ChameSecret
Member
Your Chameleon - 3yo ambanja male, been in my care for 2.5 years
Handling - Perhaps once every two weeks to inspect for problems and handfeed
Feeding - fed 10-15 crickets twice a week, 1 dusted with calcium, 1 dusted with Dino Fuel Raptor Edition
Supplements - See above, plus once a month calcium w D3
Watering - misted through AquaZamp RainDome 3 x a day for 5 minutes
Fecal Description - Unknown for the last month, before that, healthy without yellow/orange dehydration artifact
History - Been a great little rambunctious critter for his whole life. No previous health problems.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - 2x2x4 mesh cage
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - 74-90F, basking spot is quite deep so based on his position, varies from 85 to 80.
Humidity - Fluctuates widely, but 60%+ most of the day (drops at night due to lack of misting)
Plants - Yes, 1, unknown at the moment (tag has completely sunbleached), but bought off the chameleon safe plants list on this site
Placement - Now in the living room, off to the side, next to the window
Location - Houston, TX
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Now that that's out of the way, hello! My little guy DeNo is having some serious problems. Here is the saga. On Thursday I noticed he looked a bit thin all of a sudden, so I put 5 more crickets in his cage. On Friday night, he was sleeping vertically, head down, on the plant's trunk. I thought it was a bit strange, since he always sleeps under a leaf hammock near the top of the cage. On Saturday morning before I left for work (10am), I noticed he was hanging off the bottom of branches and looking uncoordinated. Alarmed, I could do nothing in time before I had to leave for work, and told my roommate to keep an eye on him. When I came home, he was on the bottom of the cage, on his side, his eyes sunken in DEEP. This is the first time I noticed any signs of dehydration (which I am normally quite sensitive to), as I saw him drinking on Thursday with no issue. This was about 5pm Saturday.
I immediately drove to and called 3 vets/clinics, and no one would/could/wanted to see him before Monday. He needed an IV immediately. He was completely unresponsive to light and had no vestibular control. He was unable to walk. He was dying. I took matters into my own hands. First I tried gavaging fresh conditioned water, but he was too semiconscious to swallow and the risk of drowning him was too great. I have access to syringes, sterile phosphate-buffered saline, and needles and I have veterinary surgical training. I gave him very careful 1ml subcutaneous injections spaced out over the course of about half an hour to 45 minutes (always at room temperature before injection). All-in-all, it took approximately 10ml to return him to awareness and when he went to sleep last night he was finally having vestibuloocular and optokinetic responses, but his balance was still bad. He slept in my pet carrier, so he wouldn't hurt himself trying to climb.
This morning, he is moving his eyes normally (but not in response to stimuli), able to walk, and able to balance on branches. His eyes are no longer sunken, and he looks like the healthy teal/red he normally is. He no longer looks skinny. However, I believe he is now blind. He will not leave the branch I place him on, he seems unaware when food is placed in front of him on tongs (he normally has at MAX a 10 second latency before he attacks food placed in front of him). I have read the other "Dehydrated" threads, and:
(1) no one really ever talks about what resolved the problem, or whether their cham died,
(2) no one has shown that dehydration may result in blindness, and
(3) I am finding it very difficult with my limited information to determine whether he went blind first, then had feeding and drinking problems, or whether he is having temporary vision problems due to the dehydration.
Anyone have any guesses on how to proceed? I'm also looking for a herpetologist worth a damn in Houston, because I have previously been burned by chuckleheads who thought snalt was an infection and that gutloading crickets was "dangerous".
Thank you for reading.
Handling - Perhaps once every two weeks to inspect for problems and handfeed
Feeding - fed 10-15 crickets twice a week, 1 dusted with calcium, 1 dusted with Dino Fuel Raptor Edition
Supplements - See above, plus once a month calcium w D3
Watering - misted through AquaZamp RainDome 3 x a day for 5 minutes
Fecal Description - Unknown for the last month, before that, healthy without yellow/orange dehydration artifact
History - Been a great little rambunctious critter for his whole life. No previous health problems.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - 2x2x4 mesh cage
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - 74-90F, basking spot is quite deep so based on his position, varies from 85 to 80.
Humidity - Fluctuates widely, but 60%+ most of the day (drops at night due to lack of misting)
Plants - Yes, 1, unknown at the moment (tag has completely sunbleached), but bought off the chameleon safe plants list on this site
Placement - Now in the living room, off to the side, next to the window
Location - Houston, TX
------------------------------------------------------
Now that that's out of the way, hello! My little guy DeNo is having some serious problems. Here is the saga. On Thursday I noticed he looked a bit thin all of a sudden, so I put 5 more crickets in his cage. On Friday night, he was sleeping vertically, head down, on the plant's trunk. I thought it was a bit strange, since he always sleeps under a leaf hammock near the top of the cage. On Saturday morning before I left for work (10am), I noticed he was hanging off the bottom of branches and looking uncoordinated. Alarmed, I could do nothing in time before I had to leave for work, and told my roommate to keep an eye on him. When I came home, he was on the bottom of the cage, on his side, his eyes sunken in DEEP. This is the first time I noticed any signs of dehydration (which I am normally quite sensitive to), as I saw him drinking on Thursday with no issue. This was about 5pm Saturday.
I immediately drove to and called 3 vets/clinics, and no one would/could/wanted to see him before Monday. He needed an IV immediately. He was completely unresponsive to light and had no vestibular control. He was unable to walk. He was dying. I took matters into my own hands. First I tried gavaging fresh conditioned water, but he was too semiconscious to swallow and the risk of drowning him was too great. I have access to syringes, sterile phosphate-buffered saline, and needles and I have veterinary surgical training. I gave him very careful 1ml subcutaneous injections spaced out over the course of about half an hour to 45 minutes (always at room temperature before injection). All-in-all, it took approximately 10ml to return him to awareness and when he went to sleep last night he was finally having vestibuloocular and optokinetic responses, but his balance was still bad. He slept in my pet carrier, so he wouldn't hurt himself trying to climb.
This morning, he is moving his eyes normally (but not in response to stimuli), able to walk, and able to balance on branches. His eyes are no longer sunken, and he looks like the healthy teal/red he normally is. He no longer looks skinny. However, I believe he is now blind. He will not leave the branch I place him on, he seems unaware when food is placed in front of him on tongs (he normally has at MAX a 10 second latency before he attacks food placed in front of him). I have read the other "Dehydrated" threads, and:
(1) no one really ever talks about what resolved the problem, or whether their cham died,
(2) no one has shown that dehydration may result in blindness, and
(3) I am finding it very difficult with my limited information to determine whether he went blind first, then had feeding and drinking problems, or whether he is having temporary vision problems due to the dehydration.
Anyone have any guesses on how to proceed? I'm also looking for a herpetologist worth a damn in Houston, because I have previously been burned by chuckleheads who thought snalt was an infection and that gutloading crickets was "dangerous".
Thank you for reading.
