pigglett79
Avid Member
I have been meaning to write this post, but given it is a long story I had to wait until I had time to sit down and do it right.
Let me start by letting those of you who dont know, I have a panther named George who has had gular edema for about a year now. The gular edema, while it doesnt seem to bother him and plays a significant role in my story.
George has always been a very overly friendly and mischievous guy. You can see below some of the trouble he was getting in to.
Well back in September I started reading about the exo terra sun ray bulbs. It seemed to be a great new way to approach basking bulbs with a full sun type spectrum. In November I purchased 3 of them to try out with my guys.
Within a couple of weeks I noticed that George wasn't eating, whereas before he was a pig. I really didnt attribute it to the lights as I though perhaps he was just getting older and also I kept thinking that maybe whatever was causing the edema was starting to worsen.
By January he was going a couple weeks at a time without eating, very abnormal for him. He was not active at all and never even tried to come out of his cage or move much when in the cage. I took him to the vet for testing. His fecal and blood samples were all normal. The vet also could not figure out what could be causing the edema. We decided to try a round of antibiotics just to see if maybe it would help. In the mean time I was syringe feeding him critical care food from the vet. He was not active, not eating and I assumed the worst and I also assumed it was related to the edema.
February and March I start noticing that the other panther is constipated, George wasn't pooping much but he also wasn't eating so I didn't think much about it. But the other panther did not have a decrease in appetite so I was beginning to wonder what was wrong. Our jackson was doing great, eating and pooping normally.
In march I was also focused on our bearded dragon as he became very ill and was later put to sleep so this also distracted me from investigating further the changes in the panthers.
Now we get to April when I post on facebook about showering my panthers because they are constipated. Nick Gill replied asking why they were going 2+ weeks without pooping and started asking basic questions about my basking temps and other husbandry issues. Now I will admit that at first I was sort of blowing off his comment as I felt I was doing not only everything correctly, but going above and beyond with all of my expensive set ups and bug breeding groups.
Not the best picture....
But then I decided to really think about his comment and re-evaluate my set ups. That's when it hit me! The basking bulbs!!!!! With the sun rays I couldn't get the basking temps over 84-85 degrees (83-84 for the one on the jacksons cage which perfect for the jackson, hence he was fine). And given the house is a bit cooler in the winter, their temps were lower than normal. Given the care sheets state 85-90 basking temp, I figured 84 was close enough.
I immediately changed out the sun rays for their regular incandescent basking bulbs and bumped the temps up to 90 degrees. Within 2 days George was eating, within 4 days he was active and acting normal again, and within 8 days he was pooping again. I felt excited and horrible at the same time. For 5 months I was the cause of his lack of appetite, inactivity and constipation.
After months of sitting around not active he did this again and I was ecstatic!
I wanted to share my story as it is all too easy to overlook a simple issue that can really have a big impact on the chameleon. From this I have learned that even being slightly out of the range required can have a huge negative result. Its a reminder that they really do require a very specific range of needs and going outside of that can really cause big problems. And most importantly, I learned to not allow myself to think I know it all and that a simple reminder regarding basic husbandry can even help someone who has been doing things right for a while. You can be blinded to a simple issue all to easily.
Let me start by letting those of you who dont know, I have a panther named George who has had gular edema for about a year now. The gular edema, while it doesnt seem to bother him and plays a significant role in my story.
George has always been a very overly friendly and mischievous guy. You can see below some of the trouble he was getting in to.
Well back in September I started reading about the exo terra sun ray bulbs. It seemed to be a great new way to approach basking bulbs with a full sun type spectrum. In November I purchased 3 of them to try out with my guys.
Within a couple of weeks I noticed that George wasn't eating, whereas before he was a pig. I really didnt attribute it to the lights as I though perhaps he was just getting older and also I kept thinking that maybe whatever was causing the edema was starting to worsen.
By January he was going a couple weeks at a time without eating, very abnormal for him. He was not active at all and never even tried to come out of his cage or move much when in the cage. I took him to the vet for testing. His fecal and blood samples were all normal. The vet also could not figure out what could be causing the edema. We decided to try a round of antibiotics just to see if maybe it would help. In the mean time I was syringe feeding him critical care food from the vet. He was not active, not eating and I assumed the worst and I also assumed it was related to the edema.
February and March I start noticing that the other panther is constipated, George wasn't pooping much but he also wasn't eating so I didn't think much about it. But the other panther did not have a decrease in appetite so I was beginning to wonder what was wrong. Our jackson was doing great, eating and pooping normally.
In march I was also focused on our bearded dragon as he became very ill and was later put to sleep so this also distracted me from investigating further the changes in the panthers.
Now we get to April when I post on facebook about showering my panthers because they are constipated. Nick Gill replied asking why they were going 2+ weeks without pooping and started asking basic questions about my basking temps and other husbandry issues. Now I will admit that at first I was sort of blowing off his comment as I felt I was doing not only everything correctly, but going above and beyond with all of my expensive set ups and bug breeding groups.
Not the best picture....
But then I decided to really think about his comment and re-evaluate my set ups. That's when it hit me! The basking bulbs!!!!! With the sun rays I couldn't get the basking temps over 84-85 degrees (83-84 for the one on the jacksons cage which perfect for the jackson, hence he was fine). And given the house is a bit cooler in the winter, their temps were lower than normal. Given the care sheets state 85-90 basking temp, I figured 84 was close enough.
I immediately changed out the sun rays for their regular incandescent basking bulbs and bumped the temps up to 90 degrees. Within 2 days George was eating, within 4 days he was active and acting normal again, and within 8 days he was pooping again. I felt excited and horrible at the same time. For 5 months I was the cause of his lack of appetite, inactivity and constipation.
After months of sitting around not active he did this again and I was ecstatic!
I wanted to share my story as it is all too easy to overlook a simple issue that can really have a big impact on the chameleon. From this I have learned that even being slightly out of the range required can have a huge negative result. Its a reminder that they really do require a very specific range of needs and going outside of that can really cause big problems. And most importantly, I learned to not allow myself to think I know it all and that a simple reminder regarding basic husbandry can even help someone who has been doing things right for a while. You can be blinded to a simple issue all to easily.
