health concerns...worried

Ace

Avid Member
Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? panther chameleon, about 9 months, been in my care for about 6 months

Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? very minimal, to clean cage, and take him outside in a sun-cage on weekends
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? crix, sperworms, hornworms, and silkworms. (have fed mantids, dubias, and BB flies) crix usually 8-12 medium crix or 5-7 large crix, recently feed every other day, gut-load with cricket crack, oranges, carrots, romaine lettuce

Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
repcal without d3-:every other feeding on crix "lightly"
repcal with d3-: 2-3x month
herptivite- : 2-3x month


Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
hand spray 2x a day for 3-5 minutes (morning and afternoon)
dripper cup middle of the day / while i am at school


Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
its normally black/dark brown and firm urates are mostly all white with slight yellow occasionally.
has not been tested for parasites in my care


History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
n/aCage Info:

Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
screen cage (30" Length x 18" depth/width x 36" tall)

Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
reptisun 5.0 linear tube 18" -uvb
heat bulb 75 watts-

5:30am-6:00pm - on a timer



Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
temp gun

basking area: 85-87 degrees Fahrenheit
ambient cage area:72-77F
night temps: 65-70 degrees


Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
dont know the exact humidity, need a new humidity guage, but short mistings, and use a live plant for aiding humidity levels

Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
for now only one live plant a medium sized full ficus plant in the cage

Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
in my room, on a 4ft tall table/drawer, there is a ceiling fan, not high traffic area-only me and rarely my parents, and the family cat, who has no interestin the cage or chameleon/nor does the chameleon react to the cat

Location - Where are you geographically located?
los angeles, california

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
over the last couple weeks, i seen my cham shoot his tongue and miss sometimes, and then his tongue shooting distance began to shorten from the normal estimated 5-7 inches ive seen him, he only shoots his tongue within 2-3 inches as of late, i free-range his food, he also has a major decrease in appetite, barely 2-3 large crix, or 4-5 medium, or 1-2 superworms, or 1-2 medium horns and silks, i presumed he is slowing down his growth and fed him every other day, but even that seems not to work to bring back his appetite. i tried a couple drops of rept-aid to boost his appetite,

on a another side note: he has developed "bags" under his eye turrets, they are soft skin and do not seem "filled with liquid", his eyes are always moving and alert, still walks around cages normally, not sluggish, though he has never had them before



i will post pictures of my cage, and some shots of my chameleon tomorrow

overall its his tongue and lack of appetite i am worried.

i hope anyone can enlighten me on how should i go abotu this and bring his appetite, and tongue shooting distance back to it was not too long ago

much appreciated
 
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All looks ok to me, but if you could post close up pictures of his eyes to see what is going on there would be great...good luck dude.
 
im just going to throw some suggestions w/o pics. my instinct says his chemistry is off.
anyway he is getting 2 much phosphorus?
maybe he is one of those that cant convert provitA?
possible tongue injury?

reminder: your bulb is due to be changed soon if you have not already.
 
This seems more of an individual health issue to me, as opposed to a general dietary issue. By that I mean, you are doing everything right for a normal chameleon, but maybe your chameleon is not normal.

That's often what drives humans to go to the doctor and I think that's what you need to do now: see a vet.
 
im just going to throw some suggestions w/o pics. my instinct says his chemistry is off.
anyway he is getting 2 much phosphorus?
maybe he is one of those that cant convert provitA?
possible tongue injury?

reminder: your bulb is due to be changed soon if you have not already.

i thought so as well , i doubt about getting too much phospghorus since i watch what i gutload my crix plus he gets diferent feeders.

i also am inclined to beleive that he maybe be those that cannot convert beta carotene to prEvita rom prOvit a, but still learning about that

and again its still up in the air, but doesnt show any sign of swelling or hesitant to shoot his tongue

This seems more of an individual health issue to me, as opposed to a general dietary issue. By that I mean, you are doing everything right for a normal chameleon, but maybe your chameleon is not normal.

That's often what drives humans to go to the doctor and I think that's what you need to do now: see a vet.

this is by far maybe the worst case scenario which it might be possible, however my gut feeling its not to that point there yet.

he is still drinking fine, awake, moving his eyes(alert) fine, no closing eyes or blinking, and goes around his cage fine



also recently today he ate two medium hornworms that are pretty big, and 2 medium/small crix

i handfed the cri and it seems his tongue distance is longer today? and his tongue is sticky (i felt it while he got the cricket)


the onl thing now is that he hasnt had a poop for a few days, maybe by the decrease in appetite


some members told be about the season change and of possible slowing down more than usual.

still i will continue to keep an eye on things,


the only difference i did that might of helped his tongue difference is that i gutloaded my crix with a little amount of ground up cherrios that i saw on the box had many vitamins and minerals, i just mixed it a little with the cricket crack and it seemed to work though this could be all by chance
 
im just going to throw some suggestions w/o pics. my instinct says his chemistry is off.
anyway he is getting 2 much phosphorus?
maybe he is one of those that cant convert provitA?
possible tongue injury?

reminder: your bulb is due to be changed soon if you have not already.

i thought so as well , i doubt about getting too much phosphorus since i watch what i gutload my crix plus he gets different feeders.

i am also inclined to believe that he maybe those that cannot convert beta carotene in to prEvit a from prOvit a, but still learning about that

and again its still up in the air aout a tongue injury, but doesnt show any sign of swelling or hesitant to shoot his tongue

This seems more of an individual health issue to me, as opposed to a general dietary issue. By that I mean, you are doing everything right for a normal chameleon, but maybe your chameleon is not normal.

That's often what drives humans to go to the doctor and I think that's what you need to do now: see a vet.

this is by far maybe the worst case scenario which it might be possible, however my gut feeling its not to that point there yet.

he is still drinking fine, awake, moving his eyes(alert) fine, no closing eyes or blinking, and goes around his cage fine



also recently today he ate two medium hornworms that are pretty big, and 2 medium/small crix

i handfed the crix and it seems his tongue distance is longer today? and his tongue is sticky (i felt it while he got the cricket)


the only thing now is that he hasnt had a poop for a few days, maybe by the decrease in appetite


some members told be about the season change and of possible slowing down more than usual.

still i will continue to keep an eye on things,


the only difference i did that might of helped his tongue difference is that i gutloaded my crix with a little amount of ground up cherrios that i saw on the box had many vitamins and minerals, i just mixed it a little with the cricket crack and it seemed to work though this could be all by chance


P.S: sorry will post pics soon:eek:
 
UPDATE:

thought i give an update...well i have been keeping an eye on him and two weeks ago, i did not give him food for a week , only water

he seemed a bit better and gave him a food here and there now...his tongue is longer:) and still misses but not as bad:eek:, he can get hormworms on his own now...

i gave him reptaid for about 3-4 days straight...and now focus on his puffy eyes ..a forum member suggested a little bit of egg yolk and inject to a feeder(hornworm) very little like 0.03cc...the egg yolk has vit. A which helps eyes apparenlty , i only did it two days in a row, since now i got a hold of vitA capsules to try out...i understand the danger of oversupplementing with vitA, however i am taking the measures of injecting one feeder with about 0.02cc? or if anyone knows the correct dosage that would help thank you

overall Zulu seems better , his appetite is there but smaller like 2-3 large crix and a medium hornworm every other day or every two days, he is active eyes are moving

now the only thing he seems to have a little isolated burn or fungal area near his right side above his arm and it seems atop his head where his spine begins, a little part in the beginning was black and size like 0.5-1mm of his spike "rotted or wiped off clean???"

will try to post pics of him asleep

his vet visit will be during my sprink break which is the third week of april, he is not weakening and still has a strong grip and is just "okay" for the most part
 
Ace,
your animal is pretty much an adult now, a decrease in eating is normal and likewise, decreased poop frequency. They get lazy, they seem to understand their feeders cant go far and there may be less appeal to shoot from a distance if they can just amble on over nice and close. Captive bred crickets themselves are lazier than their wild black counterparts too imo.
I think people panic unduly if the cham isnt a super tongue olympian.
Bumping the max basking to 90 wont hurt either.
Ensure adequate hydration always. Imo dont mess with vit A, improve his diet quality and variety instead. Boost the humidity for longer periods if you can, a fogger might work for you. Showers or misting will him naturally dislodge any debris in his eyes.
If you think the 'bags' you describe are unatural or swelling, possibly infection, Then see your vet. Likewise if you think it has burns, treat it topically with iodine or silverzine cream (burn cream with colloidal silver ingrediant) Naturally ensure no further burns are possible. :)
 
thank you Jo,

its not his appetite im worried about anymore i come to understand what you described in your post about cb appetites and see your point, his basking temp his higher now 89-93 range..he has a variety of feeders and i do gutload a variety as well

what i am getting at his tongue and eyes seem to have corerellated together
of seems to be vitA deficency, now i know its best to just go to the vet, but
i have seen and recored progress and used the searrched function of the forums and have read similar patterns about some panthers having a more frequent vitA deficenies than other chameleons, i also feel it is good for me to learn of what actions i can take at home.

now im not trying to play doctor but would like to try something in a safely manner and see if it helps or does nothing whatsoever...

im more curious than worried at this point and is a learning process for me:)
 
Yeah mate go for it, the Vit A liquid capsule Thing might work for you on an insect, if you think it might have a difficiency, be sparing and it certainly wont hurt it.
Let us know how it goes for ya. :)
 
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