Treating LRI (URI) with warm mist is recommended

[luckykarma]

LRI or pneumonia is common to our animals. While many of you insist on calling it URI it isn't as my vet chides me. These are lower respiratory issues unless there is discharge from the nose. Then its URI. Otherwise bubbles in the throat is from the lungs and lower respiratory.

I make this distinction again to help people further understand their animal's functions. Like humans phenomena is fluid in the lungs which will create suffocation if not treated.

When one of my chams was foaming at the mouth after I thought he was cured of LRI I called the vet who told me to get him into the shower and make it as steamy as possible. He went onto explain that we needed to get warm moisture breathed into the lung to facilitate the animal purging the fluids by having them come up into the throat and out of the lungs.

Recently our youngest cham had LRI and I treated with Baytril for 10 days. Only by the 7th day did he stop gapping. With the weird weather I think he got a chill and I started to see gaping again. I confirmed there were bubbles blocking his throat.

This time I gave him Baytril in conjunction with a warm mist humidifier in place of his cool mist. The vet had told me to get the humidity up as high as possible. I ran a elbow on the humidifier to let it flow right into the cage.

The cham went right towards it and sat there all day with his nose in the direction of the mist. When it was time to sleep he went over to the middle of the tree then did something I never saw a Cham do before. He got up and went back to the mist facing into it and slept there. I had it on him all night of course and when I checked his throat this morning it was 100% clear and he was moving around like nothing was wrong.

I'm not recommending only warm mist as a cure for LRI/pneumonia however, its proven itself essential to the animal for a speedy recovery and relief if you can't get to the vet fast.

 

[nick barta]

Great Post, good info, simple treatment.

Nick

LRI or pneumonia is common to our animals. While many of you insist on calling it URI it isn't as my vet chides me. These are lower respiratory issues unless there is discharge from the nose. Then its URI. Otherwise bubbles in the throat is from the lungs and lower respiratory.

I make this distinction again to help people further understand their animal's functions. Like humans phenomena is fluid in the lungs which will create suffocation if not treated.

When one of my chams was foaming at the mouth after I thought he was cured of LRI I called the vet who told me to get him into the shower and make it as steamy as possible. He went onto explain that we needed to get warm moisture breathed into the lung to facilitate the animal purging the fluids by having them come up into the throat and out of the lungs.

Recently our youngest cham had LRI and I treated with Baytril for 10 days. Only by the 7th day did he stop gapping. With the weird weather I think he got a chill and I started to see gaping again. I confirmed there were bubbles blocking his throat.

This time I gave him Baytril in conjunction with a warm mist humidifier in place of his cool mist. The vet had told me to get the humidity up as high as possible. I ran a elbow on the humidifier to let it flow right into the cage.

The cham went right towards it and sat there all day with his nose in the direction of the mist. When it was time to sleep he went over to the middle of the tree then did something I never saw a Cham do before. He got up and went back to the mist facing into it and slept there. I had it on him all night of course and when I checked his throat this morning it was 100% clear and he was moving around like nothing was wrong.

I'm not recommending only warm mist as a cure for LRI/pneumonia however, its proven itself essential to the animal for a speedy recovery and relief if you can't get to the vet fast.

 

[jojackson]

Did the vet explain how that works? I would've thought higher humidity might make it worse. Why and how does it cause it to purge fluid / mucus from the lungs? Whats involved, Ive never seen A chameleon cough, so whats the physical function? did it breath more deeply/heavily with the mist or something?

Neat tip.
I think such treatment, atleast in your case, was a far better option than baytril. I think herp science is still new and many vets are guilty of overkill with drugs, leading to negative results.

all that said, 'an ounce of prevention is still always better than a pound of cure!

 

[luckykarma]

Chameleons lungs can actually shut down in low humidity. They need the humidity for their lungs to function properly. I imagine the warm mist is allowing it to function better enlarging the surface area therefore purging the fluid.

Even though this Cham seems normal now and completely clear I noticed he decided to sleep in front of the warm mist just now. During the day he wasn't prone to sit in it and was running around. It must have therapeutic effects he likes. I'll run it for another couple days then go back to the regular humidifier.

His normal humidity is 50% +/- 5%. Plus there's misting so water/humidity wasn't an issue in this case causing the LRI. I suspect we've had warmer days but some cold winds blew when he was sunning and with one day hot the next day like winter he wasn't able to recover properly from the first bout. He lives indoors but I try to get him out to sun.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

What species of chameleon?

Who is your vet?

I don't think cold blooded animals can get a "chill"

-Brad

 

[luckykarma]

This was conducted with Panthers. However, I don't recall the vet specifying type of Cham.

My vet is Dr. Stein who's authored several chapters in the large reptile reference books. He's been treating reptiles and chameleons since 1988. He's the most progressive vet I know in SoCal. I've been to many vets over the years where my animals were subjected to their 'care' rather than treated by them. Dr. Stein is incredibly informative not hesitating to pull out a reference book to go over what he's explaining. He was the first vet in So Cal that I'm aware of that started prescribing Ponazuril for coccidia. He is very well respected and known by Mader and others. He regularly attends seminars by the top reptile vets in the country. And he institutes those changes in his philosophy and practice rather than holding onto outdated methods and theories. The more I'm exposed to him and see the results the greater respect I have for him.

The chill was my opinion only due to the observation the moment the wind blew the animal opened his mouth to gap and breathe. I've observed this on several other chams when they had LRI.

 

[beeze]

LRI or pneumonia is common to our animals. While many of you insist on calling it URI it isn't as my vet chides me. These are lower respiratory issues unless there is discharge from the nose. Then its URI. Otherwise bubbles in the throat is from the lungs and lower respiratory.

I make this distinction again to help people further understand their animal's functions. Like humans phenomena is fluid in the lungs which will create suffocation if not treated.

When one of my chams was foaming at the mouth after I thought he was cured of LRI I called the vet who told me to get him into the shower and make it as steamy as possible. He went onto explain that we needed to get warm moisture breathed into the lung to facilitate the animal purging the fluids by having them come up into the throat and out of the lungs.

Recently our youngest cham had LRI and I treated with Baytril for 10 days. Only by the 7th day did he stop gapping. With the weird weather I think he got a chill and I started to see gaping again. I confirmed there were bubbles blocking his throat.

This time I gave him Baytril in conjunction with a warm mist humidifier in place of his cool mist. The vet had told me to get the humidity up as high as possible. I ran a elbow on the humidifier to let it flow right into the cage.

The cham went right towards it and sat there all day with his nose in the direction of the mist. When it was time to sleep he went over to the middle of the tree then did something I never saw a Cham do before. He got up and went back to the mist facing into it and slept there. I had it on him all night of course and when I checked his throat this morning it was 100% clear and he was moving around like nothing was wrong.

I'm not recommending only warm mist as a cure for LRI/pneumonia however, its proven itself essential to the animal for a speedy recovery and relief if you can't get to the vet fast.

Great info to know. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Monzon]

interesting post.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

interesting post.

From two years ago...