Gular Edema?

[SaintJimmy]

I am concerned that this might be gular edema.

I was wondering how I can best combat this for the baby rescue jax.

He is around 72-75 ambient temp, has a uvb, is in a fully furnished 16x16x20 inch cage (much bigger than what he was in) and is around 3 inches long at the most.

He has been pooping, trying to eat (haven't seen him eat, but I'm sure he has), and drinking really well.

I haven't seen any urates.

His cage is religiously cleaned by me...

Any advice.

 

[SSimsswiSS]

Is the water straight from tap?

 

[SaintJimmy]

Is the water straight from tap?

No, in fact most of the time we use distilled bottled water.

I've only had the fellow for two days, and the neck was like that when I got him

 

[Saldarya]

Since he is posturing in the pic it is difficult to tell whether it may be edema or just his throat area puffed out. Try to observe him in a relaxed state, head down, and see if the area around his nick appears to be 'puffy'.

It may just be the pic or his posing, but the temporal gland area (corner of mouth) looks like it may be an issue. Watch that closely, not an uncommon place for infections in Jacksons.

 

[SaintJimmy]

Since he is posturing in the pic it is difficult to tell whether it may be edema or just his throat area puffed out. Try to observe him in a relaxed state, head down, and see if the area around his nick appears to be 'puffy'.

It may just be the pic or his posing, but the temporal gland area (corner of mouth) looks like it may be an issue. Watch that closely, not an uncommon place for infections in Jacksons.

He is not just posing. If I removed his hand it would be clear.

Yes the corner of his mouth is kind of black. When he is a bit older and when I get paid I will take him for a quick checkup to the vets.

Thanks for watching out for the little guy. Now I know what I might look out for (if there isn't anything else)

 

[kplatvoet]

My baby is 4 months old- (born May 6th) mine has horns that aren't as big yet and he weighed 3 grams when I took him to the vet a week and 1/2 ago- I don't want to give you any advice on care - as I'm a know nothing newbie- and the wrong advice could hurt him- I would guess your guy is in the range of 5 months old from comparison- I only have my little guy to go by and I could be off-
My little guy was (is) breathing with his mouth open - not all the time but I was worried it was the start of a RI so I took him in- He had had a fecal done the week before (clean) My vet is not a chameleon vet but does have reptiles and has treated chameleons (he's also open on weekends and is less than 5 min from my house) there is a chameleon vet 45 min away and I figured the stress of the trip ..The vet didn't want to give him antibiotics because of his size- and because he was eating drinking and active - He told me to up the temps a little for the time being (watching hydration) and bring him back if he stopped eating-or got worse- I'm not sure if the right thing to do would be to take him to the far away vet or what ... He seems to be hanging in there and not getting any worse and he shed so I'm hoping he's putting on some weight - (i need to get a gram scale) the point of this being that I feel comfortable saying that feeding your little guy as much as you can get him to eat will help your vet dose his antibotic if he needs one- and that when you go to a vet make sure he know chameleons as the wrong dose would be easy for a little guy.
I read a thread about the mouth issue for Jacksons also- there was disagreement in causes and treatment - I'm pretty sure that at least one thought it was caused by being fed oversize feeders and having pieces left over that injured the mouth and then got infected - there was also disagreement on how to clean it out and what to do about it - It is a issue with Jacksons - something that can go bad quickly -
Since by little guy has been under the weather I have been upping his supply of fruitflies as he loves to hunt them - He also likes staple flies from mantisplace and phoenix worms (small to medium) - he's not a big fan of crickets but I'm trying to hatch out a bunch for him and he will eat them once in a while - the whole "oversized" food issue has me spooked along with the biting in the night so I give him the smallest ones I can find in a cup-

 

[little leaf]

I agree, his mouth looks a bit swollen in the corner- the edema will drive you crazy- lol some get it, and then it goes away, some always have it - and no one really seems to know what brings it on - my female gets it at times so bad she looks like she has no neck, and it goes down to her armpits, and the next morning , it will be gone it is something to keep an eye on for sure, but it never has seem to bother her, even at its worst - you are doing great with the little guy

kplatvoet - MAKE THE TRIP - I driver much further to see my cham vet- trust me, if you have a vet who know chameleons you can go to - go - reg vets are great, but they can miss very small issues that a cham vet will know to look for or can spot - a few more miles can save you alot of money and heartache in the long run

 

[SaintJimmy]

I agree, his mouth looks a bit swollen in the corner- the edema will drive you crazy- lol some get it, and then it goes away, some always have it - and no one really seems to know what brings it on - my female gets it at times so bad she looks like she has no neck, and it goes down to her armpits, and the next morning , it will be gone it is something to keep an eye on for sure, but it never has seem to bother her, even at its worst - you are doing great with the little guy

kplatvoet - MAKE THE TRIP - I driver much further to see my cham vet- trust me, if you have a vet who know chameleons you can go to - go - reg vets are great, but they can miss very small issues that a cham vet will know to look for or can spot - a few more miles can save you alot of money and heartache in the long run

Oh okay little leaf. I will just look out for it. I'm feeding him correct size feeders as best as I can, picking out the absolute smallest crickets out of the bin. I need to buy some small supers for the little buddy. Like, really small supers.

Yeah I saw that pic of olive, is that what you mean?

And thank you. I really am glad I can take care of him. I will watch out for his lip (temporal gland I think?)

 

[kplatvoet]

I don't really know if the correct size feeder would have anything to do with the mouth problem (newbie) - It did seem likely that the pet store would not be as careful about feeders as you and it could have caused it -

little leaf- do you know if there is a antibiotic safe to give a chameleon that's only 3 grams? I'm afraid the stress from the trip would not be worth it if there is nothing they can do for him - I like the local guy and he doesn't pretend to know more than he knows but i would dump him in a min. if I thought he was leading me astray- (and I've never been to the other one but he's on the list on this site) The local guy said he was afraid that the dosage would be so small that it would be better to wait as long as he was eating and didn't get any worse. - The antibiotic he said he would give was the one with the least side effects of the ones listed as common medications - not the one that starts with B-

I hope Olive is doing better I've been worried about her too...

 

[SaintJimmy]

I will be sure to urge the small crickets and wormies to the store employees so I can get the right size for my little dude.

Also can anyone help with jacksons supplements?

 

[kplatvoet]

I can't help you with that - I've heard anywhere to none for the first 6 months to calcium no 3 d with every feeding - I'm too new - I keep my supplements lower than maybe i should but try and give him phoenix worms when he'll eat them - and get him outside as much as possible-
How is your guy ? It's bad enough I have to worry about my guys - I've become attached to your little one and Olive too. Have you named him ?

 

[little leaf]

I started dusting my babies food when they were about 3 weeks old- and did it 2 X a week until they hit about 5 mos- but LIGHTLY dust - and you can get silkworm eggs, and hatch them, and that will also be a good source of cal/ for him - or just order , but they come in pretty big sometimes, so I liked hatching my own - have you tried flies yet? they are a great treat - and OH BOY- I enjoy watching mine eat flies as much as they like eating them I had a hard time finding info on when/how often to start dusting- maybe someone who knows more will help ya out
he sure is a cute little Jax

 

[SaintJimmy]

I started dusting my babies food when they were about 3 weeks old- and did it 2 X a week until they hit about 5 mos- but LIGHTLY dust - and you can get silkworm eggs, and hatch them, and that will also be a good source of cal/ for him - or just order , but they come in pretty big sometimes, so I liked hatching my own - have you tried flies yet? they are a great treat - and OH BOY- I enjoy watching mine eat flies as much as they like eating them I had a hard time finding info on when/how often to start dusting- maybe someone who knows more will help ya out
he sure is a cute little Jax

Thanks

Oh holy crap I left the cage door open and Monty is trying to explore. Lol.

Baby jax is now going to get w/o d3 2x a week then, and I will add d3 1x a month is that good?

 

[little leaf]

Thanks

Oh holy crap I left the cage door open and Monty is trying to explore. Lol.

Baby jax is now going to get w/o d3 2x a week then, and I will add d3 1x a month is that good?

thats what I did - I bumped them to 3 X a week when they hit 6 mos - but we are talking VERY LIGHT dusting - D3 1 X a mo, and vit the other( like one Sunday is D3 - the next the vit/ - know what i mean ) - I still really never found any solid post/advice on how much, when,, ect - but if you look over " jdog " post, he is one of the best w/ jax, you can get a lot of info from his post, and he also has Youtube vids that are excellent -

 

[kplatvoet]

The youtube is great- I doubt Sherlock (Shelly?) would still be alive without it-
flies are great too- mantisplace.com is where i get them - I get staple flies for the little guy (who may be a gal) Monty would like them too- youtube 20 chameleons vs 200 flies or something like that- they used wild caught and some seemed way to big but you'll get the general idea.

 

[SaintJimmy]

thats what I did - I bumped them to 3 X a week when they hit 6 mos - but we are talking VERY LIGHT dusting - D3 1 X a mo, and vit the other( like one Sunday is D3 - the next the vit/ - know what i mean ) - I still really never found any solid post/advice on how much, when,, ect - but if you look over " jdog " post, he is one of the best w/ jax, you can get a lot of info from his post, and he also has Youtube vids that are excellent -

The youtube is great- I doubt Sherlock (Shelly?) would still be alive without it-
flies are great too- mantisplace.com is where i get them - I get staple flies for the little guy (who may be a gal) Monty would like them too- youtube 20 chameleons vs 200 flies or something like that- they used wild caught and some seemed way to big but you'll get the general idea.

Cool guys, I'm definitely taking note of what you two are saying!

I'm trying to get my hands on some hornworms and flies for real cheap.

I want to get baby horns and raise them though, so I can feed off the really small ones to the baby before they're too big. Just so everyone gets a chance to have a treat.

And flies sound awesome for the little Jax. Monty also goes crazy when a fly accidentally gets trapped in his cage.

And as for the calcium, I'm going to refer back to this thread to help me out.