jajeanpierre
Chameleon Enthusiast
Many of you have already met "He Who Would Not Die" a.k.a. ShenLong. I really adore this old boy. He seems like such a wise old soul but I really have no idea how old he is. I would have thought he was young since he has grown so much in my care, but I just don't know.
He is the reason I am breeding chameleons.
ShenLong was imported in December 2014, the first import of Trioceros quadricornis quadricornis and T. q. graciliors (and who knows what else) for almost a decade I believe. At the time, I had a couple of PetSmart veileds, my very first chameleons that I had bought the month before. I found the importer quite by accident and went in to buy supplies for my veileds. Quite by chance, the shipment had arrived the day before and I saw these magnificent dragons with sail fins and horns and thought they were so cool. I bought one. The importer wouldn't let me take him home until he had a chance to acclimate for a couple of weeks--in other words, he wasn't going to send out this fragile newly imported wild caught to a rank novice to kill.
A few weeks later, I brought him home and the trouble began. Wild caughts are Hell to keep alive. If you want to really learn chameleon husbandry, get some wild caughts and keep them alive. It is a trial by fire and if you do it wrong, the chameleon pays with his life.
So many mistakes! The first biggie was worming him right away. I was advised by others who had animals from this shipment that if I didn't worm him immediately he would die within two weeks. I think that was my biggest mistake and the start of his deterioration. Of all the wild caughts I bought in those next two or three months, the ones who gave me the most grief for the longest time were the two I wormed right away.
First, he developed a swelling on his leg and lameness. X-rays were inconclusive. Then he developed a skin infection all over his body. Then the rubs on the tips of the spinous processes became infected and one bone ended up rotting off and falling out. You can see the dip in his topline. Then he would just not thrive and was even so unwell he was limp in my vet's hands. That is one sick chameleon if they are limp in a vet's hands. They can be on death's doorstep and they will still fight when handled. Then the walled off abscess on his back started to swell so the vet lanced it and drained it. He hardly even gaped as the vet was doing all this with no anesthetic. He just turned and looked into my sould with those big soft eyes. He developed the worst edema I have ever seen and nothing I did could mitigate it. Then the edema miraculously went away and at the same time he developed some kind of accute respiratory failure. He was so compromised that he couldn't afford to stop breathing long enough to swallow and started losing weight. If he ate too much, his full stomach would take up what little room the lungs had and he would start to pass out. He would almost pass out on his perch and fall from severe oxygen deprivation. It wasn't all the time. He'd be fine and then he couldn't get air into his lungs and he would almost pass out as he struggled to pull air in around whatever blockage there was in his lungs. It was heartbreaking to watch. The vet was 100% positive it was not a lung infection. Tumor and lung worms were talked about. I made an appointment to euthanize and do a necropsy. As I was packing up to take him in, out of the blue I got a call from another quad breeder. She recounted a similar situation she had with the vet being positive it wasn't RI but she just had a gut feeling it was so insisted on antibiotics and the animal survived. So, why not? Euthanasia is forever; we could always euthanize later. Somehow he recovered and gained his weight back. I gave him tiny food so he could easily swallow it. I fed him five or six times a day so his stomach wouldn't get too full. He has a puffy swelling between his hind legs that we haven't a clue what it is. Abscess? Draining from where? When he dies, my vet and I are looking forward to his necropsy because neither of us can understand why he is still alive and we really want to know just what is inside his body. Through all of this, he almost tripled his weight, starting at 36g and ending up just under 100g. I don't know how much he weighs today. He doesn't move around much and his muscles are all atrophied, but he is a little piggy and I think he is fairly comforable and content.
Lately he has been moving around a lot more and for the past couple of days has just looked a lot brighter. Here is a picture I took of him this morning. I think he is displaying to the receptive females that he can't see but knows are in the room. It's not a good picture. He's dark and spotty because it is early in the morning and he is cold. But I think he looks fantastic.
He is just such a tough old man. Any other chameleon would have died from any one of his crises. My vet just adores him for that. He has an incredible constitution to just stay alive through all he's been through. Looking at him for the last two days, I just might try once again to breed him again. I've always wanted his genes if only for his really strong immune system. I don't think anything I have done or will ever do in chameleons will make me as proud as I am for just keeping this old guy alive and pretty happy. I just adore him.
He is the reason I am breeding chameleons.
ShenLong was imported in December 2014, the first import of Trioceros quadricornis quadricornis and T. q. graciliors (and who knows what else) for almost a decade I believe. At the time, I had a couple of PetSmart veileds, my very first chameleons that I had bought the month before. I found the importer quite by accident and went in to buy supplies for my veileds. Quite by chance, the shipment had arrived the day before and I saw these magnificent dragons with sail fins and horns and thought they were so cool. I bought one. The importer wouldn't let me take him home until he had a chance to acclimate for a couple of weeks--in other words, he wasn't going to send out this fragile newly imported wild caught to a rank novice to kill.
A few weeks later, I brought him home and the trouble began. Wild caughts are Hell to keep alive. If you want to really learn chameleon husbandry, get some wild caughts and keep them alive. It is a trial by fire and if you do it wrong, the chameleon pays with his life.
So many mistakes! The first biggie was worming him right away. I was advised by others who had animals from this shipment that if I didn't worm him immediately he would die within two weeks. I think that was my biggest mistake and the start of his deterioration. Of all the wild caughts I bought in those next two or three months, the ones who gave me the most grief for the longest time were the two I wormed right away.
First, he developed a swelling on his leg and lameness. X-rays were inconclusive. Then he developed a skin infection all over his body. Then the rubs on the tips of the spinous processes became infected and one bone ended up rotting off and falling out. You can see the dip in his topline. Then he would just not thrive and was even so unwell he was limp in my vet's hands. That is one sick chameleon if they are limp in a vet's hands. They can be on death's doorstep and they will still fight when handled. Then the walled off abscess on his back started to swell so the vet lanced it and drained it. He hardly even gaped as the vet was doing all this with no anesthetic. He just turned and looked into my sould with those big soft eyes. He developed the worst edema I have ever seen and nothing I did could mitigate it. Then the edema miraculously went away and at the same time he developed some kind of accute respiratory failure. He was so compromised that he couldn't afford to stop breathing long enough to swallow and started losing weight. If he ate too much, his full stomach would take up what little room the lungs had and he would start to pass out. He would almost pass out on his perch and fall from severe oxygen deprivation. It wasn't all the time. He'd be fine and then he couldn't get air into his lungs and he would almost pass out as he struggled to pull air in around whatever blockage there was in his lungs. It was heartbreaking to watch. The vet was 100% positive it was not a lung infection. Tumor and lung worms were talked about. I made an appointment to euthanize and do a necropsy. As I was packing up to take him in, out of the blue I got a call from another quad breeder. She recounted a similar situation she had with the vet being positive it wasn't RI but she just had a gut feeling it was so insisted on antibiotics and the animal survived. So, why not? Euthanasia is forever; we could always euthanize later. Somehow he recovered and gained his weight back. I gave him tiny food so he could easily swallow it. I fed him five or six times a day so his stomach wouldn't get too full. He has a puffy swelling between his hind legs that we haven't a clue what it is. Abscess? Draining from where? When he dies, my vet and I are looking forward to his necropsy because neither of us can understand why he is still alive and we really want to know just what is inside his body. Through all of this, he almost tripled his weight, starting at 36g and ending up just under 100g. I don't know how much he weighs today. He doesn't move around much and his muscles are all atrophied, but he is a little piggy and I think he is fairly comforable and content.
Lately he has been moving around a lot more and for the past couple of days has just looked a lot brighter. Here is a picture I took of him this morning. I think he is displaying to the receptive females that he can't see but knows are in the room. It's not a good picture. He's dark and spotty because it is early in the morning and he is cold. But I think he looks fantastic.
He is just such a tough old man. Any other chameleon would have died from any one of his crises. My vet just adores him for that. He has an incredible constitution to just stay alive through all he's been through. Looking at him for the last two days, I just might try once again to breed him again. I've always wanted his genes if only for his really strong immune system. I don't think anything I have done or will ever do in chameleons will make me as proud as I am for just keeping this old guy alive and pretty happy. I just adore him.
may he live long and prosper!
