Help? Rescued Cham with probable follicular stasis

  • Your Chameleon - Harriet is a female veiled chameleon. I've had her for about 2 months now.
  • Handling - daily for the past 2 weeks (to administer liquid calcium)
  • Feeding - she is fed daily a staple diet if 6-10 crickets with wax worms, meal worms, and hornworms substituted for variation. She hasn't eaten anything for the past week and a half. No interest in even the horn worms (her favorite)
  • Supplements - repticalcium with D3 twice a week. Flukes liquid vitamin twice a month. Repticalcium without D3 on all other days
  • Watering - I must by hand 2-3 times a day for 2-3 minutes. I've rarely seen her drink but this week was the only time I've ever seen signs of dehydration
  • Fecal Description - as of this past week her droppings have been mostly white with some of that fun goopy stuff that comes out with it. No black/brown parts but she also hasnt eaten.
  • History - I believe she is a year and a half old although I'm not certain. She was the pet of a family friends child. That's about all I have for her history other than when I got her, her uv bulb had never been changed in her lifetime.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - screen cage. Nit sure of the dimensions? Likely 1x1.5x3 but I'm working on getting her a bigger one. I wasn't totally expecting to take her in.
  • Lighting - I'm sorry, I cant remember what kind I've bought and the boxes are long gone. She has a new uvb bulb and baking lamp now. Lights are on from 7:30am to 7:30pm
  • Temperature - the hotest she can get to stays about 85F and the lowest is 70F. At night, it lowers to 70 in the summer and if we have her through winter, it would then be 65.
  • Humidity - I try to keep it between 30 and 50. Theres a small humidifier next to her enclosure. That plus daily misting keeps it steady
  • Plants - no live plants. All plastic
  • Placement - on a desk in my bedroom, away from any vents or doors. Throughout the day the room stays dark and quiet.
  • Location - midwest United States. Specifically, Illinois

Current Problem - This may be a long one so I'm sorry. I recently acquired two veiled Chameleons (both have the exact same setup) from the same person. One (named Gretchen) seems to be perfectly fine but the other (Harriet) was showing some problems. I noticed she was falling often and would occasionally twitch and tremor. I took both to my vet for a wellness check. One checked out just fine but I brought up my concerns for Harriet. My vet basically went back to do some reading, gave her a calcium shot and gave me some liquid calcium to administer to her 2x daily and we would see what would happen. I didn't get much more info than that. I wasn't too happy with that lol so I found another very, much more experienced with Chams, for a 2nd opinion. Last Monday I took her to see the new vet. By this time, Harriet's appetite had started to decrease. She conducted an ultrasound to check her follicles, and concluded that they were rather large for a cham of her size (about 75g). She recommended doubling the liquid calcium intake daily and a recheck in a week. Today was her recheck. She hasn't eaten in the time since seeing her last. She is still falling often but the tremors seemed to have improved. Upon checking the ultrasound, her follicles haven't changed in size at all. She has lost about 3 grams as well in the past week (72g) As of right now, this vet recommends surgery soon so she doesn't get weaker and predicts a high chance of fatality without the surgery but still only a 50% chance of making it through the surgery because they are so delicate.
I was hoping to get some insight if anyone has been through something similar? Or what would those with more experience do in this situation? Is it worth it to go through with the surgery?

Pics: one is of Harriet outside about 3-4 weeks ago, the other is her right now. She was basking before I bothered her to snap the pic. Her colors are still bright, she just goes brown to get all warm and toasty
 

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So till Jann gets here I will help you out with corrects. Everything will be in red and I will attach some sheets for you
  • Your Chameleon - Harriet is a female veiled chameleon. I've had her for about 2 months now.
  • Handling - daily for the past 2 weeks (to administer liquid calcium)
  • Feeding - she is fed daily a staple diet if 6-10 crickets with wax worms, meal worms, and hornworms substituted for variation. She hasn't eaten anything for the past week and a half. No interest in even the horn worms (her favorite)
  • so you want to take out the mealworms they aren’t have very little nutrients and can lead to impaction later on you also don’t want to give to much wax worms. They are more treats then a stable. Same with hornworms to many can lead to diarrhea
  • Supplements - repticalcium with D3 twice a week. Flukes liquid vitamin twice a month. Repticalcium without D3 on all other days
  • This honestly sounds like way to much d3 going inside her but I will wait and see what Jann says
  • Watering - I must by hand 2-3 times a day for 2-3 minutes. I've rarely seen her drink but this week was the only time I've ever seen signs of dehydration
  • Fecal Description - as of this past week her droppings have been mostly white with some of that fun goopy stuff that comes out with it. No black/brown parts but she also hasnt eaten.
  • Did she get tested for parasites? If not you should get a fecal done
  • History - I believe she is a year and a half old although I'm not certain. She was the pet of a family friends child. That's about all I have for her history other than when I got her, her uv bulb had never been changed in her lifetime.
Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - screen cage. Nit sure of the dimensions? Likely 1x1.5x3 but I'm working on getting her a bigger one. I wasn't totally expecting to take her in.
  • so your going to want to get her a 2x2x4 that bare minimum
  • Lighting - I'm sorry, I cant remember what kind I've bought and the boxes are long gone. She has a new uvb bulb and baking lamp now. Lights are on from 7:30am to 7:30pm
  • so make sure you have a uvb t5ho hood with a 5.0 bulb
  • Temperature - the hotest she can get to stays about 85F and the lowest is 70F. At night, it lowers to 70 in the summer and if we have her through winter, it would then be 65.
  • lowest the chameleon can handle will be 50
  • Humidity - I try to keep it between 30 and 50. Theres a small humidifier next to her enclosure. That plus daily misting keeps it steady
  • you don’t want your humidifier on during the day. Your levels are fine other then that. You also what humidity to go up at night to like 70
  • Plants - no live plants. All plastic
  • adding live plants will help with maintain humanity and veileds tend to put everything in there mouths like babies lol
  • Placement - on a desk in my bedroom, away from any vents or doors. Throughout the day the room stays dark and quiet.
  • Location - midwest United States. Specifically, Illinois
Current Problem - This may be a long one so I'm sorry. I recently acquired two veiled Chameleons (both have the exact same setup) from the same person. One (named Gretchen) seems to be perfectly fine but the other (Harriet) was showing some problems. I noticed she was falling often and would occasionally twitch and tremor. I took both to my vet for a wellness check. One checked out just fine but I brought up my concerns for Harriet. My vet basically went back to do some reading, gave her a calcium shot and gave me some liquid calcium to administer to her 2x daily and we would see what would happen. I didn't get much more info than that. I wasn't too happy with that lol so I found another very, much more experienced with Chams, for a 2nd opinion. Last Monday I took her to see the new vet. By this time, Harriet's appetite had started to decrease. She conducted an ultrasound to check her follicles, and concluded that they were rather large for a cham of her size (about 75g). She recommended doubling the liquid calcium intake daily and a recheck in a week. Today was her recheck. She hasn't eaten in the time since seeing her last. She is still falling often but the tremors seemed to have improved. Upon checking the ultrasound, her follicles haven't changed in size at all. She has lost about 3 grams as well in the past week (72g) As of right now, this vet recommends surgery soon so she doesn't get weaker and predicts a high chance of fatality without the surgery but still only a 50% chance of making it through the surgery because they are so delicate.
I was hoping to get some insight if anyone has been through something similar? Or what would those with more experience do in this situation? Is it worth it to go through with the surgery?

Pics: one is of Harriet outside about 3-4 weeks ago, the other is her right now. She was basking before I bothered her to snap the pic. Her colors are still bright, she just goes brown to get all warm and toasty

I to rescued a female who kinda has the same background as you. I actually had to restimulat her eating reflex. Jann might have more to say. She’s more experienced then i am
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Thank you so much Joxie!!

  • so you want to take out the mealworms they aren’t have very little nutrients and can lead to impaction later on you also don’t want to give to much wax worms. They are more treats then a stable. Same with hornworms to many can lead to diarrhea
I'll be sure to eliminate the meal worms! Anything other than crickets are given once a week. Ex: hornworms on Tuesday of one week. Waxworms on Tuesday of the next. Crickets all other days.

  • This honestly sounds like way to much d3 going inside her but I will wait and see what Jann says
I have no idea but I can definitely cut back! I know before I got her she was only getting the calcium without D3. This was my best guestimation based on what info I could gather.

  • Did she get tested for parasites? If not you should get a fecal done
I don't know that she's ever had one. The second vet tried to (she pooped during the exam) but it was all curates and not enough for her to do much with it. It's been all urates ever since as she hasn't eaten.

  • so your going to want to get her a 2x2x4 that bare minimum


Definitely! I want to have bigger enclosures for both. Those honestly may be the actual dimensions for their current setup. It was my best guess.

  • you don’t want your humidifier on during the day. Your levels are fine other then that. You also what humidity to go up at night to like 70

Is it okay to have it on while I'm home? And increase it at night? It's pretty dry in my room...

  • adding live plants will help with maintain humanity and veileds tend to put everything in there mouths like babies lol

  • I've been looking into getting some live plants! They both already have laying bins at the bottom with a few inches of soil. I've been hesitant because I have a black thumb when it comes to plants lol.
I to rescued a female who kinda has the same background as you. I actually had to restimulat her eating reflex. Jann might have more to say. She’s more experienced then i am

Thank you so much for your help! I'll fix what I can. Right now I'm just concerned on whether I should go through with the op.
 
Thank you so much Jann! This vet has done it successfully before and stated she is comfortable operating on chameleons. Idk how many she's done before. She is one of the main vets for a well known reptile rescue up in Chicago though. She may be the best I can get as of right now but I'll double check on who is around here. My other issue is it needs to be done soon and I have little to no options for taking off of work to drive somewhere.
 
wax worms are fatty and "tough" to digest due to the skin
horn worms are just bags of water. Great for hydration once or twice a week. Same with silkworms, but silkworms come with bonus calcium.
crickets are find for chams growing and can be raise on just them. Once they are "teens" and older its time to start variety to prevent hunger strikes.
Thats alot calcium if just about every feeder gets powdered...
Thats alot of D3 if the bones are already good...
 
Thank you all for all of the advice and support, thoughts and prayers. My little girl has pulled through! The surgery was completed yesterday but they wanted to keep and observe over night. She weighed 75g before the surgery and went down to 55g after they removed her follicles! My poor girl! I'm so excited to get her home.
 
Thank you all for all of the advice and support, thoughts and prayers. My little girl has pulled through! The surgery was completed yesterday but they wanted to keep and observe over night. She weighed 75g before the surgery and went down to 55g after they removed her follicles! My poor girl! I'm so excited to get her home.
Yay!!! I checked this morning to see if you updated...so glad to hear things are going well!!!
 
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