Medicating Chameleons- Possibly Disturbing Pictures?

[Andee]

Now before anyone goes any further, I took these pictures of medicating my jackson Hope with her weekly dose of liquid calcium, sadly it did make it last a bit longer, I won't lie about he getting a little bit more stressed during it. But my mom took the pics while I was doing it, and I took them for many reasons, one of them specifically was because I was helping a member who was having more problem than I have ever experienced. So I wanted to make sure they were doing it correctly before I told them to go back to vet in case she had something neurological or physically wrong with swallowing.

Now what you need to know about chameleons is they usually only aspirate oral syringe feedings/medicating if you just place food in the front part of their mouth. Since their trachea opening is somewhere under their tongue. So what I do is place the tip of the syringe in the back of their throat, usually going until the tapered edge is no longer visible. For most species of larger chameleons this is fine, same with jacksons I have dealt with. With smaller species you will likely need a flexible tipped syringe that has been cut a bit (though I don't know if you can get it in the correct size for them which I only use 1cc syringes) and filed down so it is no longer sharp. Or as I prefer since I learned of these from @jpowell86 crop needles. Amazing attachments <3 can't wait to get my first set even if they are just a back up in case a get a really small rescue.

Anyway, these picture may be a bit disturbing for some people because of the stress colors and reaction Hope shows, but I assure you she rarely looks this stressed as it usually takes about 30 seconds to medicate her, and she wasn't bothered for around 20 minutes afterward, and then when I did bother her it was only to gain her favor with a couple silkworms. Which she happily snapped off my fingertips. In my opinion it is HUGELY important for everyone who owns a chameleon to correctly know how to medicate them. This is the only reason I am sharing these pictures. There are too many keepers out there that get into situations like this that don't know how and end up causing RI in their chameleons because of doing it wrong.



Just hoping to help,
Me and Hope

 

[joshuadh2310]

Now before anyone goes any further, I took these pictures of medicating my jackson Hope with her weekly dose of liquid calcium, sadly it did make it last a bit longer, I won't lie about he getting a little bit more stressed during it. But my mom took the pics while I was doing it, and I took them for many reasons, one of them specifically was because I was helping a member who was having more problem than I have ever experienced. So I wanted to make sure they were doing it correctly before I told them to go back to vet in case she had something neurological or physically wrong with swallowing.

Now what you need to know about chameleons is they usually only aspirate oral syringe feedings/medicating if you just place food in the front part of their mouth. Since their trachea opening is somewhere under their tongue. So what I do is place the tip of the syringe in the back of their throat, usually going until the tapered edge is no longer visible. For most species of larger chameleons this is fine, same with jacksons I have dealt with. With smaller species you will likely need a flexible tipped syringe that has been cut a bit (though I don't know if you can get it in the correct size for them which I only use 1cc syringes) and filed down so it is no longer sharp. Or as I prefer since I learned of these from @jpowell86 crop needles. Amazing attachments <3 can't wait to get my first set even if they are just a back up in case a get a really small rescue.

Anyway, these picture may be a bit disturbing for some people because of the stress colors and reaction Hope shows, but I assure you she rarely looks this stressed as it usually takes about 30 seconds to medicate her, and she wasn't bothered for around 20 minutes afterward, and then when I did bother her it was only to gain her favor with a couple silkworms. Which she happily snapped off my fingertips. In my opinion it is HUGELY important for everyone who owns a chameleon to correctly know how to medicate them. This is the only reason I am sharing these pictures. There are too many keepers out there that get into situations like this that don't know how and end up causing RI in their chameleons because of doing it wrong.

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Just hoping to help,
Me and Hope

So I can't really see in the first pic but how do you get her to open her mouth so quick?

 

[Andee]

What I do with both of my chameleons is grab them on the head, like it shows in the pictures, but in order to open her mouth I rub it along their lips and then their gums when I get inside, sometimes applying a tiny bit of pressure with my fingers and just making irritating rubbing with the syringe tip, just enough to aggravate them. Within seconds my chameleons will open their mouths, and then you just got to move quick enough to move it into their mouths. And then it's cake from there moving it into the area you need it in (the back of the mouth) and then withdrawing. It takes me at my longest, (when they are being very grumpy and unhelpful in anyway XD) like 1 minute? Usually only 30-45 seconds.

 

[joshuadh2310]

What I do with both of my chameleons is grab them on the head, like it shows in the pictures, but in order to open her mouth I rub it along their lips and then their gums when I get inside, sometimes applying a tiny bit of pressure with my fingers and just making irritating rubbing with the syringe tip, just enough to aggravate them. Within seconds my chameleons will open their mouths, and then you just got to move quick enough to move it into their mouths. And then it's cake from there moving it into the area you need it in (the back of the mouth) and then withdrawing. It takes me at my longest, (when they are being very grumpy and unhelpful in anyway XD) like 1 minute? Usually only 30-45 seconds.

So you grab her right behind the eyes or is that just bad angle? My girl will sometimes take so long and I hate to do it to her she just won't be mean lol. I want as little stress as possible

 

[Andee]

It doesn't matter a whole lot where you grab. It depends on where your chameleon is injured if they are injured on the face. As far as Hope, she has a softer jaw with her MBD and she has been slowly healing there but I don't expect it to be normal ever. So I try not to stress it at all. With Ryker his eyes are super sensitive so he gets stressed in huge ways if you touch him anywhere near them, so I grab him a little bit in front of his eyes and around his jaw more.

If your chameleon isn't sensitive around her head at all then it likely won't be a problem where you hold her as far as that goes. I won't say this doesn't cause stress, especially when you are first learning to do it. The first few times it will likely take longer because it can take some finesse on your part and I swear the chameleons learn a bit and sometimes have good days and bad days as far as how helpful they are XD. I have been using this technique around 1 year+. Definitely have fine tuned it this last 6 months or so with Ryker.

Your girl will never enjoy having something shoved in her mouth and stuffed in her stomach when she didn't purposefully eat something, trust me I wouldn't like it either. This is all about delivering meds/food safely (as a number one concern), and as quickly as possible. Giving meds or feedings quickly will minimize stress because it is done within seconds to a couple minutes and then you are out and letting them just chill for a bit. Then when you are back hopefully you give them a favorite feeder. I always recommend doing this, because they do associate more than people seem to realize.

 

[joshuadh2310]

It doesn't matter a whole lot where you grab. It depends on where your chameleon is injured if they are injured on the face. As far as Hope, she has a softer jaw with her MBD and she has been slowly healing there but I don't expect it to be normal ever. So I try not to stress it at all. With Ryker his eyes are super sensitive so he gets stressed in huge ways if you touch him anywhere near them, so I grab him a little bit in front of his eyes and around his jaw more.

If your chameleon isn't sensitive around her head at all then it likely won't be a problem where you hold her as far as that goes. I won't say this doesn't cause stress, especially when you are first learning to do it. The first few times it will likely take longer because it can take some finesse on your part and I swear the chameleons learn a bit and sometimes have good days and bad days as far as how helpful they are XD. I have been using this technique around 1 year+. Definitely have fine tuned it this last 6 months or so with Ryker.

Your girl will never enjoy having something shoved in her mouth and stuffed in her stomach when she didn't purposefully eat something, trust me I wouldn't like it either. This is all about delivering meds/food safely (as a number one concern), and as quickly as possible. Giving meds or feedings quickly will minimize stress because it is done within seconds to a couple minutes and then you are out and letting them just chill for a bit. Then when you are back hopefully you give them a favorite feeder. I always recommend doing this, because they do associate more than people seem to realize.

Thank you for the wonderful Info. I have been giving her meds trying to battle some small parasites for about a month now and sometimes it would take me 5 mins and she would open up or sometimes we would be sitting for about 30 mins trying and I hate to do it to her like that but as you know no is not an answer. She has been good at just eating an insect with it on it now that she is more adapted to me but sometimes I feel like maybe she isn't getting all of it that she needs on the bugs so it stresses me out and when you said under a minute I'm just like wow I need to know your ways so I can just get in and out.

 

[Andee]

It can take a bit to get used to it yourself. And when you have a naturally more grumpy chameleon it can be more of a problem. I have taken care of grumpier chameleons that needed meds with it and it did take a minute or two longer than it does now, but not near 5-30 minutes. Usually around 2-3 minutes. If they naturally gape and get irritated when you hold their face or rub their gums, take full advantage, it makes it quicker.

 

[joshuadh2310]

It can take a bit to get used to it yourself. And when you have a naturally more grumpy chameleon it can be more of a problem. I have taken care of grumpier chameleons that needed meds with it and it did take a minute or two longer than it does now, but not near 5-30 minutes. Usually around 2-3 minutes. If they naturally gape and get irritated when you hold their face or rub their gums, take full advantage, it makes it quicker.

i tried but she wasn't having it lol. so what i did was i slid my finger down her lip so it opened a bit and touched the syringe so it got bit on her lip and she opens up to lick it off and i go in. does anything sound wrong with that? cause that seems the only way

 

[Andee]

Naw I have done it that way with thicker paste liquids, which most worming stuff is thicker. With liquid calcium and a lot of liquid feeds or if you are doing hydration it can be a lot more runny and doesn't allow much it get in that way. If you kind of paint her gums (you can do the entire dose in one go if she will let you) she will get it all trust me. Your girl sounds like a brat to medicate. Definitely one of those girls who I would just grit my teeth with, if you aren't used to dealing with rescues and medicating a lot it, especially of all different sorts of personalities whether they are reptiles, birds, or dogs/cats anything in between too XD it can definitely make you squirm with what I gotta do with my guys for their health. Sometimes the hamsters I take in... god I feel horrible with what I have to do with them right from the get go to get them health before they even get to settle down. I had one little guy who had a horrible case of mange and it caused him to be in horrible amounts of pain until the meds started working on taking the swelling down and killing off the mites, he screamed (literally screamed) and if you haven't heard a hamster scream before... god it breaks your heart when it's because of pain and fear of being touched because it hurt so bad. Tore me apart when I had to medicate him. He ended up having a happy life for 1 year after and lived to a ripe old age of 2 and a half.

Do what works for you and her. She can't aspirate it as long as you aren't putting it directly into her mouth. If she's kind of licking it off she should be fine and get her meds.

 

[joshuadh2310]

yes she is a little brat lol. even this big ole free range i have for her she's like ehh ill stay within 12 inches of it enough for my heat water and food.... i think once i get a male ill put her but on a smaller free range and him on this big ole one and im sure he will enjoy it more. but yeah thats the way i have gotten it to work is a tad on her gums and she opens up to lick it off and the sometimes try to battle the syringe to the back of her mouth lol.

 

[Andee]

lmao XD