excessive cough and "yawning"

[professorT]

We have a one year old panther chameleon, Professor Terwilliker, who has developed a bit of a cough. He does it fairly frequently, but it is a soft cough. We have him in a mesh enclosure with an automatic mister and adequate lighting. He goes outside at least once a day in Texas humidity. He has also started to open his mouth and stretch out his throat. We do not see any mucus inside his mouth but he is doing this more than he ever has before. WE are concerned he may be getting a cold. ANy thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[AlecWade]

You should fill out this forum very completely and specifically: https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

That will give us a better idea on what might be causing the issue. Sounds like the beginning of a respiratory infection. Is your chameleon spending quite a lot of time basking? What's your humidity like? Do you have a picture?

 

[professorT]

I apologize.

We have a male panther chameleon we have cared for the entire year of his life. We handle him at least once a day to move him to his outdoor setup. We feed him crickets and superworms, coated in a calcium and vitamin powder. He is eating roughly 8 a day, dispersed throughout the day. We use rep-cal's herptivite and calcium with VIT D. The cage is set up with a drip system and an automatic mister, going off every hour for a minute. The humidifier gauge reads around 40 during the day with an 80 degree average temperature. His droppings have remained the same consistency.

The cage sits two feet off the floor and stands four feet high and two feet by two feet. WE have a basking light and a UVA-AVB light. THese are both on for twelve hours a day. His cage has pathos ivy and artificial plants in it. At night, the cage is around 75 and the lights, mister, and drip remain off during this time. The cage is in our back bedroom close to a window with no fans on during the day. We live in Austin Texas and have good access to high humidity.

I hope this helps some.

 

[carol5208]

It does sound like a RI and I think if it were me I would have him checked out at the vet. He might not be showing extra saliva yet as it might be in the beginning stages. Your vet can give him an antibiotic. Also do you not use plain calcium without d3??? You have probably overdosed your chameleon on D3 especially if you are taking him outdoors everyday. If you are using the repcal that has a very high level of D3. How often are you supplementing that?

 

[Jac1582]

Is there any discharge from his nostrils?

 

[professorT]

No discharge from the nostrils and we switched him to plain calcium. I also just noticed he is having some problems extending his tongue. Twice I have seen him try to eat a cricket about three inches away from him, and taken two or three shots at it, with his tongue getting nowhere close to it. Maybe it's a depth perception issue at that close up? EIther way, thanks for the advice. Im going to start looking for a vet just to be safe.

 

[squeekz1992]

If they give you antibiotics for a RI at the vet be VERY careful giving it to him, only squirt the tinniest bit into his mouth at a time, so that he doesn't aspirate it.

It definitely sounds like the beginnings of a RI to me