Respitory infection in brand new female. Trying reptaid.

So I was shipped a new 6 month old ambilobe female on Thursday. Besides feeding and taking a few pictures I tried to leave her alone the rest of the day so I didn't really observe her a whole lot on Thursday. On Friday morning I noticed the classic signs of a respiratory infection. She was frequently "popping"/coughing and gasping for air and I knowledge some bubbles when she opened her mouth. I gave her a warm mist bath with a vicks vaporizer right away and bumped up her temps a little. After that I decided to take a video of her symptoms to show the vendor because I read on their website that they have a health guarantee. They responded by saying that she was fine when she left. I asked if I could purchase some reptaid from them and they shipped it over the weekend. I received the reptaid today(Monday) and gave the first dose. As of the past couple days her condition appears to remain stable. On the plus side her day to day behavior remains good. She is eating, drinking, and basking as normal. As long as her normal behavior(eating, drinking, basking, and movement) and appearance(non sunken or closed eyes) remains the same I will use this opportunity to as an experiment to test the effectiveness of reptaid against respiratory infections. If any of her conditions worsen I'll be making a vet visit for a culture and antibiotics. Hopefully that won't be necessary as I hate using drugs on chameleons.

Treatment will be .04 ml orally every day two hours after lights turn on.
Here is the video I sent to the vendor the day after receiving her. At 40 seconds in the video she has a good cough but it's hard to hear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mADryubgnxc&feature=youtu.be

I will update this thread with more info and videos of her condition over her treatment. Any sugestions or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Wish me luck guys and gals 'cause I'm already attached to her!
-Alex

Hi! Welcome....

It seems like you are on top of a difficult situation.

I will say that I don't find "she was fine when we sent her" to match up to a "health guarantee"...I would think such a guarantee would extend to the time you received her.

I look forward to your further posts on this.

I agree with the previous post. Anyone selling chameleons, especially if they consider themselves "professional" breeders has to take a different approach to your concern besides stating that "it was ok when she left".Either they replace the animal or take care of the expenses the health issues cause. A chameleon does not get sick overnight like that. If they are not professional enough to show concern on the animal I would never do business with them again IMO. I would recommend a vet visit just to make sure it's not something serious, or I would request the breeder an exchange for a healthy one, if you do not want to go throug the hassle or expenses of caring for a sick animal. I wish you and your new chameleon the best.

I would *REALLY* hope they didn't make you pay for the reptaid at least!

sorry your new little one arrived sick and I agree with everyone that even if "she was fine when she left" the guarantee should extend far beyond that. Maybe she was just not showing the symptoms of the RI yet when she was shipped. I hope she continues to improve, and if not, that the breeder stands behind thier chameleon with a health guarantee. good luck!

EvilLost said:

I would *REALLY* hope they didn't make you pay for the reptaid at least!

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I offered to pay for it. So yeah I did pay for it. I just wanted it ASAP!

I hope the Reptaid works, but in any case, the breeder should take care of your expenses in getting her better.

how's she doing today?

Lancecham said:

I hope the Reptaid works, but in any case, the breeder should take care of your expenses in getting her better.

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That is how I feel. Dont offer a full health and satisfaction guarantee if you arent willing to deal with things like this.

i would try to see if they can cover the vet bill at least. i mean the animal you have is a living thing who needs care and love. A respiratory infection is no reason to send it back for a new one but it should definitely be covered by the breeder. it only says one thing, that the breeder is not a professional and also they weren't keeping everything up to par wherever they do their business.

richpass6 said:

i would try to see if they can cover the vet bill at least. i mean the animal you have is a living thing who needs care and love. A respiratory infection is no reason to send it back for a new one but it should definitely be covered by the breeder. it only says one thing, that the breeder is not a professional and also they weren't keeping everything up to par wherever they do their business.

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Yeah I agree if I sent her back the poor thing would probably just get more stressed out and die. Plus the fact that I'm already attached to her doesn't help! The vendor is a forum sponsor so I'm hopeing they are trustworthy and will do the right thing if need be.

How is she doing? I would not wait to take her to the vet as they can go so fast by the time they show an illness. I do hope she will get better with the care you are giving her.. but please if she needs vet care I would get it soon. I just lost two of mine so quickly by the time I realized they were sick.

I just e-mailed the vendor asking if they would cover the vet bill if I feel I need to take her in. We'll see what happens. Gave the second dose of reptaid today. Hopefully the reptaid along with elevated temps and warm mist baths will help her pull through soon. Keep your fingers crossed for her!

Got a response from the vendor. They said they don't pay for vet bills but they do full refunds or exchanges. They said to stay faithful to the reptaid treatment so I will do that as of now. I really hope it works. Here is a video of her symptoms I took today for the vendor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Ce6XSgadA&feature=youtu.be

not and easy chore but try and wipe any extra saliva from the mouth.

if you don't mind em asking. who is the vendor? from your video you can see the extra swelling in her throat. my little girl right not has an RI, doesn't look as bad but i have her on clavamox right now....

I am certain that no member , especially a site sponsor, would knowingly ship a chameleon that was ill. I am more willing to believe she was exposed to less than adequate temps during the shipping process. Prolonged cold on a plane or truck , even with a heat pack could have triggered an RI. We all try our best to keep our chams as healthy as possible but unfortunately nothing is perfect, especially shipping an animal in a box. We do it all the time & it works 98% of the time,but there are the times when something goes wrong out of our hands so it is important to keep that in mind before blaming anybody for something that happened obviously without their knowledge or intention.

I don't think anyone was putting a blame on the breeder. I do think that its the person who shipped the animal who is responsible for its integrity. if the animal arrives sick chances are it was sick before it left and then started showing symptoms after a night of discomfort..who knows. bottom line, I'm glad the breeder is taking responsibility for the sick animal and I'm also happy the new owner has decided to keep the "little guy".

Update

First of all Richpass "little girl" not "little guy", lol.

Yeah I'm not putting blame on the breeder she could have looked perfectly fine before leaving and then some idiot from fedex could have left her outside a truck for awhile, but who knows. I understand that as much as we try to make things perfect we are dealing with VERY sensitive living organisms and stuff can very eaisly go wrong.

As of right now she is doing a little better I think. Her activity level, appetite, and drinking are all very normal(appetite might even be ablove normal!) She is still gasping for air every once in a while and has some mucus in her mouth but seems like she is dealing with it at the moment. I elevated her temps just a bit(extra basking light) and I've been using a vicks vaporizer to give her warm mist baths and it seems like everying along iwth the reptaid might be working.

I talked to the breeder on the phone and they seem like very nice people just a bad situation. They reassured me that if things do end up going south from the RI that I would be covered under their health policy.

Hopefully with the treatment I've been giving her she'll pull through.

If anyone has any other secret tip for dealing with RI's let me know!

-Alex

Thanks for posting those videos, and further explanations. I purchased one faly male from a breeder who I don't think is a sponsor, who after seeing your video I'm sure had a RI, unfortunately I had to return it as I got little feedback and no extension of a 5 day warranty. I'm much happier with my new Cham, as I know it arrived in perfect health unlike the previous one after I switched vendors. You guys are right about the weather I suppose that is a downside in purchasing animals when temps are less than ideal.