PlanetRemulak
Avid Member
My little blue boy is keeping me up at night a lot as of late 
About two or so weeks ago, Bastion‘s health took a nose dive. He was hardly moving and had both eyes shut. Thought for sure I was going to lose him. Called up the exotic vet I used for Beau and had planned on taking Bastion to only to find out our vet left the clinic. Asked for a replacement exotic vet and they had one, but she didn’t have any chameleon experience. I spent two hours calling vets with cham experience fully intending to bring him in that same day, everyone was booked up a day or two out, My fiancé suggested we take Bastion to see a family friend of his that is a retired vet tech (who has chameleons of her own), and being that I expected to lose him that night, we did just that. She suggested a RI, got a weight and gave him a dose of Baytril. Two days later, Bastion was completely back to normal (except for the fact that he was, and still is not, eating very well. He’s also been refusing all feeders except for superworms). He’s very alert and active, basks when he needs to and spends the rest of the day crawling around his cage. Today he wanted to come out, so I went ahead and took him outside. While watching him, I noticed a little blemish on his side. He just shed last week, but unless it’s a small patch of dead scales i don’t believe it’s stuck shed. I haven’t touched it directly, but it appears to be flush with his skin and isn’t raised at all. It can’t be a cricket/feeder bite as I don’t regularly feed crickets, and Bastion is exclusively hand fed. Save for a couple of Fluker’s bendy vines, I use all real branches in both my cages. Branches were sanitized, but I found that one of the branches near the misting nozzle had a couple of small white mushrooms growing on its underside. I replaced that branch, but if there was any funky bacteria on that I’m wondering if he could have got an infection from it? He crawls everywhere, so it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that he rubbed up against it. I found a new exotic vet, but we can’t go see her until next Thursday (the 14th). Until then, I’ll be worrying about this either being the start of a papilloma wart or a fungal infection. Photos of his blemish attached.
Its also a little hard not to worry about Beau. They’re kept in separate rooms and I wash my hands in between handling/feeding/even touching the cage door, but they have been on the same plants on my back patio
No one’s pooped out there, for whatever that’s worth.
Cage Info:
About two or so weeks ago, Bastion‘s health took a nose dive. He was hardly moving and had both eyes shut. Thought for sure I was going to lose him. Called up the exotic vet I used for Beau and had planned on taking Bastion to only to find out our vet left the clinic. Asked for a replacement exotic vet and they had one, but she didn’t have any chameleon experience. I spent two hours calling vets with cham experience fully intending to bring him in that same day, everyone was booked up a day or two out, My fiancé suggested we take Bastion to see a family friend of his that is a retired vet tech (who has chameleons of her own), and being that I expected to lose him that night, we did just that. She suggested a RI, got a weight and gave him a dose of Baytril. Two days later, Bastion was completely back to normal (except for the fact that he was, and still is not, eating very well. He’s also been refusing all feeders except for superworms). He’s very alert and active, basks when he needs to and spends the rest of the day crawling around his cage. Today he wanted to come out, so I went ahead and took him outside. While watching him, I noticed a little blemish on his side. He just shed last week, but unless it’s a small patch of dead scales i don’t believe it’s stuck shed. I haven’t touched it directly, but it appears to be flush with his skin and isn’t raised at all. It can’t be a cricket/feeder bite as I don’t regularly feed crickets, and Bastion is exclusively hand fed. Save for a couple of Fluker’s bendy vines, I use all real branches in both my cages. Branches were sanitized, but I found that one of the branches near the misting nozzle had a couple of small white mushrooms growing on its underside.
I replaced that branch, but if there was any funky bacteria on that I’m wondering if he could have got an infection from it? He crawls everywhere, so it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that he rubbed up against it. I found a new exotic vet, but we can’t go see her until next Thursday (the 14th). Until then, I’ll be worrying about this either being the start of a papilloma wart or a fungal infection. Photos of his blemish attached.Its also a little hard not to worry about Beau. They’re kept in separate rooms and I wash my hands in between handling/feeding/even touching the cage door, but they have been on the same plants on my back patio
No one’s pooped out there, for whatever that’s worth.- Your Chameleon - 10 month old male panther chameleon. He should be about a year old in September. I think he’s small for his age, but he was born with a tongue defect and doesn’t eat much.
- Handling - Typically only when cleaning/when necessary. This week he has shown interest in coming out to explore, so I’ve taken him outside for natural sunlight. I only handle him long enough to transport him from his cage to a large plant in my back yard and back again.
- Feeding - This is one of my primary concerns with this guy. I got him in early April And hand fed 6-9 (or as much as he would eat) dubia roaches a day. He got sick of those, and even though I’ve tried a variety of feeders (dubias, discoids, lobster roaches, superworms, hornworms, grasshoppers, crickets and silkworms) he started taking only 4-5 feeders from me. Two weeks ago, he became visibly ill and received a dose of Baytril. He’s back to normal again in terms of alertness and physical activity, but ever since I haven’t been able to get him to take more than 2 or so feeders a day. Because of this, I feed him daily to make sure there is something in his stomach. Recently he craps on everything I offer unless it’s a superworm. I‘ll give it to him because I want him to at least eat something. I’ve got more hornworms on order, he seems to like those
- Supplements - I dust every feeder I offer to him using calcium with no D3. On the 1st and 15th of every month, I use Repashy LoD for his D3 and multivitamin. Since he only took two dusted feeders on the 1st of this month, I did get him to eat 2 more feeders also dusted with Repashy LoD the next day (July 2nd) to make sure he was getting enough of the supplement.
- Watering - Things are so dry out here, his MistKing goes off several times during the day and at night. My schedule is as follows (and even with it like this, I struggle to keep humidity up to 50% during the day): 6 AM - 5 minutes, 1:30 PM - 5 minutes, 6:00 PM 5 minutes, 8:00 PM 3 minutes, 10:00 PM 5 minutes, 2:00-4:00 AM 3 minutes. He shed recently and it all came off pretty well, urates are white
- Fecal Description - firm stool with white urates. Clean fecal shortly after I got him
- History - was born with a tongue defect (which I did know about prior to purchasing) and has always been exclusively hand-fed. Currently appears in good health but has gradually accepted less feeders the longer I’ve had him. Became visibly ill with eyes closed two weeks ago, received a dose of Baytril and seems to have recovered. I’ve unfortunately been without veterinary care as our regular vet left and I’ve been scrambling to find someone else with chameleon experience. He has an appointment with a new (and hopefully regular) vet on the 14th of this month
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - Tamura PVC hybrid 2’ x 2’ 4“. No substrate, drain pre-installed. Drain water drips into bucket below
- Lighting - 22” Arcadia 6% linear UVB. Basking branches are approximately 8 inches down from beneath the UVB bulb. Philips soft white 65 watt indoor flood on a Flukers dimmer fixture for basking. Since it’s been so warm, I’ve had his basking bulb switched off
- Temperature - Between 82-85F at the highest with basking bulb off (86-87 on very hot days. We run the AC both for our own sakes and to bring temps down). 75-80 mid way down, about 75 toward the bottom. Top at night usually sits at 78F, midway down is 75F, bottom is around 72F (drops to 70-68F between night time misting sessions, as well as when we run the AC).
- Humidity - Lower than I‘d like during the day. 35-40% at the very top near basking, 41-49% midway down. Similar numbers at the bottom. Middle and bottom of the cage spike to 72% and drop down to 60% after day time misting. After lights off I am normally able to keep the entirety of the cage above 68%.
- Plants - 1 prayer plant at the very top, 2 very large pothos plants on the left side of the cage (my left when facing the cage), vines and leaves also trail across horizontally. 1 peperomia/rubber plant on the right side midway down. (pic included)
- Placement - in a spare bedroom. Cage is next to a window, but the window is covered with thick vinyl shutters. There is also an air vent on the floor near the cage, but I have a plastic air vent diverter on the vent register to keep air from flowing directly through the screened side of the cage
- Location - California
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sometimes he even looks a bit purple.
. This is your Stella, right? She’s such a pretty girl. Was she gravid here, or flexing her colors at you because she didn’t appreciate your camera in her face? 
