Call me a terrible baby owner :-(

happiness

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So another incident has happened with a small younger baby almost getting eaten.. I have 6 babies a in a tub with a hibiscus in the middle. I was waiting for superworms and crickets to come in from USPS.. They were put on hold but the mail man had it "out for deliver" so I had to wait till 4:30pm to pick them up. I put dubia roaches all over the hisbiscus for them to eat in the morning even though they don't seem to like them any longer.. So.. I guess one of the bigger ones got hungry and almost ate the tiniest one I have. :cry:

I took him to the vet yesterday, luckily a place in VA had a spot open(stahl's vet suggested since they were totally booked) I didn't make it home that night until 11:30pm which I then gave him some of the powder that was provided to give mixed with warm water. They also provided me with deflamatory for his head and a pain med. He opened his eyes for the first time since the night it happened, and blinked and opened them again. It was a joy to see. Today however, he looks like he's 2x skinnier, VERY dehydrated looking, eyes sunken in. He is so tiny that they couldn't even weigh him on the scale. He is about the size of a quarter if you curled him up in it. Maybe a nickle.

I called the vet and asked about the powder food, if I could give him more.. they said to water it down a bit and give it to him up to 4x a day. Currently he's making a crackling noise sometimes when he breathes.

.. I just want to know if there is anything else I can do to help save him. I don't want to over feed him or give him too much water.

Any help would be appreciated.

.. The vet also said I could bring him back and get liquids in him for only $30 but .. I got a flat on the way home from that vet that is 1 1/2 hours away so my car currently has a spare tire on it that is very old :(

Also, the vet told me to hold his butt under water but I think I read somewhere on here not to do that. I did anyways 2 times already and the 2nd time he pooped while his butt was submerged. It was dark brown round poop with a light orangey end and a VERY TINY white dot.
 

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Honestly, he looks pretty bad. I would try dropping some water on his nose with an eye dropper for several minutes and see if you can alteast get some fluids in him. How much bigger is the one that tried to eat him? Is he a baby also? IU have never heard of a baby trying to eat another baby. There must be quite a size difference. Also, I would not stress the poor little thing out any further by submersing him in water. I have read several articles that say that does not hydrate them. I am not 100% sure but it looks like a female from the tail area in the last pic but hard to say.
 
Honestly, he looks pretty bad. I would try dropping some water on his nose with an eye dropper for several minutes and see if you can alteast get some fluids in him. How much bigger is the one that tried to eat him? Is he a baby also? IU have never heard of a baby trying to eat another baby. There must be quite a size difference. Also, I would not stress the poor little thing out any further by submersing him in water. I have read several articles that say that does not hydrate them. I am not 100% sure but it looks like a female from the tail area in the last pic but hard to say.

How do I drop water on his nose without it going down his lungs ? I had a runt baby that was 3 months old (never grew) and I kept an eye on it always. I noticed one day that he wasn't catching flies.. the next day he looked exactly like this. I tried to give him some water and I think the water went down into his lungs.. I watched him roll his tongue which I thought was good, then he stretched his tongue out of his mouth and took a deep breath and died. It was the saddest thing.. I cried for a good hour. I just don't want that to happen to this one too. :(

Ive been taking a syring thing that was given to me and mixing the food powder with a lot of water and putting in it the back of his throat (ive done this 2x now in the past few hours) When I do this, he doesn't really roll his tongue much, he just lets it sit.

The older one that almost ate him is one of the babies from the same and only batch. He is 2-3x the size of the youngest one, probably 1 month apart, 2 max. Originally I separated the biggest ones from the tiniest young/new born ones. The one that almost ate him used to be tiny too but has grown a lot faster than the injured one has... Since I've had them together in their home for over 2 months now.. I didn't think they would harm each other. There was always that thought in my head since it happened to my other one..
 
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The only way that I know that they can aspirate water into their lungs is to directly squirt it into their throats. Just drip it on the tip of his nose and he should open his mouth and stick his tongue out and start licking. It may take 3 or 4 minutes to get him stimulated to drink. I am not sure what happened to your chameleon before, but they should not aspirate from dripping water. Maybe if they take in to much, that could be a problem but they will usually throw it up. Did the vet mention carnivore care? That might help boost him up a bit, but that I think has to be given through a syringe at this point I would say. You can safely give meds and liquids with a syringe if you do not go too far down their throat. There is a good change if he was bitten hard, he may have internal damage that cannot be fixed by medicine. He is awfully bruised up. Poor little thing.
 
The only way that I know that they can aspirate water into their lungs is to directly squirt it into their throats. Just drip it on the tip of his nose and he should open his mouth and stick his tongue out and start licking. It may take 3 or 4 minutes to get him stimulated to drink. I am not sure what happened to your chameleon before, but they should not aspirate from dripping water. Maybe if they take in to much, that could be a problem but they will usually throw it up. Did the vet mention carnivore care? That might help boost him up a bit, but that I think has to be given through a syringe at this point I would say. You can safely give meds and liquids with a syringe if you do not go too far down their throat. There is a good change if he was bitten hard, he may have internal damage that cannot be fixed by medicine. He is awfully bruised up. Poor little thing.

It looks like iI was given Emeraid insectivore instead of carnivore care. Do you think I should get carnviore care too? I see it's on amazon @ $10 for 3.5 oz. This one says it has benebac and pyrozyme in it. I was given a few tiny syringe's to use to feed him. I'm really hoping there isn't internal damage. :( When I went to feed them, I looked up and saw his body dangling in the bigger ones mouth.. The bigger one kind of had his mouth open slightly with the baby resting inside.. the baby wasn't moving at all so I thought he was dead. He had saliva all over the top of his nose, very sticky. I wiped it off and it looked like a bit of something formed on the top of his head like maybe tissue from an open wound.. :\ I put neosporin on it after it happened. I will try dripping water now.

Any idea how much water/food is too much to give?

The vet told me to give .004 cc's (or whatever it's called) but it seems like so little..
 

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I have never used either one, just going by what others have used. Maybe someone else can give you their opinions on this. Was the other chameleon an adult or juvenile? I hope he is not in pain and suffering. If the other one clamped down on him, he surely could have done damage.
 
I have never used either one, just going by what others have used. Maybe someone else can give you their opinions on this. Was the other chameleon an adult or juvenile? I hope he is not in pain and suffering. If the other one clamped down on him, he surely could have done damage.

the other one is only 4-5 months old too
im trying to get him to lick and he wont. should I drip a drop in the front or side of his mouth?
 
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the other one is only 4-5 months old too

So that chameleon is the size of a nickel or quarter at 4-5 months? How big are the other ones in comparison? They must be decent sized to fit a chameleon in their mouth or even think about it. Unfortunate lesson learned I guess.
 
So that chameleon is the size of a nickel or quarter at 4-5 months? How big are the other ones in comparison? They must be decent sized to fit a chameleon in their mouth or even think about it. Unfortunate lesson learned I guess.

There is one that is a little bigger than him and 2 that are a bit bigger than the 2 smallest. Then there is the one that almost ate him that was the biggest out of the bunch.

Ive' been able to give him water by using the syringe and dropping it in front of him. He doesn't stick his tongue out but licks sometimes when the droplet hits him. I'm wondering how long I should do this for. I did it once over an hour ago and I just did it again.

..Any idea when I would see results in his health? Since im giving him water constantly, is it possible to see him less dehydrated looking tomorrow? :( Yesterday he looked skinnier than he normally looked and his eyes were fine.. it's crazy how quickly they drop in health...
 
If his eyes begin to sink in that does not necessarily mean he is dehydrated. It can be a sign that things are going downhill and can often be followed by death unfortunately. Not saying this is the case, but it could be a possibility. And yes, they can take a turn for the worse very quickly.
 
Update..

He/she pooped! A little white dot on the end again. This time the front part of the brown poop is a bit orange. Hope that's not a bad sign. Maybe it's the food I've been giving him/her?

It's eyes are still sunken in but thankfully it's not more sunken in than before. He was really active last night. Moving all over. His grip on front and back feet are really strong. Still pretty active today but he's just waking up so that may be expected..

Still hoping for the best.

going to give him his deflamatory/pain liquids today. Was told to give ever 48 hours.

Yesterday I also noticed his/her eyes moving a little bit behind the eyelids which I didn't see before. Hoping that is a good sign as well.
 

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He pooped 2 times yesterday, the 2nd one was all orange and today it is very runny.

I'm wondering if it's possible that the medication is too much for him since he is so little.. He made that popping noise when he breathed for the 48 hours after he was given the medication. Then I noticed it stopped all together.. but I gave him the meds again and it started back.

or maybe I'm not giving him enough of the powder food that he needs or mixing it with water too much. I wish I knew.

Today his eyes look sunken in more.. and he looks skinnier. I can see the indents in his tail. Ive been dripping water on his nose like 4 times a day, about 5-10 minutes at a time (he was drinking it) and giving him the powder food 3-4 times daily.

.. He just pooped again while laying with with hishead down.. it a dark brown big chunk and on the end it looks like the powder food (after mixed) I've been feeding him. As soon as he pooped he started moving.. and now hes standing on all 4s (earlier he was laying flat on his stomach with his arms outward.)
 
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He pooped 2 times yesterday, the 2nd one was all orange and today it is very runny.

I'm wondering if it's possible that the medication is too much for him since he is so little.. He made that popping noise when he breathed for the 48 hours after he was given the medication. Then I noticed it stopped all together.. but I gave him the meds again and it started back.

or maybe I'm not giving him enough of the powder food that he needs or mixing it with water too much. I wish I knew.

Today his eyes look sunken in more.. and he looks skinnier. I can see the indents in his tail. Ive been dripping water on his nose like 4 times a day, about 5-10 minutes at a time (he was drinking it) and giving him the powder food 3-4 times daily.

.. He just pooped again while laying with with hishead down.. it a dark brown big chunk and on the end it looks like the powder food (after mixed) I've been feeding him. As soon as he pooped he started moving.. and now hes standing on all 4s (earlier he was laying flat on his stomach with his arms outward.)

You really need to get in touch with your vet again. Even a phone call to bounce all that has been going on with him. Good luck.
 
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