Found a Cham, i think he is ill

[creepydesire]

Hello everyone, i have been on a walk with my dog this morning and she started to sniff somthing on the fence, as i aproached it i realised it is a chameleon, it have sat on a green fence but he/she was gray and didnt really move, as i started to touch it and my dog sniffed it , it moved a bit but acted like blind without opening its eyes, i picked him up and placed on a big planet in my house, he opened one eye but i saw that its creamy white and dont really see with it anything. Here is its photos, what should i do? I dont have any knowledge on Chameleons but i do want to save this little creature. Please help.

 

[GrimCamel]

Looks very sickly. Chameleons should not have closed eyes during the day and the eyes are sunken in. Looks pretty bad. I would say there's not much you could do but visit a exotic vet that can check its overall health and for parasites which I think is the main problem here. Chameleons tend to hide their own illness so when they show obvious signs like this its pretty bad. It will probably be hard to get her up on her feet again, you can try with the help of a vet and this forum but I think you should be prepared for the worst :/

 

[Lathis]

Could it be a female with eggs? It looks very puffy and round in that first picture.

Lots and lots of water. Sunken eyes are usually a sign of dehydration. Use a spray bottle and give it long warm mistings. It may take the cham a minute to start drinking, so do at least five minutes at a time.

Where are you located? Are there wild chameleons where you are? Or is this someone's escaped or released pet?

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/

The care section if the Forum has a ton of trust whereby information. Start reading asap! Welcome to the Forum and good luck!

 

[creepydesire]

Could it be a female with eggs? It looks very puffy and round in that first picture.

Lots and lots of water. Sunken eyes are usually a sign of dehydration. Use a spray bottle and give it long warm mistings. It may take the cham a minute to start drinking, so do at least five minutes at a time.

Where are you located? Are there wild chameleons where you are? Or is this someone's escaped or released pet?

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/

The care section if the Forum has a ton of trust whereby information. Start reading asap! Welcome to the Forum and good luck!

I live in Israel, it is a wild animal and there is a Wildlife law here and people are mostly forbidden to rise wildlife animals here, so i don't think it escaped. i will come back home and i will try to mist it.

 

[kinyonga]

This is a chamaeleo chamaeleon, native to Israel. It is egglaying season. I can't tell from the photos for sure if it's a female or not. If it is a female and she has eggs she needs a place to lay them...a container of slightly moist washed playsand.

It's eyes are very sunken in and I don't like that lump on the bottom of the belly in the first photo. I don't think it has much chance of surviving...but the most important thing right now IMHO, is to make sure it gets some water. Be very careful with this because you don't want it to aspirate the water (end up with water in its lungs). I would drip water at the rate of one or two drips per second on the tip of its nose and hope it drinks. Once it's drinking it needs some insects to eat.

I hope you can help it.

Here's some info...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_chameleon

I'm not a vet...just kept this species (and many others) many years ago for a long time.

 

[creepydesire]

Well, here is more photos of it.
I misted it yesterday a bit, got some branches and put them in a box with the chameleon, it started climbing and this morning it looks better i think, i didn't see it drink water so i opened his mouth, without much of a force and put a few drops of water in.

Is it a male or a female?

 

[Jol]

There isn't much else I can help you with as I'm fairly new to owning a chameleon but I can tell you that it's female.

 

[kinyonga]

It's head pads are sunken in and should be protruding. Did it drink/swallow the water you gave it?

Are you living in an area where there might be insecticides sprayed?

If you can, I would set up an opaque container about 12" deep by 12" by 8" full of moistened sand and dig a hole in it in case it does have eggs.

Can you find any insects it could eat that are from an area that hasn't been sprayed?

I wish I knew for sure what was wrong with it....could just be old even.

 

[cquest]

I noticed that you said she was in a box. What re you doing about lighting? This will help her she looks sweet. Hope all is well, Good luck

 

[FrankTheTank]

check out the care sheets at the bottom left corner of the page. there is a lot of great info there