Impaction

[Jam]

The Hermie drama continues...

I noticed on thursday that Hermie went to bed a little early for him, and figured that I better keep an eye on him. The next morning he got up and moved under his basking light so I left for school. Came back in the evening to find him in the exact same spot (very unusual for him), no food missing (also unusual), with both eyes closed (not good) and doing the same buldgy thing with his eye sockets that he was doing with his kidney infection. I was able to get ahold of his vet right before they closed and rushed him in. I thought that it was another kidney infection (or the same one?), but his blood work all came back fine ... good kidney values, good liver values, normal WBC, etc. So we took an xray and the vet said that it looks like he has an impaction. <sigh>. The good news is that he thinks we caught it early and it isn't very big. So he sent me home with this lactone stuff (oil) and "carnivore care" food (it's a powder that you mix with water to make a soup) to give him with a syringe+tube.

He's acting good today ... attempting to get out of his cage the little snot.

On the plus side his bones look better than they EVER have since he broke them. I couldn't believe that it was his xray when I saw it! After just 6 weeks of being on vitamin D injections with a higher dose of calcium his bones look almost normal again (bone density wise).

 

[Will Hayward]

Glad to hear you could remedy this so fast, best of luck on the road of recovery. Ill be looking up what this stuff is later as im curious because I havent heard of "carnivore care".

Would you mind sharing Hermies diet?

 

[Jam]

The carnivore care says that it's "A nutritionally complete assisted-feeding formula for convalescing carnivores." It's made by the Hay Oxbrow company. Their ph # is 800 249 0366. It says that "highly digestable protein sources make carnivore care an ideal choice when providing supplemental nutrition to carnivores. Whether an animal's lack of appetite is a result of illness, post surgical recovery or pain, nutrition plays an important role in the recovery program."

Normally Hermie eats silkworms, and that's about all he'll eat. He's too slow/lazy to eat crickets. He'll see one and you can see they "hey ... I'm hungry ... I want it ... oh ... oh ... oh there it goes..." look on his face as he watches it walk away. GRR! But he's been eating cricket's this week, because I ran out of silkworms, and my eggs didn't hatch in time to grow them up enough for him. I imagine that crickets might be more difficult to digest?

His hot spot in the cage is 110* (low = 75) and I keep my apartment set at 75 for my reptiles so I don't *think* it was a lack of heat issue.

Hopefully he poops soon. The vet said he was pretty sure we'd be ok, and that he'd give hermie a week before he started getting really concerned, unless he started looking bloated or getting worse.

He just spent the last 30 min. trying to get out of his cage though, so he must be feeling some what better.

 

[kinyonga]

Did the vet give you any advice on what to do to get him pooping?

Have you tried giving him a warm bath (not too warm, you don't want to burn him)?

Did he recommend giving him anything that would help the feces move through him?

Do you have substrate in your cage or soil in your plants that he could have ingested?

Was a fecal done re: parasites?

Hydration is very important when you are trying to get him to poop too.

Hope he gets through this okay and has no more problems!

Have you made whatever corrections to your husbandry were needed to ensure that he doesn't develop bone problems again?

 

[Jam]

The vet gave me lactone for him which is like a lubricant. He said not to be surprised if Hermie gets very loose stool from it. He is also having me make up the carnivore care with extra water to make sure that he gets more, and I have a bag of fluids and know how to give him subq fluids if need be ... we were just trying to stress him out as little as possible. If he hasn't pooped by tomorrow I'm planning on giving him a warm bath (thought I doubt that he'll like it lol).

After talking with people, I think that he got MBD because I grew him too quickly -- offered him unlimited amounts of food, because I had a UVB blub (reptisun 8.0) and changed it every 3 months, gut loaded his crickets, dusted them wtih calcium everyday and reptivite everyother day ... so we couldn't really figure it out.

He has been checked for parasites and is normal and there is no substrate in his enclosure. I have a plastic liner in his screen caged and the cage is slightly tilted so taht the water runs to the front from his dripper and mistings and comes out through a hole into a bucket. I go in once a week and clean out all of the poops by hand from it.

 

[kinyonga]

Does reptivite contain preformed vitamin A?
Does your lizard ever get direct sun or do you ever dust the insects with a D3/calcium powder?
Is the calcium powder phosphorous-free?

I have heard of chameleons developing MBD from growing too fast, but vitamin A and phosphorous and calcium and D3 all have to be in balance too. Temperature must be appropriate to allow proper digestion too.

 

[Jam]

The reptivite does contain vitamin A and I dusted his crickets with Reptical with both calcium and vitamin D3 ... I live in MI and I got him in November, and it was marchish I think when he broke his legs, so he never had access to direct sunlight with me.

I use a digital probe to monitor the temps in his cage and the hot end is 110+ and the cool end is 70-75. from what I've read those are good cage temperatures?

 

[kinyonga]

I know reptivite contains vitamin A....if its from a beta carotene source, it won't build up in the system. If its from a preformed source, it can.

I asked if the calcium powder phosphorous-free...but you didn't say.

I asked about the vitamin A being preformed or not and the calcium being phos-free because phosphorous, calcium D3 and vitamin A all play a part in bone health and need to be in balance to have good bones....so if they were out of balance it might not be just the rapid growth that caused the bones to be weak enough to break.

Here are some sites/articles that you might like to read...
http://www.chameleonjournals.com/vet/index.php?show=5.Vitamin.A.html
http://www.chameleonjournals.com/vet/index.php?show=6.Vitamin.D3.and.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/skintests.htm

 

[Frank Castle]

A little off the topic, Dont mean to Hi-jake the thread, but Jam do you have a story of "Hermie" anywhere. Are you keeping a journal of all his endevours. I (as well as others I think) would love to read them. Thanks again.

Frank

 

[Jam]

Sorry, I was sick this weekend and obviously it affected my abilities to read and comprehend properly.

The reptivit's vitamin A just says "vitamine A (acetate)" so I do now know if it's synthetic or not. There is an expiration date on the bottle and I was very careful about not using "expired" supplements, but I don't know how accurate those dates are.

The repcal has vitamin D3 in it but is phosphorus FREE.

Again, I apologize!

 

[Jam]

frank --

"hermie" has a website: www.xanga.com/hermanthechameleon that he updates as time permits (and whenever he can escape from his cage). It's his point of view on some of the happenings in his life.