Jackson died suddenly need answers

[chameliojacksoni]

So basically I've had my jackson for about a years. He's been very healthy. Always would eat his crickets. I fed him 3-6 crickets every other day. He was misted in 4 minute incriminates with a mist king misting system. My lighting was t5 zoomed UVB and use reguLar incandescent light bulbs for heat.

So basically Sunday I noticed Normans cheek looked puffy on one side after a shed so I made it a point to keep an eye on him. So Monday morning I wakeup to Norman sleeping on the floor of his cage. So I instructed my gf to check on him when the lights came on to see if he would climb back up his branches. When the lights turned on Norman started climbing around
But his eyes wouldn't open. So we immediately called the vet and they said to try and flush his eye and set up an appointment for today. When I woke up this morning I found that Norman was on his side on the bottom of the cage dead. I'm very distraught as I had a very strong bond with this little guy. I'm wondering if I had done something wrong or if anyone has heard of something like this happens it was so sudden he went from normal to dead in two days any input would be so appreciated I don't wanna make the same mistake twice.

The attached picture was from Saturday he normally isn't black like that just when I first pick him up I believe that's his stress colors

 

[chameliojacksoni]

Your Chameleon - Jackson,male,11 months
Handling - He is handled once a week if that.
Feeding - he eats 3-6 crickets every other day. Crickets at gut loaded with calcium blocks and fruit.
Supplements - I do a calcium Dusting twice a week and a multi vitamin once a month.
Watering - I use a mistking mister on a timer he's misted for about 4 minutes each cycle and it's every 3 hours. He usually drinks every time it goes off.
Fecal Description - it's a darker color consistency is hard. The mister makes it soft I clean it out daily.
History - he went to the vet 6 months ago and had a clean bill of health no parasites fecel test done.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - not sure the exact dimension but it's an XL repti breeze screen enclosure.
Lighting - I use the t5 5.0 UVB Florecent strip light and one incandescent for heat.
Temperature - The gradients range from 88 at the top to 76ish at the lower portion of the cage. I use a hygrotherm to measure and control heat humidity he's on a 12 hour cycle.
Humidity - 76%-85% in the mornin he gets a 10 minute off when the lights come on then a mistking system is used for humidity. Hygrotherm measures humidity.
Plants - none
Placement - His cage is against a wall on the back on a stand with the lights about 6" from the ceiling .

 

[codiwatkins]

As far as I can see everything looks fine with you husbandry. It appears as though you had taken all steps to ensure that you had a healthy well cared for chameleon. I feed my Cham every day instead of every other day but your guy doesn't look malnourished in the picture, so it's probably safe to assume the every other day schedule suited him fine. Any chance the bump could be a spider bite? I'm really sorry for your lose. Hopefully someone with more Jackson experience can chime on and help out.

 

[MelissaB]

Sometimes Jackson Chameleons will get a temporal gland infection. The glands are on either corner of their mouth. If he got an infection, they can go downhill pretty fast, before you even realize something is wrong.

 

[Lathis]

Ditto - nothing jumps out in your care... I can think of only two things: outside cause like a spider bite as mentioned above or a hidden infection that suddenly flared up.

Chameleons are notorious for hiding illnesses until it is very critical. Last year, I had some issues with my Jax in exactly the same place. Nothing really obvious, but I really felt like something was wrong... Clean bill of health from the vet... Then one day, his jaw swelled up like a balloon. The poor little guy had been fighting a nasty temporal gland infection for months with no real symptoms until suddenly he was very sick.

This might help:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/pouty-lip-poor-muscle-tension-lower-jaw-jacksons-cham-109074/

I'm really sorry you lost your little guy. It sounds like you did everything right, but I'm sure that's no comfort.

 

[Psychobunny]

Oh no!! I'm so sorry

As already said, chams can hide an illness, often, until it is to late!!

I have experienced sudden death in 2 of my chams.
Either of them gave any sign or warning.

When they do get sick, it seems they go downhill and die very quickly.

Don't blame yourself, you were doing everything right. There is nothing in your husbandry that could have caused sudden death, and he may have been sick for a long time. You just didn't realize it

 

[laurie]

i am really sorry to hear you lost your jackson. Building that bond you had, is a part of owning and watching the fascinating chams as the grow. It always pulls at my heart strings to lose one of my chams.

Something I wonder about, this has nothing to do with why he died, but if you had no plants in his cage what did he climb on? Also, you didn't use substrate did you? Just trying to fill out the picture in my mind.

 

[chameliojacksoni]

I meant no live plants! I used like the benda vines as those leafy vines and made tees magnetic rods that crossed all over the cage so he could get different temps easier. And no I just used a piece of phenolic with small holes in it to allow for drainage. I appreciate the respones deffinatly a hard thing he was my first chameleon and also the firt death I've had from any of t reptiles so it's hard. But I just wanted to touch base to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong before I decided to find another Cham