ponders
Chameleon Enthusiast
I had a sad day yesterday, my female panther that I hatched from an egg died. She was 9 months old and was bred on 12-6-08. I noticed after they mated (which lasted about 15 minutes) a pool of blood on the bottom of the cage and drops on the plants. The male was bleeding from his vent and the female also had blood dripping from her vent. I seperated them and they both acted normal. He put all his stuff away with no swelling and she stopped dripping. We searched the forum and found a thread of how the male can injure himself and there can be bleeding. The male is fine and had a normal poop a few days later. She acted normal and turned gravid colors. She only ate sparingly which gravid females can do and drank like a fish. She never pooped during this time, but she wasn't eating much and she only pooped once a week normally. She moved to her basking spot daily and cruised around her cage everyday until yesterday. Yesterday AM she had her eyes closed and they were sunken in like in the first photo-actually the first photo is from 7pm and that's how she looked that morning-like death. I sprayed her with warm water and she drank, but was keeping her eyes closed. She moved around the cage during the day, but was discovered dead later. My dad is here for xmas and is a retired vet so we did a necropsy right away. When he cut her open, her whole body cavity was full of pus, it just poured out. He suspects peritonitis. Her intestinal tract was intact, so we think she was torn during the mating and infection set in. Dad thinks that had I put her on antibiotics right away, she might still be alive, but who would have thought? There were no eggs, the uterus was black and necrotic. I'm sorry for the grafic pictures, but I wanted to share this info in case it can help someone in the future, and so we can learn from peoples experiences.
I hate losing chams.
