Cause/Solution (please read!)

[Seffers93]

Hey guys,
I took my cham, Xander, to the vet today. He was getting VERY sick. They gave me some medicine to squirt into his mouth once a day. He isn't accepting food at the moment, and will not open his eyes, so I have to get his mouth open and force feed him every day. It took me two hours to get his mouth open today!!! I'm hoping he'll get better.
Anyways, I did a 'cage investigation' today to see what might have caused the problem, and I found it... I think.
The plant was sitting in a pot with a trey under it. I raised the pot up and found that there was about three inches of disgusting, horrible smelling water with dead crickets floating around in it. The water smelled like death!
I figured that HAD to be the problem! Right??
So my next thought, I need to remove the trey immediately and from now on, just let the plant drain and let the water drain out of the cage. That way, there will be absolutely NO standing water.
Here's the deal.
I can only raise the cage about ten inches off the ground before there is no room for the lights on top. The ceiling is very low...
So how do I raise the cage just that little bit and then make a draining system that will work effectively?

 

[mcbdz]

Sorry to hear your guy is sick. I have went back and did some reading on him. I'm not convinced this is the cause. After reading your previous post I think he may have been sick when you bought him and, it has finally gotten this bad. What did the vet say? Is it a Respiratory infection? Did you get to take in a fecal also? The stagnant water could also be a problem but, most like not yet since he has only been in that cage a short time and you have had off and on noticing him sleeping in day and questions about his eating. Have you tried gently pulling on the neck area under the lower jaw to open his mouth or, use something like a credit card to start it opening and they will usually open from the. Be careful adding liquids in mouth so you don't cause him to aspirate. He will need lots of water while on antibiotics. You may also want to search bug juice while you are at it.
You can just elevate the cage as much as you can and tip it to one side. Then have a bucket at that side to catch water for drainage.

 

[Seffers93]

Thanks for the reply!!
After reading what you had to say, I'm really starting to wonder if he was sick when I bought him. You're probably right. I purchased him at PetSmart, and I heard that they are notorious for selling sick animals and not taking care of them while they're waiting to be sold. And my vet told me that chameleons take a while to show any serious signs of being sick. So.. that makes a lot of sense.
The vet did say he probably has a respiratory infection and is lacking the calcium and vitamins he needs, considering he hadn't eaten in so long. She gave me antibiotics and a different medicine to help with the lack of nutrition.
And thank you for the tips, greatly appreciated!
I finally got his mouth open with a credit card. Man... He did not like it at all. But I had to.
Again, thanks for the tips and info!!

 

[Lovereps]

Whatever the cause

I'm so glad you took him to the vet right away and got him medicine.
Hopefully he will start to perk up after a couple of days of meds.
Like mcbdz mentioned, while he's on meds you need to be sure your little guy is getting plenty of fluids to drink. Some extra misting actually helps to thin out thick mucus when they have a respiratory infection.
I'm curious to know the names of what the vet gave you--for future reference for my chams (notice the avatar ).
If you're still having a tough time getting his mouth open---male Jackson's are not too tough to get to open if you gently pull on his gular pouch, while holding a finger beneath the base of his horns for a little bit of leverage.
Be sure to get the medicine into the very back of his mouth. Cham anatomy means there's a breathing passage below their tongue, instead of at the back of the mouth--so the very back of the mouth/throat opening is where liquids should go.

While his mouth is open, you can always drop in a nice fatty waxworm, which he might chomp on.
You wouldn't feed fatty foods as a mainstay but the extra calories during illness give a boost.
If he won't eat--when one of my Fischer's chams was so sick that he would not eat on his own, I put various insects into a syringe without the needle and squeezed bugs into his mouth.
You can even increase his basking temp by about 5 degrees to help him while he is ill.

I've had stagnant water cause cham illness in the past, so it's definitely something to avoid.
Whether or not it caused his illness will never be known, so now that you've found the putrid water, it won't happen again anyway.

My cage drainage system is an appliance drain pan that I found in Lowe's hardware appliances section to which I attached an elbow and 1/2" inside diameter clear vinyl hose leading to a drain.

Here is a good page about Jackson's care.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/amanda509/581-basic-care-jacksons-chameleons.html
When you read the forum posts and read about montane chameleons it means chams that come from mountainous areas, including Jackson's .
Don't give your cham calcium and vitamin supplements as often as you would give a veiled or a panther because montanes get health problems from too much supplementation.
Ask as many questions as you want to on the forums and search through past posts for info, too.
Everyone here loves a happy ending to a problem and are more than happy to help whenever possible