Help and advice please!

[Bourkey1590]

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? Male veiled chameleon, approx. 3.5/4 months, had him 2 months
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? Twice in 2 months
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? Crickets, Calci worms, starting on silk worms. Feeding him as much as he wants, free-range schedule, crickets are on cricket feed, silk worms fed on white mulberry chow
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? Nutrobal with d3, was every other day until we realised it was d3, Calci worms are his main source of calcium
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? Misting from spray bottle, 5-6 times a day for 30 seconds, seen drinking often
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Normal fecal colours, one orange urite (very small, no poo) not tested for parasites under our care
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. None known

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? Particle wood board (easy vent system. Vivexotic viva plus aboreal extra large) width 3ft 9inch, depth 2ft, height 3ft
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? Exo-terra reptisun 10.0 uvb tube, exo-terra 75 watt neodymium basking spotlight. 12 hours of light, 12 of dark.
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? Basking spot 88ºf, 75ºf cool end of viv. 55ºf lowest overnight. Analogue dial thermometer and hygrometer (zoo med)
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? 70% in morning, lowest it drops to is 50%. Misting with spray bottle. Analogue hygrometer.
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? One lemon tree (no thorns) used for covery whilst basking.
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? In the living room, room is quiet. Top of the viv is 5ft 2in away from floor.
• Location - Where are you geographically located? North West England UK

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
His eyes are always shut and occasionally rubbing them on branches. Not seen a fecal movement for about a week, only seen a small orange urite (usually white). Not seen him eat for nearly a week although he is overdue a shed. Vet appointment booked for Wednesday 11th Jan 2017. Any help and advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[JamesB88]

Is he sleeping during the day or there shut as in he has an infection and cannot open them?

 

[Bourkey1590]

Is he sleeping during the day or there shut as in he has an infection and cannot open them?

He's been very sleepy during the day and has barely moved within the past 36 hours

 

[JamesB88]

He's been very sleepy during the day and has barely moved within the past 36 hours

He's been very sleepy during the day and has barely moved within the past 36 hours

Sounds like something is definitely goin on since he's sleeping during the day, as long as you have a vet visit hopefully he can help, your husbandry from the sounds seems ok to me so he could just be a sick Cham. Take some poop to the vet with you for testing.

 

[JamesB88]

Post some pics of your Cham and setup...and your sure your Cham is male?

 

[Kristen Wilkins]

@Bourkey1590 you probably want to see a vet if you don't know of one @jannb can probably help you find one close to you . Best of luck .

 

[Bourkey1590]

We've had to take his substrate out and two branches due to woodworm in the removed branches. We've checked the rest of his viv and branches and there's no sign of anymore woodworm. We've also recently taken a bush out that he basks on to clean it, could that be causing any of his symptoms as we have been told that rearranging can lead to him being stressed?

 

[Kristen Wilkins]

Could be but your baby I think is very thin . Sometimes they also get the Substrate impacted . I'm a new keeper I'm sure some of the more experienced keepers will chime in .

 

[Bourkey1590]

Could be but your baby I think is very thin . Sometimes they also get the Substrate impacted . I'm a new keeper I'm sure some of the more experienced keepers will chime in .

We were thinking he's thin too but he does have food in his viv but he's just not eating it.... we were also thinking impaction so just hoping the vet can tell us what's wrong and that it's nothing too serious

 

[Kristen Wilkins]

We were thinking he's thin too but he does have food in his viv but he's just not eating it.... we were also thinking impaction so just hoping the vet can tell us what's wrong and that it's nothing too serious

I'm so happy to hear your able to get him to a vet . Hopefully they can see something on an x-ray . Also you may want to have fecal done for parasites . That might be a bit hard if he's not eating . I wish you the best of luck please keep us posted .

 

[Bourkey1590]

George has been to the vets today. The vet can't see anything obviously wrong with him but has prescribed antibiotics just in case. He thinks it could be a vitamin A deficiency and so has also prescribed urgent care vitamins. According to the vet George is younger then what we thought which will mean that he was sold to us before he turned 2 months.

Big sigh of relief from us though!

 

[jajeanpierre]

George has been to the vets today. The vet can't see anything obviously wrong with him but has prescribed antibiotics just in case. He thinks it could be a vitamin A deficiency and so has also prescribed urgent care vitamins. According to the vet George is younger then what we thought which will mean that he was sold to us before he turned 2 months.

Big sigh of relief from us though!

Glad you got him in to the vet.

If he is rubbing his eyes, it means they are bothering him. It is possible he has a bit of a retina burn from too strong UVB lights. Or something in his eye (which I think can be ruled out since he has just been to the vet).

I suggest you give him a LOT more misting. I looked at your cage pictures and since your wood isn't soaking wet and stained with water marks, I don't think you can be misting him enough. The fact you say you see him drinking regularly makes me suspect he is not getting enough water. If I see my chameleons drinking, my feeling is that I haven't given them enough water or kept them humid enough.

Your cage is very sparse. You have fake plants (which do not increase humidity or hold water droplets long) on the back wall and bare space everywhere else. Your cage is not just walls--it is the whole space inside the walls. It should be filled with live plants, which brings up another problem--the wood sides. My oak perches rot with the humidity in my cages, even my veiled's cage. If you are giving enough misting (and I honestly do not believe hand misting is sufficient for even a veiled) your wood will become wet.

Did your vet give him an injection of Vitamin A/E?

As far as his weight, if he is dehydrated, he will look skinny. Veiled are shape shifters--they can be a good weight and then look emaciated, babies especially. Worry about hydration and resolving his eye irritation issues.

If he isn't eating, make sure the size of the food is small enough. I expect babies to eat and veiled babies have voracious appetites. It is worrying he isn't eating. Perhaps it is because of his eye irritation.

 

[Bourkey1590]

@jajeanpierre would swapping his reptisun 10.0 t5 ho uvb tube for the reptisun 5.0 t5 ho uvb tube be better for his eyes? As for the emptiness of his tank, we had to remove quite a considerable amount of his branches and his substrate due to a possible woodworm infestation in one of his main branches.

 

[alphakenc]

U will also need to adjust the correct distance inbetween ur uvb light and the branch the baby cham stays on,10.0 is usually for a dessert reptile that needs uvb input or a high density heavy planted cage,5.0 with ur baby cham should be fine,do dust ur calcium supplements correctly in order to be benefits with the uvb light on ur cham.

 

[Bourkey1590]

Unfortunately George died this morning. He deteriorated rapidly after his trip to the vets which we think caused too much stress for him to handle. We tried everything we could to get him better including ordering a new uvb bulb but it arrived too late. Thanks for all the help and advice, we haven't given up on owning a chameleon in the future.

 

[Kristen Wilkins]

Unfortunately George died this morning. He deteriorated rapidly after his trip to the vets which we think caused too much stress for him to handle. We tried everything we could to get him better including ordering a new uvb bulb but it arrived too late. Thanks for all the help and advice, we haven't given up on owning a chameleon in the future.

I'm so very sorry to hear this . My heart go's out to you .

 

[carol5208]

Awe, I am sorry you lost him. You seem like you really cared for your chameleon and tried to do the very best in his interest. Sometimes things are just out of our control no matter how hard we try to do right. We are here to help if you decide to get another one. Don't give up!