Possible respiratory Infection

[dee1]

Hi,

My chameleon is 6 months old and isn't eating much of late 6 bugs a day. He has his nose in the air I think you can judge by the pictures and mouth open.

He has never had this problem, I just took him to the reptile vet 2 weeks ago clean bill of health.

I did switch him to a new hybrid dragon strand enclosure from his old one which was getting to hot and humid for him.

I use a mistking 6:30am - 3 mins, 10am - 3 mins, 4pm - 5 mins and 7:30pm - 3 mins. The fogger keeps the cage at between 50-60% and 75-85% at night. Temp at night is 68F and 70F during the day.

I live in NYC for an idea of temp and humidity.

I am not sure if he is hot or an RI.

I will most likely bring him to the A&E later I just wanted to see what you guys think.

I am unsure what I am doing wrong with regard to husbandry.

Thanks for your help!
Dylan

 

[yungzerk]

Hi,

My chameleon is 6 months old and isn't eating much of late 6 bugs a day. He has his nose in the air I think you can judge by the pictures and mouth open.

He has never had this problem, I just took him to the reptile vet 2 weeks ago clean bill of health.

I did switch him to a new hybrid dragon strand enclosure from his old one which was getting to hot and humid for him.

I use a mistking 6:30am - 3 mins, 10am - 3 mins, 4pm - 5 mins and 7:30pm - 3 mins. The fogger keeps the cage at between 50-60% and 75-85% at night. Temp at night is 68F and 70F during the day.

I live in NYC for an idea of temp and humidity.

I am not sure if he is hot or an RI.

I will most likely bring him to the A&E later I just wanted to see what you guys think.

Thanks for your help!
Dylan

My guess would be a possible RI, the picture of his head being tilted up is a pretty good indicator also with his mouth being open. It’s always safe to take him to a vet just incase! Also what are his basking temps?

 

[dee1]

My guess would be a possible RI, the picture of his head being tilted up is a pretty good indicator also with his mouth being open. It’s always safe to take him to a vet just incase! Also, what are his basking temps?

Hi,

Thanks for the information!

Yeah, I thought all the symptoms were there!

I keep the basking at 85F I use to keep it at 90F but have dropped it down to 85 now.

 

[yungzerk]

Hi,

Thanks for the information!

Yeah, I thought all the symptoms were there!

I keep the basking at 85F I use to keep it at 90F but have dropped it down to 85 now.

I’m definitely not the most experienced one on here but yes the symptoms are all there unfortunately I know chameleons will also gape when the temps are too high, which was my second guess but it’s always good to be safe than sorry!

 

[TheMotherChameleon]

Hi! I agree that the symptoms look like an RI and that you should take him to a vet. Let us know if you need help finding a reptile vet @elizaann2 has an exotic vet list.

 

[CalamityCrow]

Hi,

Thanks for the information!

Yeah, I thought all the symptoms were there!

I keep the basking at 85F I use to keep it at 90F but have dropped it down to 85 now.

85 is still pretty warm for a guy as young as yours. How are you measuring your temps? Is that a ceramic heat bulb as well as a regular light bulb (not the linear UVB) in the enclosure as well?

For an RI... ARe you hearing any pops/crackles from him? Is he sleeping nose up too? Any stringy saliva or drool?

 

[dee1]

85 is still pretty warm for a guy as young as yours. How are you measuring your temps? Is that a ceramic heat bulb as well as a regular light bulb (not the linear UVB) in the enclosure as well?

For an RI... ARe you hearing any pops/crackles from him? Is he sleeping nose up too? Any stringy saliva or drool?

Hi,

I have a halogen 75-watt for heat. I use a sensor on the branch to regulate the temperature (REPTIZOO Reptile Dimming Thermostat Heat Lamp Temperature Controller), which adjusts the light intensity. The ceramic lamp is to help at night, and when the tank temp drops too low, I live in an 1890-constructed brick walk-up in NYC. It gets quite chilly, so I just have a backup heating system. I have attached a pic of the systems and sensor.

I did see some stringy saliva in his mouth. He is hiding deep in the trees at the bottom of the cage at the moment, but he is sleeping nose down now.

I took him to the Schwarzman animal medical center in NYC they think it most likely not a RI but want to me see the reptile team on Wednesday morning as they want this vets to see him.

Thanks,
Dylan

 

[Beman]

Hey there... Are you fogging during the day?
Reduce basking thermostat to 80. It is going to be hotter where he rises off the branch away from the probe.

 

[dee1]

Hey there... Are you fogging during the day?
Reduce basking thermostat to 80. It is going to be hotter where he rises off the branch away from the probe.

Hi @Beman,

The misting is what is causing my spikes from 55% to 67-70% for a time while my fans work to reduce the humidity. But it takes time. I am considering cutting down the misting. See attached an image of the humidity currently after misting at 9:40am. The humidity levels drives me crazy

I will drop the probe to 80F.!

Thanks,
Dylan

 

[Beman]

Hi @Beman,

The misting is what is causing my spikes from 55% to 67-70% for a time while my fans work to reduce the humidity. But it takes time. I am considering cutting down the misting. See attached an image of the humidity currently after misting at 9:40am. The humidity levels drives me crazy

I will drop the probe to 80F.!

Thanks,
Dylan

Ok so you have a hybrid these really need to be set up for your ambient conditions along with what you can achieve in the cage. So I have always used the hybrid style. What I found when living in a higher humidity environment is you have to reduce your mistings in the morning. Living in a very low humidity environment you want a longer misting in the morning but right after your lights kick on vs later in the morning. This will provide a spike but will then reduce faster because the cage is cooler.

So talk to me about your misting schedule along with your lighting schedule.
Also where is your humidity probe located in the cage at basking or lower down?
And what is your ambient room humidity level?

When you say fans are you running PC fans on top of the cage? If so are you running them so they are pulling air up and out of the cage or pushing air into the cage?

 

[dee1]

Ok, so you have a hybrid. These really need to be set up for your ambient conditions along with what you can achieve in the cage. So I have always used the hybrid style. What I found when living in a higher humidity environment is you have to reduce your mistings in the morning. Living in a very low humidity environment you want a longer misting in the morning but right after your lights kick on vs later in the morning. This will provide a spike but will then reduce faster because the cage is cooler.

So talk to me about your misting schedule along with your lighting schedule.
Also where is your humidity probe located in the cage at basking or lower down?
And what is your ambient room humidity level?

When you say fans are you running PC fans on top of the cage? If so are you running them so they are pulling air up and out of the cage or pushing air into the cage?

Thanks for helping me so far @Beman.

My misting schedule is mistking 6:30am - 3 mins, 10am - 3 mins, 4pm - 3 mins and 7:30pm - 3 mins. Lights on at 7am off at 7pm.

Yeah in NYC the day time humidity is about 70-60% and 80% at night. The humidity probe is in the middle dragon strand handle at the lowest hole.

I will have to check my ambient room temp humidity. I am recaldaribg one of my humidity probes today as a standard.

For the PC fans. Yes, I have two for pulling air out for humidity. 1 that cycles 15 mins every. Hour for air circulation again pulling air out. And another fan for temp which was pulling air out but I seen it was better when it push air in to push the temp down.

 

[Beman]

Thanks for helping me so far @Beman.

My misting schedule is mistking 6:30am - 3 mins, 10am - 3 mins, 4pm - 3 mins and 7:30pm - 3 mins. Lights on at 7am off at 7pm.

Yeah in NYC the day time humidity is about 70-60% and 80% at night. The humidity probe is in the middle dragon strand handle at the lowest hole.

I will have to check my ambient room temp humidity. I am recaldaribg one of my humidity probes today as a standard.

For the PC fans. Yes, I have two for pulling air out for humidity. 1 that cycles 15 mins every. Hour for air circulation again pulling air out. And another fan for temp which was pulling air out but I seen it was better when it push air in to push the temp down.

Ok so I run my fan pulling air up and out. This works well because your venting on your DS is at the bottom of the cage in the front screen. So it helps pull air up and out of the enclosure. I also run mine non stop during the day.

The humidity gauge being lower in the cage is going to give you readings down in the plant... Humidity is always going to be higher the lower you go in the cage. You want to put a gauge on the basking level to see what your real levels are up there. For example I have a 15-20% difference between my basking level and further down middle of the cage.
So you want to know these real numbers at basking.

Then you want to know how high your room humidity level is.

I would say automatically remove the 10am misting. I would also set basking to kick off at 4pm... THen have your 4pm misting at 4:30pm instead. THis will give the cage a bit of time to cool before you have that late afternoon misting session. While still giving him all day to bask. And then also we already discussed dropping your basking temp to 80. Additionally with this make sure you are not using a focused basking bulb. These can be very intense. I tend to only use regular incandescent white bulbs. Not the LED type though. wattage if on a thermostat of 75 is good.

 

[elizaann2]

Hi! I agree that the symptoms look like an RI and that you should take him to a vet. Let us know if you need help finding a reptile vet @elizaann2 has an exotic vet list.

Here is our vet list in case you need it

 

[dee1]

Ok so I run my fan pulling air up and out. This works well because your venting on your DS is at the bottom of the cage in the front screen. So it helps pull air up and out of the enclosure. I also run mine non stop during the day.

The humidity gauge being lower in the cage is going to give you readings down in the plant... Humidity is always going to be higher the lower you go in the cage. You want to put a gauge on the basking level to see what your real levels are up there. For example I have a 15-20% difference between my basking level and further down middle of the cage.
So you want to know these real numbers at basking.

Then you want to know how high your room humidity level is.

I would say automatically remove the 10am misting. I would also set basking to kick off at 4pm... THen have your 4pm misting at 4:30pm instead. THis will give the cage a bit of time to cool before you have that late afternoon misting session. While still giving him all day to bask. And then also we already discussed dropping your basking temp to 80. Additionally with this make sure you are not using a focused basking bulb. These can be very intense. I tend to only use regular incandescent white bulbs. Not the LED type though. wattage if on a thermostat of 75 is good.

Hi @Beman,

So, I did some troubleshooting and had a planned call with Neptunechameleons. It seems the temp at the basking is too high it is now at 75-80 F as you said he has now stopped gapping and eating a good amount for him now. With the humidity, I can't push it down its staying at 75-80% sadly during the day. As a result, I bit the bullet and bought a big fancy humidifier…. 300 dollars ughhhhh. So from today the humidity should be fixed. It is lower at the basking but still like 60 something, but I said screw it I'll but the dehumidifier.

I flipped the temp fan and now have all fans pulling air out.

I am also implementing your recommendation of turning off the basking bulb and 4 pm and misting at 4:30 pm. I think the new dehumidifier should sort out the last issues I am experiencing.

Thanks again for the help,
Dylan

 

[Beman]

Hi @Beman,

So, I did some troubleshooting and had a planned call with Neptunechameleons. It seems the temp at the basking is too high it is now at 75-80 F as you said he has now stopped gapping and eating a good amount for him now. With the humidity, I can't push it down its staying at 75-80% sadly during the day. As a result, I bit the bullet and bought a big fancy humidifier…. 300 dollars ughhhhh. So from today the humidity should be fixed. It is lower at the basking but still like 60 something, but I said screw it I'll but the dehumidifier.

I flipped the temp fan and now have all fans pulling air out.

I am also implementing your recommendation of turning off the basking bulb and 4 pm and misting at 4:30 pm. I think the new dehumidifier should sort out the last issues I am experiencing.

Thanks again for the help,
Dylan

Hey there. The dehumidifier will help quite a bit especially if your ambient room humidity is running high. If your room humidity is not high then it is a matter of adjusting morning misting times to keep daytime humidity lower. Yes you could still use the dehumidifier but it would really be a waste of money if your ambient room humidity is not part of the problem.

So you would run the dehumidifier kick it on in the morning before lights kick on so it starts pulling down the ambient levels of the entire room. This in turn will pull down the ambient levels of the enclosure. Then kick it off late afternoon when basking kicks off. This will allow for the humidity to build again for night time. Keep in mind at night with high humidity you want to have much cooler room temps down at least to 67-68.

 

[ryrd07]

Hi! I hope he is feeling better soon, and I would only mist once in the morning and once at night right before his lights turn off, as well as only fogging at night. The goal is to have 40-50% humidity during the day and 60-70% during the night. I would tinker around with this as your living conditions are different than mine and you might need more or less added humidity than me to stay at your goal. I also like to have my chams cage at 75-80 degrees during the day and 85 basking. Think of it like not wanting to mix heat and humidity, it's better hot and dry and cool and humid. This is because the hot and humid climate is perfect conditions for a RI to start. I hope it clears up for him and your aren't putting too much stress on yourself

 

[dee1]

Hey there. The dehumidifier will help quite a bit especially if your ambient room humidity is running high. If your room humidity is not high then it is a matter of adjusting morning misting times to keep daytime humidity lower. Yes you could still use the dehumidifier but it would really be a waste of money if your ambient room humidity is not part of the problem.

So you would run the dehumidifier kick it on in the morning before lights kick on so it starts pulling down the ambient levels of the entire room. This in turn will pull down the ambient levels of the enclosure. Then kick it off late afternoon when basking kicks off. This will allow for the humidity to build again for night time. Keep in mind at night with high humidity you want to have much cooler room temps down at least to 67-68.

@Beman So, I ran the humidifier as you said. The difference is night and day. I can definitely say it was the ambient humidity, as I can if I want to get the humidity in the middle of the plants in the enclosure down to 40%. The dehumidifier was saying over 70% in the room. One less factor to control

 

[Beman]

@Beman So, I ran the humidifier as you said. The difference is night and day. I can definitely say it was the ambient humidity, as I can if I want to get the humidity in the middle of the plants in the enclosure down to 40%. The dehumidifier was saying over 70% in the room. One less factor to control

Yeah they make a world of difference when you have high ambient room humidity. happy your levels are better.