baby panther sick

[krazeone]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - ambilobee panther chameleon, male, approx 8 weeks old, i've had for a month.

Handling - very little, although alot more now that i'm having to hand feed
Feeding - mainly 2 week old crickets, has eaten a small wax worm, pinheads, gutloading with flukers orange cubes, also feeding mixed greens.
Supplements - dusted crickets with repashys calcium plus everyday/ also usin t-rex bone aid liquid calcium mixed with his carnivore care powder i'm handfeeding him
Watering - i use zoo meds 'the little dripper', i mist the tank 4-5 times a day, morning half hour after lights on, lunchtime, dinner, later at night
Fecal Description - he was pooping completely fine, recently in the last week his poop has been the color of the carnivore care (yellowish)
History -he's approx 6-9 weeks old, he was completely fine the first 2 weeks i had him, active, pooped well, ate like a champ, then all a sudden he stopped eating, sleeping all day long, took him to the vet after 3 days of not eating, starting to sleep during day, she gave an iv shot, and she gave me oxbow carnivore care to hand feed, been handfeeding it for a week now, nothing has changed, still wont eat, sleeps all day long until i force him to wake up to feed him. took him to another vet and he didnt know what was wrong either. he said he might be depressed? but the vet said other than being skinny from not eating, and sleeping all day he seems healthy, color looks good, eyes are good, he has an ok grip for how little energy he has.

Cage Info:
Cage Type -glass with screen lid, 10x20x12
Lighting - repti glo 5.0 and repti glo 2.0 as well as a basking light, on at 730am, off at around 830-9pm
Temperature - basking spot is between 90-93, the rest of the tank is between 70-90, using an exo-terra digital thermometor
Humidity - 60% minimum, usually 70-90% dripper system, lots of misting, use an exoterra hygrometer
Plants - golden pothos
Placement - in my rec room, not near any fans or vents, not a high traffic area
Location - Victoria british columbia, canada

Current Problem - he hasnt eaten live food in 11 days, he sleeps all day, i'm having to hand feed him oxbow carnivore care that was prescribed by a vet. but the store (they specialize in reptiles) 2 vets who specialize in reptiles, as well as people i personally know that own chameleons cant tell me whats wrong. he still drinks water fine, he's pooping 1-2 times a day it's coming out just as the carnivore cares coloured.

 

[reptoman]

Based on your basking temps in a glass cage I thnk you may be baking him. I would take the basking light off completely and see if he starts to come around after the temps go down. Pictures of your setup would be helpful as well.

 

[uniquechams]

Is it 20 tall? Glass in my opinion shouldn't be used for chameleons. Some people are good with them, some are not. If it isn't taller then wide or deep that is a problem too, due to the fact they are climbers. I
Am sorry your chams sick try turning the temp down like said above Good luck with your little one!

 

[krazeone]

ok, i just turned the basking light off, we'll see how that goes. i do have a 18X18x36 screen cage i didnt want to put him in it yet tho because he's so small. should i try to put him in the screen cage? i just worried about him falling

 

[Wykd]

I wish I could give you an answer on how what is wrong, but alas I have a baby cham doing the same thing to me at the moment. I can tell you though that we both have some of the same elements in the mix.

the reptiglo 5.0, repeshay calcium plus, misting schedule, and the fact both are drinking.

I agree on the basking temp being to hi, max of 80 for a baby panther. I had to drop down to a 25w incandescent in my small glass enclosure.

I am trying to give him a little pedialite in the spray setting on the misting bottle. I am going to hit lowes tomorrow at lunch and pick up some more screen and framing aluminum and make him a small screen enclosure. I tried the 18x18x36 and it was to big for him he just hung upside down in one spot and didnt feed there either. I honestly think its something in the husbandry in my situation. I know my temp/humidity are dead on so that only leaves the light, the supplements or enclosure that I can manipulate myself.

 

[reptoman]

ok, i just turned the basking light off, we'll see how that goes. i do have a 18X18x36 screen cage i didnt want to put him in it yet tho because he's so small. should i try to put him in the screen cage? i just worried about him falling

If you have many branches to climb there should be no worry of falling. I use real branches and some fake ones but i make sure to give access to all of the upper corners of the cage so he is less likely to climb on the screen. They are there also to give him a place to climb onto when he inevitably climbs the screen. I would try the screen cage and see how that goes. Let me know if you need any help setting up a screen cage. you can email me at [email protected] and I can send you some pics of setups so you have some examples to go by. Hope this helps.

 

[krazeone]

ok so yesterday not much changed other than he was awake a little bit more.

today, he's been awake for at least 3/4 of the day, a tiny bit more active but he's gone over to where i have the dripper set up and is drinking water on his own now! still wont eat, but a huge improvement on 2 days ago.

 

[krazeone]

wow and just as i finished typing that i look up and see him snatch a wax worm!!!

thanks to everyone who responded and PMed me... you guys are awesome!!

 

[ibdragons]

That is a great feeling huh. I had a sick cham didn't eat for two weeks and one day baam!!! He ate like ten crix I know how I feel

 

[krazeone]

It feels amazing, and a sigh of relief, he's my 1st of hopefully many chameleons. I'm def learning they are a lot more work than my other lizards

 

[krazeone]

so bad news, i found the worm this morning on the bottom, it looked like it had a bite.. so maybe he went for it and dropped it or something..

but today everything was the same as last day, he was active untill around 6, and now it's even worse, he wont open his eyes again, they almost look sunken in now?!?!, his balance is off, he goes completely black, or completely colorless which i've never seen him go before. his grip is also not good

 

[krazeone]

in his cage and he goes completely black, and he's almost lifeless now

 

[UserName336]

its hard to tell from the tiny pictures (not sure if its just me who cant expand or it is actually just tiny ones) he looks dehydrated to me. even though i dont own one yet, i have had a little experience with a friend who owned one. see if you can give him some water with an eyedropper.

sorry, thats about as much help as i can offer...

 

[Lathelia]

he looks dehydrated, very deydrated. does he even drink?

 

[krazeone]

yeah i thought he looked dehydrated but he drinks a lot

 

[krazeone]

so the last 2 days when he's drinking water/ when i'm force feeding him the carnivore care out of a syringe, i've tried to sneak a cricket or a very tiny wax worm into his mouth to try and get him to eat solid foods again.. all he does is chew them then spit them out..

i know i need to have patience, but how long can he really go without eating solid food? he hasnt eaten live bugs since june 14th... doesnt even pay attnetion to any worms, crickets etc in the bowl in his cage.. and wont eat them if i put them into his mouth..

 

[Sterlingcham]

If your force feeding him and he is already sick he might not have the ben beneficial bacteria he needs in his stomach for him to digest right or hold hydration u might place him in a shallow warm bath not deep enough for him to drown obviously and let him re warm slowly warming the water more and more and then when he is good a re heated he will need a plant and a very long shower daily before u start force feeding him u need to re hydrate slowly so he can get his bacteria level back to normal u might also need toget this stuff Valle beni-bac I believe it was once used or birds and they have a tweaked version now for reptiles and such. He might need that but the trick is wait till he is slowly rehydrated before giving him too much food as they can go weeks or so before its goin to be a really bad problem. So try rehydration and then go for force feeding or whatever by then he might actually hunt for u.

 

[krazeone]

so he passed away today.. he never really recovered, even after he would finally take food out of my hand, he never got better, and i came home from work to him dead today.

i really dont know what ever went wrong, but obviously something wasnt right, i want to get another one but i dont want to make the same mistake and especially not knowing what i ever did wrong to begin with.