Lethargic, eating less, weak

firennice

New Member
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Veiled, six months old.
  • Handling - Have handed daily. It will crawls to us when we open the cage.
  • Feeding - We were feeding 5-6 crickets a day, roaches, and a hornworm every few days.
  • Supplements - ReptiCalcium with D2 dusted every few days.
  • Watering - Spray the sides or top, it drinks from there, mist every day or two to keep humidity up. We live in a dry climate
  • Fecal Description - never been tested for parasites
  • History - No previous issues.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type -Have a small case, 12x12x24 high. Screen top I have a bigger one, but he falls from his perches now, so i don't want to move him if he is not better.
  • Lighting - Zoomed UVB and heat light combo. Lights on all day.
  • Temperature - Floor is around 70-80. basking 85
  • Humidity - around 50-70%
  • Plants - Mosses at the moment, and a plastic plant
  • Placement - Sits on a 24" bookshelf
  • Location - Utah

Current Problem - Chameleon is lethargic, suddenly. (getting worse over two weeks) . Eating less, and where his grip was so tight it hurt, now he barely holds on. His veil is small, but seems to have gotten softer, deflating.
 
From what you say, I will guess MBD, those uv lights don’t really provide much.

Second guess is going to combine with the first. If female she may be gravid. No pic yet so pure guess
 
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Veiled, six months old. Male or female?
  • Handling - Have handed daily. It will crawls to us when we open the cage.
  • Feeding - We were feeding 5-6 crickets a day, roaches, and a hornworm every few days. At this age it can be fed every other day whether it's a male or female...but if it's a female you want to watch the you sont overfeed it because it will make it produce large clutches and may lead to MBD and possibly egg binding and other health issues.
  • Supplements - ReptiCalcium with D2 dusted every few days. it's recommended that you dust the insects at all feedings but 4 a month with a phos free calcium powder lightly. On 2 of the remaining days, 2 weeks apart dust with a phos free calcium/D3 powder lightly and on the remaining to days two weeks apart dust with a vitamin powder that has a beta carotene prOformed source of vitamin A. This means that you will have to dicide when/if your chameleon needs any prEformed vitamin A or not. It's important to feed/gutload all the insects properly too. With crickets, locusts, roaches, superworms, etc you can feed/gutload them with dandelion greens, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, squash, carrots, zucchini, sweet potato, sweet red pepper and a small amount of apples, pears, melon, papaya, mango, berries, etc.
  • Watering - Spray the sides or top, it drinks from there, mist every day or two to keep humidity up. We live in a dry climate. I would steer using a dripper too. It should drip at the rate of one or two drips per second.
  • Fecal Description - never been tested for parasites
  • History - No previous issues.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type -Have a small case, 12x12x24 high. Screen top I have a bigger one, but he falls from his perches now, so i don't want to move him if he is not better.
  • Lighting - Zoomed UVB and heat light combo. Lights on all day. Most often recommended UVB light is the long linear Reptisun 5.0 tube. For basking a regular white household incandescent bulb of a wattage that provides the appropriate basking temperature is all that is needed.
  • Temperature - Floor is around 70-80. basking 85
  • Humidity - around 50-70%
  • Plants - Mosses at the moment, and a plastic plant. veiled chameleons will munch on vegetation so I recommend real non toxic well washed both sides of the leaves plants and no moss.
  • Placement - Sits on a 24" bookshelf
  • Location - Utah

Current Problem - Chameleon is lethargic, suddenly. (getting worse over two weeks) . Eating less, and where his grip was so tight it hurt, now he barely holds on. His veil is small, but seems to have gotten softer, deflating. We really need photos. Females have small Casques.
Lethargy, weak grip, etc can be indications of numerous things. Hard to tell if we can't see the chameleon.
 
Long week. My wife and I had been out of town for over a week, and though it had been stable, the departure and the teenager/college kids did not let us know, or I would have had them run him in. I posted here that night, then the next morning took the little guy to the vet. He passed away while the vet was reviewing the xrays. We have feeding records from a month old, what he ate, and supplements recorded. Nothing showed on the xrays, bones looked good, no MBD, and no apparent lung issues. There was no gout or swollen joints. We did not know, but he was male. At a young age (6 months) it was too young to have some of the issues that are more associated with older chameleons.
He suggested a few things it might have been, but he would be guessing without more tests he would not assume to have a specific answer. My wife is not back from the trip, and will be heartbroken, we wanted to tell her in person, without ruining the rest of her trip. Sorry for not getting back on and letting anyone know the status. The vet has him, and wants to check him more in detail when he has time, just to see if he can solve the problem. He will let us know if he gets anything, but it may be a while, if at all.
 
So sorry for your loss. Not easy to lose one. Keep it in your heart.

Thanks for posting on here what happened. This often helps us know what to tell other people when they are looking for help.
 
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