dinomom
Chameleon Enthusiast
So sad to say that my little kinyongia boehmei passed away a couple of weeks ago. I did not want to post until I knew a little more.
Of course he passed on a Friday so I could not send him on ice, had to put into Formalin which meant they could identify presence of bacteria but not what type.
Final report from CA Animal Health & Food Safety Lab (CAHFS) is stomatitis and bacterial enteritis, the first which I expected based on his symptoms. He was literally eating the day before he died; on the last day I found him pale with eyes closed and examined the mouth which contained blood.
One always wants to know what happened in order to prevent it in the future. The only thing I can point to is about a month before there was a 4 day period where his air circulation fans were not going before I noticed it. This could have caused increased humidity and slightly increased warmth.
I knew he would be challenging, as a montane and very small species. When I "rescued" him from Petco I told myself if I could keep him healthy for a minimum of a year it was probably much better than he would have otherwise fared in a standard chameleon kit. He was in my care for a year and a half, and was at least 6 months old when I got him so he was geriatric and it is possible his immune system just failed.
My lesson going forward that we should all do is to examine the mouth once a month. Dale T showed me how to do this surprisingly easily with my meller's; turn them over on their back, brace your nondominant thumb against the nose, and gently
pull on the gular with the other hand to ease the mouth open. Pellinore
will tolerate quite a good look and if he starts to bite down I reposition to hold it open better. I am doing this on the first of every month. Have not attempted on veiled yet
I miss this little beast so much, I still speak to him every time I pass the cage. I do rest better knowing I did everything literally in my power to give him the best life I possibly could and I hope he knew it.
Of course he passed on a Friday so I could not send him on ice, had to put into Formalin which meant they could identify presence of bacteria but not what type.
Final report from CA Animal Health & Food Safety Lab (CAHFS) is stomatitis and bacterial enteritis, the first which I expected based on his symptoms. He was literally eating the day before he died; on the last day I found him pale with eyes closed and examined the mouth which contained blood.
One always wants to know what happened in order to prevent it in the future. The only thing I can point to is about a month before there was a 4 day period where his air circulation fans were not going before I noticed it. This could have caused increased humidity and slightly increased warmth.
I knew he would be challenging, as a montane and very small species. When I "rescued" him from Petco I told myself if I could keep him healthy for a minimum of a year it was probably much better than he would have otherwise fared in a standard chameleon kit. He was in my care for a year and a half, and was at least 6 months old when I got him so he was geriatric and it is possible his immune system just failed.
My lesson going forward that we should all do is to examine the mouth once a month. Dale T showed me how to do this surprisingly easily with my meller's; turn them over on their back, brace your nondominant thumb against the nose, and gently
pull on the gular with the other hand to ease the mouth open. Pellinore
will tolerate quite a good look and if he starts to bite down I reposition to hold it open better. I am doing this on the first of every month. Have not attempted on veiled yet
I miss this little beast so much, I still speak to him every time I pass the cage. I do rest better knowing I did everything literally in my power to give him the best life I possibly could and I hope he knew it.
at least he had the best 1.5 year he could get, I had that exact same feeling when I saw Ranjo and the worst part is he´s at that same age Elliot was and the Boehmei´s from 
thank you for sharing what you learned with us!
