I'm open for suggestions that will be the least stressfull...I do have heat packs, a container and an insullated box to put her in. We ship quite a few beardies (obviously not when it's this cold) but I figured I would pack her relatively the same way...unless you have a better suggestion.
panther chameleon not eating
- Thread starter cmudragon
- Start date
PardalisGirl
Avid Member
Good Deal...
Good deal....you are more ready than a lot of people are. Since you are in Michigan I would use a heat pack. Total darkness causes them to go to sleep and is therefull less stressful than seeing all the details of the trip. I would put her in a closed box with a heat pack tucked loosely under a hand towel. Hand towels are cushy and they are easy for the cham to grab on to for stability. I always use them for those reasons.
Good deal....you are more ready than a lot of people are. Since you are in Michigan I would use a heat pack. Total darkness causes them to go to sleep and is therefull less stressful than seeing all the details of the trip. I would put her in a closed box with a heat pack tucked loosely under a hand towel. Hand towels are cushy and they are easy for the cham to grab on to for stability. I always use them for those reasons.
OldSkoolxReasons
New Member
good call on the vet visit. Sorry this is sort of off topic but not. What vet are you going to in michigan. I am in the process of finding a new one as the old one I was using that supposedly was a great chameleon vet kept telling me that potatoes are all you need for a gut load and that if I feed potatoes to the crickets I should only dust with calcium once a week. I walked out of that appointment in a hurry. Potatoes are horrible for a gutload as they have tons and tons of phosphorus. I'm assuming he got the potatoes thing from the study that proved humans could live solely off of potatoes. But we all know chameleons are not humans. I just feel bad for his poor chameleons and the fact that they can very well get MBD without the proper calcium. and he is a vet. good luck, I'm sending you a PM right now actually.
Justin
Justin
Well the main diagnosis was mouth rot. She said that she is supper skinny (46g 
), but very active and strong. She gave me Ceftazidime which I have to inject into her little arm every 72 hours for the next month On the bright side she took the initial shot VERY well...poor girl.
The vet also tested her for worms and her stool sample was free of them; however she did give me panacure which I will give her once a day for the next 7 days because she found a some type of parasite or something, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was...started with a "p".? Anyway, the panacure is supposed to get rid of whatever it is she has.
I have a follow up appointment in a month to make sure that everything is as it should be or if she needs another dose of either medication.
She suggested that I give her a "bath", and I use that term loosly. She thought that a shallow pool of warm water would help to rehyrdrate her as well as encourage her to drink from it and help wash away the dried puss on her mouth. I will obvioulsy be monitoring her though.
She said that the cause of this was most likely due to the stress of travel shortly after breeding and that she could have gotten cold when she was shipped which all together started attacking her immune system.
She also recomended a "humid hide" consisting of an igloo type "home" perched higher in the cage that was moss covered to keep the moisture and humidity level in that hide close to 100. She said that the animal knows when they need the humidity and that some animals will frequent it especially around shed. The hide would need to be cleaned and moss changed once a week, but I thought that would be a good idea for her to get her back on her feet.
All in all, the Dr. seemed very optimistic and said that she has seen WAY worse conditions that chameleons have been able to come back from so that made me feel better.
Thank you all for your information and I hope that this helps someone down the road!
), but very active and strong. She gave me Ceftazidime which I have to inject into her little arm every 72 hours for the next month On the bright side she took the initial shot VERY well...poor girl.The vet also tested her for worms and her stool sample was free of them; however she did give me panacure which I will give her once a day for the next 7 days because she found a some type of parasite or something, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was...started with a "p".? Anyway, the panacure is supposed to get rid of whatever it is she has.
I have a follow up appointment in a month to make sure that everything is as it should be or if she needs another dose of either medication.
She suggested that I give her a "bath", and I use that term loosly. She thought that a shallow pool of warm water would help to rehyrdrate her as well as encourage her to drink from it and help wash away the dried puss on her mouth. I will obvioulsy be monitoring her though.
She said that the cause of this was most likely due to the stress of travel shortly after breeding and that she could have gotten cold when she was shipped which all together started attacking her immune system.
She also recomended a "humid hide" consisting of an igloo type "home" perched higher in the cage that was moss covered to keep the moisture and humidity level in that hide close to 100. She said that the animal knows when they need the humidity and that some animals will frequent it especially around shed. The hide would need to be cleaned and moss changed once a week, but I thought that would be a good idea for her to get her back on her feet.
All in all, the Dr. seemed very optimistic and said that she has seen WAY worse conditions that chameleons have been able to come back from so that made me feel better.
Thank you all for your information and I hope that this helps someone down the road!
CleaTheChameleon
New Member
Sad to say, i have to agree with PardalisGirl. I also thought she may be gravid with infertile eggs also but she may not, She is not looking good.
PardalisGirl
Avid Member
Hoping for speedy recovery!
I'm glad you got her into the vet so soon. The mouthrot would ruin her appetite. Now that the vet has cleaned her mouth out (I assume he did) and she is on an antibiotic she should get her appetite back.
I am a little confused by the parasite issue. You said the vet check a stool sample and said that it was free of worms. Then you said the vet prescribed Panacur because she has a parasite. Panacur only treats worms (nematodes). The seven day course sounds more like Metronidazole which treats Protozoans (starts with a "P"). I'm wondering if that is what you came home with instead of Panacur.
Please keep us updated. I hope your girl makes some improvement soon. Congrats on being attentive and getting her to a vet!
I'm glad you got her into the vet so soon. The mouthrot would ruin her appetite. Now that the vet has cleaned her mouth out (I assume he did) and she is on an antibiotic she should get her appetite back.
I am a little confused by the parasite issue. You said the vet check a stool sample and said that it was free of worms. Then you said the vet prescribed Panacur because she has a parasite. Panacur only treats worms (nematodes). The seven day course sounds more like Metronidazole which treats Protozoans (starts with a "P"). I'm wondering if that is what you came home with instead of Panacur.
Please keep us updated. I hope your girl makes some improvement soon. Congrats on being attentive and getting her to a vet!
yes, that would be the "p" word she said...thanks! There was a lot of information thrown at me at once and I didn't write it all down, just how I was supposed to treat her. I could be mistaken about what "bug" she actually has because she talked about a lot of animals she has treated and different scenerios. I figured it would be on the paperwork but it wasn't.
I let her rest for a few hours to de-stress after the vet, but do you have a recomendation of a temperature of the water for the bath? I would assume the same temp you would use for a human baby, but that may be wrong?
I let her rest for a few hours to de-stress after the vet, but do you have a recomendation of a temperature of the water for the bath? I would assume the same temp you would use for a human baby, but that may be wrong?
PardalisGirl
Avid Member
More Comments........
I see a black area on the lower spine in the first two pictures you posted. I think this is what Kinyongia is asking about. Does she still have that?
It would be helpful if you called the vet's office and asked the staff to pull her chart and tell you what the name of the Protozoan is and what the load was. When fecals are done the techs make note of how many of the little critters/eggs showed up in the fecal. A few, quite a few or a really big number.
It's helpful to know the type of parasite. They have different life cycles and different degrees of difficulty in irradicating. Trichomonas are very tough to get rid of because the Ocysts (eggs) can live on a dry surface for a year. You have to tear down and totally disinfect every item in the cage during and at the end of treatments. Otherwise your cham might reinfest herself when drinking from leaves with Ocysts on them. Misting spreads them around the entire cage. When I treat my WC chams I always do a thorough poop clean up (often ripping off a leave rather than trying to clean it) before I mist.
It is helpful to know the load of parasite to understand the degree of treatment she will require and how sick she is due to just that issue. If the load is low than one round of 7 days treatment might do the trick. If she has a heavy load you may end up with two to three rounds with a few days in between. There are people who keep chams and reptiles who have never gotten rid of it because they let their pet roam around the house depositing Ocysts. Or because they don't want to take the pain in the you know what effort to really disinfect their cages several times and maybe even throw the plants out.
If you verify these things for us (and anything else you did not write down) we can help you more effectively combat the parasite. For a soak you need to watch her carefully so she does not drown or aspirate water if she stumbles in the water. I make it warm like a baby. So that it feels warm to your hand. It's going to cool fairly quickly.
How is she doing today?
I see a black area on the lower spine in the first two pictures you posted. I think this is what Kinyongia is asking about. Does she still have that?
It would be helpful if you called the vet's office and asked the staff to pull her chart and tell you what the name of the Protozoan is and what the load was. When fecals are done the techs make note of how many of the little critters/eggs showed up in the fecal. A few, quite a few or a really big number.
It's helpful to know the type of parasite. They have different life cycles and different degrees of difficulty in irradicating. Trichomonas are very tough to get rid of because the Ocysts (eggs) can live on a dry surface for a year. You have to tear down and totally disinfect every item in the cage during and at the end of treatments. Otherwise your cham might reinfest herself when drinking from leaves with Ocysts on them. Misting spreads them around the entire cage. When I treat my WC chams I always do a thorough poop clean up (often ripping off a leave rather than trying to clean it) before I mist.
It is helpful to know the load of parasite to understand the degree of treatment she will require and how sick she is due to just that issue. If the load is low than one round of 7 days treatment might do the trick. If she has a heavy load you may end up with two to three rounds with a few days in between. There are people who keep chams and reptiles who have never gotten rid of it because they let their pet roam around the house depositing Ocysts. Or because they don't want to take the pain in the you know what effort to really disinfect their cages several times and maybe even throw the plants out.
If you verify these things for us (and anything else you did not write down) we can help you more effectively combat the parasite. For a soak you need to watch her carefully so she does not drown or aspirate water if she stumbles in the water. I make it warm like a baby. So that it feels warm to your hand. It's going to cool fairly quickly.
How is she doing today?
