can anything help speed up recovery?

[harleyquinn]

i posted a couple days ago about my cham having sneezing or coughing issues

took him to the vet, he has a mild upper respiratory infection we are treating with baytril, and a food supplement thats being administered orally

is there anything i should change to make him heal faster or better? or is there something i can do to prevent this from happening again? im not sure if i got him with an infection, or if i have done something unintentionally to cause it

heres his info

hes a one year old male veiled chameleon that ive had for a couple weeks i handled him alot the first two days as i was getting everything in his cage situated, but after that minimal

im feeding him meal worms, superworms, waxworms, and crickets, as thats all the local petstore has, and i am gutloading them with apples and lettuce
im dusting them with full vitamin supplement once or twice a week

he was eating a healthy amount before a couple days ago

i was just misting him several times a day with foliage that collects water, but i have switched to a dripper system that i leave on pretty much all day

he has white and brown fecal matter, being tested for parasites now, waiting for results

I got him two days before he started shedding, i thought the sneezing was due to some skin being stuck in his nostrils and trying to clear it out, when he started doing it frequently i got concerned


Ive got a 75 gallon glass tank with an 50 gal screen enclosure on top

ive got two basking lights on, and two uv lights on 12 hours a day, then 2 night lights on for 12 hours a day
temp varies between 70ish at night, and 80 during the day, with a basking spot reaching in the 90s

the humidity never drops below 40, and typically doesnt get above 80%

for right now i have fake plants inside, but i will be switching to live pothos, peat moss, and hibiscus soon

cage is in the corner of my room, there are two cats i try and keep out during the day, he gets stressed when he can see them, when i do have to keep the cats in the room during the day i veil the cage

the top of the cage is a couple feet from the ceiling

 

[Lancecham]

I'm not sure where you live, but in the states, mostly every uses a cage that is all screened.
A glass enclosure with a screened lid doesn't really allow for proper air flow and can cause respitory problems.
Veileds will do better with lower humidity like around 30 to 50%.
High humidity in a glass enclosure for a veiled will increase his chances for respitory problems.

COntinue to give him the medication as precribed as well.

 

[jojackson]

Bump up the basking temp by 5f for the duration of medicating.

 

[pssh]

Okay, you use a dripper IN ADDITION to misting, you can't just use a dripper. He also needs a temp drop at night into the 60's at least. 70 should be an ambient temp during the day, not at night. Veileds can handle temp drops as low as 50 degrees, so you probably don't need any heat lamp at night. Though it will probably be okay for the duration of his treatment to have higher temps.

You need to make sure he is getting extra water until his treatment is over so make sure he is getting extra long mistings.

 

[draetish]

Patience is the key, chameleon's metabolism is very slow, dont' expect overnight improvement. I totally agree that hydration is super important when medication if involved. So apparently there was too much dampness, have you corrected that?

 

[kinyonga]

I have to agree with jojackson...when a chameleon is being treated for an illness its best to keep it at the warmer end of normal temperatures until its over it. I wouldn't drop the temperatures at night much either.

 

[harleyquinn]

not doing any better new symptom

despite everyones good advice, and me trying to follow it the best i can

(ive upped the temp by a little bit, ive let it get cooler at night, ive made sure he drinks several times a day)

hes not getting any better----however the sneezing and coughing noises have stopped, i still see him gape every once in a while, no where near as much as he was before. and now i think he has a swollen neck

i started a baytril treatment for my veiled cham a few days ago, and he has lost all his appetite, i went back to the vet and they gave me a food paste supplement and a syringe to feed him with

however now he has a slightly swollen neck, right before where his legs are, this picture is him in motion, i couldnt get him to sit still for a picture, so its not as puffy as it is when hes just sitting on his branch

is this a reaction to the baytril? is it a symptom of something else? or is it nothing, and im just paranoid?

and how can i get him to start eating again on his own? he seems very stressed and doesnt want to eat or drink on his own

when i stop giving him medicine do you think his appetite will come back?

and i read on another post that baytril killed his cham?!?!?! how can you tell if its making your cham more sick than better? ive only been giving him his meds .01mg every 24 hours, i dont think im overdosing him, but im still worried im doing more harm than good at this point....

 

[Zen Reptiles]

A mild upper respiratory infection should have fixed itself simply by raising the temps 2-5F and reducing the humidity.

Veiled chameleons are not like Madagascar chameleons, they don't like high humidity.

Spraying several times a day for a panther chameleon would be great, but a veiled should only be 1-3 times a day.

Also make sure you get rid of all the glass. That is what caused this in the first place, I can guarantee it. Having two basking lights (WHY!?) would only increase the humidity after spraying.

My advice: use one basking light at about 90-95F, make sure that the rest of the tank ranges from the basking spot down to about 72-73F.

Don't spray as much. Keep it to a maximum of 3 times a day.

And above all, get rid of the glass cage. Use screen, or if you need to use your glass cage, put air vents on every side of the cage at the bottom in the middle.

His neck doesn't look too swollen, but a swollen neck is usually due to oversupplementation, or could be a reaction to the baytril.

Making the environment optimal for your chameleons will do much more good than any medications.

 

[harleyquinn]

i have two cuz my roommate keeps the house at 60-65 degrees, one basking lamp only got the temp to a max of 80-82 degrees

i was spraying 3 times a day when i didnt have the dripper, now that i have the dripper im only doing it lightly once or twice

im in the process of making a completely screened terrarium, i was told that glass with a large tall screen on top was best to keep in humidity, and have ventilation at the same time

but it doesnt seem to be working obviously

thank you all for your replies, im really hoping he pulls through this

 

[dakotakleiner]

You should only give the vitamin supplement once to twice a MONTH I just learned this myself. My cham is getting over a uri right now also I just finished his last dose of medicine three days ago it took like two weeks for my cham to even seem normal again follow what everyone says...he should be fine try and offer him different kinds of insects like horned worms