My baby veiled chameleon. Help

[Haileybug]

I took my baby (female) veiled chameleon to the vet yesterday bc I noticed a change in her behavior and that she kept twitching her back legs then falling the vet told me that she has metallic bone disease Me all of her legs are broken also that I will have to serenge feed her emeroild calcium for a few weeks but camille (my chameleon ) refuses to open her mouth so I gently hold her jaw and lightly Squeez then work the syringe in easy and then I feed her then I open her mouth again and give her water. Is there an easier way to do this bc I'm scared I'll hurt her jaw.

 

[charlotteclaraschameleon]

Did your vet give her calcium shots?

 

[Haileybug]

Did your vet give her calcium shots?

No she didn't all she did was give me emeroild calcium to feel her thro a syringe even that I find very hard to do they didn't even wrap casts on her legs

 

[BabyChamCham]

No she didn't all she did was give me emeroild calcium to feel her thro a syringe even that I find very hard to do they didn't even wrap casts on her legs

I Don't think chameleons have casts...

 

[Haileybug]

I Don't think chameleons have casts...

Well I'm not going to say you're wrong bc I'm not sure but I know sometimes they do get their legs wrapped I've had pet stores ask me why she didn't have casts on but I'm not really sure I go to west side vet they're closed until Tuesday I wanted to ask them about that etc but camilles legs (my baby veiled) all the bones are shattered from mbd and from falling from her vines and trees. To me I'm not to sure how her legs are suppose to heal at all without them being wrapped bc she keeps walking on them or she tries that wouldn't make them worse or cause them not to heal ?

 

[Nursemaia]

I highly recommend that you fIll out the how to ask for help form and check out the care sheets on veiled chameleons so we can help you fix your husbandry and get your girl back onto the road to recovery.

 

[Haileybug]

I Don't think chameleons have casts...

Where

I highly recommend that you fIll out the how to ask for help form and check out the care sheets on veiled chameleons so we can help you fix your husbandry and get your girl back onto the road to recovery.

is that form ? And thank you

 

[BabyChamCham]

Well I'm not going to say you're wrong bc I'm not sure but I know sometimes they do get their legs wrapped I've had pet stores ask me why she didn't have casts on but I'm not really sure I go to west side vet they're closed until Tuesday I wanted to ask them about that etc but camilles legs (my baby veiled) all the bones are shattered from mbd and from falling from her vines and trees. To me I'm not to sure how her legs are suppose to heal at all without them being wrapped bc she keeps walking on them or she tries that wouldn't make them worse or cause them not to heal ?

How else do you think they heal in the wild?

 

[Nursemaia]

Here's the veiled care sheet

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/

 

[Nursemaia]

Here's how to ask for help

https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/

 

[Virgil1972]

How else do you think they heal in the wild?

Most animals in the wild with severe injures like broken bones die by being eaten by something or starving to death. Nature is the biggest serial killer in history.

 

[Haileybug]

Sp

Most animals in the wild with severe injures like broken bones die by being eaten by something or starving to death. Nature is the biggest serial killer in history.

I should open her terrarium and eat her ? She's in captivity I'll do the best I can to assure her regain in health.

 

[Virgil1972]

Sp

I should open her terrarium and eat her ? She's in captivity I'll do the best I can to assure her regain in health.

You should call a few different vets and see what they would do with your cham. Second opinions are never a bad thing.

 

[charlotteclaraschameleon]

Alrighty, a few different insights, the first being the "cast" situation - no, of course they don't make casts for chameleons, BUT you can finagle one for her yourself. One of my lil guys was a SEVERE MBD rescue, who has almost made a complete recovery. It was killing me seeing him struggle (painfully) trying to use his bendy broken arms so I made him a cast MYSELF. Take a drinking straw and cut it to be the length you need, then cut a slit down the middle of that and VERY carefully put that around your baby's broken appendage and then wrap with a small piece of tape so it's on there snug but not TOO snug. It seems silly but it actually worked WONDERS for mine, the support of the straw made it so he was able to climb easier, and healed faster (my vet even applauded my method) - BE VERY CAREFUL though when placing it on her arm, you don't want to make it worse.

Secondly.. WHY oh WHYYYYYY did your vet not give him a calcium shot I'm wondering?? This is the quickest and best way to get a boost of calcium back into his system, I would strongly advise you call a different vet and tell them you have an MBD rescue and he needs a calcium shot ASAP. My vet dosed up my boy when I first rescued him, and gave me 6 syringes of calcium to give him a shot in his front arm myself every day for a week - this is ESSENTIAL for your baby girl, from the pictures it looks like pretty advanced MBD and she needs to be treated ASAP (I really think you should be seeing a different vet - what area do you live in?)

Thirdly, once on the road to recovery (get her some calcium shots by a vet pronto!!!) have her in the natural sunlight as MUCH as possible, this will be the biggest help in her healing process. She looks very weak so I would recommend just moving her whole cage into the sun as opposed to trying to handle her and potentially hurting her more.

 

[charlotteclaraschameleon]

Fourth - force feeding via syringe should be a last resort as you can really hurt their jaws even if you're being super delicate - the calcium shots are the way to go !!

 

[Haileybug]

I've had a lot of people ask me why she wasn't administered a calcium shot, I do plan on calling west side vet when they open tomorrow as well as any other places that open, I've moved her terrarium in direct sunlight and I've been taking her outside, thank you for cast suggestion, I hope it works well with my chameleon, and if you could go into further details about the cast and just message me that would be great.

As far as feeding her, I don't like using the syringe for many reasons. I don't want to hurt her or her jaw in any way. She still won't eat crickets or anything else, she eont open her mouth unless I do it myself. So as of now I've just been syringe feeding her as well as making sure she gets the water she needs

 

[Remkon]

I've moved her terrarium in direct sunlight

if its an inside terrarium that you moved behind the window you may not want to do this.
UV doesn't penetrate the glass but the sunlight will warm up the terrarium so it may get to warm.

I'm no vet but if the legs are broken so easily that's a sign of lack in D3 (from UV-light), you may want to rethink your UV-lighting... Lack of calcium would cause bones to become curved.
D3 softens the bone, calcium strengthens the bone, at least that's what I've been told.

 

[cyberlocc]

I've had a lot of people ask me why she wasn't administered a calcium shot, I do plan on calling west side vet when they open tomorrow as well as any other places that open, I've moved her terrarium in direct sunlight and I've been taking her outside, thank you for cast suggestion, I hope it works well with my chameleon, and if you could go into further details about the cast and just message me that would be great.

As far as feeding her, I don't like using the syringe for many reasons. I don't want to hurt her or her jaw in any way. She still won't eat crickets or anything else, she eont open her mouth unless I do it myself. So as of now I've just been syringe feeding her as well as making sure she gets the water she needs

Why did you make 2 threads about this, and why did you move her by a window, when you were already told that is not going to work?!

Why did you not already call a reptile vet? All of this stuff that is gone over in this thread was told to you yesterday. So this is how it is being handled? Make more threads saying the same things and being given the same advice to ignore it again?

We should be hearing, I called a reptile vet, I bought a UVB light, I administered her medicine. Instead we hear, I did nothing you said and even did some things you said not to, WOW.

This is why I stay away from Veiled threads!

(Edit forgot it was 4th of July, you are semi excused on the vet thing. I am sure there is still emergency vets). However Petco is open and they have UVB lights!

However there again I see you liked the MBD post by ferret on Saturday, so since at least saturday you have known you need a UVB light, and yet YOU STILL DONT HAVE ONE!.