URGENT! Please help/advise

BanZI29

New Member
We have a 9month? Old jackson, med. Size cage, had a "money tree" in the cage for the last 3 days (see pic) has not eaten in 2 days, taken some
water, and tonight he was hanging on the side of the cage, and just fell, seemed disoriented and laying sideways when i picked him up. He is handled daily for about 5 to 10min. He was outside in the evening sun for about 10 min, as usual. I took out the tree as he seemed fine before i put it in there. He was a normal light green color before he fell and then all black after. The first pic of him is about 5 min after he fell.the wnd pic is about 5 min as of this post. Seems to be moving slower then usual and has a somewhat weak grip when holding him. Please see the pix and any help, advise is appreciated.
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In thin the wild they fall up to 15 feet at times to get away from predators just do you know. I would keep a close eye on him! Make sure he drinks water and eats! The lose grip might be due to low uv light and low calcium. Do you have any live plants in the enclosure that you didn’t take the soil out of the roots and clean the leaves if there’s any fertilizer or pesticides it can kill it real quick within days to be exact??? What does his feces (poop) look like? And make sure you clean out the feces (poop) every day because if the feeders eat the poop then the chameleon eats the feeders well you know what might be going on...I wouldn’t put it on a monkey tree ever to be honest. Here’s how you can get calcium in your little guy without dusting the feeders get your hand mister put some calcium without D3 in the hand mister and make sure you’re treating the water for chorine with something like repti safe water treatment even if you’re using bottled water you’d be surprised how much is in bottled water. Just an idea because most feeders that you dust with calcium comes off of your feeders when misting the enclosure. Be careful though you can overdue it with calcium without d3. I hope this helps and keep me updated...
Dean
greenchameleons
 
He gets calcium dusted crickets everyday, no plants in there now. He hasn't eaten in 2 days so no poo. He was black for a long time tonight till i put him by the lights. He then seemed to warm p and go back close to his usual color. Still slow and so far taken a little a bit of water this afternoon. Will not eat ro take water as of now.
 
Pothos (devils ivy) ficus trees and unbrella plants are safe as long as you take the old soil down to bare root and throughly clean the leaves with some organic pet store cleaner disinfectant and let it set for several months outside to get whatever pesticides and fertilizer is still lingering.
 
He gets calcium dusted crickets everyday, no plants in there now. He hasn't eaten in 2 days so no poo. He was black for a long time tonight till i put him by the lights. He then seemed to warm p and go back close to his usual color. Still slow and so far taken a little a bit of water this afternoon. Will not eat ro take water as of now.

You shouldn’t dust your crickets everyday! How long was the monkey tree in his enclosure? What is your temperatures in the enclosure? And what light bulbs are you using! Can you send a picture of your little guy recently? That would help a lot...
 
Here is another thing Jacksons are mountainous they need a max uv basting spot of 75-80 degrees consistently and cooler temperatures throughout the cage. During the night hours it doesn’t need a light on him and the temperature should be around 60ish. A good couple of hours in the natural sun under close observation could recharge his body with that being said don’t let it get above 80 where he likes to bast in the light to warm up. Hope any of what I’ve said has helped you.
 
Make sure you change your uv light bulb every 6 months regardless if it is burnt out or not that’s just how I do it but on the bulb it says yearly it’s worn out most of the uv power within a year.
 
You said..."the wnd pic is about 5 min as of this post"...please clarify what you mean.

I do not agree with putting the calcium in the mister and spraying the chameleon with it. Also...the reason we dust the insects with a phosphorous-free calcium powder is to help make up for the poor ratio of calcium to phosphorous found in most feeder insects...so we do it at almost every feeding. Unless you overdose the D3 from supplements the calcium should not build up in the chameleons system.

In all my 30+ years of keeping chameleons I have never used a cleaner disinfectant to clean plants with before putting them in the cage....I have always just washed them well...both sides of the leaves...with water.

As for the fall...it's true that they can fall and even jump from fairly high things but that doesn't mean they can't injure themselves doing it either...it depends on what they hit on the way down and how they land. Keep an eye on it and if it's not back to normal in a day or two post again on here and take it to a vet. If it seems worse get it to a vet right away.
 
Pothos (devils ivy) ficus trees and unbrella plants are safe as long as you take the old soil down to bare root and throughly clean the leaves with some organic pet store cleaner disinfectant and let it set for several months outside to get whatever pesticides and fertilizer is still lingering.
The plant I got was the stereotypucal money tree with the braided trunk. I did wash the leaves off bit probobly not as well as I should have.
 
The tree was in there for 3 days. I have a 5.0 compact tube UVB that is 4 months old and a incandesent UVA blue bulb about 2 months old. His basking spot is about 6 inches from the lights and averages 85. Lights off at night. Fogger on consintly as its hard to maintain the humidity above 60. He has a basking side and a cool side, where the fogger mainly is. As of this morn.(4:30 am) He was hanging on the side of the cage, normal green color and asleep. He fell from his vines 2 more times last night but we put towels at the bottom to catch him. Did not hit anything on the way down. I use zoo-med calcium, no other supliments. there is no plant now as I have not gotten a replacement yet. If he pulls thru, will replace it with an umbrella plant.
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A lot of questionable information here. Put the plant back in ASAP. You need WAY more cover for him. Washing the plants is over rated, flushing with water is good. Fertilizer will not hurt the chameleon, unless he ingests it. Best practice is to cover all soil (large rocks) to prevent impaction, but i do believe that is overrated. Do not stop dusting your feeders with calcium without d3 every day. Remember, you’re only barely dusting them. The reason you dust every day is to make sure at least a couple insects are eaten with powder still on them. Crickets are notorious for cleaning the supplements off quickly. Unless you have the chameleon outside most every day, you need to use calcium with d3 about twice a month, and a good multivitamin twice a month as well. My multivitamins contain d3 (two birds with one stone). This species requires cooler temps than most, and good amounts of misting with lingering humidity. More live plants will help with holding humidity between mistings. The nebulizer you’re using (yes, that’s a nebulizer, not humidifier), is not a source for water for him, and can easily cause upper respiratory infections in compromised chameleons. The little dripper will help, but you need more foliage for it to drip down to improve hydration, misting will help also. I’ve never heard of adding calcium to misting water. Just treat your tap water for the chlorine as stated previously. Tap water is full of calcium and other minerals (some not so good), but if it’s safe for us, it’s safe for them. Sorry the guy has been falling. It sounds like he may already be sick, a trip to the vet is in order if his feeding doesn’t pick back up.
 
Not all of it. What’s wrong with a money tree? Ca in H2O for misting? You won’t overdose a chameleon on Ca w/o d3.
 
Hey all. Thankyou for all the replys. As of thursday, Axle sadly passed away. We took him to the vet thursday morn. Got a full workup, blood, xrays, the works. The Dr. Found he had pnemonia. He tube fed and rehydrated him and sent him home with antibiotics and specific instructions for care. We followed it to the letter and he started vomiting, for lack of a better term, clear mucus. He would be aggressive when i reached in to give him water. He was behaving strangly and disoriented, and about 7pm, i checked on him, he was laying on his side bearly breathing, i picked him up and just held him till he passed. My daughter is heart broken, but she will recover. She is a strong girl. I got a call today from the Dr. Today amd the bloodwork showed tje pnemonia and a possible nerological issue. Possibly a parasite or bacteria. He's not sure yet.
 
Hey all. Thankyou for all the replys. As of thursday, Axle sadly passed away. We took him to the vet thursday morn. Got a full workup, blood, xrays, the works. The Dr. Found he had pnemonia. He tube fed and rehydrated him and sent him home with antibiotics and specific instructions for care. We followed it to the letter and he started vomiting, for lack of a better term, clear mucus. He would be aggressive when i reached in to give him water. He was behaving strangly and disoriented, and about 7pm, i checked on him, he was laying on his side bearly breathing, i picked him up and just held him till he passed. My daughter is heart broken, but she will recover. She is a strong girl. I got a call today from the Dr. Today amd the bloodwork showed tje pnemonia and a possible nerological issue. Possibly a parasite or bacteria. He's not sure yet.

So sorry about your little guy
 
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