Tango unfortunately did not make it to the vet's. We live 45 minutes away from the exotics vet in our area. All other vets around here with "exotics expertise" are semi-versed in birds.
Her condition rapidly diminished over the course of this morning to this evening. She went from drinking and moving quite well to weak gasping in a matter of hours. The vet attempted to find a pulse and was unable, we figured we had lost her before we even made it in to the office. The vet made the observation that her tongue had beige splotches all over it and that she probably had a fungal infection (likely from the potting soil, which slowly infected the rest of her systems). I though the splotched were traces of the medicine we were giving her as it was mealy and practically the same color.
We opted against blood work and an x-ray when we initially took her in a few days ago. The blood work would have not come back in until at least today and the x-ray would not have found anything. I'm disappointed that we didn't ask the vet about the splotches and that they didn't catch it initially or at least suggest it from the potting soil discovery. The medicine they gave u,s I was told, was more to stabilize and would treat bacterial and fungal, but better medicine would have probably been necessary if it was a serious infection of either, especially fungal. Chances are even if we got her to the vet earlier in the day, she would not have made it as I'm fairly certain most fungal infections are like bacterial where its the toxicity from waste and metabolizing more than the actual intruder that does the real damage. I would have never imagined her to eat the dirt since she wasn't a species prone to eating cage decor or I would have never left those open pots in there. Its such a shame and I am incredibly sad to see her go. Chameleons are wonderful reptiles, but they are so fragile. She will be missed.
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). I'd get a new fixture, but the T8s are still so much more affordable. It will arrive Saturday.
