How to treat a baby cham for RI?

[christineacero]

My husband and I went away for a few days and we had our neighbors son take care of all my chameleons. I in no way blame him for this (he didn't know better), but I think he may have misted too heavy and one of my 7 week old babies now has an RI. Because they're montane, I don't have a heat lamp on them, only UVB. Does anyone have any advice as to what I can do to clear it up??

 

[Lazy Boy]

My vet for baby's recommended one injection a week for two weeks of doxycycline.

 

[christineacero]

An injection on something that small? How much do they charge you?

 

[Trace]

I’m not a vet but there are different oral antibiotics that can be given. I wouldn’t want to give an injection on an animal so small either!

I do agree that montanes don’t need a lot of heat but I would use a basking lamp on them anyways. As it is right now the cage is a constant temperature throughout and this doesn’t give any options for basking, or digestion or cooling off etc. I use a small 10w halogen light on montane cages. It gives a fairly hot basking spot but it is only in a small focused area and thus creates a nice temperature gradient in my cages. The larger household bulbs like the 60w I find heat more of the cage and the choices for preferred temperatures decrease. The elevation in temperatures via a low wattage bulb will help with the RI as well.

 

[christineacero]

I’m not a vet but there are different oral antibiotics that can be given. I wouldn’t want to give an injection on an animal so small either!

I do agree that montanes don’t need a lot of heat but I would use a basking lamp on them anyways. As it is right now the cage is a constant temperature throughout and this doesn’t give any options for basking, or digestion or cooling off etc. I use a small 10w halogen light on montane cages. It gives a fairly hot basking spot but it is only in a small focused area and thus creates a nice temperature gradient in my cages. The larger household bulbs like the 60w I find heat more of the cage and the choices for preferred temperatures decrease. The elevation in temperatures via a low wattage bulb will help with the RI as well.

The basking light was kinda what I was thinking, upping their temps to help fend off the RI. My problem is that they're housed separately in deli cups, all together in a 10 gallon tank with 2 uvb bulbs on top of the screen. I'm not sure how exactly to get the basking light available to all the babies with this setup...

 

[christineacero]

I was also thinking of bringing his/her deli cup into our bedroom and putting the cup under our bedroom lamp (we have incandescent bulbs in there). Do you think that would help?

 

[Lazy Boy]

I was charged $30 per. It worked very well for me and cleared his mucus up very fast. Mine was right about 7 weeks, they used the smallest needle they had and did it right in the front shoulder area. I would think a injection would be less stress then cramming something in the mouth. It was very fast and he didn't seem to mind much when he got it. It did work very quickly on clearing him up and keeping him eating.

 

[Trace]

You have a relationship with a vet now, maybe they can prescribe something without you taking the baby in. I don’t know; you would have to talk to them about that.

It’s dreadfully hot in Ontario right now. Almost too hot for montane babies but maybe a few hours out in the shade in early morning might help. It’s supposed to cool off so I certainly recommend some outside time when it isn’t so humid. Nothing better than real UV. Maybe set up a small Rubbermaid container for the little one. You can set it under an incandescent bulb to give some options for heat.