My cham wont open his eyes. Urgent help! Please

Flapnecked69

New Member
My cham is a male flap necked, about 1 year or 18 months old acording to the person who sold it to me. It has been only 5 days with me.

I handled him daily but not for a long period of time, only about 3 or 5 minutes.

I placed some medium sized crikets on the cage, but he would not eat them, there were like 8 of them the first time i gave him food, all of them were untouched, so i decided to hand feed him 2 crikets, he are them with no problem at all.

I was using this green multi vitamin supplement to feed the crickets, and i also poudered one of the crickets i gave the cham with some calcium.

I misted the cham and cage like 3 times a day te first days i had him, and i kept the cham wet also, i didnt use any drippers the first days cause i thought the misting would be enough but then after the 2 day i decide to make a dripping sistem, the chan seem to drink water out of it. But that happened very few times.
I have never seeb him poop, i dont know how his fecal description is, but recently i found this brown thing on a piece of paper with some yellow and white thing stuck to it. I have never tested him for parasites.

I asked the person that sold it to me and they said it wa wild caught.

I ddnt know how the caged had to be, but we had this 30x23x12 fish tank so i took it and used it for my cham.

I had only a heat lamp, and i took the chan to get outside sunlight, i eas very desorganized with the light hours, they were never 12 straight hours. The day before he got sick i didnt had him receiving straight sunlight. Its a 75w lighbulb.

Here in FL temps are high in the 80s, i dont have any temometer or anything, i didnt have a humidity checker also, i only had real wet moss i had bought in this reptile store. They told me it was good for chameleons. At night temps could decreas to 70s.

I tried to always keep the place humid by misting constant water on the cham and the fish tanks, at the bottom it was very wet. I didn have something to measure the humidity. It was high tho.

I had some fake plant and a thin tree branch with some leaves, it was only decorational.

I had him outside during the day, he was on a table. And at night i placed him inside the garage, close to the machine, but i could see hi slept with no problem at all. I only did this for 2 or 3 days, the other days i kept the tank outside in the table.

I live in florida, close to georgia

My cham is been throwing up, he slept during the days, now it dificult for him to open his eyes, he has poor grip, he wont drink water or eat food. He is very skinny now compared to the first days i had him. I can tell he is very week. Now i made this screen cage and he is placed outside taking some air insted of the fish tank. What can i give him to make him feel better again? Is he going to die? Is there really anything i can do to save him? All help will be appreiated

Thanks for reading.
 
Do not use the moss as they can swallow it and cause impaction. If he's throwing up he really needs to see a vet especially if he's wild caught, it's most likely a sign of parasites. I don't have a flap necked cham but handling wild caught chams right out of the gate is usually detrimental to their health. They need to settle in for a couple weeks and get used to their new surroundings. Yellow in the white of the fecal (also known as urate) is usually a sign of dehydration. ALso because of the lack of airflow from the aquarium he was usually in he could have a possible Upper Respitory Infection. Look for stringy saliva in the mouth.

All this means you should please please please go to a vet.
 
So sorry your cham isn't well.
Wildcaught chameleons can be overwhelmed by physical and mental stress by the time they get to a petowner.
It also sounds like you weren't given very good instructions on what he needs.

I agree with Andee, your cham needs treatment right away by a vet with a lot of knowledge of reptiles in order to have a chance at healing.
Since he seems so badly ill, perhaps a vet can see him today.
The brown pellet with white is poop (brown) and urine (white).
A vet can use a fresh poop sample to check for parasites.
You can have a look here for some:
http://www.arav.org/find-a-vet/#Florida

Chams need their care to be pretty close to perfect in order to stay healthy.
You can read more about what conditions Flapnecks truly need here :
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/senegal/
This time of year, your outdoor temperatures are too hot for him.
The 75 watt bulb is most likely too hot.
You need a screen cage because the aquarium does not allow enough airflow for a cham--and poor airflow can bring on respiratory illness.
A UVB bulb, like the long Reptisun 5.0 bulb is needed.
Plants are great and, although a dripper and mistings are needed, the cage must dry between mistings.
Constant wetness helps bacteria and molds to grow--which can make your cham sick.
There are many more details in the caresheet linked above.
 
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