Need Help

[ataraxia]

def dont worry about eggs there. its a strange look to me when a cham is ill vs. dehydration and your cham looks ill. im going to be straight out with you. i am wrong a lot (gotta put that disclosure in haha) but at that age and ill it is not a good combo with a high fatality rate. im going with organ failure also. past owner may have done the damage and then again it could be a birth defect.

just a few questions though.
did you see how the past owners kept her? as in was the cage absolutely filthy?
was she kept with or around any other chams especially w/c's?
the thing im going for here is possible parasites.

i hope im wrong...
good luck with your chameleon.

ferret: new found respect for your post's. very informative.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Ataraxia is right about the difficult position your little cham is in. It may be something that you can't reverse unfortunately. I hope that is not the case but it's important to know for your sake. (Glad my posts were interesting, I always try to share the good stuff )

Agree that she doesn't look gravid, and doesn't have outright signs of MBD if it is occurring.

If you were to run bloodwork the best thing would be a CBC and Chem panel. Being that little I don't know if they'll be able to get enough blood safely for both. And if she's unstable the stress of restraint for the blood draw may not be best for her right now. The CBC will show you if there is inflammation and infection. The chem panel will give you an idea of organ function. So it can reveal kidney failure (high uric acid, incorrect calcium/phosphorus ratio), MBD (incorrect calcium/phosphorus ratio), possible reproductive function (high calcium if she's making eggs), etc. If they can only get enough for one test I'd do the chem panel personally because I think it will tell you more. But the possibility with bloodwork is you may pay for it and it tells you nothing! Doesn't mean there's nothing wrong necessarily, but it may appear normal due to compensatory mechanisms so it may not help.

I don't have personal experience with sick babies honestly, anyone else have suggestions as far as setup? Keep it a little warmer than usual, high humidity, etc?

 

[ataraxia]

everything imo looks ok with the care given atm.

only thing i would suggest. would be to bump the heat to 84-85 basking. this is just an opinion and it is a shot to speed her metabolism up. if she is not drinking, i would follow the chart as stated and get her some fluids ASAP.

 

[Elizadolots]

oh, poor baby....

Can you up the mistings? I know it's probably me being stupid, but I just think that hydration is such a problematic thing with these babies that making sure it's good can let the other issues get the attention they deserve. I'd go so far as to drip water right on the nose of that baby to see if that might get it to drink.

You're a good person for taking this on. I hope it works out for you and your chameleon.

 

[jessica]

You have gotten excellent advice from everyone.

Extra hydration is never a bad thing as Elizadolots said.

When I have a rescue in bad shape I try to get them outside as much as possible. It may not be a cure all but they enjoy it and maybe she will perk up a little bit.

At this point you can only do all you can (I believe you are doing all you can) now she has to do her part to fight through it.

Goodluck