How much vitamin A?

[chamer]

I remember reading one of the thread and advise of giving a dose of Vit A for someones eye issues. I know it is best to take him to the vet but he is still eating and drinking well and only closing his eyes from time to time. He is out side now that it is warmer, in FL and this all started little by little over the winter months. He is a yr and half male panther cham. I likely did not give him enough vitamin during his early growing years, but he was large and happy until this winter when he stopped eating and lost a lot of weight. Question: I got 8,000 usp vit A in gel caplets. I put the whole amount of one pill on his food yesterday. I then started to worry giving him too much!!
I have been giving him regular reptile supplement, but felt a boost might help him get back on track. He does seem some better today but afraid to give him another dose.

 

[warpdrive]

I don't mean any disrespect, but you realy need to do enough research first before you do anything, then ask questions too to see if that info is correct.

I'm sorry to say this but that is way too much of an overdose IMHO.
I hope someone chimes in soon to help you know what you should do next.
I fear a vet visit is in order, but I'll leave that advice to others to give.

Harry

 

[jones5233]

If your using repcal herpvite once a month then that is enough. It doesn't contain Vit A but it contains beta carotene which your cham will convert to vit a naturally so there is no risk of to much!!

 

[chamer]

I agree and appreciate the advise. Just like the others most vets do not know much about Cham in the area. I have learned so much since I found this site and do feel the people here have more inforation. I agree I should have researched more first.

 

[chamer]

i am using vit supplment with beta cart now, but did not for the 1st yr of his life! So felt it might be ok to give him this dose to help him back on track.

 

[Dave Weldon]

...Question: I got 8,000 usp vit A in gel caplets. I put the whole amount of one pill on his food yesterday. I then started to worry giving him too much!!

...He does seem some better today but afraid to give him another dose.

Howdy,

Vitamin A gets stored-up in a chamleon's liver etc. and overdosing is always a concern. You must be very careful when using it. When it doubt, consult a vet. Your chameleon's eye problem could be associated with any number of reasons for it to occur . Your single dose of 8000 IU of Vitamin A probably won't harm your chameleon.

Here is a link to an earlier post regarding dosing of vitamin A:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/help-my-chameleons-tail-11481/#post91527

In the interest of keeping that particular post's vitamin A information readily available (posts that get too old end-up buried in the archives) I'll do a cut/paste of it into here. I think my original-original post was from waaay back in 2005:

The subject of supplementation certainly has a lot of controversy surrounding it. Vitamin A has had its ups and downs all by itself too. I was reading my latest library addition; "Reptile Medicine and Surgery", 2nd Edition, edited by Douglas R. Mader, MS, DVM, DABVP. It just started shipping a few weeks ago (12-2005?). It's an extensive update of the original 1996 version. It has increased from around 500 pages to over 1200 pages and over 900 images. Chapters are written by Mader and 72 contributing authors, mostly Vets.

I was especially interested in the conclusions about vitamin A and chameleons in chapter 18 (written by Susan Donoghue). I'm not sure just how new that data is but the conclusion that most chameleons are deficient in a source of preformed vitamin A and not just beta-carotene got me wondering. This deficiency is supposed to be causing real problems, especially noted in Veileds. That got me to thinking about my chameleons (1 Panther and 2 Veileds) as well as another Veiled that I was taking care of for some friends who went out of town for 10 days. Their female Veiled began having troubles staying upright on its branches and vines a month or two ago. She was looked at by an exotic vet who prescribed liquid Ca and more UVB (sunshine). The diagnosis seemed reasonable (she had produced 3 successful clutches) but the treatment didn't change anything for the first few weeks+. While she was in my care, Mader's book arrived. I read about the Vit A issue and decided to give her a couple of Ca/D3/Vit A dustings. I had some ReptoCal product that someone had given me but that I'd never used before. In its many ingredients, it listed Vit. A at 219,900 IU/kg. I dusted with it for 2-3 feedings and she actually began showing improvement after about a week or so. Her keepers returned and after a few more days they said that she was now climbing some and that her stability seems to continue to improve. It could be that the liquid Ca/UVB finally kicked-in or the Vit A did something useful or both.

I knew that there was some controversy about preformed Vit. A verses beta-carotene. I, along with many other chameleon keepers, use the Rep-Cal Herptivite multivitamin product that only has beta-carotene as a potential vitamin A source and no preformed vitamin A. Mader's book talks about how lizards like chameleons don't process beta-carotene like herbivores do thus leading to potential chameleon's troubles. I'm in the process of re-thinking my supplementation. I'm thinking about either a replacement for the Rep-Cal Herptivite product or, more likely, adding some source of preformed vitamin A to the dusting schedule (without overdosing). Mine usually get Ca/D3 every other week and Ca no/D3 on any superworms (poor Cah) when not using Ca/D3. They get Herptivite once a month. This was based on suggestions from my vet, Dr. Greek, who has worked on 500-1000 chameleons. My chameleons get 4-8 hours of sunshine a week (usually only on weekends)when the weather permits (not lately), along with 12 hrs of Reptisun 5.0 every day.

My biggest fear forms around my (unfounded?) concern that preformed vitamin A is easy to overdose. It is one of those vitamins that is stored in the liver etc. and it can take months to use up what is stored. Too much can even contribute to a kind of nutritional MBD among other problems including death.

The book recommends a treatment (hypovitaminosis A illness symptoms present) dosage of:
Vitamin A (liquid?) @ 2000 IU per 30 grams body weight once a week for 2 weeks.

Using powder: Dusts containing 86 IU retinyl ester /g DM (dry matter), followed by 60 IU /g DM.

Then as a maintenance level dietary dose:
Dusts providing up to 60 IU/g DM or 5-9 IU/g cricket DM. (I didn't find where it mentions how often to dust at that dosage....)

 

[chamer]

Thanks so much for the info and looking up that old information for me!
Thanks for putting my mind at ease that he should be ok with the one dose.