Ashley
New Member
We had to put our little male Ambanja to sleep on Wednesday.
He'd only been living with us for a few months...maybe 2. When we got him home from the UPS store and out of the box he looked a little rough. A bit dehydrated, one eye worse than the other and he seemed to be favoring it. My first thought was that he had had a rough trip, maybe the box got bounced around a bit.
His cage was all set up so we just stuck him in and started watering him. It took about 2 minutes but he drank and I stopped spraying until he was finished. His eyes seemed to come back out so I thought he was just a little dehydrated. He wouldn't eat though, and through the entire first 2 weeks he would only eat 1 or 2 crickets every few days.
Not wanting to jump to conclusions we just thought he needed to settle in, we gave him a week or 2 to get used to his new cage and get used to the new hours since we live on the opposite coast of where he came from. He would wake at about noon and got to bed at like 11. We noticed as the end of the second week came around that he constantly looked dehydrated despite all that he drank. He would be misted at least 3 times for about 10 min each time by hand and had an auto mister going every hour for 60 seconds. At about that time he stopped eatting and drinking altogether. He also slept for most of the day.
We took him to the vet along with our others to get check-ups and fecals. He wasn't eatting much so I couldn't get a sample and it actually turned out that all my others had parasites (came out of left field) so my vet decided to treat him for parasites since his symptoms were indicative of them. They all got Albon and Alien (the ambanja) got Panacur on top of that since we couldn't tell for sure if it was the same bug if at all. She gave him subcu fluids and told us to mist even more than we had been.
After about 2 days of the treatments I called the vet because he still wouldn't eat and she told me to come get this powdered food called Emeraid to mix and feed him through a syringe about 4 times a day. He seemed to be a little more active after we stared the food so we were hopeful. A few days later he looked dehydrated again.
We took him to the vet again and she gave him more fluids hoping that he just needed some fluids to get him over the hump and because she said the medications could be a cause of it.
The same thing happened about a week later, we took him back along with a fecal which tested negative for any kind of parasites so she decided to stopped the medications. He had also lost 4 grams since the previous visit so the vet decided to prescribe carnivore care powdered food to give 2x a day instead and hopefully put some weight back on, mind you he was only about 7 or 8 months old. She opted to do a blood test suspecting the kidneys weren't doing well. She took blood and gave us Baytril to start until the results came back.
The next day the results show that his uric acid level was 25...way above normal and telling us the that he was for sure in renal failure. She told us that we should keep with the Baytril and keep him hydrated. We were told to mist him 8-10 times a day.
It wasn't helping so we went back to the vet. This time we learned how to give subcu fluids at home so that we could do it every other day in hopes that he might turn around. He had actually gained 3 grams from the last visit so we were kinda hopeful. Over the next 2 weeks we gave the fluids as directed finished the prescription of Baytril and continued to force feed him everyday. She said to bring him back in 2 weeks to check.
We returned with little hope since the fluids didn't make a difference. They seemed to make him want to drink since he did drink a lot but he would sleep for most if not all of the day and still looked dehydrated but getting worse by the day. We took him back for one more possible treatment but I kinda knew in my heart that he was going to come home this time.
We put him on the scale and despite everything he had lost 10 grams, bringing him to 27 grams at 8 months old. The vet told us that we could try this one last thing if we wanted, but we all knew it would make a difference. She felt his abdomen and everything for the most part had atrophied. I couldn't stand to see him like that anymore and decided that his suffereing had to end. The only reason he was alive at that point was because of the fluid and syringe feeding.
It was basically decided that he died of complications due to renal failure. She told me that this had to have begun before he came into my possession because of the severe and rapid deterioration.
The man we bought him from said that it is not his problem; that he wasn't sick when he left and that we should have told him in the first week if we wanted an exchange or refund.... but really. I think a week is a little soon to tell definitively if the cham is that sick or just feeling out of place. I won't bash him too hard, because I would probably try to blame the purchaser too.
I have many other chams who are flourishing...I have owned my first for a little over a year and the cham bug has bitten, so I don't beleive ignorance or malhusbandry is to blame as the vet agreed.
I just thought I would ask if anyone has had a similar experience and how it turned out for them.Sorry this is so long!
He'd only been living with us for a few months...maybe 2. When we got him home from the UPS store and out of the box he looked a little rough. A bit dehydrated, one eye worse than the other and he seemed to be favoring it. My first thought was that he had had a rough trip, maybe the box got bounced around a bit.
His cage was all set up so we just stuck him in and started watering him. It took about 2 minutes but he drank and I stopped spraying until he was finished. His eyes seemed to come back out so I thought he was just a little dehydrated. He wouldn't eat though, and through the entire first 2 weeks he would only eat 1 or 2 crickets every few days.
Not wanting to jump to conclusions we just thought he needed to settle in, we gave him a week or 2 to get used to his new cage and get used to the new hours since we live on the opposite coast of where he came from. He would wake at about noon and got to bed at like 11. We noticed as the end of the second week came around that he constantly looked dehydrated despite all that he drank. He would be misted at least 3 times for about 10 min each time by hand and had an auto mister going every hour for 60 seconds. At about that time he stopped eatting and drinking altogether. He also slept for most of the day.
We took him to the vet along with our others to get check-ups and fecals. He wasn't eatting much so I couldn't get a sample and it actually turned out that all my others had parasites (came out of left field) so my vet decided to treat him for parasites since his symptoms were indicative of them. They all got Albon and Alien (the ambanja) got Panacur on top of that since we couldn't tell for sure if it was the same bug if at all. She gave him subcu fluids and told us to mist even more than we had been.
After about 2 days of the treatments I called the vet because he still wouldn't eat and she told me to come get this powdered food called Emeraid to mix and feed him through a syringe about 4 times a day. He seemed to be a little more active after we stared the food so we were hopeful. A few days later he looked dehydrated again.
We took him to the vet again and she gave him more fluids hoping that he just needed some fluids to get him over the hump and because she said the medications could be a cause of it.
The same thing happened about a week later, we took him back along with a fecal which tested negative for any kind of parasites so she decided to stopped the medications. He had also lost 4 grams since the previous visit so the vet decided to prescribe carnivore care powdered food to give 2x a day instead and hopefully put some weight back on, mind you he was only about 7 or 8 months old. She opted to do a blood test suspecting the kidneys weren't doing well. She took blood and gave us Baytril to start until the results came back.
The next day the results show that his uric acid level was 25...way above normal and telling us the that he was for sure in renal failure. She told us that we should keep with the Baytril and keep him hydrated. We were told to mist him 8-10 times a day.
It wasn't helping so we went back to the vet. This time we learned how to give subcu fluids at home so that we could do it every other day in hopes that he might turn around. He had actually gained 3 grams from the last visit so we were kinda hopeful. Over the next 2 weeks we gave the fluids as directed finished the prescription of Baytril and continued to force feed him everyday. She said to bring him back in 2 weeks to check.
We returned with little hope since the fluids didn't make a difference. They seemed to make him want to drink since he did drink a lot but he would sleep for most if not all of the day and still looked dehydrated but getting worse by the day. We took him back for one more possible treatment but I kinda knew in my heart that he was going to come home this time.
We put him on the scale and despite everything he had lost 10 grams, bringing him to 27 grams at 8 months old. The vet told us that we could try this one last thing if we wanted, but we all knew it would make a difference. She felt his abdomen and everything for the most part had atrophied. I couldn't stand to see him like that anymore and decided that his suffereing had to end. The only reason he was alive at that point was because of the fluid and syringe feeding.
It was basically decided that he died of complications due to renal failure. She told me that this had to have begun before he came into my possession because of the severe and rapid deterioration.
The man we bought him from said that it is not his problem; that he wasn't sick when he left and that we should have told him in the first week if we wanted an exchange or refund.... but really. I think a week is a little soon to tell definitively if the cham is that sick or just feeling out of place. I won't bash him too hard, because I would probably try to blame the purchaser too.
I have many other chams who are flourishing...I have owned my first for a little over a year and the cham bug has bitten, so I don't beleive ignorance or malhusbandry is to blame as the vet agreed.
I just thought I would ask if anyone has had a similar experience and how it turned out for them.Sorry this is so long!
