Mission accomplished! But question about vitamin A

[maryanne27]

Just got Rorschach back from his first vet visit with me. He wasn't too fond of the box and the 1.5 hr car ride, then getting handled and stuck with needles, but at least now I feel much better that he will be ok!
The vet thinks that he has some sort of infection in his throat - I noticed a lump on his neck, and the vet saw redness and swelling when he opened Rory's mouth. Also, he thinks that he has a vitamin A deficiency; both of these issues causing him to not really want to eat for the past two weeks. Blood work results will be back in a few days! Now, I just have to inject his antibiotic every three days... Rory is going to hate me.

Anyways, I do have a few questions for you guys. The vet I went to was the nearest one who would see reptiles, but he admitted there were those that knew more about chameleons than he.... but they are like a 4-6, even 8 hour drive away. So, I was wondering about Rory's now half-black tail. It turned solid black on one side, streaky on the other after the vet took blood. Will this turn back to normal?
Also, I have been trying to find info on vitamin contents in feeder bugs and how much vitamin A he should be getting and on what sort of time line. I feed the crickets a gutload of Repashy Bug Burger, dust with calcium daily, and dust a multivitamin every two weeks like I read to do. He also gets butterworms and super worms (alternating through the week); sometimes BB fly spikes or hornworms. Apparently this isn't working well enough. Any suggestions on how to keep his vitamin A up without giving him too much?

 

[carol5208]

Does the multi contain vitamin A? You should try gutloading with fresh fruits and vegetables that are high in Vitamin A. I know Kale is one of them. Check out member Sandrachameleons page. She has all that stuff about nutritional content of just about everything known to man! As far as the tail, it is probably just a bruise and should go away. The same thing happened to mine when they drew blood on him.

 

[maryanne27]

Does the multi contain vitamin A? You should try gutloading with fresh fruits and vegetables that are high in Vitamin A. I know Kale is one of them. Check out member Sandrachameleons page. She has all that stuff about nutritional content of just about everything known to man! As far as the tail, it is probably just a bruise and should go away. The same thing happened to mine when they drew blood on him.

Ok, thanks! Also, I was wondering if anyone knows how much a 1-year-old graceful cham weighs? Rory was exactly 80 grams, but he clearly hasn't been eating well. Is this anywhere near a healthy weight?

 

[Tyaeda]

My veiled had Vit a deficiency. I used Cod liver oil gel caps. I poked a pinhole in one and put one or two drops on one of his feeders. I did this every day for about a week. Carrots are also high in vit a, so I used them as gutload, and even had him eat some that I had diced up and blanched.

 

[maryanne27]

My veiled had Vit a deficiency. I used Cod liver oil gel caps. I poked a pinhole in one and put one or two drops on one of his feeders. I did this every day for about a week. Carrots are also high in vit a, so I used them as gutload, and even had him eat some that I had diced up and blanched.

Thank you! I'll start doing that today!

 

[jannb]

I'm glad that the vet vist went well. For vitamin A I recommend using Reptivite for your multivitamin. If you already have calcium with D3 then get the Reptivite without D3. It comes both ways (with or without).

Tate weighed 98 grams Sunday and he's been eating allot lately. I believe this is a small species and the males are smaller than the females.

Here's a couple of blogs from one of my vets about Vitamin A deficienty.
http://www.ivanalfonso.com/2011/07/vitamin-a-supplement/
http://www.ivanalfonso.com/?s=Vitamin+A