Kami is sick

[serenitystarlite]

So when I first posted pictures of Kami, someone mentioned that it looked like she had a bump on her nose. Well it didn't look like much at first, but I started watching it more and it seemed to get bigger. So I took her to the vet on Weds. The vet wasn't sure what was wrong other than it's some kind of infection, so she gave me antibiotics. Today I was talking to the lady at the petstore who recommended this vet and apparently the vet I saw was the cat/dog vet while the other vet there is the reptile expert. No idea why they scheduled me with the cat/dog vet, you would think they would've had us see the reptile vet. Sigh.

Anyway, Kami was eating normally before the vet visit but now she doesn't seem like she wants to eat as much, like she's mad at me. She's still eating, but not as much and ignored me when I offered her food (she usually eats crickets right off the tongs or goes after them as soon as I drop any in her cage). Does Baytril cause a decrease in appetite? Or do you think she's just mad at me for the vet visit and the medication? When we got home from the vet, I put her in the shower on her plant and she loved it. I've been offering her extra water lately to wash down the medicine and just to make sure she's hydrated as much as possible and she's drinking a lot.

Nervous at the vet:

Taking a shower:

 

[Vampire.queen]

Fill this for more info on how you keep your chameleon: https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/


It may be some tumor or edema-they are quite common. You should take a visit to the vet's.

 

[serenitystarlite]

I did take her to the vet, that's what my post says

I think her neck looks like that because the vet pulled on it to open her mouth to look inside (I noticed it bruised a little afterwards) and also because she's drinking. Can edema cause her nose to swell?

here's her info

 

[Jonas]

Maybe its just me, but the eyes looks a little sunken in, like dehydration.

 

[laurie]

Kami is just beautiful. Now baytril can cause a loss in appetite. The big thing while she is on baytril is lots and lots of water. Also be very careful not to give her any more than required, even a little extra it too much. Is she on a 10 day course of baytril? If so just try offering her favorite food items, she will most likely eat less that usual, but even if she eats a very small amount she will be fine, again it is the water she needs right now more than the food. I didn't see anything that looks like sunken eyes. I looked back at the prior pictures and her eyes look the same to me.

Have you been able to get her out of the glass tank yet? That would be good if you can.

 

[Julirs]

If she is in a glass cage she could have URI-and when they do often they will rub their noses to try and get the mucous out of their nostrils/mouth-that could have caused the swelling.

 

[serenitystarlite]

She's still in the half glass half screen cage. Her new all screen cage is 90% done. She's on a 2 week course of Baytril. I haven't noticed her rubbing her nose, but I have no idea what she does when I'm at work on in the basement working on her cage. If it's a RI, it might be due to humidity being too low. Over the summer it was pretty humid and easy to keep the humidity up in her cage, but since summer is over, it's dry as a bone now. I mist a lot, but I feel like it's still pretty dry, so I was thinking of getting a small humidifier or else I'll look into an automatic mister for her new cage. Humidifier would be great though since I have extremely dry skin (I may be part chameleon!).

 

[Ryan123]

awh im sorry she is cute though and hey thats my moms name (Kami) short for Kamala

 

[kinyonga]

It was me who commented on the nose. You said in that thread that she had a problem with a toe/toes...you never posted a picture of that....could you please? (I asked about the toe because I wondered if it was also an infection and one might have led to another.)

Did the vet clean out the bump or just give antibiotics?

Her eyes are sunken in slightly. I hope that the antibiotics will make a difference.

 

[serenitystarlite]

The vet didn't clean out the bump or her mouth or anything. She said she couldn't see anything in her mouth to clean out. She looked at her toe and said it was probably fine and didn't look infected. I tried to take some pictures of it but they always come out blurry. I'll try again tomorrow. If there's no improvement this week, I'll call the vet back and tell them that I want to see the reptile vet instead of the cat/dog vet.

 

[jadeaudio]

She should be fine. As long as she is still eating some is better than none. The medicine will slow her down a little. Try bringing her out in the sun. For some reason Senegals really like the sun. Bring her cage outside when it's feeding time for a little while and you'll see her come alive again.

 

[serenitystarlite]

Update on Kami: She finished the Baytril and her nose/mouth got worse when she went off of it. I could actually see something in her mouth so I took her back to the vet today. I saw the other vet and he cleaned out her mouth. Then he figured out that the first vet weighed her wrong and so the dose of Baytril she was on was probably too low. I also was able to test her feces for parasites (there were none). So I have a higher and longer dose of Baytril for her now. Is there anything else I can do to try to help keep her mouth cleaned out besides just flushing it with water? I was thinking of getting some rot guard.

 

[laurie]

Hang in there. If she is on a second course of baytril give her misting and drippers all time. She needs water, water and more water. Do not let her dehyrdate. At least this vet cleaned her mouth and is working on the problem.

 

[serenitystarlite]

Yeah I kind of feel like the first vet didn't know what she was doing even though they said both vets are exotic vets. However there was nothing visible in her mouth until this week, so I guess there wasn't really anything for her to clean out when we first went (I looked in her mouth a bunch of times). It wasn't until the other day that I started to see saw yellow crud in her mouth. She was also holding her mouth open a couple times in the past couple days so I was able to get a good look without stressing her out. She likes going in the shower on her plant, so I'll do that for her to keep her better hydrated.

 

[kinyonga]

Let's hope she gets rid of the problem this time! Mouth infections are difficult to get rid of though....so don't be surprised if it still doesn't go away.

The last vet may not have seen anything in the mouth but the bump should have contained "pus" and been cleaned out IMHO.

 

[serenitystarlite]

Oh I definitely agree. So basically I paid double for a visit and medicine because the 1st vet didn't really know what to do. But the good news is that Kami's nose is already looking better!