Hillary anne
Established Member
My ambanja panther chameleon Lou has been at the vet since last Tuesday. I joined this group following his first visit to the vet and discovered how much misinformation I had received in the past... I feel I found this group just at the right time. So much better than what youtube tutorials i had watched, and information in the past!
That being said I'd like to talk about what ended up to my chameleon getting sick, to perhaps prevent someone else's cham from dealing with the same things in the future. Now that I know what I have learned, I am shocked that my guy had to suffer.
Even our best intentions aren't always the best, as these guys husbandry is vital.
1st Vet Visit.
I had returned from out of town with a black hard scab encasing my guys foot, near the ankle. This freaked me out and I had read that a stuck shed could cause loss of foot! Freaking out I started humidifying the cage more to have him shed what I thought was dead skin. WRONG. The scab fell off and left an open wound. I took him to the vet and the dr. believes it came from a burn. (after recommendations from my usual reptile store, they told me to go from my reptisun t5h0 5.0 UVB 22' to a 10.0.) He was under this higher bulb for 3 months! Things I noticed were him eating less, and also being less active. Anyways, we started treating the wound with daily water therapy followed by an application of silver sulfadine*Sp*. Seemed to be doing better...
2nd Vet Visit.
So the wound was looking ALOT better, however Lou was falling from branches, especially at night. I'd find him on the floor sleeping when I woke up in the mornings. He had trouble gripping the branches when assisting him back up during the day and often would find him hanging by one foot. A day or so passes and now he was sleeping during the day, I assumed from exhaustion from the constant falls. So back to the vet he goes. He had liasons under his toes, as well as a puncture on his heel with some slight fungal. He then was put on a by injection antibiotic and anti inflammatory. He was moved to a hospital tub while he healed. He seemed to be doing better....
3rd Vet visit.
Mind you, this was only 3-4 days after the 2nd vet visit. Lou's behavior was getting better, his wound healing slowly but surely but looked fantastic. His feet liasons were no longer swollen and doing their own healing too. Lou was active- he wanted to climb up in this hospital tub. He was eating again. He was sleeping normal hours. He was pooping and urating quite odd and I believe that to be from the meds he was on... and then there was blood. I witnessed him dragging himself by his vent and leaving a bright red trail. I called the vet and they told me to keep an eye. it happened again, I immediately took him back in for drop off. Turns out he was trying to shed and having difficult with shedding his hemipenal, it was backed up and they had to manually take the old skin out. They did xrays and found a calcium build up in his stomach. He had lost almost 10g of weight since our first visit. Once at 178g and now at 167g. His appetite was back up and he started eating daily.
LESSON. Scouring for hours and hours and having great feedback from you all in what I may be doing wrong. Turns out it was ALOT. He has been lacking humidity as I did not know they have to have alot of humidity at night. He did not have a good middle zone in his cage as the UVB was too intense and most of his favorite places to go where up at the top of the cage. I was dusting with repcal w/D3 almost EVERY feeding! I was misting heavily 3-4 times a day but his screen enclosure did not hold it well. I had only fake foliage for him, and his favorite place to drink from was at the top corner on the screen mesh of his cage!
FIXED: With your help, I have completely taken apart his reptibreeze and sanitized everything. I insulated 3 sides of his cage with window insulation film, with foliage and new spots to explore focusing on the center of the cage. I have purchased a golden pothos and look forward to it growing, and adding additional live plants as my money allows in the future. I purchased a new 5.0 UVB long bulb and took out the 10.0, I invested in a mistking and can't wait to see the comfort difference that gives him. As you can see I am quite obsessed with making sure that my guy gets the best rest of his life possible and I am extremely grateful for this forum. <3
That being said I'd like to talk about what ended up to my chameleon getting sick, to perhaps prevent someone else's cham from dealing with the same things in the future. Now that I know what I have learned, I am shocked that my guy had to suffer.
Even our best intentions aren't always the best, as these guys husbandry is vital.1st Vet Visit.
I had returned from out of town with a black hard scab encasing my guys foot, near the ankle. This freaked me out and I had read that a stuck shed could cause loss of foot! Freaking out I started humidifying the cage more to have him shed what I thought was dead skin. WRONG. The scab fell off and left an open wound. I took him to the vet and the dr. believes it came from a burn. (after recommendations from my usual reptile store, they told me to go from my reptisun t5h0 5.0 UVB 22' to a 10.0.) He was under this higher bulb for 3 months! Things I noticed were him eating less, and also being less active. Anyways, we started treating the wound with daily water therapy followed by an application of silver sulfadine*Sp*. Seemed to be doing better...
2nd Vet Visit.
So the wound was looking ALOT better, however Lou was falling from branches, especially at night. I'd find him on the floor sleeping when I woke up in the mornings. He had trouble gripping the branches when assisting him back up during the day and often would find him hanging by one foot. A day or so passes and now he was sleeping during the day, I assumed from exhaustion from the constant falls. So back to the vet he goes. He had liasons under his toes, as well as a puncture on his heel with some slight fungal. He then was put on a by injection antibiotic and anti inflammatory. He was moved to a hospital tub while he healed. He seemed to be doing better....
3rd Vet visit.
Mind you, this was only 3-4 days after the 2nd vet visit. Lou's behavior was getting better, his wound healing slowly but surely but looked fantastic. His feet liasons were no longer swollen and doing their own healing too. Lou was active- he wanted to climb up in this hospital tub. He was eating again. He was sleeping normal hours. He was pooping and urating quite odd and I believe that to be from the meds he was on... and then there was blood. I witnessed him dragging himself by his vent and leaving a bright red trail. I called the vet and they told me to keep an eye. it happened again, I immediately took him back in for drop off. Turns out he was trying to shed and having difficult with shedding his hemipenal, it was backed up and they had to manually take the old skin out. They did xrays and found a calcium build up in his stomach. He had lost almost 10g of weight since our first visit. Once at 178g and now at 167g. His appetite was back up and he started eating daily.
LESSON. Scouring for hours and hours and having great feedback from you all in what I may be doing wrong. Turns out it was ALOT. He has been lacking humidity as I did not know they have to have alot of humidity at night. He did not have a good middle zone in his cage as the UVB was too intense and most of his favorite places to go where up at the top of the cage. I was dusting with repcal w/D3 almost EVERY feeding! I was misting heavily 3-4 times a day but his screen enclosure did not hold it well. I had only fake foliage for him, and his favorite place to drink from was at the top corner on the screen mesh of his cage!
FIXED: With your help, I have completely taken apart his reptibreeze and sanitized everything. I insulated 3 sides of his cage with window insulation film, with foliage and new spots to explore focusing on the center of the cage. I have purchased a golden pothos and look forward to it growing, and adding additional live plants as my money allows in the future. I purchased a new 5.0 UVB long bulb and took out the 10.0, I invested in a mistking and can't wait to see the comfort difference that gives him. As you can see I am quite obsessed with making sure that my guy gets the best rest of his life possible and I am extremely grateful for this forum. <3
