injecting oxytocin - help

[ferretinmyshoes]

Also it's a good thing you love food, your car, and having electricity so much or the grocery stores, mechanics, and electric companies would be out of business. You can say that about any expenses you have in life. When you take responsibility for an animal you should expect to have additional expenditures, the same as when you get a new car, a bigger house, etc. We're so lucky you have such dedication to your life or else society would break down from everyone being out of a job.

 

[jandie]

i am absolutely amazed and mortified reading this thread. i can't understand how anyone (even if you were just trying to be supportive) could say there's an obvious "love" for this cham when the owner is suggesting DIY surgery with no sedative or pain medication, an immediate statement of basically cheap methods of "aborting" and concern about her being infertile after the fact!

i agree with the new home and rescue suggestions! seriously, i don't "humanize" my "pets" so much that i would consider it the same as performing surgery on a human (though the analogy was good)....but to even consider some of these "alternatives" on a living thing that feels pain and can suffer....that mortifies me. and i second the notion of "why would you wait a month?" props for at least going to a vet....whether "exotic" or not.....but just wow...

 

[Elizadolots]

Thanks for the responses. I took everyone's suggestion and took her to a cheaper vet, who only works with cats and dogs. The vet agreed she was bloated but he said he could not feel any eggs. He checked her for parasites, none. He gave me a antibiotic to give her orally, as the inflamation could be a bacterial infection. Just to be safe, he did inject her in her back with oxytocin, calcium, and vitamins to see if she passes anything. It's been several hours and she hasn't laid any eggs and she's still not moving. I have her on wood chips and left her alone.

I do find it interesting though how the price you pay at a vet is always more than the price to just buy a new healthy animal. If people weren't so attached to their animals, vets wouldn't have a job.

By the way, I got a quote to have a c-section performed, $700-$1000. And, there's a good chance after the surgery that the cham would remain infertile.

Regardless of the pet, it's often true that the vet bills will far exceed the cost of the pet. I once paid over $6,000 for spinal surgery on a dog I'd paid less than $200 for...I frequently joke that vets should give puppies away because they'll more than make up the cost in the first year of "shots".

Given the situation as reported, the chameleon being infertile afterwards is not a bad result. At least if she can't produce eggs, she can't become eggbound again...just something to consider.

 

[nicholas]

props for at least going to a vet....whether "exotic" or not.....but just wow...

Yeah it was a pretty quick decision on their part to get their cham to the vet after asking all those DIY questions.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

If your cham hasn't passed any eggs yet she probably won't at all. In the 4 weeks that she's been sitting there eggbound she's been putting layers of calcium on the shells because that's a physiological response to having unlaid eggs and by now they're probably thickened and hardened where it's physically impossible for her to lay them, especially because she probably wasn't in the best health before this happened eating only superworms. By now she's probably sucked most of the calcium out of her bones for her eggs and even if she did lay them will have metabolic bone disease, if she didn't already. A reptile acting sick and not moving with possible eggs that are stuck for that long, even a single egg (making it harder to feel - should have done xrays) constitutes an emergency and probably should have gone straight to surgery.

For what's it worth, I hope she survives and you consider giving her to someone able to take full responsibility for her health. But I don't think her chances are good...

 

[captainschameleons]

I know this OP is probably trying to do their best on their limited budget but I am beyond flabbergasted that someone would think they could preform a surgery themselves on their pet of any kind by following information they thought they would receive on a post to a forum of people that for the most part are not vets and think that everything will end up ok with no proper medical supplies on their kitchen table. WTF!!!


This is the PRECISE reason we don’t discount our Chams and make sure we are available for questions as most breeders do. I’m sorry but if you’re budgeting just to buy the animal. You can’t afford everything you need for proper husbandry. Buying the animal is a fraction of what it’s going to cost you over time. Which means it most likely will have issues at some point and if you couldn’t afford the proper husbandry you definitely can’t afford the vet bill. Not saying it was bought at a box store but this is why they should not be allowed to sell them at box stores. I saw a post and went into a PetSmart today on 17th in Santa Ana and they had a probably 3 month old veiled in an all glass enclosure with a few branches and a big bowl of water made to look like a rock. They may be misting etc but the person that buys the animal is going to likely mimic the setup they saw in the store and buy th $200 horribly insufficient chameleon kit and that animal is going to die within the year.

Sorry for the long post but this really bothered me and as a breeder is my worst nightmare sending someone home with one of my Panthers.

 

[JacksJill]

I get why this bothers you. Just so you know this thread is from 2010. Your point is still relevant.