gular edema/gaping mouth

[whitespyder]

im pretty sure that thalamus has a bit of gular edema. could that be related at all to her open mouth? (https://www.chameleonforums.com/open-mouth-under-uv-light-36452/) ill try to get a picture of it tomorrow, because shes sleeping now. she still only opens her mouth rarely during the day. i didnt feel any eggs in her but she might be growing them. she has a laying bin.

i give her calcium without D3 every other feeding, calcium with D3 twice a month, and Reptivite vitamins without D3 once a month. i dust lighty. i feed my crickets and supers orange, collard greens, carrots, and occasionally grapes if i have nothing else.

 

[whitespyder]

her edema seems to have gone down. i started feeding her every other day and give her calcium without D3 every other feeding. that should cut back on her supplementing. I also haven't seen her gaping for a week and her temps are the same. perhaps they were related in some way.

she has been getting noticeably porky, seen most obvious when shes all puffed up during sleep, so i returned her laying bin. i havent noticed any sand in her feces so thats a good thing. I covered her bin with a homemade "mist shield" so the sand doesnt get soaked. she has enough room to walk underneath so hopefully if she is gravid she will see the sand.

 

[OldSkoolxReasons]

How much do you feed her? How often do you use those fat filled super worms? And what kind of water do you use. I've had problems with tap water giving multiple females edema. It all depends on what's in your water. Since I don't see anything off with the supplementing or gutload(except your could vary the gutload a little bit more) I'd say it is an issue with the water or an internal kidney issue. Most likely it is the water though. I know plenty of reptile keepers that have had to switch to reverse osmosis systems or used bottled water. Good luck.


Justin

EDIT: Was she bred? Or have her colors changed at all. Because being gravid would very much explain the edema. Also has she been basking quite a bit more than usual? My female seem to do that the week before they lay their eggs.

 

[whitespyder]

i feed her 4-5 medium to large size crickets every other day or two superworms. but i just started feeding her every other day a week ago.
i use tap water thats filtered through a brita pitcher. i clean that and her mister every now and then when it gets cloudy. ill clean it more and see if theres an improvement.
her colors have changed, she started showing yellow/orange spots last month and i rarely see a bit of turquoise. shes never been bred and this would be her first clutch if she is gravid. but she still shows interest in eating and i havent noticed an increase of basking but im usually out during the day.

thanks for your input!

 

[Jakedn]

i feed her 4-5 medium to large size crickets every other day or two superworms. but i just started feeding her every other day a week ago.
i use tap water thats filtered through a brita pitcher. i clean that and her mister every now and then when it gets cloudy. ill clean it more and see if theres an improvement.
her colors have changed, she started showing yellow/orange spots last month and i rarely see a bit of turquoise. shes never been bred and this would be her first clutch if she is gravid. but she still shows interest in eating and i havent noticed an increase of basking but im usually out during the day.

thanks for your input!

Brita pitchers actually are not very good at filtering water, in fact they are one of the worst water filters you can buy. I used to use this to filter water for my chameleon Waldo and he had edema show up so I changed his gutload and started using distilled water, after that I haven't seen his edema return. I do not know for sure if it was the water or the lack of a varied gutload, but distilled water can't hurt.

 

[whitespyder]

what if the water was filtered and left to sit for 24 hours, would that be ok?

ive actually noticed a major decrease of yellowing in my tubing and water holding containers after i started filtering the water. with just plain tap, my containers would yellow within a week. but maybe theres still something in the filtered water thats causing edema. thanks for that advice

 

[Jakedn]

what if the water was filtered and left to sit for 24 hours, would that be ok?

ive actually noticed a major decrease of yellowing in my tubing and water holding containers after i started filtering the water. with just plain tap, my containers would yellow within a week. but maybe theres still something in the filtered water thats causing edema. thanks for that advice

The filter does filter out some stuff, its better than just plain tap water.

You could always try just switching to distilled for a while and see if it goes away. If it doesn't then you would have to look to other areas of your husbandry and see what else could possibly cause it.