Purchased a WC Melleri...

[summoner12]

Aight. So today I built the water drainage system for the free range. I will be hooking up the misters tonight when I get home and giving a test run. This morning Lenny ate well. I gave him a 20 minute shower and put him back in his tree... He ate a large hornworm. he still hadn't had any roaches so I decided to try some crickets. I dusted some crickets and BAM he started picking them off. He seemed to really enjoy them. So I placed about 15 or so in the dish and I am almost sure he ate them all (still at work). He also seemed more active this morning than before. I have a picture to share but I neen to upload it.. ill do that when I get home.

 

[summoner12]

Aight...

He took a poo today........ and its gross so be ready....

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 

[AndrewH]

looks healthy. ...

wowow, thats suprising considering how healthy he looks on the outside. Did you get a chance to take him to the vet yet for fecals?

 

[summoner12]

looks healthy. ...

wowow, thats suprising considering how healthy he looks on the outside. Did you get a chance to take him to the vet yet for fecals?

No I have not. I am taking the poo to Dave Weldon tomorrow so we can look at the poo. I don't want to take Lenny to the vet unless something serious happens. He seems to be doing ok, I hope getting rid of the parasites will make things much better for him.

 

[ChromaChameleons]

Looks like roundworm. Panacur ( fendbendazole) once every 7 days for 3 treatments. If the stools are then clear of worms , continue for 2 more treatments to be sure.

 

[studiocham]

Looks like roundworm. Panacur ( fendbendazole) once every 7 days for 3 treatments. If the stools are then clear of worms , continue for 2 more treatments to be sure.

What's the dosage on that? My previous herp vet calculated a dosage that is one single dose, repeated in two weeks. My current herp vet approved the dosage, when I asked him about it, and it does a great job cleaning the GI tract of worms. Mine must be considerably higher...?

 

[summoner12]

Aight,

Post Whore Kevin back at it again....

Yesterday Dave Weldon had my GF and I over to have a look at Lenny's poo sample. We didn't find as much as we were sorta expecting. When you see a huge worm in the poop ya get the idea hes gotta have tons in him. Well here are some pics of what we found.

Maybe Dave can add some comments to what we are seeing. I don't remember which are floats and I am no expert on what is what as far as identifying the type of worms.

I do remember this is the head of the worm above.

Out bound egg?

A Mite

The big boy...

Today Lenny isn't wanting to eat any horn worms. He has been showing a bit more yellow than normal. I think his lack of interest might be from what I think he may have eaten yesterday. I found a horn worm moth in Fred's cage and i KNOW he won't eat them... So I took it over to Lenny. Lenny was about to eat it but then got distracted my the misting system coming on and my camera freaking out because the memory card maxed out. I don't see the moth anywhere... so I am hoping he ate it.

I have some pics of his coloring today. He just seems kinda lethargic. He seems even more bothered when he sees me in the room. During the week he will be alone a lot more so his level of stress should go down.

Any ideas on the shower frequency? I have been trying to get him in there once a day... yesterday twice. Today he has gone once, maybe again. It seems like his dried skin is looking better, like it might fall off with a little coaxing.


Before shower.

During.

 

[Dave Weldon]

...Yesterday Dave Weldon had my GF and I over to have a look at Lenny's poo sample. We didn't find as much as we were sorta expecting. ...Maybe Dave can add some comments to what we are seeing. I don't remember which are floats and I am no expert on what is what as far as identifying the type of worms.

I do remember this is the head of the worm above.

Out bound egg?

A Mite

The big boy...

Howdy Kevin,
I lost track of your post but just found it now .

Yep. You've pretty much got it right. The stringy end of the larvae is its mouth parts. The mite probably came from an outside source rather than inside your chameleon's poop. It looks like a typical mite found in soil samples. After you found that ~3" long roundworm, I thought we'd see more eggs and larvae. There really wasn't much more than a couple of those microscopic larvae and no eggs to be found. I've more often found no larvae or worms but 1 to 100 eggs floating around. At least he isn't showing signs of being loaded with a cocktail of parasites .

There does seem to be quit a range of Panacur dosing strategies. The single dose and re-dose a week or 2 later seems to be pretty typical for knocking out typical cases of roundworm, pinworm, and hookworm. When given a daily dose for 5-7 days straight, you can also do a good job at knocking out Giardia and other protozoa that might be hanging around. If the chameleon is in a strong, healthy condition then your vet may recommend going with the longer therapy to take the opportunity to potentially knock-out more parasites.

 

[summoner12]

Thank you for all the help Dave!

He pooped again yesterday. There was another worm just like the one we were looking at. I was VERY pleased with his urate though, it was snow white in a BM.

Yesterday we couldn't get Lenny to eat a worm loaded with Panacur... So I ended up just putting some on my finger and getting him to open his mouth, then wipe it off onto his lip and make him lick his lips a bunch of times. It worked... Then I shoved a worm in one time when he was licking his lips.

Today was kinda funny in the morning.. He was going from one side of the range to the other and then stopped above his cricket bucket poked his head in... then you could see him moving his head about aiming at different crickets then BAM he would pull his head out to chew, it was entertaining. I think he is getting more comfy with us around. He didn't freak too much when I was handling him trying to get him to eat his meds. I must say, I DO NOT want him to ever bite me! I got a good look into his mouth and the teeth are pretting freakin HUGE!

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Dave, just curious, what magnification were you at on those pics?

Howdy Kevin,
I lost track of your post but just found it now .

Yep. You've pretty much got it right. The stringy end of the larvae is its mouth parts. The mite probably came from an outside source rather than inside your chameleon's poop. It looks like a typical mite found in soil samples. After you found that ~3" long roundworm, I thought we'd see more eggs and larvae. There really wasn't much more than a couple of those microscopic larvae and no eggs to be found. I've more often found no larvae or worms but 1 to 100 eggs floating around. At least he isn't showing signs of being loaded with a cocktail of parasites .

 

[studiocham]

When given a daily dose for 5-7 days straight, you can also do a good job at knocking out Giardia and other protozoa that might be hanging around.

Neat! Thanks, Dave!

If fenben does all this, what does Flagyll get that it can't? Is it possible to not use Flagyll at all, since it isn't as easy on them as fenben?

 

[summoner12]

I put Lenny on the scale today and he was 268 grams! He has gained 30 grams I think!

 

[AndrewH]

he sounds like he is freakin huge, is there anyway for you to post a vid for us showing him roaming around??

 

[Sepioteuthis]

I put Lenny on the scale today and he was 268 grams! He has gained 30 grams I think!

That's great! How long is he again? I think you told me on chat once, can't for the life of me remember it though...
268 would be a good weight if he's about 8.5 inches snout to vent. Seems to be a nice average size for an adult.

 

[summoner12]

OK, so I have been lagging BIG time on my updates of lenny. He seems to be doing pretty good... I think he has decided that crickets aren't his thing anymore. This is weird becuase for a few days he was polishing off 20+ crickets. As of 9-12-08 he was 297.5g.

• 8-18-08 231.6g Day one
• 8-28-08 268.1g Day ten +36.5g
• 9-7-08 297.7g Day twenty +66.1g
• 9-12-08 297.5 day twenty five +65.9

Last Night

This morning

 

[ColorCham427]

he is a freaking Dinosaur!!! siiiiiiiiiiiiiiick guy you got there man

 

[summoner12]

he is a freaking Dinosaur!!! siiiiiiiiiiiiiiick guy you got there man

Thanks. He is a lot of fun. I like observing him.

 

[Cameochams]

Wow great job on the setup. He went to a really good home

 

[summoner12]

Here is Lenny showing my GF he isn't so happy with her change in color.

He was doing something similar this morning to her when she was getting ready for work. He never has issues with me changing from my red work shirt to a black tshirt or to a white tshirt. He only gets unhappy with her.



Here he is exploring. (sorry my POS PAS only records in 30 second segments.)














After his adventure he went for a treat.