ChamSitter
New Member
My veiled, Paradox, is dying of cancer and I just wanted to write in to say thanks for all of the help this forum gave me while he's been under my care. He was the classroom pet in my son's elementary school class when we volunteered to take care of him for the summer four years ago. I spent the summer reading this forum and completely revising his care -- took out the substrate, changed the lighting, changed his diet from mealworms to gutloaded crickets and Dubias and a supplement regime, and stopped him from falling off his basking branch by filling his enclosure with climbing branches and live plants. Last summer the school gave him to our family.
We are lucky in Portland to have a good exotic vet, and when two growths appeared over the past few years, she removed them. The first, on his eye, was removed several years ago and was not cancer. The second one was. The growths came back a few months ago. We don't know how old Paradox is, but he's at least seven and probably a lot older, and I just couldn't put him through radiation or another surgery.
Despite the advice on this forum to minimize handling, I would take him out as much as he wanted to. He would come to the cage door when he saw me and press his face against it, and crawl out onto my arm. Even today he hauled himself out so I could take him out into the sunshine. I don't know how much more time we have with him, but this forum has made the time we've had so much richer.
I've posted a few photos. You can see the tumor on his side in the middle photo.
We are lucky in Portland to have a good exotic vet, and when two growths appeared over the past few years, she removed them. The first, on his eye, was removed several years ago and was not cancer. The second one was. The growths came back a few months ago. We don't know how old Paradox is, but he's at least seven and probably a lot older, and I just couldn't put him through radiation or another surgery.
Despite the advice on this forum to minimize handling, I would take him out as much as he wanted to. He would come to the cage door when he saw me and press his face against it, and crawl out onto my arm. Even today he hauled himself out so I could take him out into the sunshine. I don't know how much more time we have with him, but this forum has made the time we've had so much richer.
I've posted a few photos. You can see the tumor on his side in the middle photo.