is something wrong?

[hanly]

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - veiled, male, about 5 months old. i have had him for about a month
Handling - i do not handle him very often. he seems scared of me but i am trying to hand feed him to get him to be a little more social
Feeding - i feed him about 15 crickets a day. 10 in the morning then more if he eats all of them. gutloading crickets with flukers high calcium diet
Supplements - dusting crickets with calcium daily and with d3 twice a month.
Watering - i hand mist the cage 3-4 times a day for about 2 min each time. i have seen him drink the water a few times.
Fecal Description - poop is brown and urate is white. never had a fecal done.
History - i bought him from a reptile show from dragonfortress

Cage Info:

Cage Type - screen cage 24 x 24 x 36
Lighting - i am using a reptisun 5.0 uvb tube and a 60w basking bulb. 12 hr on/12 hr off 11am-11pm.
Temperature - basking temp is usually around 87-90 lowest overnight temp around 75-80. i am using an analog thermometer and hygrometer (will be getting digital very soon)
Humidity - humidity level 60-80 with live plants and hand misting.
Plants - yes 1 pothos, and 2 different dracaena, with fake vines and fake leaves
Placement - cage is on top of an end table in my room. there is 1 fan but it is not blowing at the cage. only traffic is usually just me in my room. the cage is about 3 feet off the floor.
Location - near phila, pa

Current Problem - i am new to this forum and owning a chameleon. i have done my research before buying him so i knew what to expect. yesterday i was looking at him from across the room and he was wiggling his body and opening his mouth. when i saw him doing that i got up and walked over to the cage and he stopped and hid behind one of the fake plants. today i noticed him about halfway down the cage and looking up with his mouth wide open. is any of this normal? i dont think he is too hot so i dont think that is why he has his mouth open. also, the past 2 days every time i went up to the cage he would run away and hide behind a plant. usually he just sits on the vine where he is hanging out and looks me.

 

[Pilotman800]

My little guy would do the exact same thing. I always wondered about it. Does he kind of fire up when he does it?

 

[hanly]

no i havent seen him fire up at all yet. usually he is a darker shade of green except when he is sleeping he will really brighten up. the picture on my avatar is him sleeping.

 

[hanly]

also yesterday he didnt eat all of his crickets and today he doesnt seem to have much of an appetite. i tried hand feeding him a mealworm but he just ran and hid from me.

 

[Gotti]

By no means am I an expert, but the looking up with his mouth open and loss of appetite sounds like a possible respiratory infection.

 

[hanly]

i hope its not a respiratory infection. the exotic veterinarian near me isnt in until Tuesday. i don't hear any popping, coughing, or wheezing. i havent been able to check his mouth for mucus because he hides when i go near his cage.

 

[Olimpia]

Does he keep his mouth open or just open it wide and then close? The shaking might lead me to think that he's stretching the skin out to shed.

Try to get him out gently from the cage, perhaps luring him onto a stick. Then if he gapes then perfect, check his mouth and see if you can see lots of mucus. If not, don't worry about being more assertive for a minute if it's for his health. Put your thumb and index finger on each side of his face/cheeks and that will usually make them gape.

I'm going to include some pics from when my little one had an infection. Except he had a really icky one with colored mucus, but you'll check for bubbles like he has in the back of his throat and around his teeth.

 

[Elizadolots]

I'm curious why it's so warm at night. Is it just hot where you are?

 

[hanly]

i think it might be a respiratory infection. i tried to pick him up to look for mucus and he gaped and sounded like he was wheezing. i think it stays that warm becasue i keep a blanket over his cage at night so no light gets in while i'm still awake.

 

[camimom]

i think it might be a respiratory infection. i tried to pick him up to look for mucus and he gaped and sounded like he was wheezing. i think it stays that warm becasue i keep a blanket over his cage at night so no light gets in while i'm still awake.

If you think he has a RI, whcih if hes wheezing he probably doe,s then it sounds like its vet visit time.

 

[hanly]

update: at the vet right now with the little guy. he weighs 20 grams. is that a bit on the light side? doctor said he does have some wheezing and is going to put him on some antibiotics.

 

[Olimpia]

Yea, that's very small. He's probably put you on a tiny drop of Baytril once daily for a week or two. He's small, so the dose will have to be tiny. Mine weighed only 24g when he was treated for his infection. It was cleared up in two weeks.

 

[hanly]

yea I'm gonna be bumping up his cricket intake from now on. she mentioned doing injections should I request something else? I am waiting for her to come back into the room because she called another vet to verify dosing and stuff.

 

[Olimpia]

I've heard that oral meds are better than injections, at least on an animal this small. I go to one of the top cham vets in the country and this is what he preferred. You can always inject the meds into crickets and feed them off.

 

[hanly]

i didnt end up getting an oral. the vet gave me ceftazidime. 1 injection every 3 days for 2 weeks. i hope this clears up his RI. thanks for all the input.

 

[hanly]

today was the second injection of the antibiotics for the RI. since he has been back from the vet he still isn't eating much. I thought it was because he didn't have the energy to hunt the crickets around the cage, or maybe even the stress from the vet. so yesterday I put them in a cup for him but he still didn't eat. also I noticed today after I misted his cage that he was closing his eyes. I thought maybe he had something stuck in his eye so I gave him a shower for about 5 minutes. after giving him his antibiotics and shower I put him back in his cage and he wasn't moving around too much and was still keeping his eyes closed. i just left to go to work and as I was leaving I looked in his cage and his eyes were open. does this have anything to do with the antibiotics or is there another problem now?

 

[hanly]

just got back from work and his eyes were open so I guess he just had something stuck in there but he's still not eating. any input on this would be very much appreciated

 

[Olimpia]

Well, since he's so small there's the worry about overdosing. How much is he getting in each injection? We can compare it to my dose, who was about the same size/weight. He could just be feeling a little ill from the meds, but keep offering food anyway.

 

[hanly]

the dose is 50mg/ml and .01 ml per injection. i was just looking in his cage again and he was laying on a vine with his eyes closed. its worrying me that he keeps closing his eyes.