bombadillo2
Member
Scroll down to "Current Problem" for a full description of the problem. Cage info is in the next post because I was getting a max character limit. 
Chameleon Info:
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
Vet situation:
Chameleon Info:
- Your Chameleon -
- The species
- Veiled
- Sex
- Male
- Age of your chameleon
- 1.5 years
- How long has it been in your care
- 1.5 years
- The species
- Handling
- How often do you handle your chameleon?:
- Depends on his mood. Usually 3-4 times a week, some weeks he wants to come out every day some weeks he’s not in the mood all week.
- Handling involves a number of things. Sometimes I’m just transporting him to his free range or somewhere high up in the room (room divider). Sometimes he settles into my hand to get warm and stays for a while. Usually at some points bored and will crawl around. Sometimes he’ll sit on my head.
- How often do you handle your chameleon?:
- Feeding
- What are you feeding your cham?
- Primarily roaches, supplemented with hornworms, wax worms (occasional treat), silkworms when they’re available, I sometimes get mealworms but he doesn’t love them.
- I will give him fruit as snacks occasionally, thin sliced and let him chomp. He doesn't usually go for it.
- Haven’t fed him crickets consistently for a year BUT I wasn’t able to get roaches, and crickets were the only thing available so I got about 20. I’m worried that is what made Miles sick because he was having a field day eating them.
- What amount?
- Til he loses interest (I feed him 1 by 1, or put a few on ceiling; I usually watch him eat. When he stops trying I don’t add more.). Generally he’ll eat 4 medium roaches before he stops caring.
- What is the schedule?
- Most often 2-4 in the morning and a couple evening. Once he stops eating there’s usually one left on the ceiling, or I’ll put one in his feeder cup and he loves sitting there so occasionally I’ll see him snatch a bug a few hours later. I don't always feed him evening but most of the time offer a couple.
- Feeding is 90% free range (but it’s the ceiling, so I’ll usually stick ‘em up there close to him, and he’ll track and shoot as they’re running around or sitting there). I have a hanging feeder cup as well and I’ll drop things in there sometimes. If I’m feeding worms, I do it by hand (either on a leaf -- he’s rather posh), or on the container lid.
- If he’s shedding he rejects food for a few days.
- How are you gut-loading your feeders?
- I made a mix in food processor with carrots, sweet potatoes, bee pollen, orange, and I think kale and a couple other things. I’d have to look the recipe up again since I made a ton and froze it.
- What are you feeding your cham?
- Supplements
- What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
- Calcium daily
- Every other week, calc + Vit D
- Alternating week, Herptavite
- RepCal brand
- What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
- Other
- One note is that if I’ve already dusted insects and Miles doesn’t catch them, when I find them later, I’ll feed them to him without re-dusting them. I also don’t re-gutload them in those cases but as I leave little pieces of fruit in the cage, I assume they’re getting at least a bit. Those bugs aren't the primary source of food so I think that's not a huge problem.
- Watering
- What kind of watering technique do you use?
- ExoTerra Monsoon Solo
- Hand watering
- How often and how long to you mist?
- Unfortunately there are limited timer settings so I do every hour for 2 min, but now that I’m WFH I hand mist a lot too.
- Hand misting: I will heat up water a bit and use a full spray bottle (for hair - half size). 1-2x per day. I do this because he hides from the normal misting sometimes.
- 1-2x/month he showers with me and gets steam and lots of water that bounces off me ~40 min
- Do you see your chameleon drinking?
- I have never seen him drink off a leaf. During misting he keeps his mouth closed. As soon as it’s over he’ll open his mouth to “smack his lips” and drink. So I’ll sometimes spray, wait for him to do that, then spray again. I’ll spray water in his mouth directly if there’s ever a chance.
- Other
- Sometimes I use a reptile conditioner but I haven't been consistent about it. I bought this huge reverse osmosis filter system, only to find out that there is no way to install it in my apartment. So I just ended up using normal water. And I worry sometimes because the water is kind of hard and leaves residue on the glass of the cage sometimes. I read online that it's not too much of a problem but I'm not sure.
- What kind of watering technique do you use?
- Fecal Description
- Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings.
- Miles has always passed first white watery dropping(s), and next dark brown or black dropping(s). It has been a few days since I've seen anything from him. Usually he loves to poop on me… or do it on the floor…. Loves doing it outside his cage. But he does it there too.
- I haven't seen droppings in a few days
- Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
- No
- Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings.
- History
- Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
- He’s had no signs of health problems except recently.
- I had a similar scare to the current one several weeks ago. He was hanging out a lot at the bottom of the cage and I found him laying on the floor one morning (on his belly, not his side). Every day regardless of where he’s slept, heads to the top of the cage, where the sun comes through the window in the morning. So I was quite concerned to see him down there. I also realized that I hadn’t seen him poop and maybe he was constipated or dehydrated and looking for water, so I basically soaked him with water all day by hand. He did see him poop (can’t remember if it was that day or the next day), and the black one looked really big and painful to pass. In fact they were both big/a lot.
- He fell off something pretty high about 1-2 weeks ago, onto hardwood floor. I have a room divider about 5 feet up that he likes to walk on top of and sit on; I usually have some type of towel or pillow but I’d had guests and was doing all the laundry and never put it back. Well he got a bit playful and frisky and for some reason enjoys walking backwards lately… well he lost his grip and fell right on the floor (belly/feet down). He didn’t seem injured at first but at certain times would let one arm rest. I didn’t think much of it because he does this all the time when his other feet have a good grip. By the time it occurred to me to check if it was the same hand every time, he wasn’t really doing it anymore. So I don’t think he’s injured but I’m willing to entertain it as a possibility. His free range tree is in a carpeted room.
- Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
- This morning, Miles was laying on the bottom of the cage ON HIS SIDE. I don’t need to tell you how bad that is.
- A few weeks ago in the morning he was laying on the floor on his belly.
- Both times, he chose to sleep on sticks closer to the bottom of the cage the night before.
- When I picked him up off his side, he was lethargic but alert at the same time. He let me pick him up and didn’t hiss, but his body tensed up and his grip was mighty (encouraging). His eyes were functioning as normal. He stayed in my hand all morning. After a while he seemed more like himself and stretched out a bit, moved his feet to different positions, and wanted to walk around. I let him walk on my hands for a bit and he’s back in his cage now (because typing this one-handed was getting ridiculous).
- I sprayed him with lots of water and saw him gulp a bit. He walked around up there a bit and he’s under his basking lamp now and seems perfectly normal.
- NOTE: I assumed the previous problem was because of dehydration, so I’ve been watering him way more than before the past weeks. Doing a lot more by hand since it seemed he was avoiding the sprayer. So I’m not really sure if that’s the issue this time. He was so excited about the crickets, he ate tons; maybe he ate too much or there’s something wrong with them?
Vet situation:
- Because of Covid I’m having serious issues finding a vet today. Even the hospitals that care for reptiles keep telling me they don’t have reptile docs on site today or anytime soon. I found a place that supposedly has someone on for a short time at 3pm today, so I plan to bring him into urgent care for that doc.
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