Chameleon passed, looking for some closure

[jastrobytheway]

Hi, my name is Matt and my girlfriend and I had a 4 1/2 year old Male Veiled Chameleon. I woke up yesterday morning and found him dead on his side in the bottom of the cage. He was on one of his normal vines when I changed his light to his night bulb. Now that this has happened, i guess it seems the past 2 weeks he wasn't eating like he use to and maybe acting a little lethargic. It wasn't to the point that made me jump to seek medical attention for him, i though maybe he was being lazy. is there a chance that he most likely passed from old age? I felt so terrible for him when i found him and even tho we did not have physical interaction every day he was still a large part of my girlfriends and mine daily routines and we both cared for him greatly. I just don't know if i should have been more attentive to the now small signs I noticed or maybe it was just his time. We recently moved 4-5 months ago but he has moved before and has never had a problem besides being ticked off for a day. Any comments are appreciated, Thanks.

 

[OldChamKeeper]

If you had him for 4+ years you did well in terms of his care. Did you miss something? I can't say with the little info you provided. I've known Veiled to live 6-8 yrs but you didn't mention anything like how large or old he was when you go him.


Sorry for your loss

 

[Carlton]

Hi, my name is Matt and my girlfriend and I had a 4 1/2 year old Male Veiled Chameleon. I woke up yesterday morning and found him dead on his side in the bottom of the cage. He was on one of his normal vines when I changed his light to his night bulb. Now that this has happened, i guess it seems the past 2 weeks he wasn't eating like he use to and maybe acting a little lethargic. It wasn't to the point that made me jump to seek medical attention for him, i though maybe he was being lazy. is there a chance that he most likely passed from old age? I felt so terrible for him when i found him and even tho we did not have physical interaction every day he was still a large part of my girlfriends and mine daily routines and we both cared for him greatly. I just don't know if i should have been more attentive to the now small signs I noticed or maybe it was just his time. We recently moved 4-5 months ago but he has moved before and has never had a problem besides being ticked off for a day. Any comments are appreciated, Thanks.

Sorry to hear you lost him. If you had him for 4+ years you were doing a lot right. One thing that could ease your mind is to describe your husbandry during the time you had him. Maybe we could spot something that might have contributed to his death. There could have been some sort of organ failure that wouldn't have been very obvious or even heredity issues coming into play here but without a necropsy you really won't know what happened.

 

[Lathis]

Hi Jastro,

Sorry to hear about your loss. It's terrible to lose a pet, especially so unexpectedly.

It's hard to know the exact conditions, but I can say that one of the most important defense mechanisms for a chameleon is hide illness. It's not unusual for conditions to be more severe than you might think based on changes in behavior, appetite, and other factors. This often why we recommend vet visits or fecal checks for seemingly minor symptoms, like closed eyes or sleeping during the day. 4-1/2 is on the older side, although certainly not the oldest a veiled chameleon could live. Age could have been a factor. Lethargy and changes in appetite are symptoms you could see with a range of illnesses, like infection or parasites. It can be very hard to know if your cham is just having a crabby day or is having health issues.

I would suggest to check the care sheets here against your husbandry and see if anything jumps out about how you were keeping him. Check supplements, gutloading, temperatures, etc: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

Chances are, if you have had him for a few years, your care was pretty good, but there is always room to learn more.

I wish I had a better answer for you, but just know that the people here understand how special these little creatures are. You have our sympathies.

 

[kinyonga]

So sorry for your loss. It's always hard losing one and frustrating when you don't know why.

A necroosy might shed some light on why he died.

Can you please post a recent photo of him and answer the questions in the how to ask for help thread at the top of the health forum so we can see if we can give you some possibilities if why.

What do you mean by night light?
Was there anything that changed when you moved...like cage surroundings...vents, windows, mirrors, etc?