Please help, concerning movement and behavior!!

[brainsnbikes35]

Our little guy (baby veiled Cham, got him Wednesday) isn’t doing so well and we have no idea what to do. It’s our first Cham so we are so nervous… Over the last 1.5 days he has become more lethargic, and he has been closing one eye occasionally. Most concerning of all, he had an episode of “wretching” (throwing up but nothing came out) last night. Luckily we set up a pet cam and got it on video, I have attached screenshots from the video and his posture below. He has been sitting with his head low, under the branch that he sits on.

Our setup is as described in the group guides - reptibreeze XL, basking branch temp 80-83/ambient temp low to mid 70s, t5 24” light 12% UVB… for feeding we have been offering small dubias and crickets dusted in calcium without D3, but he hasn’t eaten much in the last few days. We offered crickets dusted with repashy calcium + loD today, but he hasn’t eaten.

The only thing we can think of that could possibly be wrong is that he did have a cricket that may have been slightly too big for him yesterday. It escaped out of the cricket cage and into his cage and he ate it.

We are afraid to take him to the vet because the handing would be so stressful for him and he’s so small. But we have no idea what to do and are worried sick about him.

 

[Fchamel]

Hi, I'm so sorry this is happening to your chameleon. Definitely concerning symptoms. Did you get it from Petco or PetSmart? They do not provide the right care to their animals, therefore they can be sick before someone buys them. My guess would be parasites. In my opinion, the vet is probably your best option. They can do a parasite test for you. But, I will send some other users to help first.

@MissSkittles @Beman

 

[brainsnbikes35]

Hi, I'm so sorry this is happening to your chameleon. Definitely concerning symptoms. Did you get it from Petco or PetSmart? They do not provide the right care to their animals, therefore they can be sick before someone buys them. My guess would be parasites. In my opinion, the vet is probably your best option. They can do a parasite test for you. But, I will send some other users to help first.

@MissSkittles @Beman

We ordered him from lllreptiles. Which in hindsight we have heard mixed results about their reputation.

 

[Beman]

Our little guy (baby veiled Cham, got him Wednesday) isn’t doing so well and we have no idea what to do. It’s our first Cham so we are so nervous… Over the last 1.5 days he has become more lethargic, and he has been closing one eye occasionally. Most concerning of all, he had an episode of “wretching” (throwing up but nothing came out) last night. Luckily we set up a pet cam and got it on video, I have attached screenshots from the video and his posture below. He has been sitting with his head low, under the branch that he sits on. Has he been pointing his nose up at all?

Our setup is as described in the group guides - reptibreeze XL, basking branch temp 80-83/ambient temp low to mid make sure temp at branch is no hotter then 80 with a wired temp probe and gauge.70s, t5 24” light 12% UVB Is this a single bulb fixture or multibulb. IF single it should have a full 12 inches between the branch and the bottom of the fixture. Otherwise he is being over exposed to much too high levels of UVB. … for feeding we have been offering small How big are they compared to baby? LLL reptiles likes to ship babies that are much too young. So they would need smaller feeders. dubias and crickets dusted in calcium without D3, but he hasn’t eaten much in the last few days. We offered crickets dusted with repashy calcium + loD today, but he hasn’t eaten.

The only thing we can think of that could possibly be wrong is that he did have a cricket that may have been slightly too big for him yesterday. It escaped out of the cricket cage and into his cage and he ate it.

We are afraid to take him to the vet because the handing would be so stressful for him and he’s so small. But we have no idea what to do and are worried sick about him.You need to get a fecal sample into the vet and rule out a parasite issue. This is extremely important due to where you purchased it from.

Have you done a full husbandry review?

 

[CrisBruns]

Eyes may look a little sunken. Have you seen the baby licking leaves? Are there ample leaves for water to collect? Chams do not drink from a bowl. Noted behavior could be gaping from being too hot.

 

[brainsnbikes35]

Our little guy (baby veiled Cham, got him Wednesday) isn’t doing so well and we have no idea what to do. It’s our first Cham so we are so nervous… Over the last 1.5 days he has become more lethargic, and he has been closing one eye occasionally. Most concerning of all, he had an episode of “wretching” (throwing up but nothing came out) last night. Luckily we set up a pet cam and got it on video, I have attached screenshots from the video and his posture below. He has been sitting with his head low, under the branch that he sits on. Has he been pointing his nose up at all?

Our setup is as described in the group guides - reptibreeze XL, basking branch temp 80-83/ambient temp low to mid make sure temp at branch is no hotter then 80 with a wired temp probe and gauge.70s, t5 24” light 12% UVB Is this a single bulb fixture or multibulb. IF single it should have a full 12 inches between the branch and the bottom of the fixture. Otherwise he is being over exposed to much too high levels of UVB. … for feeding we have been offering small How big are they compared to baby? LLL reptiles likes to ship babies that are much too young. So they would need smaller feeders. dubias and crickets dusted in calcium without D3, but he hasn’t eaten much in the last few days. We offered crickets dusted with repashy calcium + loD today, but he hasn’t eaten.

The only thing we can think of that could possibly be wrong is that he did have a cricket that may have been slightly too big for him yesterday. It escaped out of the cricket cage and into his cage and he ate it.

We are afraid to take him to the vet because the handing would be so stressful for him and he’s so small. But we have no idea what to do and are worried sick about him.You need to get a fecal sample into the vet and rule out a parasite issue. This is extremely important due to where you purchased it from.

Have you done a full husbandry review?

Has he been pointing his nose up at all?
He will occasionally raise his nose while investigating his cage/surroundings but not for long durations of time.

IF single it should have a full 12 inches between the branch and the bottom of the fixture. Otherwise he is being over exposed to much too high levels of UVB.
It is single bulb but >12inches from the nearest branch.

How big are they compared to baby?
All of them have been smaller than the width of his head except for the one that he ate yesterday that was just larger than that distance.
He has only been eating 2-3 crickets a day, but we have been told multiple times that this is normal during their first week in a new environment.

You need to get a fecal sample into the vet and rule out a parasite issue.
We have an appointment for today at 6 pm.

Have you done a full husbandry review?
Not yet could you provide the questions?

 

[brainsnbikes35]

Eyes may look a little sunken. Have you seen the baby licking leaves? Are there ample leaves for water to collect? Chams do not drink from a bowl. Noted behavior could be gaping from being too hot

Have you seen the baby licking leaves?
Two days ago he drank plenty of water and we witnessed plenty of leaf licking.

Are there ample leaves for water to collect?
There is a pothos and large cane tree where water collects after misting and from the dripper.

We mist 2x per day for 2 mins and then some supplemental bursts throughout the day. We live in Ohio where it is extremely dry right now so we are doing our best to keep humidity in the upper 40% range, based on the gage in the cage.

We also have a continuous dripper for him to get water from.

 

[SerpeRoma]

We ordered him from lllreptiles. Which in hindsight we have heard mixed results about their reputation.

I got a high piebald from them a month ago, turned out having a Respiratory Infection. My vet told me that she gets a lot of chams that just came out from lllreptile with all kinds of disease and the breeder who sells to them also sells to Petco.. please go see a vet before it gets worse!

 

[brainsnbikes35]

I got a high piebald from them a month ago, turned out having a Respiratory Infection. My vet told me that she gets a lot of chams that just came out from lllreptile with all kinds of disease and the breeder who sells to them also sells to Petco.. please go see a vet before it gets worse!

We are seeing one tonight, thank you!

 

[Beman]

Hopefully you can take a fecal in with you. Please make sure this vet knows reptiles really well. If they do not they can cause harm rather than help.

 

[brainsnbikes35]

Hopefully you can take a fecal in with you. Please make sure this vet knows reptiles really well. If they do not they can cause harm rather than help.

We are going to a reptile specialist in our area and have already collected 3 fecal samples to give them during our visit.

 

[CrisBruns]

Keep us posted! Glad you are here.

 

[CrisBruns]

I got a high piebald from them a month ago, turned out having a Respiratory Infection. My vet told me that she gets a lot of chams that just came out from lllreptile with all kinds of disease and the breeder who sells to them also sells to Petco.. please go see a vet before it gets worse!

Glad you are here. Hope your baby is doing better!

 

[Lindasjackson]

Any update? What did the vet say?

 

[brainsnbikes35]

UPDATE!

We took Kahlo to the vet last night. He weighs 3 grams, the smallest animal (in weight) our vet has seen. Our vet thinks it is the early stages of an URI. So we were given an antibiotic and, because he is so small, she wants us to raise the ambient temperatures (not under the basking branch) a little bit in the rest of the cage and at night to help with his thermoregulation.

But, he looks great this morning, very happy and active, we are keeping the camera on him while we are at work to monitor him throughout the day.

 

[Lindasjackson]

im sorry he has a uri, he’s just so little! I hope he gets better fast!

 

[brainsnbikes35]

im sorry he has a uri, he’s just so little! I hope he gets better fast!

He seems to be bouncing back quite well, he was much more vibrant and curious today! It seems like he is finally starting to get used to his new home!

 

[Lindasjackson]

That’s wonderful!

 

[brainsnbikes35]

I have one further question for now, how can we better facilitate eating? We have tried hand feeding, cup feeding and some free roaming feeders but our little guy just doesn't seem to be eating/interested in food. Maybe 1-2 crickets a day, at the best 4 on Saturday before sickness behavior started.

Typical behaviors around food:
Hand feeding (with tongs) has worked once or twice, but he is still pretty nervous around us.

Cup feeding has worked maybe once a day for a cricket or 2, but other than that he just ignores his food, to the point where he climbed above his cup and pooped into it this morning without looking at the food for more than a second or two.

He seems to like hunting free roaming crickets the best, but is so small that once he spots one in his cage it takes him too long to get to wherever they are to eat them. And even if we release them close to him he may eat 1 before they scatter.

At this point we have tried crickets and dubias dusted in calcium. He likes crickets but has no interest in dubias.
We have mostly attributed it to new cage and his sickness, but we are really nervous that if he doesn't start eating his condition is going to get worse.

 

[Beman]

I have one further question for now, how can we better facilitate eating? We have tried hand feeding, cup feeding and some free roaming feeders but our little guy just doesn't seem to be eating/interested in food. Maybe 1-2 crickets a day, at the best 4 on Saturday before sickness behavior started.

Typical behaviors around food:
Hand feeding (with tongs) has worked once or twice, but he is still pretty nervous around us.

Cup feeding has worked maybe once a day for a cricket or 2, but other than that he just ignores his food, to the point where he climbed above his cup and pooped into it this morning without looking at the food for more than a second or two.

He seems to like hunting free roaming crickets the best, but is so small that once he spots one in his cage it takes him too long to get to wherever they are to eat them. And even if we release them close to him he may eat 1 before they scatter.

At this point we have tried crickets and dubias dusted in calcium. He likes crickets but has no interest in dubias.
We have mostly attributed it to new cage and his sickness, but we are really nervous that if he doesn't start eating his condition is going to get worse.

He probably will not touch the dubia unless they are in a feeder with the crickets... I am sure he has never seen dubia before. Most breeders feed crickets.

This is why most of us will use a feeder run of some kind. I like both the tk chameleons shooting gallery and the full throttle feeder.

You have to load it with feeders the first week so they understand that is where they all are. THen they see constant movement.

And they should be very small feeders. Tongs are very dangerous with chams if they hit the tong and you pull back you could permanently damage their tongue.

Was the fecal test negative for parasites?