All and every rehydration technique welcome

[carlosandcat]

Carlos is dehydrated

I have tried:

drip feeding mineral water
a drip sytem
warm misting 4 - 5 x a day

any more suggestions?

 

[Miss Lily]

Have you tried a warm shower? Put him in the shower on a plant or suchlike and direct the spray of the shower so it bounces off of the wall then onto him. I did this when Lily was poorly but used a pressurised mister that I filled up and aimed in her direction rather than using the shower.

 

[carlosandcat]

i just did something similar over the sink, wiht a hand held mister and warm water. I did it for 5 minutes, is that long enough?

 

[Miss Lily]

Probably not long enough - they usually need anything from 20 minutes upwards to stimulate them to drink. Lily used to drink straight away, but not all chams enjoy a shower! My mister that I use over the bath has a pump on the top to build pressure, then you just lock the handle down and it mists on its own until the pressure falls. Saves an awful lot of hand/arm ache! Its worth persevering for longer than 5 minutes especially if he is a reluctant drinker! Just be sure to use hot water that sprays out warm when it hits room temperature. This will prevent him from getting too cold.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Water dripping at all times during the day.
Lengthy misting sessions.
Juicy prey, such as hornworms, can have a remarkable impact on a chameleons hydration.
Offering fruit, such as pears, if the chameleon will eat such
Vet administered injections.

 

[luevelvet]

You can also offer water from a pipette or feeding syringe. You can usually find smaller ones at your local pharmacy. Just fill it with water and place a drop on the rim of it's mouth. You may have to hold the syringe about a millimeter or two away from its mouth to hold the drop of water against the mouth but sometimes they just start lapping it up. Once the mouth starts to open slightly to lap up the drop press it down very slightly to get another one in there and continue until it's had its share.

Good luck,

Luis

 

[Carlton]

What's your cage like? Chams can dehydrate fairly quickly through respiration if the air is dry or there aren't enough surfaces to hold the spray droplets long enough. The spraying you do can evaporate quickly...too quickly for the cham to get enough to drink. They tend to drink slowly over a longer period than we realize. If you don't have one now, get a good electronic humidity gauge from a home improvement store. They aren't expensive. You may find that the air in the room is a lot drier than you realize so your cham is losing ground over time. If the cage doesn't have a lot of large bushy live plants, add some. You can also hang plastic sheeting on the back or sides of the cage to help hold in the moisture after spraying. If you find the air in the room is consistently dry (if you use a forced air furnace or an AC in summer), you can run a room humidifier near the cage too.

 

[mikee51]

hi

one trick i use is when my parsons havnt drink for a while and dont respond on showers etc is when they just chewing and swallow foods i drip water in mouth and when they lick the lips i drip on the tongue,and sometimes they continue to drink.you also might have to put the dripper so the drips lands near him/her.
good luck

 

[Brandon]

try silkworms, as they have a high moisture content.

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."i just did something similar over the sink"...not the kitchen sink, I hope??

 

[zombiepixel]

If you have an aggressive Cham that gapes on site could you squirt a few MLs of water in their mouth with a small syringe? Or could the choke?

 

[Miss Lily]

Yes choking is a possibility - you shouldn't squirt anything into a chams mouth. Best to dribble/dropwater onto the end of the nose/mouth. I used to get Lily to drink by dropping a small drop of water on her tongue as she was licking her lips after eating. I think this was suggested earlier too.

 

[CNorton]

If you have an aggressive Cham that gapes on site could you squirt a few MLs of water in their mouth with a small syringe? Or could the choke?

Actually, this was a popular topic at our chameleon meeting a couple moths back. We posed the question to Dr. Stein who is very experienced with reptiles and chameleons. He pointed out that reptiles do not breathe as often as we mammals do. On the other end of the spectrum are birds that seem to be constently breathing. He told us that the rial of aspiration with our chameleons is very very small. Anytime a cham opens it's mouth or even sees you, it's guard is up and it will hold it's breath for longer periods of time. Even without outside stimuli, the chameleon takes very few breathes compared to us. Don't believe me? Try plugging your chams nose and see how long it takes before it gaped. I had to do this with an extremely easygoing Fischer in order to administer meds. Otherwise, I don't recommend plugging your chams nose just for fun. Haha.

Hope this helps!

 

[mikee51]

hi again

after a chameleon have been eating he licks his lips,at that point you can drip on his overlip so the water sucks in to the mouth,i can almost fill my parson gular sacks in this way,in the best way they start to drink.

 

[laurie]

How are things coming? We are waiting to hear if any of the ideas helped. Does he look more hydrated?

 

[kenya]

All of the above are good ideas, especially warm showers and silk/horn worms.

You can also get pedialyte from the store and drip it into your chams mouth once he starts drinking. This will rehydrate him faster since it has necessary electrolytes in it that plain water is lacking.

You can also inject it into feeder insects (soft bodied worms work best...roaches are good, too)

 

[jojackson]

As mentioned before, where efforts seem to no avail, and if your lizard is eating, you can also pump juicy worms full of water via injection. This would seem to be the best solution in your case without stress involved.
Ofcourse please perservere with your efforts and ensure water dripping at all times during waking hours.
Please update us on your pet's condition. I admire your perserverance and dedication to your animal. Well done.

 

[carlosandcat]

hi all,

sorry fot eh absence, had some issues wiht the internet!

Well, carlos is hanging on, in fact we are thingking of renaming him hercules.

I am still drip feeding him with whizzed up crickets, waxworms ccf and calcium mixed in water. He seems to go from being a little better, brighter colour, opneing his eyes a little to a=the next day when he may be dark and lethargic. We sent him poo off last week, but are still awaintg ht results, apparently it takes time to grow the cultures.

re the hydration: The only water he seems to get its from us squirting wiht a syringe. He sometimes seems to have the hang os it and when we take him out he opnes his mouth for water (but no puffing up, so i am assuming this isnt aggression -being handled 4 x a day probably has domesticated him somewhat unfotunately) He has a ermamant drip system i set up, but he just seems to ingore it, sometime if he is sitting under it and it drops on his head he just ignores it.

I feel very pessimistic at this stage as he is not eating his own and its getting harder to feed him as i hate having to 'force' him to eat (bu this i mean useing a tear drp syringe to make him open his mouth. I have a small dish wiht two wax worms in in the hopes one day he will just grab one, but i havent seen him stick his tongue out for 3 weeks now.

Hopefully vet results tomorrow, and i hope and pray they find somethig really simple that can be treated. runnig out of ideas.

thanks so much to everyone and their brilliant ideas and dedication tot he cause, dont hesitate if you have nay more suguestions

nb: Catalina - his girlfrind in a separate viv, is fat, happy and healthy, with a lvely thick curly tail - about 4 months now. Everytime i spray her she puffs up and looks like she wants to punch me, so all's well in that tank : )