HELP, CHAMELEON HAS FALLEN....swollen leg

just came from the vet......she took an xray and said he has the strongest bones of any cham she's ever seen.....no MBD....strong heart...colen was a little swollen, but he has had some diahreah so its no surprise........she gave him an injection of D for a boost, and sent me home with a really strong antibiotic and calcium ( as a boost as well). she pretty much said that if this antibiotic doesnt work, he has kidney damage and there's not much we can do :(...........she also wants a sample of his poop, which will be hard to get because he's not eating enough to go to the bathroom............
 
JackAttack said:
just came from the vet......she took an xray and said he has the strongest bones of any cham she's ever seen.....no MBD....strong heart...colen was a little swollen, but he has had some diahreah so its no surprise........she gave him an injection of D for a boost, and sent me home with a really strong antibiotic and calcium ( as a boost as well). she pretty much said that if this antibiotic doesnt work, he has kidney damage and there's not much we can do :(...........she also wants a sample of his poop, which will be hard to get because he's not eating enough to go to the bathroom............
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I really wish you could get this guy to a different vet. IF he doesn't have an infection and in bad need of an antibiotic, he should not be taking one. Antibiotics are VERY BAD on the kidneys.
 
jannb said:
I really wish you could get this guy to a different vet. IF he doesn't have an infection and in bad need of an antibiotic, he should not be taking one. Antibiotics are VERY BAD on the kidneys.
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so is purposefully baking your kidney as well as some infections, or auto immune which is what this sounds like to me since this all stemmed from him falling can specifically attack organs
 
i specifically asked the vet if it would be ok on his kidneys, and she said that the antibiotic she chose is ok on kidneys that arent working fully.........but we dont know if it is his kidneys just yet, we're hoping its not........hoping its just a bacterial infection........
 
JackAttack said..."she pretty much said that if this antibiotic doesnt work, he has kidney damage"...wish I knew why she said this...curiousity drives me to learn...
 
JackAttack said:
i dont think i fully understand your statement jannb......could you word it again?
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I love chameleons and it just kills me to see one hurt or sick. I know that antibiotic are bad on the kidneys and I wish that you had a different CHAMELEON vet to get a second opinion.
 
Here's a big problem: EVERY vet I talk to says general antibiotics (Baytril, usualy) are gentle on the kidneys, and won't hurt their kidneys. And they're wrong.

It doesn't look like an infection to me - I see no sign of entry, no cut, no splinter, etc. Where's the infection comign from???

The worst thing to do with chameleons, medically, in MY opinion and experience, is to give them general antibiotics - just in case. My meller's foot looked just like that a couple weeks ago. It's gone down. I think he hurt himself in a fall, twisted his ankle.

My old male lost much of the use of his rear legs after a burn. I'm not sure if it was the burn, or the baytril, that caused the damage. He was fine at first, after a cople days on meds, he went downhill, weak limbs, gaping, labored breathing - no eating. A day off of it, and he was normal, except his rear legs wouldnt' work well, he had to use his tail. The feet gripped, but the rest of the legs didn't move right.
 
Seems to me that anti-biotics without knowing there is an infection to fight is a less than fabulous idea.

Swollen ankles that appear painful to move could maybe indicate gout. Not saying he has gout, just that the description kinda fits. I didnt see the video.
I dont know what the orange things you feed the crickets contain, but lettuce (useless) and carrots (good) arent contributing to gout. And serious gout should show on an xray

Edema can cause swelling. Lack of sufficient hydration can cause edema.

http://chamworld.blogspot.com/2008/01/health-section-f-gout_28.html
 
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well if gout shows up on an xray, he doesnt have it.................by the xray, everything is strong and healthy.............which leads her to believe that he has an infection of some sort.............there is no way to really tell........he had a fall, which caused a bad bruise in his back leg......we thought that was all that it was, until it spread to his other back leg. both are swollen, and he has VERY weak grip in them. he was started on an antibiotic, and a pain med, to help with the swelling and pain. 4 days on the med, and his front legs started being weak as well, and swollen. this led the vet to believe that the antibiotic wasnt strong enough, and the infection was spreading. now i am on day one of the new med, and he ate 3 worms today. he is still quite weak, but its only the first day of the antibiotic...............
 
i forget who asked where it may be coming from, but in cases (in humans) some traumas can lead to the activation of overly zealous, or confused phagosites which is an auto immune disorder, and this reminds me of it. be worth asking the vet what she thought about such an idea?
 
ok docility, i will print this out and ask her about it when i bring in his fecal sample..... she said that the bruising is a good place for bacteria to grow.......he may have had it in him already, but it didnt have an opportunity to grow anywhere.....then along came a bruise.........
 
ok, so this is where we are at after about 3 weeks..........not just a swollen leg after all.........they tested his poop and it came back positive with a parasite.

the parasite he has is called Eimeria Coccidia, just for reference. its being treated with Albon, i believe its called. it is hard on the kidneys, so he gets fluid injections on the days he has the medicine. this treatment will go for 3 weeks, then another fecal sample, and if he is clear then we will stop treatment. fingers crossed..............
 
JackAttack said:
ok, so this is where we are at after about 3 weeks..........not just a swollen leg after all.........they tested his poop and it came back positive with a parasite.

the parasite he has is called Eimeria Coccidia, just for reference. its being treated with Albon, i believe its called. it is hard on the kidneys, so he gets fluid injections on the days he has the medicine. this treatment will go for 3 weeks, then another fecal sample, and if he is clear then we will stop treatment. fingers crossed..............
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huh. use that to treat diarrhea in dogs.
 
Is it that easy for a CB cham to get a parasite? Where are they getting it from? Food source?
 
Coccidia is oten a comon part of their intestinal flora, and usually is problem when the animal is injured or sick. I have done fecals on lots of peoples' animals, and a large numbr of them show a few coccidia in their systems - but I've never seen one where it caused trouble (except the group I lost this past year).

Coccidia is something I woudl not treat unless the animal was sick and overrun with the parasites.
 
jack fell and hurt his leg, but we dont know if the fall was caused by the swelling from the parasite, or vice versa.......either way, whether it be from the fall or not, his strength was compromised, and the parasite is what the vet believes is doing it. is that what happened to the group you lost?
 
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