Gout?

[DrewNYC]

Does anyone have any experience with gout?? i just noticed my nosey favoring a rear leg, after taking him out and inspecting i can see his joint is swollen at the base (by his claw)
i read this is an abundance of protein in his foods, i do not understand , they say typically with people who use dog or cat food in there gutload??

i never use them, i use cricketfood,com cricket gutload for crickets, and for the roaches i use roach food from cricketfood.com (but they have not had a recently) so i used roach coach from coastalsilkworms.com with veggies for both squash, kale, romain, butternut squash, carrots, pears and apples sometimes. he does eat hornworms, and silkworms, crickets and loves roaches, no waxworms, a butter every once in a while

he is a male nosey 1 year old, next month
was in an 18x18x36 screen cage but now (for 2 weeks)in a 2x2x4 screen cage
zoomed 10.0 with a 60watt basking
ambient 71.7-74, basking 88-92
drip 2x a day with 2 addtional spraying (by hand)
i give minerall or repcal wd3 1x a week
herpivite 2x a month
repcal without 1-2x a week

there are no exotic vets close by so that means i will make a saturday appointment tomorrow, what can i do to prepare him??or start a recovery?
water?? alot of it? to start to flush the crystals
will he need surgery it seems to be his rear leg only, all other legs are working and seem ok, how can i get on a road back?
drew

 

[AFH]

I'm not sure about chameleon gout. The vet will have to tell you. A blood test should come back with a high uric acid count if it's gout. Water can't hurt.

Are you sure it's not a sprained toe from getting it caught in the cage screen or something like that?

 

[snk]

I did have a female veiled that develop gout, which was noticed in early stage. I provide a lot of water and reduce her amount of food intake by half. She was heal in about 3 months. However, I do know gout should not be taken lightly and require immediate care.

 

[dodolah]

Does anyone have any experience with gout?? i just noticed my nosey favoring a rear leg, after taking him out and inspecting i can see his joint is swollen at the base (by his claw)
i read this is an abundance of protein in his foods, i do not understand , they say typically with people who use dog or cat food in there gutload??

i never use them, i use cricketfood,com cricket gutload for crickets, and for the roaches i use roach food from cricketfood.com (but they have not had a recently) so i used roach coach from coastalsilkworms.com with veggies for both squash, kale, romain, butternut squash, carrots, pears and apples sometimes. he does eat hornworms, and silkworms, crickets and loves roaches, no waxworms, a butter every once in a while

he is a male nosey 1 year old, next month
was in an 18x18x36 screen cage but now (for 2 weeks)in a 2x2x4 screen cage
zoomed 10.0 with a 60watt basking
ambient 71.7-74, basking 88-92
drip 2x a day with 2 addtional spraying (by hand)
i give minerall or repcal wd3 1x a week
herpivite 2x a month
repcal without 1-2x a week

there are no exotic vets close by so that means i will make a saturday appointment tomorrow, what can i do to prepare him??or start a recovery?
water?? alot of it? to start to flush the crystals
will he need surgery it seems to be his rear leg only, all other legs are working and seem ok, how can i get on a road back?
drew

water will help flushing out the crystal.
(maybe increase misting and provide shower)..
If you suspect gout, then try not feeding him roach for now. i'll stick with silkworm and hornworms until saturday.
Somehow, i doubt that it's gout. Upload a clear pic of his joint.

 

[Brad]

I am not a veterinarian and what I say could be wrong.

From what I remember reading, there are different types of gout. Excessive levels of protein or purines is a possible cause. Another type or cause, and one that I believe to be more common with captive chameleons, is related to dehydration and renal failure. If it is gout, whatever the form, I don't think any short term drinking habits are going to flush the crystals away; I wish it were that easy. However, if it is related to dehydration and is not too severe, hydrating the animal might help prevent the condition from getting worse or spreading. Do you have any photos? The sooner you can get to a good vet the better.

 

[chris]

gout is caused by buildup of uric acid in the joints. hydrating the animal and taking them off minerals can help but it can be very hard to get rid of.

 

[kinyonga]

Are any claws missing or damaged near the swollen area?

It could be gout or it could be an infection....a vet will be able to tell you.

You may have read some of these already...
http://www.mythicalchameleons.com/vetcases.htm#gout

You said that you didn't use dog food or cat food, but gout can be caused by other things too...
http://www.all-creatures.com/site/view/79378_Chameleons.pml;jsessionid=4497k8au7kj
"Excess vitamin D3 supplementation especially in combination with calcium may result in organ toxicity. Metastatic calcification and gout are common results. Gular edema or pseudo gout is a common clinical sign of these problems. The pseudo-gout (calcium hydroxyapatite) deposits usually appear as irregular firm swellings over joints in the limbs and on ribs. "

http://animalark.eapps.com/animal/CIN/ContentMgmt.nsf/Trouble/$first?OpenDocument
"Kidney failure may culminate in gout"

 

[dj special k]

hmm

Well... my female veiled had her rear legs swollen before. I was gutloading and dusting my crickets and misting her regularly. It turned out she had MBD because my UVB bulb was too old. I didn't know you're suppose to really change those after a certain amount of months. And she was basically consuming calcium, but it wasn't really doing anything for her because the UVB bulb wasn't doing it's job on that part. I switched her out to a new bulb. She's doing fine now and the swelling in her legs have gone down.

 

[Brad]

There were some great health articles at chameleon journals, once upon a time. If anyone is in contact with the previous owner, I would love to get permission to post them here. Without that permission, I will just post a few sentences below.

Gout Basics:
by Kenneth Lopez, D.V.M.

...

Primary gout, such as humans get, comes from hyperuricemia (i.e., excessive uric acid in the blood) due to dietary factors or to a defect in amino acid metabolism. Secondary gout comes from hyperuricemia due to a problem in the excretion of uric acid such as renal disease. When this happens, urate crystal deposits can form in many places, hence, articular, peri-articular, and visceral forms. The deposits are called tophi and the disease is considered tophaceous gout.

...

Chameleons usually get hyperuricemia due to dehydration or renal disfunction, a secondary gout.

...

------
got to love the internet
click here: archived article

 

[DrewNYC]

well i appreciate the infromation provided, i am pretty sure it looks like articular gout, i got home late from work and 'johnny' was already curled in for bed and i did not want to disturb him for photos. i am pretty sure he is not dehydrated, his eyes are nice a bulgy, like a marble but i will post a picture and see what everyone else thinks tomorrow, until then thanks.
i have increased his shower/mistings, stopped the roaches (do not know why the roaches would actually be doing it but until i know what it is i am going to reduce his food intake, i will keep to silky's and horn's for now)
drew

 

[Cainschams]

Hey Drew. I also have a jacksons with that same problem but I took him to the vet and he said he thought it was gout. He then did some tests and got back to me a while later and said it wasnt gout it is possibly just arthritis. I am going to set another appointment to do some more tests. The wierd thing is that mine seems healthy and the vet said he was the best one he has seen for a while. That brings me to the question of do chams get plain arthritis? Not to steal the thread but let me know what happens and I will do the same. Thanks.

 

[dodolah]

well i appreciate the infromation provided, i am pretty sure it looks like articular gout, i got home late from work and 'johnny' was already curled in for bed and i did not want to disturb him for photos. i am pretty sure he is not dehydrated, his eyes are nice a bulgy, like a marble but i will post a picture and see what everyone else thinks tomorrow, until then thanks.
i have increased his shower/mistings, stopped the roaches (do not know why the roaches would actually be doing it but until i know what it is i am going to reduce his food intake, i will keep to silky's and horn's for now)
drew

roaches has lots of proteins in them.
It's not directly causing your cham gout (since you did not feed them catfood).
If it is gout from protein excess, then it probably best to steer away from them just until your vet can clarify what exactly wrong with your cham.

I would also be aware on your supplementation of vit D3 and preform A till Saturday.