Sick Vield Chameleon

CrazyFLChammy

New Member
Chameleon Info: Vieled Chameleon, Male, About 9-11 months old, I have had it about 3 months

Handling - I try not to stress him out too often so I might hold him about 2 times a week if even.

Feeding - He gets about 6-7 Crickets daily and I put reptical calcium powder on them about 2-3 times a week and 2 times a month I give reptical multi vitamin supplement.

Watering - I have a spray with a mister 3 times a day he drinks lots of water everytime he gets his cage gets sprayed. I also put ice cubes on the top about 2 times a day and let it dripp on one of his plants. I have recently also added a dripping system but I never see him over there drinking where it drips.

Fecal Description - Never been tested that i know of. His droppings are solid and dark brown with the 2nd part a yellowish to slightly darker yellowish color.
History - I dont know anything about him before I got him he has always been very active so this is extreemly strange for him.

Cage Info:

Cage Type -wood frame coved with Screen cage 4 foot high by a little ove 2 foot wide . No wood is exposed to cham that is not covered by screen.

Lighting - He has a zoo med 50 watt basking light and a exo terra 5.0 uvb tube light.

Temperature - The basking spot is 90-95 degrees and the rest of the cage varies from 80 at the higer part of the cage to 70-75 at the bottom of the cage. night time is average of 65-70 all over as no bulbs or heat is used. He has 12 hrs light and 12 hrs dark.
The lowest I have seen it get was at teh cold part of our winter here and that was aprox 59-62 I tried to make sure that it was not able to get any lower than taht in the room as I have 7 Vieled Chams. They all are doing just fine (Just an FYI)

Humidity - His humidity ranges and lately I have not had a gague in his for about a week now it quit working. But he has a live plant in his cage and liek i said before his cage is misted 3 times a day as well as the other watering methods that have been mentioned.

Plants - He has live and fake plants in his cage. The live one is an Umbrella plant (can't remember the scientific name for it right now but it was on the list of safe plants and all my others are using the as well) He also has a few fake vines around his cage in different places.

Placement - His cage is in my office it is the least high traffic room of the house. His cage sits on the floor as it is too tall for me to be able to put it any higher with the other things in the room. He cant see the other Chams in the room they are seperated by dividers placed between each cage. His cage is 4 foot high though.
My location is Central Florida.

Current Problem - He is sleeping during the day. He will even go to sleep right on my hand. He eats ok and drinks plenty but he just closes his eyes and goes to sleep very often.

Please any help you can give would be great I am very worried about him and it is the weekend and there is only one vet opened where I live and he is not good with reptiles as I took a Flap neck that I use to own to him once and he said he needed antibiotics to cure a fungus that was eatting his foot ( this was a few years ago) and the cham did not get better took him to a diff vet the next week when he was missing more toes and he told me the vet gave him the wrong meds and that the meds he prescribed were unsafe for a cham so I really dont want to take him there but I am affarid if I dont do something now he might not be able to be saved by monday.
 
I would turn down your temps to max 90. Yellow and esp. dark yellow urates mean dehydration, and the fact you see him drinking all the time make me think he is dehydrated. This could be underwatering or it could be something like a kidney issue.
 
I dont think that it is under watering as I spray the cage 3 times a day real well and he has a dripper and I use the ice cubes. Any ideas on the sleeping and closing his eyes all the time. I took him out side for a bit today before the wind picked up and let him get some sun and he seemed to like it a little better but he was still caught with his eyes closed quite a bit.

Thanks
 
I really can't find much wrong with your husbandry-but the dark yellow urates are alarming. What are you gutloading feeders with?
 
You can spray a chameleon all you want, but whether they drink or not makes the difference between a healthy, and dehydrated chameleon, the dark yellow urates are a sure sign of dehydration.
 
I agree. Dark yellow urates means dehydration.I spray mine 3 x day but some of them NEVER drink when i do it. Have you tried showering him? Although i've had chams get slightly dehydrated before and they never started sleeping. Maybe a vet appt is a good idea. I would still shower him in the meantime. Do you know how to do that?
 
I am not 100% sure on how to. From what i have read you put a plant in the shower and face the shower head away from him so it sprays the wall but I dont know how warm or cool it should be and how long to put him in there for. I see him drinking all the time until today. Today is when I really started to worry because he wasnt chasing his food around like normal or drinking and he was sleeping alot. I really am not sure if he is even sleeping I think he may jsut be closing his eyes. I am wondering if he has an eye infection. I will try the vet on monday. Orlando is over an hour away but I know a herp vet here in Palm Bay/ melbourne area of florida I will call him on Monday.

Thanks for all the help please keep the info coming and idea's I need to just keep him strong till monday until Monday so the vet can look at him and tell me what is going on.

Also there was a question about the gut load used for the crikets the are fed flukers crickt quincher with calcium and Collard greens and zuchinni. I also throw in some of the orange cube food stuff every few days.
 
Ok all I have called a vet here that treats Reptiles and today is usually her day for sugerys but she said that she can see my little guy at 1:30. He is getting worse by the hour. I tried the shower thing he just goes to sleep no drinking or anything. I also tried using a siringe adn giving him water yesterday he drank some which made me happy but now I get him smart water (water that is purified and has electrolites in it). Sry I cant spell. I cant get him to even try to drink that or just palin water. I am really worried about him. It is kinda cold out side today and I worry about taking him outside. Any thoughts on the safest way to take him to the vet when it is cold out side?

Thank you
:(
 
Do you have an insulated box? If not pit him in a cooler with a warm towel. keep the lid cracked a bit sh he has air. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
 
Ok I called the recommended vet for our area that was on the list of herp vets from a previous post. He could not see him till Thursday so the recomended another local vet that got me in right away. Very nice guy tried to take blood but was unable to since he is so de hydrated. Since there are no fresh stool samples in the past 2 days he prescribled a powder supplement adn said to feed it to him 2 times a day for the next few days. he also said to keep misting and doing the showers as Cham's absorb water through their skin also?? I did not know that. He says until we can get a fresh stool sample and or blood drawn it is hard to tell. He said his color looked good but he did see a sore in his mouth very small says it could be from a cricket. He still has a good grip and was not to happy about the force feeding. He is back at home now in his cage and I am going to fed him a bit more in just a bit I am trying to give him a little break after all I am sure the vet visit was quite stressful for him even if he is too weak to show it. I will keep you up todate. Any thoughts or suggestions are always welcome
 
Since there are no fresh stool samples in the past 2 days he prescribled a powder supplement adn said to feed it to him 2 times a day for the next few days. he also said to keep misting and doing the showers as Cham's absorb water through their skin also?? I did not know that. He says until we can get a fresh stool sample and or blood drawn it is hard to tell. He said his color looked good but he did see a sore in his mouth very small says it could be from a cricket. He still has a good grip and was not to happy about the force feeding. He is back at home now in his cage and I am going to fed him a bit more in just a bit I am trying to give him a little break after all I am sure the vet visit was quite stressful for him even if he is too weak to show it. I will keep you up todate. Any thoughts or suggestions are always welcome


What is the supplement?

Chams do not absorb much if any water through their skin. Because your gauge is broken you don't know the humidity level in his cage. Even if you spray a cham multiple times a day and you see him drink, he can still be losing ground to dehydration if the air in the room is too dry...and without a working gauge you won't know how dry it actually gets between your spraying sessions. Chams lose a lot of body moisture through respiration if the general room air is too dry. The dark yellow urate is a clear sign that he is dehydrating faster than he can drink. A well hydrated cham won't be drinking much every time you spray. He was probably slowly dehydrating over time, but what you are seeing now is the long term result. Once the dehydration reaches a critical point they stop eating, get weaker, and seem to lose interest which is what you are describing.
 
Here in Florida-even inside humidity should not be a great concern. I have never had a dehydration issue inside or outside (most chams are inside-air conditioned) and I only mist 2 x daily. I am thinking something else must be wrong if he is this dehydrated.
 
I have 6 other chams all with the same set ups and none of them are sick. I sent an email to the vet I noticed tonight for the first time when I was feeding him that weird nasty lookig liquid food that there is a thing in the back of his mouth that looks swollen. Then vet said he saw a small sore in his mouth but this is somehting different. I am going to try to take a picture of it in the morning when I feed him again and I will post it and see if any of you have any questions. I have been giving him to long showers every day for 2 days now also misting 3-4 times a day and he has a dripper. Seems to perk up for about 10-15 min after the shower just long enough to move back to his light and get comfy. Then back to sleep he goes. I think he has some sort of infection and I am starting to think that this vet is a dumb butt. I am putting a call in to my regular vet tomorrow to get a second opinion. Any additional thoughts I would appreciate it.

Thanks you all I will keep you up todate
 
Chams do not absorb much if any water through their skin.... Even if you spray a cham multiple times a day and you see him drink, he can still be losing ground to dehydration if the air in the room is too dry...and without a working gauge you won't know how dry it actually gets between your spraying sessions. Chams lose a lot of body moisture through respiration if the general room air is too dry. The dark yellow urate is a clear sign that he is dehydrating faster than he can drink. A well hydrated cham won't be drinking much every time you spray. He was probably slowly dehydrating over time, but what you are seeing now is the long term result. Once the dehydration reaches a critical point they stop eating, get weaker, and seem to lose interest which is what you are describing.

I quoted this to point out an issue. From a tangible "what do you do" point of view, if one were to act as though chameleons absorb moisture from the air, then the problems with dry air mentioned would not happen.

Obviously, the truth is that chameleons lose moisture through their skin and mucus membranes (just as we do).

I would argue that just as humans absorb some moisture from the air, so do chameleons. It's just that, like humans, it's not incredibly obvious and not a sufficient source of moisture for survival.

I agree with it being time to visit the Vet. I hope that gives you your answers.
 
I am so sorry to say that Kermit passed away. He struggled so hard to fight it and I did everything I could to try to save him but it was just too late. The vets here suck they did nothing to help me. I call the Vet this morning when I saw he was getting worse and the nurse assured me he would call right back. I waited and waited and at 5pm this after noon he calls back and says that I can bring him up there tomorrow anytime after 2pm. Now my first words to this vet was that he is NOT going to make it through the night he cant move and he struggling to breath. I am so upset at the loss of one of my favortie Cham. He was my second one I got but he had such a great personality. I could sit for hours just watching him do his acrobatics around his cage. He will so be missed. I hope that his offspring that are due in 5-6 months will keep his spirt alive.


Kermit you are so love and you will be greatly missed.:(
 
I am so sorry to hear about Kermit. That's so sad. If you ever need a vet again Dr. Alfonso is well worth the drive to Orlando. I drive two hours to see him. He is an excellent chameleon vet.
 
Back
Top Bottom