Holvure
Member
Chameleon info:
• Your Chameleon: Male veiled chameleon, about 10 months old at time of death; about 8-9 months old when symptoms began to show. Had him for about 5-6 months.
• Handling: about 30 to an hour every other day on week days; 1-2 hours daily on weekends
• Feeding: 6-8 crickets daily around 5:30pm, occasionally with a super worm. I feed the crickets Fluker's Orange Cubes cricket diet, Fluker's cricket quencher, occasionally apple slices or strawberry pieces.
• Supplements: I dust the crickets that I'm feeding him at that given feeding with Zoo Med Repitcalcium (without D3) right before giving them to him. Twice a month I do this with the same supplement with D3
• Watering: before symptoms began to show, I only misted the cage, and I would do it once every hour or so pretty generously (except for when I'm at school, 8:30am-5pm). Once symptoms started to show, I purchased a dripper which was left on throughout the day. I still misted on the same schedule.
• Fecal Description: I'm not sure how to specifically describe his feces, but they were firm and dark brown. The substrate packet was usually large and white with a little liquid along with it, but once symptoms began to show, they were often slightly yellow, or had orange on the end.
• History: I purchased him from a pet store, I'm not sure if that makes a difference. He was always very active before his knee started to swell. He did lose four nails (two in each from foot) by catching them in the screen on his cage. I put plastic chicken wire on the sides to prevent any more from coming off, which worked. Upon our first vet visit, the vet took x-rays. There were no broken bones and nothing out of the ordinary showed up on the pictures. They told us that he has a very strong grip, even with the leg in question.
Cage info:
• Cage type: I had him in a 24x24x48" metal screen cage. Before he was 8 months, I kept him in a 16x16x36" metal screen cage. I moved him into the bigger one because I figured he needed more room.
• Lighting: I used a Zoo Med light fixture and Zoo Med bulbs. One was a heat bulb, the other a UVB.
• Temperature: during the day, it's about 75-80°F around the top, a bit higher in his basking spot. I'm sure the bottom is a little lower but he never went down to the bottom. At night, the temp drops to around 67-75°F. I've got a battery powered thermometer/hygrometer to measure it.
• Humidity: it was always between 50-80% humidity. The only reason it dropped to 50% was during the day while I'm at school, and once I got home I made sure to keep it above 60%. I use the battery powered thermometer/hygrometer to measure it. I maintain the humidity by misting.
• Plants: I use both live and fake plants. The live ones that I use are a ficus and a bromeliad.
• Placement: his smaller cage was located by a vent, but with the larger cage I moved him to the dining room. There aren't any fans or vents around. The area has relatively high traffic. My family and I walk through the room frequently, but not directly past the cage. I go in to look at him a lot, though. And i don't want him to feel isolated. The top of the cage is four feet from the floor of the room.
• Location: I live on the west coast of Florida. It's hot here, and pretty humid most of the year. Perfect environment for the little guy. It rarely gets cold even through winter, but when it would, we put out a space heater for him to make sure he didn't get cold.
CURRENT PROBLEM:
Okay, so I keep mentioning symptoms. At about 8-9 months old my mom and I noticed him holding his left back leg off off of branches when resting, and upon further inspection, I noticed that the knee on that leg was swollen. I did some research and made the guess that it was gout. We took him the the vet and they told us they definitely didn't think it was gout. Took some x-rays, nothing abnormal. They said he was very healthy and I'm great shape, which, other than the knee, he was! They prescribed some anti-inflammatories and sent us home. Things didn't get better. Two vet visits later with a different doctor, the new doctor decided it was most likely gout. She didn't have the medicine, but said she would try to find it. They prescribed us another type of medicine as well, which he hated. It made him lose his appetite. His movement also began to quickly decline. Also, small bumps began to show up along his tail. They weren't the vertebrae. They were of various sizes (they were also getting bigger over time) and the vet said they could be gout deposits. Soon, he wouldn't eat or drink at all. His eyes became sunken in, and he was losing a lot of weight. The vet gave us a liquid food which we gave him as instructed by her, and we gave him water via a syringe. He was always tired. Soon, he couldn't hold onto branches anymore. We turned his smaller cage on its side, put a sandblasted grape vine, his bromeliad (to help maintain the moisture), and a towel to line the bottom. He died a few days later.
My question is: what do you all think was wrong with him?? I'm not entirely convinced it was gout, although that's the most sensible answer that I can come up with. Whatever it is, what do you think caused this? Was it something on my part as his caretaker? Could he have been genetically bad from the beginning due to bad breeding? I just want to understand. He was so young and he was my first, I did everything I could. I do want to get another soon, maybe a panther, and I want to get it from a private breeder. I just want to make sure this doesn't happen again. If I was making some kind of mistake as a first time owner, I want to fix it. Please help me out here everyone, I want to give the next little guy I get a better life than Bailey had.
Any help or advice is so greatly appreciated. Thank you
• Your Chameleon: Male veiled chameleon, about 10 months old at time of death; about 8-9 months old when symptoms began to show. Had him for about 5-6 months.
• Handling: about 30 to an hour every other day on week days; 1-2 hours daily on weekends
• Feeding: 6-8 crickets daily around 5:30pm, occasionally with a super worm. I feed the crickets Fluker's Orange Cubes cricket diet, Fluker's cricket quencher, occasionally apple slices or strawberry pieces.
• Supplements: I dust the crickets that I'm feeding him at that given feeding with Zoo Med Repitcalcium (without D3) right before giving them to him. Twice a month I do this with the same supplement with D3
• Watering: before symptoms began to show, I only misted the cage, and I would do it once every hour or so pretty generously (except for when I'm at school, 8:30am-5pm). Once symptoms started to show, I purchased a dripper which was left on throughout the day. I still misted on the same schedule.
• Fecal Description: I'm not sure how to specifically describe his feces, but they were firm and dark brown. The substrate packet was usually large and white with a little liquid along with it, but once symptoms began to show, they were often slightly yellow, or had orange on the end.
• History: I purchased him from a pet store, I'm not sure if that makes a difference. He was always very active before his knee started to swell. He did lose four nails (two in each from foot) by catching them in the screen on his cage. I put plastic chicken wire on the sides to prevent any more from coming off, which worked. Upon our first vet visit, the vet took x-rays. There were no broken bones and nothing out of the ordinary showed up on the pictures. They told us that he has a very strong grip, even with the leg in question.
Cage info:
• Cage type: I had him in a 24x24x48" metal screen cage. Before he was 8 months, I kept him in a 16x16x36" metal screen cage. I moved him into the bigger one because I figured he needed more room.
• Lighting: I used a Zoo Med light fixture and Zoo Med bulbs. One was a heat bulb, the other a UVB.
• Temperature: during the day, it's about 75-80°F around the top, a bit higher in his basking spot. I'm sure the bottom is a little lower but he never went down to the bottom. At night, the temp drops to around 67-75°F. I've got a battery powered thermometer/hygrometer to measure it.
• Humidity: it was always between 50-80% humidity. The only reason it dropped to 50% was during the day while I'm at school, and once I got home I made sure to keep it above 60%. I use the battery powered thermometer/hygrometer to measure it. I maintain the humidity by misting.
• Plants: I use both live and fake plants. The live ones that I use are a ficus and a bromeliad.
• Placement: his smaller cage was located by a vent, but with the larger cage I moved him to the dining room. There aren't any fans or vents around. The area has relatively high traffic. My family and I walk through the room frequently, but not directly past the cage. I go in to look at him a lot, though. And i don't want him to feel isolated. The top of the cage is four feet from the floor of the room.
• Location: I live on the west coast of Florida. It's hot here, and pretty humid most of the year. Perfect environment for the little guy. It rarely gets cold even through winter, but when it would, we put out a space heater for him to make sure he didn't get cold.
CURRENT PROBLEM:
Okay, so I keep mentioning symptoms. At about 8-9 months old my mom and I noticed him holding his left back leg off off of branches when resting, and upon further inspection, I noticed that the knee on that leg was swollen. I did some research and made the guess that it was gout. We took him the the vet and they told us they definitely didn't think it was gout. Took some x-rays, nothing abnormal. They said he was very healthy and I'm great shape, which, other than the knee, he was! They prescribed some anti-inflammatories and sent us home. Things didn't get better. Two vet visits later with a different doctor, the new doctor decided it was most likely gout. She didn't have the medicine, but said she would try to find it. They prescribed us another type of medicine as well, which he hated. It made him lose his appetite. His movement also began to quickly decline. Also, small bumps began to show up along his tail. They weren't the vertebrae. They were of various sizes (they were also getting bigger over time) and the vet said they could be gout deposits. Soon, he wouldn't eat or drink at all. His eyes became sunken in, and he was losing a lot of weight. The vet gave us a liquid food which we gave him as instructed by her, and we gave him water via a syringe. He was always tired. Soon, he couldn't hold onto branches anymore. We turned his smaller cage on its side, put a sandblasted grape vine, his bromeliad (to help maintain the moisture), and a towel to line the bottom. He died a few days later.
My question is: what do you all think was wrong with him?? I'm not entirely convinced it was gout, although that's the most sensible answer that I can come up with. Whatever it is, what do you think caused this? Was it something on my part as his caretaker? Could he have been genetically bad from the beginning due to bad breeding? I just want to understand. He was so young and he was my first, I did everything I could. I do want to get another soon, maybe a panther, and I want to get it from a private breeder. I just want to make sure this doesn't happen again. If I was making some kind of mistake as a first time owner, I want to fix it. Please help me out here everyone, I want to give the next little guy I get a better life than Bailey had.
Any help or advice is so greatly appreciated. Thank you
