Panther cham with bloated neck

[poison]

Just got a 1.1 pair of nosy be's last night and I just realized that the male has a bloated neck. Anybody have any clue on why its like that?

 

[Cait0420]

Looks like gular edema to me, I'd get him to a herp vet asap

 

[carol5208]

Yes Gular Edema( a build up of fluids in the tissue). You can take him to a vet, but honestly there is really nothing that can be done. There is no "cure". Search threads on Gular Edema and read up on it. I had a chameleon that I took in that had it also. It lived for 6 yrs and had it for about 4. It is not life threatening. Not the prettiest to look at and it will come and go in severity. No one really knows what causes it.

 

[poison]

Thank you both for the replies. Especially you, Carol. I would hate to have to spend money on the vet just to turn out that there is nothing they can do for him.

Any clue on what causes this? Is it genetic?

 

[poison]

Is there also anything I can do to prevent it from getting worse?

 

[Cait0420]

I just read up on it and it seems no one knows what causes it or how to cure it. Hopefully it gets better, but I guess there's nothing you can really do about it

 

[carol5208]

Not really. Some people say over supplementation but my chameleon was not over supplemented at all so who knows! Like I said, it may be worse some days than others

 

[Cait0420]

I meant that some people say one thing and some say other things, so it seems like no one really knows. But I'm no expert, just trying to help

 

[poison]

Thank you guys very much Very helpful.

 

[kinyonga]

This might help....
http://chamworld.blogspot.ca/2008/01/health-section-f-gout_28.html

 

[Cait0420]

That's a great link

 

[pigglett79]

there are many of us that have been trying to find some cause for gular edema. You may want to read this thread:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/my-male-has-gular-edema-help-126390/

My Panther George has had severe gular edema worse than I have ever seen for a year now. He has normal blood work, normal calcium/phos ratio, and negative fecal results. I have tried every suggestion I have been given and nothing has helped. I went several months without D3, I switched to RO water, he gets tons of outdoor time, although the edema does not improve with outdoor time and sometimes looks even worse. One person suggested that it is lack of vitamins so I tried using a multivitamin for several days in a row and saw no improvement. I feed him at least 5 different feeders that are very well gutloaded. I even tried vitamin A supplements and it did not help. He has seen the vet a couple of times and they have no idea why he has the edema as all tests come back normal.

It is a mystery to me, but I will do a necropsy in the future when he passes to see if that can tell us anything.

 

[christineacero]

I'm not saying this is a cure by any means, but I used to give my females plain old tap water in their mister and fogger and I noticed one of them ended up with a pretty bad case of edema. I invested in some "Repti-safe" tap water conditioner and shes made a huge improvement! It's not totally gone, but most days is almost un-noticeable. JMO! I've also severly cut back on supplementing as I've learned that my species can easily overdose on supplements. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the edema either though.

 

[poison]

Thank you all for the info and sharing your experiences. It did get pretty swelled up today but after turning my room humidifier on it is now gone (for now).

 

[carol5208]

Thank you all for the info and sharing your experiences. It did get pretty swelled up today but after turning my room humidifier on it is now gone (for now).

That is interesting that it is gone after doing that. Keep us updated.

 

[poison]

Update. He's doing fine. eats very well. His throat does exactly as mentioned above. Some days its gone and it comes back other days. It's usually pretty low most of the time though.

 

[poison]

...........

 

[carol5208]

He looks pretty good in the last pic! Like I said, I would not fret over it. My chameleon lived to over 6 years old with it. It might not look pretty, but atleast it is not a death sentence.