Help again!!!

[mypanthercham]

Right first of all I think im going to give my chameleons away.. everything seems to go wrong and weird things always happen for instance today my female panther chameleon who is 1 and a half years old was thirsty so I gave her water (from water bottle) which was fine then about a minute later I heard a weird noise .. There seems to be foam coming out of her nose or mouth I'm not sure!!?? She's making this weird squelching noise and looking upwards. There looks like there seems to be some sort of lump or something on her throat I'm not sure but I would really appreciate if somebody got back asap. Thanks

 

[carol5208]

Right first of all I think im going to give my chameleons away.. everything seems to go wrong and weird things always happen for instance today my female panther chameleon who is 1 and a half years old was thirsty so I gave her water (from water bottle) which was fine then about a minute later I heard a weird noise .. There seems to be foam coming out of her nose or mouth I'm not sure!!?? She's making this weird squelching noise and looking upwards. There looks like there seems to be some sort of lump or something on her throat I'm not sure but I would really appreciate if somebody got back asap. Thanks

Did you squirt the water in her mouth? If so, you have to be careful. They can aspirate the water into their lungs. How long have you had your chameleon?

 

[mypanthercham]

Did you squirt the water in her mouth? If so, you have to be careful. They can aspirate the water into their lungs. How long have you had your chameleon?

2 months now.. I didn't know I could harm her by squirting into her mouth? What should I do now???
Thanks

 

[carol5208]

I was just curious because I thought maybe you had been doing this procedure of watering for a long time by the age of your chameleon.Not much you can do to my knowledge. Yes you can squirt water in their mouths, but you don't want to squirt it down their throat. I forget the explanation as to why, but it has to do with the structure of their mouth and throat. I am not sure what a Vet could do. If she doesn't get better, maybe call an emergency vet place and explain what happened and see what they might suggest. I did have one chameleon get too much water once and he tilted his head forward and threw a bunch of water up. He was drinking from a dripper though and I did not squirt into his mouth. Hopefully she can resolve this on her own.

 

[Lathis]

The airway is in the front of the mouth with chameleons, under the tongue. It is very easy to accidentally get water in the airway if you force water. This can cause distress, respiratory infection, or direct death.

On another note, your cham should have full access to water from a dripper or regular mistings. Please don't administer water this way and definitely don't wait until your cham looks thirsty. Chronic low level dehydration will eventually kill your cham by stressing the organs.

Have you read the care sheets here on the Forum? Read them until you know the info by heart.

Best of luck to you and your cham. I hope she clears the water from her lungs okay.

 

[mypanthercham]

I was just curious because I thought maybe you had been doing this procedure of watering for a long time by the age of your chameleon.Not much you can do to my knowledge. Yes you can squirt water in their mouths, but you don't want to squirt it down their throat. I forget the explanation as to why, but it has to do with the structure of their mouth and throat. I am not sure what a Vet could do. If she doesn't get better, maybe call an emergency vet place and explain what happened and see what they might suggest. I did have one chameleon get too much water once and he tilted his head forward and threw a bunch of water up. He was drinking from a dripper though and I did not squirt into his mouth. Hopefully she can resolve this on her own.

Thankyou.. I'll keep an eye on her

 

[mypanthercham]

The airway is in the front of the mouth with chameleons, under the tongue. It is very easy to accidentally get water in the airway if you force water. This can cause distress, respiratory infection, or direct death.

On another note, your cham should have full access to water from a dripper or regular mistings. Please don't administer water this way and definitely don't wait until your cham looks thirsty. Chronic low level dehydration will eventually kill your cham by stressing the organs.

Have you read the care sheets here on the Forum? Read them until you know the info by heart.

Best of luck to you and your cham. I hope she clears the water from her lungs okay.

Thankyou ill keep an eye on her us there anything else I should do? ?

 

[jajeanpierre]

Thankyou ill keep an eye on her us there anything else I should do? ?

I hope a vet or medical person can chime in, but this is my understanding of what is probably going on.

The animal inhaled water. The question is, did she inhale it just into her upper respiratory tract or right down into her lungs? If just her nose and sinus cavities, she can probably get rid of it without any problem. If she has inhaled it down into the lungs, it's a big problem.

If the fluid goes down into the lungs, the body will likely respond with an immune response and the lungs will fill up with fluid. This won't be immediate and is called secondary drowning. The animal will suffocate from the fluid build up.

The treatment for secondary drowning is the administration of Lasix. I don't think it is really all that feasible for your chameleon. Lasix will strip fluids out of the animal really fast and dehydrate your already dehydrated chameleon further. You can't just add fluids when Lasix is in the system as those fluids will be stripped out as well, causing a electrolyte imbalance. Severe dehydration will cause irreversible kidney damage.

It's a Catch 22--treat and they die, don't treat and they probably die.

I had a favorite exhibition chicken with secondary drowning (long story, but aspirated on crop contents while being treated for a blocked crop) and I treated her. I think my bill was a few hundred dollars and the vet gave me the first Lasix shot for free and the subsequent office visit the next day for her second Lasix shot for free simply because he likes chickens and I was trying to save her (which we did, by the way). I can't remember how much the shot of Lasix was--somewhere between $50 and $100. I remember I was pretty surprised that is was so much more expensive than when my vet administers it to my racehorses.

 

[Trace]

...then about a minute later I heard a weird noise .. There seems to be foam coming out of her nose or mouth I'm not sure!!?? She's making this weird squelching noise and looking upwards. There looks like there seems to be some sort of lump or something on her throat

Head pointing upwards, excess saliva, wheezing, bubbles and noise when breathing are all symptoms of an Upper Respiratory Infection as well. Perhaps this is the underlying or originating problem and not excess water or improper water delivery. Either way aspiration or infection, she needs to be seen by a qualified professional. Untreated URI’s can lead to pneumonia which is much harder to treat.

 

[Mike Tirado]

What type of chameleon is it I work with t derimensis and from time to time I've noticed that some of them will drink so much water that they appear to have uri to the point that it looks like the have really thick gooey mucus running out of their mouth then once the water goes away they go back to normal