So I am one of the unlucky few who adopted a chameleon who sadly had been slowly developing MBD. At the time I knew of the disease but I only saw the signs once they got really bad, so upon getting my chameleon I didn't think anything of it.
after about a month my chameleon started getting really defensive. I took this as a sign of shedding and decided to leave her alone. She shed, but still didn't like my hands in the tank and would shake and hiss. Then it got to the point where I would see more and more crickets in her tank left over from the day before. I got worried and fed her less.
One day I noticed that she was getting dehydrated. She wouldn't let me spray water in her mouth so instead I got a dripper and also moved my waterfall from my hermit crabs to my chameleon (after some really good sanitizing and such). Then I noticed that she couldn't keep the crickets in her mouth! And then when she would walk, she would have tremors and would push her body along instead of walking upright. Finally, I decided that I would bring her in to the local vet that also specialized in exotic animals(yay for living in a large city). I did some research and decided that it would probably be the best place to bring her in.
She ended up getting a shot as well as a 14 day dose of medication to give her to help with the MBD. I've had to cut the legs off of her crickets so that she can catch them, and I've started to hand feed her mealworms. she's still having troubles eating even the mealworms, to the point where I have to stop them from crawling out of her mouth.
Today, I was spraying water in her mouth because she hasn't been drinking much on her own, much less moving around her tank. She ended up keeping some in her eye(s), inflating one and then she other with water every so often. I then gave her the medicine, about an hour later. She still puffs her eyes up, mostly just the right eye (if you look at her from the front). I put her in her tank with her UVB light on. She still doesn't like me taking her out of her tank, so I use a soft hand towel that I use only for my pets (mostly for the top of my hermit crab tank to keep in humidity). She will walk and lay on my hands though. She is probably between 5-8 month old... maybe 4 inches long not including her tail. I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do to make things easier for her while she recovers. She sometimes lets her mouth hang open just a bit, sometimes with her tongue poking out after I give her medicine. she still can't walk quite right either. She's had the medicine for about 4 days now. I'm waiting for a new terrarium to arrive, one of those reptibreeze ones(16x16x30). Right now I have the zoomed terrarium (used to be for hermies, 18x18x12).
If anyone has any suggestions on how to help her eat, that would be great!! I have mealworms, possibly going to get smaller crickets, she doesn't seem to like waxworms, and I know I probably gave her too much water... Anyways, thanks a lot for any help!! ;-;
after about a month my chameleon started getting really defensive. I took this as a sign of shedding and decided to leave her alone. She shed, but still didn't like my hands in the tank and would shake and hiss. Then it got to the point where I would see more and more crickets in her tank left over from the day before. I got worried and fed her less.
One day I noticed that she was getting dehydrated. She wouldn't let me spray water in her mouth so instead I got a dripper and also moved my waterfall from my hermit crabs to my chameleon (after some really good sanitizing and such). Then I noticed that she couldn't keep the crickets in her mouth! And then when she would walk, she would have tremors and would push her body along instead of walking upright. Finally, I decided that I would bring her in to the local vet that also specialized in exotic animals(yay for living in a large city). I did some research and decided that it would probably be the best place to bring her in.
She ended up getting a shot as well as a 14 day dose of medication to give her to help with the MBD. I've had to cut the legs off of her crickets so that she can catch them, and I've started to hand feed her mealworms. she's still having troubles eating even the mealworms, to the point where I have to stop them from crawling out of her mouth.
Today, I was spraying water in her mouth because she hasn't been drinking much on her own, much less moving around her tank. She ended up keeping some in her eye(s), inflating one and then she other with water every so often. I then gave her the medicine, about an hour later. She still puffs her eyes up, mostly just the right eye (if you look at her from the front). I put her in her tank with her UVB light on. She still doesn't like me taking her out of her tank, so I use a soft hand towel that I use only for my pets (mostly for the top of my hermit crab tank to keep in humidity). She will walk and lay on my hands though. She is probably between 5-8 month old... maybe 4 inches long not including her tail. I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do to make things easier for her while she recovers. She sometimes lets her mouth hang open just a bit, sometimes with her tongue poking out after I give her medicine. she still can't walk quite right either. She's had the medicine for about 4 days now. I'm waiting for a new terrarium to arrive, one of those reptibreeze ones(16x16x30). Right now I have the zoomed terrarium (used to be for hermies, 18x18x12).
If anyone has any suggestions on how to help her eat, that would be great!! I have mealworms, possibly going to get smaller crickets, she doesn't seem to like waxworms, and I know I probably gave her too much water... Anyways, thanks a lot for any help!! ;-;
