Chameleon found dead, why?!

[LouiseKelly]

Hello, I had a 3 year old ambilobe panther chameleon who I found dead in the bottom of his enclosure this evening. I have no idea why, and just blaming myself. He looked a bit odd this morning, he had his eyes closed and when I touched him slightly just to check he was okay he went for me, which isn't his usual behaviour. I read that sometimes the lights can bother them so I decided to turn off his UV light for the day and just leave him with his heat lamp and see how he was. But when I got home he was gone...I feel so horrible that I might have left him in pain all day, but he wasn't showing much signs that anything major was wrong. When I found him he does have black marks all over him which wasn't there earlier in the day. I do have pictures of this but unfortunately he is dead in them so didn't want to upload them straight away. Please if anyone could give me some answers as to why this might have happened it would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance xx

 

[sharp229]

Sorry for your loss! People may be able to help determine obvious causes if you copy and paste and fill out the following form:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

However, if your husbandry is correct, then the best way to know for sure is to bring his body to the vet for a necropsy.

 

[Lathis]

It can be very difficult to diagnose a sudden death. The husbandry survey posted above can help, so it would be good to fill that out for us. Sorry for your loss - we all understand how hard this must be.

 

[Cait0420]

I'm so sorry for your loss. I lost my girl Saturday and know what your going through. My deepest condolences

 

[Msbeans]

Mines starting to look like that :'(

 

[carol5208]

Mines starting to look like that :'(

What do you mean? Your chameleon is sick?

 

[carol5208]

Don't be hard on yourself. We have had the best of keepers lose their chameleons to sudden death, even one of our Veterinarians on here who is a breeder. If I remember right, one of his that died had a heart condition. This was discovered after a necropsy was done. If you fill out the form as requested we might see something that jumps out that could have contributed to the cause. They get kidney failure and liver disease also, just like humans. Sometimes, they do not show signs of illness until things are really bad, so it seems suddenly, but actually have been sick for awhile. The only other thing you could do for piece of mind is have a necropsy done by your vet to try and find the answer. I am sorry for your loss.