I think my chameleon is dying, unresponsive, not moving

[Kristin919]

Hi everyone, I have a 2 year old male veiled chameleon. A few months ago I noticed he had stopped using his back left left and it became very swole at the knee so I took him to the doctor. The doctor said all of his husandry's were good and that what it looked like what either gout or an injury. We gave him anti inflamatory for a week to see if the swelling would go down and i didn't so we tried the treatment for gout. Whe gave him 1.3ml of allopurinol for 10 weeks, at the beginning he seemed to use his leg a little bit more but now it's been about 4 months and about a month and a half after stopping the allopurinol treatment and he's still swollen and isnt using his leg. Now he is barely eating, barely moving and just laying around all day. He has been hanging upside down by his tail for days straight, he's like slumped over on his side laying on vines and when i put my hand next to him he usualy hisses but now he just opens him mouth like he's trying to his but has no energy to do so. about 5 days ago his blue sun light bulb broke and i just got him a new one yesterday so he was without uva rays for a few days however i feel like that isnt the issue. He lives in a zoomed reptibreeze XL cage 2ftx4ft, has 50 watt uva and uvb bulbs that are on for 12 hours a day, he has a dripper, plenty of vines to climb on, I feed him everyday about 5-6 medium sized crickets and dust them with calcium without D3 everyday and with calcium with D3 2 days of the months and vitamins 2 days of the month. If anyne has any ideas what could be wrong I would greatly appreciate it thank you

 

[Tucklander]

Type in help form in the search bar: Fill out the linked form as completely as possible and the experts will give what advice they can...without doing this they can’t help much. The more info and complete answers the better. Hate to hear your Cham is ill, I hope it will work out ...good luck!

 

[GreenChameleons]

Can you post a picture of what the leg and overall what your chameleon looks like to give the people on here a good visual....and those blue zoo med bulbs blow quick if you don’t have the light fixture prong on the inside where you screw in the bulb is at a 45 degree angle...have you thought of upgrading to a repti 5.0 or 10.0?

 

[Kristin919]

Can you post a picture of what the leg and overall what your chameleon looks like to give the people on here a good visual....and those blue zoo med bulbs blow quick if you don’t have the light fixture prong on the inside where you screw in the bulb is at a 45 degree angle...have you thought of upgrading to a repti 5.0 or 10.0?

i'll try to get a photo of him, I could try changing his bulbs, I did just buy two brand new uva blue sunlight bulb and the white uvb bulb that I believe are 5.0 or say 50 watt on them

 

[Kristin919]

Chameleon Info:
• Your Chameleon – Male Veiled Chameleon. 2 years old
• Handling – rarely do I handle him, I have been handling him the past day or two to help him get back on his vines because he's draped over falling off of them. But little to no handling, an occasional trip outside to bask in the sunlight in his old medium reptibreeze cage.
• Feeding – He gets about five – eight crickets per day that are dusted with calcium without D3 and with D3 twice a month and vitamins twice a month. (however he doesn't always eat all 5-8, he doesn't seem interested in eating, I used to cup fed him and now he doesn't cae for eating I think he's eating just to survive).
• Supplements – I dust his crickets with Fluker’s calcium with vitamin D3 twice a month. I give him Rep-Cal Herptivite Multivitamins twice a month.
• Watering – I spray his cage about three or four times a day, I have a mister but it broke and didn't do a great job so I do it myself and he has a little dripper dripping all the time and I sprits water into his mouth because he has trouble drinking by himself I don't think he knows how to get water.
• Fecal Description - His droppings are not frequent, liquidy and the urites are offwhite-yellow.
• History – not sure what is meant by history? I got him from a local pet store which got him from a local breeder. He was doing well until about 1 1/2 years old, he developed the leg problem and we took him to the vet.

Cage Info:
• Cage Type – It’s an all screened cage. (24” x 24” x 48”) 2ftx2ftx4ft
• Lighting – zoomed white UVB bulb 50watt, 50 watt blue sun light bulb UVA. They go twelve hours on and twelve hours off.
• Temperature – I have gauges set up in his cage. His cool side is about 70 degrees and his basking spot is about 80-85 degrees.
• Humidity – I have a hygrometer in his cage. The humidity usually stays anywhere from 50% to 70%.
• Plants – I have a Pothos plant. He eats it from time to time, I put a scheflera arborricola in his cage and he ate that a little but it died pretty quickly so I removed it.
• Placement – In my room, setting on top of a rigged draining system. Near a window for natural sunlight, the cage sits in a washing machine drainage pan with a glued siphon on the bottom that drains into a bin.
• Location – I’m located in New Jersey in the United States.

Current Problem – He seems to be fading away, unresponsive, has the hind leg issue, doesn't seem to be eating the past few days. (My first post explains it more in detail)

 

[JacksJill]

Have you talked to the vet lately? He may have to stay on the allopurinol.

 

[Brodybreaux25]

I’m going to very blunt here, no one on the internet can save your Cham if what you are saying is true. He needs medical intervention.

 

[Kristin919]

Have you talked to the vet lately? He may have to stay on the allopurinol.

no I haven't talked to the doctor since the last visit where he prescribed the allopurinol. I said to take it for 10 weeks and he did but the mass hasn't gone away and he still won't use the leg but on top of his leg issue now his overall health seems to be fading, about 2 weeks -a month ago he was very active, he would run all around the cage even with his bum leg but now I notice a big difference, he just lays around not even holding his body up, he like drapes himself over his vines and hangs upside down by his tail for hours-days, he lets me touch him now because I think he doesn't have the energy to hiss ad react. I vet also didn't seem to know exactly what else it could be other than an injury or gout and he said it was probably gout and he had no other ideas, he was a reptile vet at an exotic animals clinic and the vet tech has chameleons herself so I feel they knew a thing or two about chameleons rather than a normal vet, I just feel like we did the actions to help treat his problem but it hasn't worked and he's getting worse overall

 

[Kristin919]

I’m going to very blunt here, no one on the internet can save your Cham if what you are saying is true. He needs medical intervention.

He needs to see a vet? or does he seem like he's already dying and there's nothing to do?

 

[JacksJill]

Call your vet and serif he wants to continue the meds. Unless of course you think it's to late.
I thought it sounded like he was better when he was on it.

 

[Kristin919]

Call your vet and serif he wants to continue the meds. Unless of course you think it's to late.
I thought it sounded like he was better when he was on it.

he seemed the best when he was on anti inflammatories , he was eating more and moving around almost like he felt good because he was drugged an the pain was gone, but we stopped those because the vet said if the swelling doesn't go down we should treat for gout so we treated for gout and at the beginning of the gout treatment he seemed ok but as it kept going on almost like as the anti inflamatories left his sytem he got worse, im not sure im not a vet but that's my best guess

 

[Kristin919]

 

[JacksJill]

Call your vet and discuss options.

 

[Panthro413]

Hope he gets better fast!!

 

[Kristin919]

Call your vet and discuss options.

I just called, the vet isn't in for the next 2 days, I'll call back then

 

[Tucklander]

Good luck

 

[Kristin919]

Good luck

Thank you

 

[GreenChameleons]

Does he keep his mouth open for long durations?

You might want to get a plastic syringe without a needle and slowly put some water in his mouth when he opens it. Flukers appetite boost comes with a plastic syringe and it might not hurt to use the powder that you mix with water but follow the directions exactly to liquid feed it. I wouldn’t give it feeders with that are naturally high in protein with gout it makes the crystals (gout) in the joints more prevalent and swells up more. Natural sunlight might do it some good as long as it’s half shade/half sunlight and you would have to closely monitor your chameleon though. Something I hope you don’t have to do is put it to sleep but it would be better than it suffering. Putting it to sleep is the very last resort! I hope it recovers for you!

 

[Brodybreaux25]

He needs to see a vet? or does he seem like he's already dying and there's nothing to do?

Take him to a vet.

 

[Kristin919]

Does he keep his mouth open for long durations?

You might want to get a plastic syringe without a needle and slowly put some water in his mouth when he opens it. Flukers appetite boost comes with a plastic syringe and it might not hurt to use the powder that you mix with water but follow the directions exactly to liquid feed it. I wouldn’t give it feeders with that are naturally high in protein with gout it makes the crystals (gout) in the joints more prevalent and swells up more. Natural sunlight might do it some good as long as it’s half shade/half sunlight and you would have to closely monitor your chameleon though. Something I hope you don’t have to do is put it to sleep but it would be better than it suffering. Putting it to sleep is the very last resort! I hope it recovers for you!

I have a bunch of syringes from the vet that I can use, I already squirt water into his mouth when he opens it with a spray bottle, I could try to pick up the appetite boost didn't even know that was a thing so I'll try that maybe he'll get some strength back, should I try mixing his calcium/vitamin powder into his water that i squirt into his mouth? this way he's getting his nutrients? because he's not eating much otherwise, thank you for the help