There and Back Again, A Cozamalotl Tale.

[AmandaS]

Update and some more useful information:

When coza was sick her tongue wasn't working properly. Not only could she not extend it but it had lost it's "stickiness." Vet said that was a weird side effect of sick chams, that she has seen that often. It's been almost two months and just in the past week would I say it's fully better. I've been cup feeding (which I usually do) but slowly over the last month pulling the cup more and more away from her. At first her aim wasn't great but this past week she seemed spot on again. Today I released some BSF into her enclosure and my happy girl nailed like 7, first try, full extend, in about 4 minutes. It took a while but her tongue is back in action!

Yay! I'm so happy for your little girl! Good job!

 

[Lindasjackson]

That’s awesome! I’m so glad!

 

[dinomom]

Update and some more useful information:

When coza was sick her tongue wasn't working properly. Not only could she not extend it but it had lost it's "stickiness." Vet said that was a weird side effect of sick chams, that she has seen that often. It's been almost two months and just in the past week would I say it's fully better. I've been cup feeding (which I usually do) but slowly over the last month pulling the cup more and more away from her. At first her aim wasn't great but this past week she seemed spot on again. Today I released some BSF into her enclosure and my happy girl nailed like 7, first try, full extend, in about 4 minutes. It took a while but her tongue is back in action!

This is great news .One question that might help the rest of us is, did the vet mention any things that could potentially cause the liver infection? I know infections can be random, but it is odd that there would be two in the same household.

 

[AnamCara]

This is great news .One question that might help the rest of us is, did the vet mention any things that could potentially cause the liver infection? I know infections can be random, but it is odd that there would be two in the same household.

This was my main question too. I wanted to know what I did and how to avoid it in the future. But we couldn't pin point it on anything.

I'm not sure what you mean by two in the same household? Mona (my other girl) died from complications laying her eggs -- she retained about 3 of them which made her kidneys fail-- and by the time we found out she was too far gone. She didn't have a liver infection. Just the behavior they exhibited when not feeling well was the same. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

 

[dinomom]

This was my main question too. I wanted to know what I did and how to avoid it in the future. But we couldn't pin point it on anything.

I'm not sure what you mean by two in the same household? Mona (my other girl) died from complications laying her eggs -- she retained about 3 of them which made her kidneys fail-- and by the time we found out she was too far gone. She didn't have a liver infection. Just the behavior they exhibited when not feeling well was the same. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

Sorry you were clear-I just made an assumption based on the same presentation. That makes more sense.

 

[AnamCara]

Sorry you were clear-I just made an assumption based on the same presentation. That makes more sense.

Totally fair. I think what it was with the presentation was that they were both so weak they could only hold on by their tail. The whole time Coza was sick her tail still had good strength. When I would take her out of the hospital bin to feed and give her meds, her feet came up very easily but that dang tail was still strong I had to gently unwrap it every time! I knew she was getting better when her little feets we're starting to grip on the branches and my hand more. I also knew she was ready to go back into her enclosure when she was pacing the whole bin trying to get out of the sides.

 

[Breeannsmom]

So glad to hear that Coza is doing well. You worked hard to fight for Cozas life and it paid off. Good going!

 

[AnamCara]

So glad to hear that Coza is doing well. You worked hard to fight for Cozas life and it paid off. Good going!

Thank you!

 

[Charlottethechameleon]

Story time, and maybe this can help someone else some day.

So about three weeks ago I noticed my 2 1/2 year old female Panther Chameleon Cozamalotl was not looking right. She was skinny, but she's always been a little small and otherwise was eating normally and drinking fine. Crawling around and not acting strange. Just kinda skinny. Fast forward a week to Sept 19th and I found her hanging from her tail. (for context, my recently departed Mona was hanging from her tail and quickly declined, resulting in having to put her down because of retained eggs from her last lay, that was July 31st.)

Being so close to what happened to Mona I knew something was wrong. I placed her back on a branch and went to prepare the carrier to get her to the vet. When I came back in the room minutes later, she was hanging by her tail again. View attachment 311622
As you can see, she didn't look great and had a poorly done partial shed.


I called my vet, the wonderful Dr. Dayna Willems in Aurora, CO. (Im located an hour away in Longmont.) The next day Dr. Dayna was able to see her as an emergency visit.

At the vet Coza was very lethartic, dehydrated and not moving around. She just sat in Dr.'s hands. Using their in-house lab Dr. Dayna was able to determine her liver showed some abnormalities and wanted to send off the blood to have her white cell count measured. Before the white cell count, Dr. Dayna wanted to put her on a course of antibiotics. She prescribed 0.03ml of Metronidazole, and gave her sub cutaneous fluids.


View attachment 311624

I once I got home I made the dreaded hospital bin and settled Coza in.

View attachment 311628

Couple of days later the white cell count showed she had an infection, likely in her liver. Antibiotics was the right choice.

The first week wasn't great. While she was eating, she wasn't drinking and was lethargic. She wouldn't move from the same spot in her bin, her tongue didn't shoot very far and had seemed to lose it's "stickiness".

View attachment 311626

Every day I removed her from the bin, put her in a kritter carrier, and fed her a small worm while I tried to sneak the less than a drop of medicine in her mouth.

View attachment 311627
(That black line is how much meds to give her. A seriously small amount.)

Every day she got the worm, the meds, and at least 3-4 hours of natural sunshine, and plenty of misting / water dripping. At night I fogged the he** out of her bin. I took half days working from home just to sit outside with her.

One week in and her little grip was getting stronger, she was eating bigger worms and seemed more hydrated. Her once semi-sunken eyes were nice and round again. She still wasn't moveing around very much, but the vet and I were cautiously optimistic.

Second week she showed some real improvement. Looked so much better. Ate really well and starting exploring her bin more.

These past few days has been a real turn around. She's eating, drinking, had a nice healthy poop with good looking urate. She even started getting annoyed when I would handle her. (As we all know, chameleons should be about 60% pure spite )

Today was her follow up and I'm so pleased to say she is almost 100% better. The Doctor was very happy to see she was crawling everywhere, how improved her grip was, and even said she could go back into her enclosure and ditch the bin! She was so active at the vet that at one point she DARTED onto my back and we both had to sit there waiting for the doctor to come back in the room so she could reach her and get her off of me.

View attachment 311629

She has another week of antibiotics, and because of this I am not going to put her back in her enclosure quite yet. Her enclosure is heavily planted, and i fear it would be too hard to get her out every day and give her the meds. So, one more week of the bin. And then my girl gets to go home. I'm beyond excited.

I apologize in advance for any and all typos. I made this post on my phone so I could add pics.

Chams are hard, and decline so quickly. I'm so fortunate to have such a knowledgeable chameleon vet in my state who helped me nurse my girl back. I'm also thankful to @snitz427 @Beman and @JoXie411 for checking in and problem solving with me. We don't know how she got the infection, but at this point I'm just so glad Coza is feeling better.

Thanks for fighting, Coza, you're a real one.

Great job nursing your girl back to life its hours a day i spend with mine trying to make their day brighter and trying to best the best cham mom too I just loved your story kudos girl!