CuttletheFish
Member
I guess I'm not necessarily looking for help, just some emotional support from like minded individuals. For those of you who are unfamiliar, I posted a thread about a month or so ago about my veiled chameleon, Harriet's, journey through follicular stasis and surgery. She unfortunately didn't make it and I took it pretty hard. I still get upset about it to be honest, I was and still am absolutely devastated. If you interested in reading, the thread can be found here:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/thr...with-probable-follicular-stasis.169656/page-1
Now I haven't had too much time to recover because during Harriet's ordeal, I'd noticed my other cham, Gretchen, showing signs of being gravid (I know that's the term for fish, is that true for chams too?). She had started digging around and looking rather plump around the last week of June. At one point she stopped digging so I took her to get checked out the first week of July by the vet and sure enough, she still had all of her eggs, and they are all very well formed. They took an xray and it looks like she's hording a bunch of grapes in there! Because of the lack of behaviors from her, they elected to give her a shot of oxytocin then and see what that does for her. Ideally it would have induced her. Something did come out... but it was just a MASSIVE poo.
We gave her another week or so where I tried some other substrates for digging, but nothing. Our next attempt to get her to lay was leaving her at the vets all day to be observed. She received several more injections of oxy as well as fluids to ensure she was hydrated and try to "lube up" everything inside.
Absolutely nothing happened.... except for another big poo...
After all of that didn't work we were now at the point of seriously considering surgery. I've been instructed to monitor her weight and appetite closely and if she loses more that 10% of her body weight or started to miss meals, we needed to get her in the books.
At this point I'm still debating surgery over euthinasia giving the 50% chance survival rate for chams. After seeing Harriet go, it was not painless or kind. It was bad. It was really bad and watching that unfold in front of me was the worst thing I've ever experienced. I was absolutely helpless and I don't want to put my heart through that again. More importantly, I don't want to put Gretchen through that.
Sure enough she hasn't wanted to eat independently since this weekend (It's Wednesday today) and I've basically been forcing her to eat by irritating her enough to open her mouth (doesn't take much, she's always been a feisty one lol) and sticking a feeder where she would chomp on it when she closed her mouth. After that, she basically took it from there.
We had scheduled her surgery for tomorrow. She wasn't digging, her appetite wasn't great, and while she wasn't losing weight, I was worried. I was (and still am) extremely apprehensive going into surgery and have tried so many tricks to try and get her to lay before to avoid it. I don't know if my nerves (or wallet) can take another surgery or surgical recovery, especially with how Harriet went not even a month ago.
It feels like I've tried everything and nothing has happened, until....
She spend almost all day today in her outside enclosure with a laying bin and this is the first time I've seen her dig all month! She also started shedding today. After telling my vet, we both decided it's best to postpone the surgery and basically see what happens.
Please please please keep Gretchen in your thoughts and prayers over the next few days! Finding support through this has been rough... A lot of my family and friends don't seem to understand these guys can take up just as much space in your heart as a dog or a cat.
This whole thing has been absolutely exhausting and as wreaked havoc on my nerves as well as my heart. I'm sorry if this post was a bit all over the place. My life has been all over the place all month!
For anyone who wants updates on Gretchen's story, I do have a GoFundMe set up that I update every time something happens. There's a lot more backstory there as well as lots of pictures. Don't feel obligated to share or donate but I won't mind if you do either
https://www.gofundme.com/f/get-gretchen039s-eggs-out
https://www.chameleonforums.com/thr...with-probable-follicular-stasis.169656/page-1
Now I haven't had too much time to recover because during Harriet's ordeal, I'd noticed my other cham, Gretchen, showing signs of being gravid (I know that's the term for fish, is that true for chams too?). She had started digging around and looking rather plump around the last week of June. At one point she stopped digging so I took her to get checked out the first week of July by the vet and sure enough, she still had all of her eggs, and they are all very well formed. They took an xray and it looks like she's hording a bunch of grapes in there! Because of the lack of behaviors from her, they elected to give her a shot of oxytocin then and see what that does for her. Ideally it would have induced her. Something did come out... but it was just a MASSIVE poo.
We gave her another week or so where I tried some other substrates for digging, but nothing. Our next attempt to get her to lay was leaving her at the vets all day to be observed. She received several more injections of oxy as well as fluids to ensure she was hydrated and try to "lube up" everything inside.
Absolutely nothing happened.... except for another big poo...
After all of that didn't work we were now at the point of seriously considering surgery. I've been instructed to monitor her weight and appetite closely and if she loses more that 10% of her body weight or started to miss meals, we needed to get her in the books.
At this point I'm still debating surgery over euthinasia giving the 50% chance survival rate for chams. After seeing Harriet go, it was not painless or kind. It was bad. It was really bad and watching that unfold in front of me was the worst thing I've ever experienced. I was absolutely helpless and I don't want to put my heart through that again. More importantly, I don't want to put Gretchen through that.
Sure enough she hasn't wanted to eat independently since this weekend (It's Wednesday today) and I've basically been forcing her to eat by irritating her enough to open her mouth (doesn't take much, she's always been a feisty one lol) and sticking a feeder where she would chomp on it when she closed her mouth. After that, she basically took it from there.
We had scheduled her surgery for tomorrow. She wasn't digging, her appetite wasn't great, and while she wasn't losing weight, I was worried. I was (and still am) extremely apprehensive going into surgery and have tried so many tricks to try and get her to lay before to avoid it. I don't know if my nerves (or wallet) can take another surgery or surgical recovery, especially with how Harriet went not even a month ago.
It feels like I've tried everything and nothing has happened, until....
She spend almost all day today in her outside enclosure with a laying bin and this is the first time I've seen her dig all month! She also started shedding today. After telling my vet, we both decided it's best to postpone the surgery and basically see what happens.
Please please please keep Gretchen in your thoughts and prayers over the next few days! Finding support through this has been rough... A lot of my family and friends don't seem to understand these guys can take up just as much space in your heart as a dog or a cat.
This whole thing has been absolutely exhausting and as wreaked havoc on my nerves as well as my heart. I'm sorry if this post was a bit all over the place. My life has been all over the place all month!
For anyone who wants updates on Gretchen's story, I do have a GoFundMe set up that I update every time something happens. There's a lot more backstory there as well as lots of pictures. Don't feel obligated to share or donate but I won't mind if you do either
https://www.gofundme.com/f/get-gretchen039s-eggs-out
