Help!

[Murrdox]

You know you love your animal when you're making "bug juice". Whew gross. Hope I never have to do this.

Good luck to you bunnygirl. I echo those telling you to get a 2nd vet's opinion.

 

[BunnyGirl]

Hello All,
This morning he fell off the top of his cage, I checked him out and nothing appeared broken, and I was late already, but this afternoon I will check him out agian. The problem with force feeding him, Is I cannot get his mouth open. I can only try to squirt some stuff in there when he hisses at me. I have also been mixing some baby food with the water that I mist in his cage, so when he drinks he gets some that way. His eyes seem to be getting worse. Does anyone have any ideas on how to open his mouth?

 

[BunnyGirl]

Hi
I just thought of something, Since he shed around last friday, do you think that is what caused him to slow down, that it just took to much energy to shed?

 

[BunnyGirl]

Sorry!
Dodolah, I looked on the flukers website, Did you mean ReptA Aid? I just want to make sure it is the right product.

 

[codiwatkins]

This is the same exact thing i am presently going through with my cham.......I called the vet who told me he was fne(like yours) she told me if i feel it neccisray i can get his mouth open by lightly pulling down on the little skin flap that puffs up under his chin which will get him to open his mouth. I used a plastic baby spoon to put legless crickets and supers cut in half into his mouth. This morning he actually is awake!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Dont know what others will have to say about this considering that pulling on their skin will probably stress them out....BUT its the only way i could get food into my little guys body

 

[BunnyGirl]

Well Assuming no one says it will hurt him, I will try that later. Your vet atleast helped you out a little bit. It is just so frustrating I have done everything I can think of (and gone broke in the process) and he justseems to have given up. Thank you for the advice though I hope it works!

 

[laurie]

This is the same exact thing i am presently going through with my cham.......I called the vet who told me he was fne(like yours) she told me if i feel it neccisray i can get his mouth open by lightly pulling down on the little skin flap that puffs up under his chin which will get him to open his mouth. I used a plastic baby spoon to put legless crickets and supers cut in half into his mouth. This morning he actually is awake!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Dont know what others will have to say about this considering that pulling on their skin will probably stress them out....BUT its the only way i could get food into my little guys body

This is how my Vet did it and how he told me to open his mouth.

 

[dodolah]

Sorry!
Dodolah, I looked on the flukers website, Did you mean ReptA Aid? I just want to make sure it is the right product.

Ahhh.. Yes you are correct
ReptA Aid.
If you decided to use this, do read on the dosage.
And, becareful not to "squirt" everything at once to avoid asphyxiating your chameleon.

Again, if i were you, I would go to another vet.

Force feeding is very stressful.
So, reserve it for extreme emergency when the benefit outweigh the stress it might induce to your chameleon.

 

[luckykarma]

Repta-Aid Insect/Carnivore

http://www.flukerfarms.com/emergencycriticalcare.aspx

Petco has this at least the one I saw. I would not mix baby food with water for misting as the baby food will spoil and then you have a chance to make it worse.

The main concept here is getting him to a vet. You need to get food into the animal be it any number of methods/mixes offered. Pry its mouth open as suggested. If someone can help one person gently, very gently pulls on the neck flap while the other holds the top of the nose. Chams can be strong and will some will fight. Don't be scared. You're helping the animal. Get the mouth open enough for a syringe.

Be resolute as this stresses the Cham. A sick Cham aready can be weakened if you play around too much pulling and not getting the mouth open. Just be determined. The animal needs food.

I would wash the whole cage and plants to get that baby food out of there that is now spoiling. We all have to experiment while we learn. Don't worry about it.

Again. A vet and medication is most likely the best call right now. Keep us posted.

 

[BunnyGirl]

I got him to eat two good sized mouth fulls! I am trying to find the repta aid, but there is no place in the area that sells it. I am going to have to order it offline, whichs takes alittle while to ship.

 

[JackAttack]

i have to give my sick cham medicine, and i use a guitar pick ( or something like it) and gently put it between his lips at the front of his mouth, GENTLY push a little bit. jack always opens his mouth, and doesnt seem too stressed.

 

[BunnyGirl]

Hello,
Alright, I got more food into his mouth. and he hasn't drank so more pedialyte. He looks alot worse today, his eyes are sunken and he seems weaker, but He did have a small (itty bitty) poop yesterday, so that is good Atleast I know i have gotten food into him.

 

[luckykarma]

Take him to a vet

I'm sorry to harp on this but if the animal isn't responding to food and water then he needs medication. If you wait I'm afraid you're going to lose him.

 

[BunnyGirl]

There are no places open on the weekends around here. I need to wait, and what type of medicine. My vet is actually a very highly recommened herp vet. There was no illness. I think, and so does the vet, that he was stressed so he wasn't eating, then he shed and that just took all his energy.

 

[Chamero]

Can we get some pics of both the cham and his setup. This will help us a lot in our diagnosis. Also whats your lighting schedule and feeding times? Temps? Watering times? Pics pls

 

[BunnyGirl]

I'll get the pics, one minute. Just a warning he is really thin, and not looking good at all.

 

[luckykarma]

I guess the best you can do is not stress the animal out any more. Let him rest with an contact from you. I know the immediate reaction is to nurture and animal except our guys gets stressed when we 'over do' the care. I've been guilty of it.

Its strange the vet didn't even want to do a fecal. Keep the cage misted. Make sure the animal is warm. We'll all cross out fingers.

 

[Dunnigan]

When i first got my female veiled she had a rough transition and would not eat. It got to the point where i found her on the bottom of her cage. I ordered rept-aid from northwestchameleons.com (site sponser) and administered it (along with water) from a needleless syringe for a week. By the end of that week she was doing fine and was eating at 100%

 

[BunnyGirl]

The vet did want to do a fecal, but there was nothing to do a fecal with, he hadn'y pooped until yesterday for two weeks. I just found him on the floor, I put towels on the bottom so if he fell, he wouldn't hurt himself. I put him low on a towel covered branch so he would be steadier. He did have enough energy to raise his head and open his mouth, just so i knew how POed he was at me

 

[dodolah]

Bunny Girl, I think what you can do now is to try to make everything comfortable for him...(make it warm and well hydrated) the coloration and the severe sunken eye does not looked too good at all...
I agree with Gary in avoiding to bug him to much...
I am a bit skeptical if there is anything else you can do... I am sorry...