Calicefalus,Pinworms infection,tongue troubles

[Xanathos]

Hi everybody,
i am writing dirictly from Italy, first i wanna congrats for the amazing forum in writing in, it's seriously well done
Well, Unfortunatly my 20 months old Furcifer Pardalis(ampiskiana, o maybe morph more probable) has been infected by pinworms and calicefalus 2 months ago, i brought him to the veterinary then i started antibiotics and mineral supplement through insuline syringe. The chameleon in 139 gramms for 30/33 cm long , he is constantly eating 3/4 crickets a day few locusts a week and some cockroaches and caimans rarely. My real concern is about his semi/liquid stool that actually is getting better, and his tongue. Tony has problem in throwing it needing at least 5/6 tries before getting his pride, and litteraly his tongue doesn't "stick" as the begging. Yesterday basicly i imbarked him. I don't know guys it has been two months cure so far he is getting better in term of feces, but his keeping of doing bad tongue mistakes ; i really don't know if those kind of parassites takes long time to fade away
Care: Ligh:5% uvb neon, 40W spot, i am misting 3/4 times a day, using dripping system 1/2 a day i am breeding in 3/4 side of net as you can see in the photo below it is 1.30 mtr high, 65cm long and 33cm depth.
I hope that someone that has faced this problem before can help me
Thank you for your kind attention apologies for my long monologue and my incorrect english


Regards
Alberto

 

[Xanathos]

no one had those kind of problems before and suggest me any advise?
Thanks

 

[Carlton]

Hi everybody,
i am writing dirictly from Italy, first i wanna congrats for the amazing forum in writing in, it's seriously well done
Well, Unfortunatly my 20 months old Furcifer Pardalis(ampiskiana, o maybe morph more probable) has been infected by pinworms and calicefalus 2 months ago, i brought him to the veterinary then i started antibiotics and mineral supplement through insuline syringe. The chameleon in 139 gramms for 30/33 cm long , he is constantly eating 3/4 crickets a day few locusts a week and some cockroaches and caimans rarely. My real concern is about his semi/liquid stool that actually is getting better, and his tongue. Tony has problem in throwing it needing at least 5/6 tries before getting his pride, and litteraly his tongue doesn't "stick" as the begging. Yesterday basicly i imbarked him. I don't know guys it has been two months cure so far he is getting better in term of feces, but his keeping of doing bad tongue mistakes ; i really don't know if those kind of parassites takes long time to fade away
Care: Ligh:5% uvb neon, 40W spot, i am misting 3/4 times a day, using dripping system 1/2 a day i am breeding in 3/4 side of net as you can see in the photo below it is 1.30 mtr high, 65cm long and 33cm depth.
I hope that someone that has faced this problem before can help me
Thank you for your kind attention apologies for my long monologue and my incorrect english


Regards
Alberto

What is the relative air humidity range in the cage? One cause for a tongue that doesn't seem to "stick" to prey is dehydration. If the cham is dehydrated, the glands on the tongue don't produce as much sticky saliva that helps hold the prey after impact.

If the room air is too dry, even frequent cage spraying may not be enough to keep the cham properly hydrated. When your cham drinks, does he salivate a lot? Does he drink a lot every time you spray? These can be signs he's thirsty much of the time.

Just a suggestion for a line of thought.

 

[kinyonga]

Tongue issues can be due to an injury or imbalance in the nutrients the chameleon is getting or infection and even sometimes from dehydration. Without more informations hard to know what might be causing it.

You said he is on antibiotics...do you mean medication to get rid of the parasites?

 

[Alexl]

Well, Unfortunatly my 20 months old Furcifer Pardalis(ampiskiana, o maybe morph more probable) has been infected by pinworms and calicefalus 2 months ago, i brought him to the veterinary then i started antibiotics and mineral supplement through insuline syringe.

Kalicephalus are nematodes (some kind of ascarids). You can't treat them with antibiotics, but with deworming medicaments (e.g. fenbendazol).

Kalicephalus live in your chameleon's oesophagus, stomach and intestines. Chameleons ingest the parasite eggs orally and produce infectious eggs in feces, too. The larva inside the eggs develops best inside the humid, warm cage - they love temperatures about 20 to 25°C. The third larva hatches inside the gut and becomes a big, yellowish worm. Unfortunately, those worms begin to wander inside the body (and those wandering larva are hard to treat). Maybe this is a reason for your chameleon's tongue problem, too.

Pinworms aren't such a problem, they're easy to get rid of with deworming medicaments and desinfection of the cage. And they don't migrate into organs.

It's very important to clean and desinfect the whole cage very carefully and keeping the chameleon in a quarantine cage during treatment. There are only few disinfectants which can kill the infectious eggs, e.g. chlorkresol (please don't use it without vet's advice). If you did not clean and disinfect the cage, your chameleon will reinfect himself shortly.

Is your vet member of SIVAE? It's the italian association for exotic animal vets (including reptile specialists).