definitely try to feed him more

Here's another pic that was taken about an hour ago:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154208949329418&set=p.10154208949329418&type=1&theater


I don't know if she's well experienced with chams. I know she's seen others in the past but I don't have a concrete number on how many she's seen.

She looked in his eyes and she felt his tail a lot. She said his eyes weren't as sunken as most of the dehydrated chams she sees. She also pinched his skin a little to see if it would smooth out immediately or take a while, and she said that he didn't seem so dehydrated that she would give him fluids right away.

I tried calling another vet, Dr Daniel Levenson, who is about an hour away and is on Arav.org, but he isn't available until Friday...


There are other vets in Santa Fe willing to see him, but I'd prefer to get a better vet if I'm going to go that far...
 
It seems like he should eat more but depending on the size of the crickets it may be okay, especially if you are feeding worms as well. He is way too thin though.
 
Ok, good to know.


So, tomorrow, I'll definitely try to feed him as much as he'll eat.

Should I feed him any special, something fattier than crickets maybe or not really?
 
it is always best to feed a variety of feeders. Crickets in general are dirty. Have you tried dubia? They are easy to keep and raise.

Flies and moths are good too if he is a fussy eater. Chameleons are very attracted to flying bugs.

Silkworms, wax worms, all kinds of worms would be good options to mix in as feeders.
 
His primary has been crickets.

He doesn't really go for dubia, but perhaps I can train him to get into them if he lives through this.

I order silkworms every 2-3 weeks, and for about a week he'll eat silkies. He loves them. I also buy hornworms when I buy silkworms, but they're mostly for my veiled. If there's a super small hornworm I'll offer them to my carpet though.

But as far as tomorrow goes, assuming I wake up and he's still alive... I'm guess I'm just curious about immediate changes or care or anything that might help before I am able to take him to another vet.
 
Silkworms and hornworms both have very high moisture content and are really good for dehydrated chameleons. Not sure about what the cause is, but he definitely does appear dehydrated.
 
I think bloodwork +/- an x-ray is warranted in this guy. He is over a year old and carpets are not very long lived. Muscle weakness is usually a sign of calcium deficiency but given you dust with every feeding and use a good UVB light nutritional MBD is less likely. Kidney disease is not uncommon and can cause renal secondary MBD. Bloodwork would help sort this out. If you don't find another vet go back to the same one with an update. She may realize something more is wrong now that he is falling. Just doing a physical exam on a chameleon usually doesn't help much unless it it something obvious like MBD with broken limbs. Good Luck and keep us posted.
 
Telo_Mascarenas_179811-20150904181839860-original.jpeg



So we did an X-ray at the vet to see if we could get a better idea about his tail; Nick Henn as well as my vet said his bones look great, so I'm not really worried about MBD at this point.

Here's what I AM worried about:
Decreased appetite even though his energy level has gone up.

He still isn't really using that last inch of his tail. He tries to wrap it around branches, but it just doesn't cooperate completely. It kind of stutters and he can't get the grip he wants.

I can't seem to find any feces for the past 2 days or so. You can see his has contents in his stomach, but I'm not sure if that's considered a lot or a little.

I'm worried about his digestion in general. I'm not sure if he's eating very little because he can't pass it, or if he can't pass his food because he's not eating very much.
 
Oh,
I should also mention that his color has improved. He doesn't quite have his happy colors on, but at least now he knows the difference between hot and cold. He's able to react to the temperature a bit better and able to bask without getting those yellow/white overheating colors.

Not sure how much of a factor that is.
 
I hope your baby gets well soon. I have never kept Carpets but see you already have Nick and Kevin working on the case. As long as you have a qualified vet that's about all you can do. Hopefully he just got to hot and it's taking him awhile to recoup. The tail almost looks like it was closed in the cage door. The very best to you and your little man.
 
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