''Georgia's second clutch, and impacted from her egg laying sand!

[Georgia]

Any advice would be appreciated! my veiled cham laid her second clutch of eggs on Dec 30/11. her habits and timing were pretty close to her last clutch. This time however she did not go back to eating as she had previously,so being a concerned mommy I brought her in for x-rays. It looks as though she has ingested her egg laying sand! My vet is doing some research..."Georgia" is not showing any other signs of being in distress other than not wanting to eat. She is drinking, still basking and hiding in her vines as is typical,eyes look good, hydration is not as good as it could be but considering she just laid eggs she looks about the same as she did after her last clutch...please feel free to ask me any questions, but be aware that she is housed as she should be, temps and humidity are within preferred optimal zone... I do my absolute best for her and always have. she obviously required an egg laying bucket and what are the odds of her ingesting some of the sand. I hand feed her her crickets and worms, so ingestion of her substrate otherwise is impossible.

 

[fluxlizard]

We had an iguana once that swallowed a popped ballon (kids )

I used cat hairball medicine to lubricate things and get him to pass the balloon. If your vet is kind of lost about what to do, they might consider that as an option.

I really don't know other than that and keeping her well hydrated so maybe if it is sand it can work through.

Hope she gets better for you.

I use dirt from the yard for nesting chameleons myself- much smaller particle size and less abrasive. I know I'm in the minority here by using it, but not many chameleons lay eggs on a sandy beach and it might have prevented this. Then again, maybe not if enough dirt were to be eaten...

Best wishes to you and your lizard...

 

[Olimpia]

I use organic soil as well, it feels way more natural. But that's beside the point right now, I think.

From what I know it's totally normal for females to ingest some of the laying media as they're laying, to taste it and whatnot. Try misting her like crazy, giving her 10-20 minute misting sessions with luke-warm water. This should lubricate things and get it moving along.

Also, don't quote me on this, but I've heard that a drop of oil will do wonders as well, no? Someone may come in and confirm or reject that, we'll see.

 

[Georgia]

Thanks!

Thank you for the advise, I am misting her lots and I have also read oil may help, cod liver oil vrs mineral oil?

I wish I knew how to put the x-rays on here for you guys. My co-Worker might be able to do that on Monday for me. I am not so in tune with technology, honestly it took me awhile to figure out how a forum works!

Today Georgia is still looking o.k. Dr.MacGowan has a contact at the Toronto Zoo and is waiting for a reply. My fingers are crossed.

 

[Olimpia]

If I had to pick I'd stick to veggie/mineral oils. I have also read from Jim at the Cham Co. that chameleons have a bad reaction to oil when it's in their mouth, which is why it's tricky to give them Vitamin A in oil form. They will tolerate very small amounts, so don't give more than a little bit at a time, maybe 2-3 times a day. <-- This is what I would do in your shoes, but I don't know if this is necessarily the best course of action. It's just what seems logical. Hopefully someone will also chime in to give more advice.

 

[Georgia]

Sounds reasonable. Here is a little bit of background on my little girl. She was brought in to the clinic where I work with severe MBD. She was unable to walk, not eating, severly dehydrated... the previous owners did not want to spend any $ to correct the numerous husbsndry issues or on treatment/diagnostis, ... The long and short of it is I'v had her since Dec 8th 2010 and she has sucessfully laid 2 clutches of eggs (July18th/11 she laid 55) and (Dec30/11 she laid 33) Sadly she does have perminant bone deformities due to her poor start in life, But has been a very healthy thriving girl since recovering from her initall insult. I do hope to be able to put all of her x-rays on here, and wanted people to know that her bone deformities were a previous insult to my saving her.
I should also make note that she loves medi-cal recovery formula! this is what I assist fed her when she was first brought in to the clinic in such bad shape. The Doctor reccomended I feed her this again now to keep things moving and we are waiting to hear back on whether or not I can add Physillum to the mixture or not. The doctors I work for are great,they are very helpful and willing to see reptiles, but do not have lots of experiences with them. All of our hopes are to avoid surgery if possible and have her pass the sand!
Oh, I do need to make a correction to my previous comment about the contact at the Toronto Zoo. The contact of one of the veterinarians I work for is at the Animal Kingdom in Florida NOT the Toronto Zoo, neither here nor there I realise but I wanted to be accurate

 

[fluxlizard]

Just for info- the cat hairball medicine is basically mineral oil with some other stuff.
I think some brands might use vegetable oil. The stuff I used was mainly mineral oil.

 

[Ethen44]

Offer her silkworms if at all possible, horn worms work as well. They have a high water base, and I'm sure that would be able to assist her in passing this stool. Hornworms are also great for picky eaters, my female loves them after she lays. Also keep up on the mistings, and you could perhaps help her out by raising the basking temp just a few degrees. It would speed up her metabolism hope rthis helps, good luck, and great job on rescuing that poor lil girl

 

[HolyToledo]

I am just passing on the great info I was given here on the forum and from my vet.

Pear baby food and mineral oil. I injected just a bit of the oil into a waxworm and force-fed it to him along with the baby food.

Couple of little doses a day for two days worked the trick for Mister Twister. It really cleaned his system out!

Hopefully your baby will get a clean start soon too!

 

[whereswaldo]

does she like vegis collards work well for ppl? wander if it will naturally help her?

 

[Georgia]

Impacted No more!

Thanks to everyone for their helpful advice. Georgia had very sandy feces in her enclosure yesterday afternoon and ate readily last night I am going to try to put the x-rays on here now

 

[laurie]

Good news, glad to hear it worked out - so to speak.

 

[Georgia]

x-rays

Attempt at uploading x-rays of Georgia. These rads were taken before Her poop of course

 

[BocaJan]

From time to time my girls will lick up sand. I don't know that it has happened until I see a sand poop. It never has bothered them or impacted them.

 

[camimom]

Her xrays dont look that bad.
cna you post actualy pictures of her?

 

[Olimpia]

Really cool x-rays, thank you for posting them!

And I'm glad that her system is moving again, great news. Did you try the oil then? Just to know if that might have make a difference or not, in this case.

 

[Georgia]

Yes I did use a small amount of Cod Liver Oil ( source of vitamin A ) as O.K'D by the vet. Also increased the amount of H20... The other suggestions for laxatives seem to check out too. I will try to put actual pics of my girl on here soon. I do not have the internet where I live, so I will need to e-mail the pics to my work in order to put them on the forum.