impaction

barnaby

New Member
Hi all!

Two questions:

-If a cham eats a little rock or something like that, is he doomed or is there any chace of saving him?

-In Nature, what's the rate of impaction deaths in chams?? They have rocks and twigs and leafs and everything else! I know most of them live in trees and don't find those materials with ease, but what about pygmies and others that live more at ground level?

Thanks!
 
Is your cham impacted? I'm not suggesting you follow this course of action (below) we did for our cham. I'm just writing this to let you know they can survive, and how it worked out for us.

Our veiled cham survived an impaction, with the help of Dave W from this forum. Treatment included a water/pedialyte mixture, force fed to him via syringe (dribbled in through the side of the mouth, not straight down the gullet). Also little bits of mashed pears. Warm showers. And VERY gentle belly manipulation. After weeks of not passing a thing, he passed his twiggy mass in the shower. But, understand, throughout the impaction period, he was still very robust and active, eating and drinking. If he were suffering otherwise we would have rushed him to the vet (which we have done on other occasions). As it was, I had the understanding at the time that the vet could do nothing for him, short of opening him up in surgery. Now I know a vet (an experienced herp vet) can give an enema, under certain circumstances.
 
Is my cham impacted?...

Well to tell you the truth I don't know...

After I did some reajustments to the enclosure I put her back in and she somehow mistaked a cricket passing by for a small peeble and she tried snag it but spit it out right after I picked the rock and when I was disposing of it I saw some movement by the corner of my eye and when I got there she was chewing and there were yet a couple of small peebles around her...

This happened last week and the next day she was eating fine and all... but since yesterday she seemed a little static and I began to wonder...

She a 5cm pygmy with 4 months... I don't believe surgery is an option and I'm affraid to try any "message" cause I'm affraid I'll break her bones or something (she's that small) and to tell you the truth and don't even know if she's impacted!

I can't monitor the poops cause she's in an enclosure with a male and I'm out all day long... I'm affraid to move him or her just becuse, like I said, I don't even know if she's in trouble!!

See my dilemma?

That's why I asked how the do they survive in the wild? They're so fragile!:eek:

Thanks!
 
I don't think you have too much to worry about.
You just happened to witness something that probably happens every day.
My chameleon (although a veiled and not a pygmy) has little rocks and dirt in his poop all the time.


-Brad
 
Maybe, but now I see problems everywhere!

Today, when I left at 9 am, she was still dozing in a branch... and I was like "Man, she is supose to be up by now! Chams don't sleep during the day!! She ate a rock! She's gonna die!":eek: and maybe she's just a late starter...

She's gonna kill me someday!

Pygmys are VERY cool, but, like I said, they seem so fragile!
 
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