Help! Hoehnelii juvenile started showing swelling under his right eye and a dark blue spot above his right shoulder.
- Thread starter aellethysir
- Start date
ItsMike64
Established Member
This questionnaire will help those I tagged above to come up with an idea of what it could be:
Chameleon Info:
Cage Info:
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
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Please Note:
Chameleon Info:
- Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
- Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
- Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
- Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
- Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
- Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
- History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
- Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
- Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
- Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
- Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
- 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?
- Location - Where are you geographically located?
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
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Please Note:
- The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
- Photos can be very helpful.
aellethysir
New Member
Alright. chameleon info first :
About 5-6months in age right now I got him at the end of June So it’s almost been a month.
I handle Darius only to bring him outside to get sunshine then I sit with him to feed.
Darius is on dubia roachs as the main diet but I occasionally have hornworms and have only seen him eat a super worm once.
I dust the roaches with reptivite every other day he seems to not like the taste and stops eating after a few dusted roaches compared to when they aren’t dusted he’ll eat twice or triple the amount.
I have seen Darius drink I’ve made sure he has by putting a drip or two infront of his face in dire situations but after his outside time I mist the entire cage for a bout a minute. Then I’ll notice him climbing up to sip from my live plants.
I have two ficus and a money tree all in his cage at the moment, the leaves hold a lot of water and I have been rinsing his cage with my backyard hose once a week due to calcium build up on the leaves.
I have seen white pee stacks. And also I’ve seen the cream colored stack with the dark grey/dark blue stack. Although the cream color is getting a little more orange/tan than cream.
History, while I was taking pictures of his swelling today a jumping spider climbed from under a leaf. So there’s a chance is just a bug bite. He has also taken a tumble once yesterday when the wind took the planted ficus he stays in onto the ground, it was like a 2feet above the ground. Which could be the blue spot above his shoulder. I’ve also been given advice on giving him hot showers where I would leave him in a runing shower bathroom on his ficus tree for a couple minutes a day. I have thus stopped doing this due to arguments on the cham Reddit
Enclosure, he does not have a complete home yet I still mean to give him a little more room but since he’s a juvenile I have time to get a bigger one.
His screen cage atm is a reptibreeze
18”x18”x36”
I have a 6% UVB strip 24watt with a 50watt zoo’med basking lamp set 9 inches away from the top of his basking spot, and then I went with a sansi led grow light for the plants I have inside. It’s 70 watts and dimmable I use the dimest setting since it’s so strong.
His basking spot is in the low 80’s while on and the bottom half gets around room temp. I’ll move a fan I have set up across my room towards the bottom to decrease the temp during the nighttime then back across the room during the day I haven’t measured the temperature during the nighttime but I have two probes for the inside and a wall hanging temp/humidity monitor for the room.
I actually originally set up a paludarium in hopes that he would be able to live there one day but I wasn’t able to get the humidity inside there to go down, it makes my entire room pretty humid at times so I keep a running dehumidifier in my room set to turn on at 55% during the day then when I leave for work around 10pm it’ll be upped to 75%
I also have a small fan that is placed at the opposite side of my room to help with stagnant air, I point it towards my paludarium during the day then at the bottom of his cage during the nighttime.I also have a fogger that I turn on during the nighttime. Will schedule better in the future since I let it run till it’s out.
I have his cage placed about 4 feet above my room so the highest part of his cage would be like maybe a foot or two under the ceiling. He’s pretty high up but that only because I live in my basement so itll get pretty cold in the Midwest where I’m located soon.
Thank you for reading this and I hope u can help
About 5-6months in age right now I got him at the end of June So it’s almost been a month.
I handle Darius only to bring him outside to get sunshine then I sit with him to feed.
Darius is on dubia roachs as the main diet but I occasionally have hornworms and have only seen him eat a super worm once.
I dust the roaches with reptivite every other day he seems to not like the taste and stops eating after a few dusted roaches compared to when they aren’t dusted he’ll eat twice or triple the amount.
I have seen Darius drink I’ve made sure he has by putting a drip or two infront of his face in dire situations but after his outside time I mist the entire cage for a bout a minute. Then I’ll notice him climbing up to sip from my live plants.
I have two ficus and a money tree all in his cage at the moment, the leaves hold a lot of water and I have been rinsing his cage with my backyard hose once a week due to calcium build up on the leaves.
I have seen white pee stacks. And also I’ve seen the cream colored stack with the dark grey/dark blue stack. Although the cream color is getting a little more orange/tan than cream.
History, while I was taking pictures of his swelling today a jumping spider climbed from under a leaf. So there’s a chance is just a bug bite. He has also taken a tumble once yesterday when the wind took the planted ficus he stays in onto the ground, it was like a 2feet above the ground. Which could be the blue spot above his shoulder. I’ve also been given advice on giving him hot showers where I would leave him in a runing shower bathroom on his ficus tree for a couple minutes a day. I have thus stopped doing this due to arguments on the cham Reddit
Enclosure, he does not have a complete home yet I still mean to give him a little more room but since he’s a juvenile I have time to get a bigger one.
His screen cage atm is a reptibreeze
18”x18”x36”
I have a 6% UVB strip 24watt with a 50watt zoo’med basking lamp set 9 inches away from the top of his basking spot, and then I went with a sansi led grow light for the plants I have inside. It’s 70 watts and dimmable I use the dimest setting since it’s so strong.
His basking spot is in the low 80’s while on and the bottom half gets around room temp. I’ll move a fan I have set up across my room towards the bottom to decrease the temp during the nighttime then back across the room during the day I haven’t measured the temperature during the nighttime but I have two probes for the inside and a wall hanging temp/humidity monitor for the room.
I actually originally set up a paludarium in hopes that he would be able to live there one day but I wasn’t able to get the humidity inside there to go down, it makes my entire room pretty humid at times so I keep a running dehumidifier in my room set to turn on at 55% during the day then when I leave for work around 10pm it’ll be upped to 75%
I also have a small fan that is placed at the opposite side of my room to help with stagnant air, I point it towards my paludarium during the day then at the bottom of his cage during the nighttime.I also have a fogger that I turn on during the nighttime. Will schedule better in the future since I let it run till it’s out.
I have his cage placed about 4 feet above my room so the highest part of his cage would be like maybe a foot or two under the ceiling. He’s pretty high up but that only because I live in my basement so itll get pretty cold in the Midwest where I’m located soon.
Thank you for reading this and I hope u can help
Welcome to the forum.
Sorry to see your poor little hoehnelli having issues.
I'm not a vet and not an expert with hoehnelli chameleons, but it looks like the swelling below th eye is an infection. You'll need a vet to clean it out and put the chameleon on the appropriate antibiotic if I'm right. Not sure about the mark on the shoulder.
Hopefully others will chime in here.
Sorry to see your poor little hoehnelli having issues.
I'm not a vet and not an expert with hoehnelli chameleons, but it looks like the swelling below th eye is an infection. You'll need a vet to clean it out and put the chameleon on the appropriate antibiotic if I'm right. Not sure about the mark on the shoulder.
Hopefully others will chime in here.
BostonKeith
Avid Member
Looks like there is bruising on his chin eye and shoulder. Did he fall at any time?
aellethysir
New Member
This is what I’ve been gut loading the roaches with it’s mainly just sugar and water with apple juice but in jelly form . I also will feed them carrots and lettuce a few times a week.
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aellethysir
New Member
Yes he did take a tumble with his ficus plant when the wind kicked up yesterday. And I came back to him on the ground
aellethysir
New Member
T5, I have a jelly pot that my local trusted pet store holds NOT pet chain. I know the difference. I will also toss a carrot, cucumber and lettuce leaf before feeding
BostonKeith
Avid Member
so reptivite should be once every 2 weeks with calcium powder at every feedeing.
BostonKeith
Avid Member
If you could reread the forum and copy paste the whole thing and write in your answers it would be alot easier on everyone! It will also make feedback easier for members not to mention you can check the list off once reviewed! 
BostonKeith
Avid Member
Heres the form again
ItsMike64
Established Member
To clarify, I believe what @BostonKeith means is to have your entries like this:Heres the form again
- Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
- Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Keeping the questions in and having your specific answers directly below them. That way people know the questions and can easily find your answers. If this is not what was intended when asked to fill the form out, ignore me lol
Gsorryni didn't get back to give more comments last night, but there was a storm here in Ontario and it seemed to be causing problems with the Internet and I couldn't get back on.
You said..."He has also taken a tumble once yesterday when the wind took the planted ficus he stays in onto the ground, it was like a 2feet above the ground. Which could be the blue spot above his shoulder"... Sounds like this could be the reason for the mark on the shoulder and the swelling...could he have been impaled by a twig where the swelling is?
Concerning the reptivite, if you're using it more than twice a month, you are likely going to overdose him with vitamin D3 and vitamin A ...and from what I've read, it may not become apparent quickly...but remember I'm not a vet.
It's recommended that you dust the insects lightly at all feedings but two a month with a phos free calcium powder...and twice a month lightly with the reptivite....but that's for veileds and panthers...and the reptivite might only be needed once a month for hoehnelli chameleons. I'm no expert on their needs for that.
Also, I would feed/gutload roaches, crickets, etc with a wide assortment of greens such as dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, etc and veggies such as carrots, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, etc and a tiny amount of fruit such as berries, pear, Apple.
You can feed him BSFL, roaches, crickets, silkworms, hornworms, once in a while superworms and waxworms...as long as all of them are the proper size for him to handle.
You said..."I’ve also been given advice on giving him hot showers where I would leave him in a runing shower bathroom on his ficus tree for a couple minutes a day"...definitely a good idea to stop doing these showers. Hot water would be dangerous for him.
Im hoping someone who keeps hoehnelli chameleons chimes in about humidity, basking temeperatures, etc since I don't want to give you incorrect info on that.
Hope you get the swelling figured out and fixed.
You said..."He has also taken a tumble once yesterday when the wind took the planted ficus he stays in onto the ground, it was like a 2feet above the ground. Which could be the blue spot above his shoulder"... Sounds like this could be the reason for the mark on the shoulder and the swelling...could he have been impaled by a twig where the swelling is?
Concerning the reptivite, if you're using it more than twice a month, you are likely going to overdose him with vitamin D3 and vitamin A ...and from what I've read, it may not become apparent quickly...but remember I'm not a vet.
It's recommended that you dust the insects lightly at all feedings but two a month with a phos free calcium powder...and twice a month lightly with the reptivite....but that's for veileds and panthers...and the reptivite might only be needed once a month for hoehnelli chameleons. I'm no expert on their needs for that.
Also, I would feed/gutload roaches, crickets, etc with a wide assortment of greens such as dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, etc and veggies such as carrots, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, etc and a tiny amount of fruit such as berries, pear, Apple.
You can feed him BSFL, roaches, crickets, silkworms, hornworms, once in a while superworms and waxworms...as long as all of them are the proper size for him to handle.
You said..."I’ve also been given advice on giving him hot showers where I would leave him in a runing shower bathroom on his ficus tree for a couple minutes a day"...definitely a good idea to stop doing these showers. Hot water would be dangerous for him.
Im hoping someone who keeps hoehnelli chameleons chimes in about humidity, basking temeperatures, etc since I don't want to give you incorrect info on that.
Hope you get the swelling figured out and fixed.
aellethysir
New Member
aellethysir
New Member
aellethysir
New Member
Calling the vet today it does seem to be stable but still gut wrenching to see on my end. I’m giving his cage a deep cleaning to see if that can help with slowing this process till he can get treated.
ItsMike64
Established Member
Sounds like you’re doing all the right things.
Make sure the vet you see has experience seeing and treating chameleons. You don’t want someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. I believe @jannb is the one with vet connections and if you provide your rough location, they can recommend someone.
