Administering Baytril--- Chameleon acts dead?

Hey guys, I've been a dirty lurker for a long time on here, but I've never found an occasion to ask a question, until this morning.

My question is this-- has anyone ever experienced their chameleon straight up pretending to die when given an oral dose of Baytril?

Last night we wound up having to take our 2-year old Jackson's to the emergency vet, where they prescribed him oral Baytril and a mouth rinse for his mouth rot. Yoshi has had jaw problems since we adopted him, and it just seems like he can't shake the stupid mouth rot to save him.

Normally, we take him to our regular vet, but last night was as bad as I've ever seen him, so after picking up his prescription, I administered a dose super carefully like the vet showed me, and Yoshi literally when "BLEGHHHHH" and keeled over and froze.

I freaked out, obviously, as I thought I had just killed my chameleon, but after I moved him to his "sick bay" cage, he started moving around a little more and seemed to be doing a little better. I gave him some water and called it a night.

This morning, same story-- got him out, cleaned out his mouth, oral rinse, I waited about 15 minutes so he could settle down from that, and then I administered the Bayril again-- same exact reaction-- BLEGHHHHH and then keeling over.

I don't know whether or not to be amused or concerned, as it seems like he's using the same strategy I did when I didn't want to get shots as a 4-year old, but not being able to find anything else online about this odd phenomenon is slightly disconcerting.

Thank you everyone!!

When I had to give baytril to my panther he would shake his head and look like he was gagging cause im sure it doesnt taste good. The vet said we could mix it with a tiny bit of a poultry flavored baby food to hide the taste. After we did that he handled it a lot better. Just make sure you keep him hydrated apparently baytril can dehydrate them.

Yeah, it's a little frustrating because he's not eating OR drinking on his own-- I was astounded at how quickly he went downhill-- he was a little lethargic last Thursday, but by last night he looked like he wasn't going to make it.

I don't want to stuff him or drown him, so I'm always nervous about how much water/food to manually administer.

Same with my guy, I overdosed him on d3 . I was only giving 0.1 of baytril. So I made sure I only mixed enough baby food with the baytril to keep it 0.1. Just spray him down and hope for the best the baytril is hard on them. My guy looked horrible for about a month. I would give him his baytril and keep him hydrated. Bug juice is what you could force feed if you have to. Bugs water and a tiny bit of calcium. I don't know too much about jacksons but I don't think they need as much supplementation as a panther so that would be up to your discretion.

Maybe playing dead is just how he reacts to the stress of being medicated? My guy would avoid me! He knew what was coming. I was quick about it and left him alone. Natural sunlight really perked him up too.

Yep - mine also

I had a young chameleon do this at the vet's office when it was getting a dose of Panacur. The vet told me that reptiles do this behavior as a way to ward of predators (we look like one to them and/or the meds feel like they are being compromised).

I would still ask your vet about it just to be safe, in case Yoshi is having a reaction to the medicine. However, my chams HATE Baytril!! It must taste really yucky to them because that is the only medicine they do anything to avoid!

Yeah, I called the vet and they were like..."well...it probably doesn't taste too good", but he seems to be doing a lot better this afternoon. I'm going to work on getting him fed up a bit.
Thanks everyone!

It's a shame he won't eat I'm injecting my girls oral baytril into a locust each day, no stress for her or me!

I hope little yoshi gets better soon

Well everyone, thank you for the advice and support, but unfortunately, my poor Yoshi died this afternoon. I'm really upset, but the lessons I learned in husbandry will last me a long time, and my knowledge of herping and interests in chameleons has grown because of him, and I was able to give him a good home in the time he was around.

Sorry your little Yoshi didn't make it. When they decide to call it quits, there isn't much we can do for them.

For future reference, if you inject the meds into a soft bodied worm then they don't get the taste of the medicine right off. I used wax worms because they were smaller and easier to force-feed to my cham when he didn't want to eat on his own. I've also heard of people putting the meds into the belly section of their roaches or crix too. And, any meds can be hard on the livers and kidneys so increased hydration is important and when my little guy was refusing water, I just put pedialyte and/or water into the waxies too.

Sorry again for your loss. Since you tried so hard and took good care of him, I hope you jump back in and have better luck next time.

I'm so sorry!