Just lost my Nosy Be Female

[lojack13]

Yeah all, it's been a long while since I have been on here, and I am sad to say I have returned with a heavy heart. I apologize if this should be in the health clinic threads, but I came home from work today to discover my Nosy Be female lying dead on the bottom of her cage. I was devastated and still am. She was the absolute picture of health, and to have her die so suddenly is an absolute mystery to me. She was an eager eater and very active. In fact, before I left this morning she was right up at the front waiting on her crickets with her little tongue half cocked and ready to fire. I have been keeping Chameleons for 4 years and consider my husbandry top notch, I just do NOT know what happened to her. Was it possibly old age? She was nearly 3 years old, and she has had several clutches of infertile eggs in the past. ( I know that can shorten their lives ) Just curious to know how long some of your female panthers have lived? Also, has anyone had a chameleon die so unexpectedly?

 

[xephyr17]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss I'm not too sure about the life span of females in a condition of getting infertile clutches.

Best of luck to you

 

[lojack13]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss I'm not too sure about the life span of females in a condition of getting infertile clutches.

Best of luck to you

Thanks you. She was so special to me. She will be greatly missed.

 

[carol5208]

I have never had any of mine die suddenly, but can tell after being a member on here for over 4 years I have seen many cases of this "sudden death". Now whether the chameleon really had underlying issues that never surfaced until things got critical enough to cause death, who knows.Just know you are not alone. I am sorry for your loss and it hurts no matter if you are prepared for it or not.

 

[laurie]

I am very sorry to hear you lost your girl. Sadly I can tell you chams do seem to die with no warning and no reason that we can find. All you can do I have a part of her in your heart, and give your love to another cham. There are more chams deserving of your love and level of caring.

With my guy, I drove 6 hours to take a male quad to the vet. The vet, who keeps panthers, said my boy was the picture of health. I said no, I feel something is wrong. He did an xray, came back, and told me all was well and TJ was healthy. While my friend and I sat talking to the vet, my cham suddenly died in the vet's hands. He was floored. He has no idea what was wrong with TJ and neither do I, but I just felt something was wrong. I still to this day have no idea how I knew or what I saw to decide to go to the vet.

 

[Psychobunny]

I am so sorry to hear about that.

I can understand, I too have experienced 2 mysterious sudden deaths, both were seemingly healthy and active male panthers.

They simply dropped dead!!!

I posted this before, but a few times I have noticed dead crickets after giving them produce from the grocery store.
The ones that were not dead, were like on their backs, twitching and convulsing. The same way a bug twitches when sprayed with a pesticide.
I now make sure everythig is USDA certified organic, and buy my produce from a good health food store.

I suspect there may be a connection to pesticides being transfered from feeders to my chams.
It's just one possibility to explain the sudden death.

 

[jannb]

I am so sorry for your loss. An autopsy might shed some light on what happen to her. I have never experience a sudden death but I have lost chameleon and other pets and know what you are going through. It's never easy to lose one of the special little animals. My condolences.

 

[Leslie11]

Loss of a cham

I, too, am sorry for your loss. It just could have been her time to go. I know I will be more vigilant about washing my bug food. I wash their food, but probably not as thorough as I could. Again, I am sorry.

 

[lojack13]

Wow, thank all of you so much for your kind words and input. That means so much to me. I didn't even know I had this many responses till I logged on just now. I still have my male Nosy Be and he is nearly 3 years old as well. Now I am scared to death that I might walk in and he too will be gone. This "sudden death" business is so crazy! But apparently it is a common thing from what you are all telling me. She will always live on in my heart.

 

[lojack13]

I am very sorry to hear you lost your girl. Sadly I can tell you chams do seem to die with no warning and no reason that we can find. All you can do I have a part of her in your heart, and give your love to another cham. There are more chams deserving of your love and level of caring.

With my guy, I drove 6 hours to take a male quad to the vet. The vet, who keeps panthers, said my boy was the picture of health. I said no, I feel something is wrong. He did an xray, came back, and told me all was well and TJ was healthy. While my friend and I sat talking to the vet, my cham suddenly died in the vet's hands. He was floored. He has no idea what was wrong with TJ and neither do I, but I just felt something was wrong. I still to this day have no idea how I knew or what I saw to decide to go to the vet.

Laurie, that is insane! I am so sorry. You know this story makes me feel that this is probably what happened to my Chloe. I must admit I did not have a strange feeling like you did though. I was wondering perhaps if when this happens to Chams they may be suffering heart attacks or aneurysms?

 

[lojack13]

I am so sorry for your loss. An autopsy might shed some light on what happen to her. I have never experience a sudden death but I have lost chameleon and other pets and know what you are going through. It's never easy to lose one of the special little animals. My condolences.

Thanks, Jann. I had considered an autopsy but ended up deciding against it. I truly do not think anyone around here is experienced enough to tackle the task.

 

[lojack13]

I am so sorry to hear about that.

I can understand, I too have experienced 2 mysterious sudden deaths, both were seemingly healthy and active male panthers.

They simply dropped dead!!!

I posted this before, but a few times I have noticed dead crickets after giving them produce from the grocery store.
The ones that were not dead, were like on their backs, twitching and convulsing. The same way a bug twitches when sprayed with a pesticide.
I now make sure everythig is USDA certified organic, and buy my produce from a good health food store.

I suspect there may be a connection to pesticides being transfered from feeders to my chams.
It's just one possibility to explain the sudden death.

I am so sorry to here about your panthers. I too have had crickets half dead, doing the kicking thing. I immediately remove them from the tote when they start behaving this way. If I have too many acting this way I will throw away all of them and order a new batch. And I agree with your practice of buying organic veggies. I make sure mine are all organic.

 

[ridgebax1]

I just lost my less than one year old nosy be last week. He was the picture of health a few weeks ago then developed stomatitis which progressed to a URI; he was to the vet 3 times and on 3 different meds. It started after a batch of hornworms I bought from a sponsor here just up and turned black and died! Now my veiled is ill but he has a severe burn and I think the stress of having it treated daily has taken a toll. He has stopped eating, is closing his eyes etc. He is now on antibiotics and I hope he makes it to his recheck at the vet on Monday. I am very discouraged with the whole mess!

I am so sorry you lost your girl. Carol is right it is never easy.

 

[junglefries]

precautions

First of all, sorry. I would take some precautions, and maybe in doing so, get lucky. I would not reuse her cage with out completely disinfecting it. Like psychobunny said, change out the feeders and the foods. Check around for any spiders. I lost a couple chams last december, during an invasion. Remake your shake n bake supplement containers/bags for your feeders. Check your misters for contaminents. Replace the uvb bulbs on that cage. Just basically go thru the entire setup and enviroment. The specifications might be dead on, but an ingredient could be off, so to speak. This way, if was something that wasn't pre-existing in your female, you can avoid passing it on to your male. Proactive rather than reactive. Good luck.