Please Help! Adopted Sick Baby Veiled w/ Closed Eyes

Any help/advice/knowledge shared is VERY much appreciated!

Quick background. Adopted him about 36 hours ago from "the local petstore" that my friend works at. They said they tried to get him into the vet on Friday AM (symptoms started Thursday PM) but the vet had no more availability until Monday AM. I knew the little guy wasn't going to make it in the tiny 10 gal aquarium, below sub-par UVB light they had him in, so they let me adopt him out and I got him a proper (for now) Chameleon enclosure. I am totally a newbie when it comes to Cham's, I have a Ball Python and currently have 2 Redfoot Tortoises now though so I have a few years experience with reptiles.

I've been lurking the Forum here for the past day to get a basic idea of what I'm dealing with and am now ready to ask you all for your help!

Chameleon Info

My Chameleon:
Veiled, was told Male but I think Female, was told <8 months but looks like 3-4 to me?

Handling
: a few times to move him from one enclosure to the next, and a few other times to make sure he's still got dexterity (he does, but it's a little on the weak side)

Feeding : currently won't eat. Last ate Wed/Thurs according to them. Previously being fed 5-7 1/4" crickets a day from pet store.

Supplements : as far as I know they don't dust their crickets, but if they did it would be your basic Reptical w/o D3 (hopefully) or something along those lines.)

Watering : Can't speak for this before I picked him up. However I gave him a "bath" as soon as I got home, and then misted his enclosure the until the spray bottle was empty (about 12 oz. of H20). Sprayed yesterday 5-6x for 3-4 mins each time with reptile-treated H20. This AM I sprayed him with warm, treated H20 and within the first minute I saw him drinking it! So I just kept spraying until he stopped drinking, which was about 5+ minutes.

Fecal Description : in his enclosure at the pet store, I saw slimy brown stool w/ yellow heated. Yesterday AM I saw darker brown & more solid stool w/ yellow+white urates. Nothing yet today.
Unknown his he's been tested for parasites.

History : Kind of touched on this but I'll try to give more details here. They noticed his eyes were staying closed for longer periods of time on Wednesday and becoming a little lethargic. They moved him to another enclosure in the back to monitor him. Thurs his eye would open a little bit when being held, but continued to get progressively worse by Fri AM. I have personally not seen his eyes open yet. He is not interested in food since I've had him. He wasn't drinking water, I tried giving him water via syringe tube (didn't try to open his mouth or anything, just put it near him). But like I said, as of this AM he drank a lot of water, still no food though. His activity has been slowly increasing since I put him in his new enclosure 24 hours ago. This AM he was the most active and colorful since I've had him.

Cage Info :

Cage Type :
Previously in a 10-15 gal aquarium with 1-2 branches, and some plastic plants. CURRENTLY (and for 24 hours) he's been in a 16"x16"x30" Zoomed Reptibreeze Chameleon enclosure.
Lighting :
Previously pet store UVB so not sure, the UVB he was in when I got him didn't even say on the bulb what it was. Looked generic. I'd say 40/60W heat bulb probably and they had a nighttime bulb for him. CURRENTLY : He's got a ReptiSun 5.0 Compact UVB (should I get a tube instead? Read some issues people had w/ Cham eye problems and compact bulbs.) and a ZooMed Daylight Blue 60W bulb. I have no problem splurging for the tube, this just came with the Chameleon kit I bought. I knew he needed something fast and that this would be better than what he was previously in.

Temperature : basking spot is reading 83.5 F bottom of the cage was reading 71-72 F using ZooMed Digital Thermometer.

Humidity : Humidity is at 70%-80% while I'm misting him and around 50%- 60% otherwise. Using Exoterra Humidity dial gauge, nothing fancy.

Plants : No live (yet, will be purchasing some Pothos tomorrow) rest are plastic and 1 Silk plant.

Placement : Cage is located in my Sun room Hallway. It gets lots of indirect sunlight. He's on the bar (pictured below)for now. There's a small vent in that room not directly above him, but that part of the house gets much less cold than the other fridge parts (I like my house around 70F cause FL summers suck a sweaty butt Lol). Traffic isn't high.

Location : America's Sweaty Butt aka Florida

Current Problem: Young Veiled not eating, obviously dehydrated, probably Vitamin drficient as well? Drank this AM but hasn't eaten yet. Somewhat lethargic but improving.
 
Can you post a picture of him, his whole body, his head, and a slight close up of his eyes?

Also a couple pictures of his enclosure?

I definitely recommend a tube and definitely recommend staying with a 5.0. Have you tried taking him outside at all? Just in his cage? I would recommend honestly so he gets relatively unfiltered sunlight and can absorb it well. He likely either have a vitamin D deficiency, a calcium deficiency, a vitamin A deficiency, or dehydration, or ALL of the above. It sounds like you are going the right direction with the dehydration. Keep misting like you are, I recommend keep doing misting sessions for similar length for at least 3-4 times a day. As far as the deficiencies he can get a couple injections at the vet if it is that and the vet decides it's that. That will likely perk him up right away and he will absorb it easier. I would wait to see what the vet says before adding anything else I would recommend to his diet. I am not sure how much fat reserves he has, but if you keep up his hydration he should be fine until tomorrow <3
 
Sorry about the unfinished ending. Had to rush to work and forgot to post pictures.

The first picture is when I first brought him home Friday evening. Second picture is this AM of him drinking :)
Last is the enclosure.
 

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Can you post a picture of him, his whole body, his head, and a slight close up of his eyes?

Also a couple pictures of his enclosure?

I definitely recommend a tube and definitely recommend staying with a 5.0. Have you tried taking him outside at all? Just in his cage? I would recommend honestly so he gets relatively unfiltered sunlight and can absorb it well. He likely either have a vitamin D deficiency, a calcium deficiency, a vitamin A deficiency, or dehydration, or ALL of the above. It sounds like you are going the right direction with the dehydration. Keep misting like you are, I recommend keep doing misting sessions for similar length for at least 3-4 times a day. As far as the deficiencies he can get a couple injections at the vet if it is that and the vet decides it's that. That will likely perk him up right away and he will absorb it easier. I would wait to see what the vet says before adding anything else I would recommend to his diet. I am not sure how much fat reserves he has, but if you keep up his hydration he should be fine until tomorrow <3

How long should I have him in his enclosure in the sun for? And THANK YOU for all your advice!!
 
Be careful with him... he looks super super dehydrated, so don't put him in direct sunlight without him being able to move into complete shade easily. I would recommend a shaded sunlight. He will get plenty of sun from that if he's outside. Mist him a lot while he is outside. I wouldn't do more than an hour and would likely stay at maybe a couple times a day for 30 minutes (depending on what your schedule is like). A lot of the sunken appearance he has is not only from lack of nutrition but most of it is likely from dehydration. Work on giving a lot of long misting sessions (5 minutes or more) around 4 times a day. He needs it desperately. I honestly wouldn't worry about feeding him until you see the vet tomorrow because he may get more issues if he eats right now being so dehydrated. Worries me a bit... *frowns* Idk if they would be willing to give him subcutaneous fluids but I honestly would do it, he may be healthy enough to take it right now and getting extra water in his system right now would be helpful. But I know doing fluids with reptiles can be more complicated than we (known medical people realize) I researched it a bit and it went way over my head. So right now your job is to give him lots and lots of mistings and get him to drink as much as he is willing to. I would honestly be really careful about putting him out in peak sun hours when it gets super hot in Florida right now (so go for a bit later in the day when the sun's gone a bit lower or a bit earlier). Good luck with your new little baby, keep us updated. I will be here checking up.
 
You said its activity has increased today...is hit walking around with his eyes open or shut?
Is it sitting with its mouth open most of the time?
It looks very sick and I'm not sure how much longer it will survive.
 
You said its activity has increased today...is hit walking around with his eyes open or shut?
Is it sitting with its mouth open most of the time?
It looks very sick and I'm not sure how much longer it will survive.

He moves around with his eyes closed, as far as I know. No, that was just a picture of him in the middle of drinking water. I've never seen his mouth open except while he was drinking.

Any advice or input you may have on how to improve his health would be much appreciated!
 
Be careful with him... he looks super super dehydrated, so don't put him in direct sunlight without him being able to move into complete shade easily. I would recommend a shaded sunlight. He will get plenty of sun from that if he's outside. Mist him a lot while he is outside. I wouldn't do more than an hour and would likely stay at maybe a couple times a day for 30 minutes (depending on what your schedule is like). A lot of the sunken appearance he has is not only from lack of nutrition but most of it is likely from dehydration. Work on giving a lot of long misting sessions (5 minutes or more) around 4 times a day. He needs it desperately. I honestly wouldn't worry about feeding him until you see the vet tomorrow because he may get more issues if he eats right now being so dehydrated. Worries me a bit... *frowns* Idk if they would be willing to give him subcutaneous fluids but I honestly would do it, he may be healthy enough to take it right now and getting extra water in his system right now would be helpful. But I know doing fluids with reptiles can be more complicated than we (known medical people realize) I researched it a bit and it went way over my head. So right now your job is to give him lots and lots of mistings and get him to drink as much as he is willing to. I would honestly be really careful about putting him out in peak sun hours when it gets super hot in Florida right now (so go for a bit later in the day when the sun's gone a bit lower or a bit earlier). Good luck with your new little baby, keep us updated. I will be here checking up.

Thank you so much for your advice and input! I've seen a few posts on here about pedialyte...any experience or suggestions with that? I got him some Fluker's Liquid Vitamin today and was going to see if I can give him some via 0.5 mg syringe. If and when he does decide to eat, what would be the best option? Crickets, meal/wax worms?

I will continue the misting sessions and may give him another bath tonight as that seemed to stimulate him to drink. Didn't get home til late and have a chance to sit with him outside. I will tomorrow though in the later afternoon when the sun isn't brutal.

Again, I really appreciate your time and efforts into helping me with my little guy! I'll keep updating daily.
 
I don't recommend the liquid vitamins, I do some other things for liquid vitamins and don't trust fluker's stuff for a lot of reasons. Either they are dangerous or useless. Wait for your vet as far giving him vitamins since you are seeing them tomorrow yes? Other than that, feed wounded crickets, something that won't struggle much, or wax worms. I definitely won't recommend mealworms because as dehydrated as he is he won't be able to pass the chitin correctly. If you do pedialyte do a plain solution, mix about 50/50 pedialyte with water, and give about .2 units of a 1 ml/cc oral syringe. Be careful how you give it, if he won't take it by just dripping it on his nose, then open his mouth a bit and place the syringe tip at the far back of his mouth in the beginning of his throat, this way you miss the opening of his trachea and give it all in one go. Then mist a while afterward.
 
Good to know about the vitamins...I haven't given it to him yet. Thought I was doing a good thing haha. Curious why you don't recommend it? Is Flukers just not a very reputable brand or their actual product content isn't what it says? Just curious so I know for future references.

I'm hoping to take him to the vet tomorrow afternoon. The pet store was supposed to take him Mon AM since he couldn't get in on Friday, but then I adopted him because I knew he wasn't going to survive the weekend in that awful enclosure they had him in. So I'm not sure if they'll honor that and take him or maybe give me a discount on a vet visit? (They have a Vet next to them). I'm not even sure how much their Reptile Vet will even really know...any suggestions on a good Herp Vet in the Central FL area?
Thanks again!!
 
Generally most things Fluker's makes isn't as good as they make it sound and the ingredients are often straight up...crap *shrugs* there's no other way to describe it.

@jannb will likely be able to suggest a vet in that area. She knows several around there <3 And she knows a lot of good ones. If they don't honor and you have to wait longer than tomorrow, I have some back up stuff that will keep him going. Do you have any 1cc/ml oral syringes?or can you get them easily in FL? If not I know how to get them online on ebay or amazon and you likely can pay a bit extra for exepdited shipping.
 
Noted in regards to Flukers.

As far as the syringes go, yes. I have 0.5 mg , 1.0 mg, and 5.0 mg...so I have a few options Lol I work in healthcare so I've got a lot of medical-y things in my house

Definitely would like to hear your back-up plan as paying for an expensive Vet bill is a little out of budget currently. Not trying to break the bank, but I'm also not willing to give up on the little guy! So if I have to pay for a Vet then that's what I'll have to do.

Interested to hear @jannb 's input on a quality Herp Vet.

Again, appreciate the knowledge you've shared @Andee !!
 
Forgot to mention this...

UPDATE : Took him in for a "bath" about an hour ago. Got the shower nice and steamy (but not too hot) and he hitched a ride on one of my orchids. Made sure the warm water was just misting towards/on him and not directly on him. Within 60 seconds he changed colors to a light green, started moving up the plant and immediately started drinking water for the next 4-5 minutes.
 
Well he will likely have to go to the vet no matter what, he's a bit too far gone where home health care can fix everything wrong. But with the stuff I can offer if the vet doesn't take him on monday, we can likely give him a couple more days or more in case we have to wait longer (though definitely not promising anything) and he may be a bit better during the vet visit.

I've dealt with a lot of eye issues with rescues who got rehabilitated and went to new homes when healthy, and I also have my senior man, who I am working with feeding him since he's almosst completely blind now, but can actually see better than he used to... long story XD
 
Showers are amazing for them, keep it up, don't make the water too hot because he will feel it more than you do. But yeah my shower steams up during Ryker's showers pretty bad XD.

It's really good for their eyes.
 
No go on the Vet for today :( and I'm not even really sure how much he would have been able to do. The Vet Tech I spoke with told me the Dr. "specializes in fish but has an interest in reptiles" so not sure how much that would have helped.

Going to try and see if there's a Herp Vet around for a reasonable cost...wish money didn't have to be a factor, but unfortunetly it does for me right now.
Any home health care advice ? Thanks @Andee
 
@jannb see if I can get her here quicker to mention someone, I will also pm her for you.

So do you have any insects and a blender you are willing to use? Get some pedialyte as well, just get some plain stuff and get the smallest bottle you can, you won't go through it fast.
 
I'm in the Orlando area if that helps. Ive got a very reputable vet for my dogs, however when I called them this AM they dont have anyone who knows anything beyond "the basics". They did refer me to a Herp Vet though, but when I called they said he was "semi-retired" and wouldn't be in til later in the week :(

I've got wax worms and pedialyte. However the only pedialyte I could find at Walgreens was the "mixed fruit" flavor, they didn't have any unflavored. If unflavored is necessary I'll just go out and find some somewhere else.
 
UPDATE :

Just saw him open his eyes a tiny bit when I went to get him for an afternoon bath. First time that's happened. He seemed to enjoy the bath, but did not drink this time. However something kind of weird happened...maybe this is normal or maybe I've accidentally done more damage somehow.
A few minutes into his bath his left eye almost "popped" out and got super full. It looked like he was going to fully open his eye for a second but he only managed to get a little squint out. Then while his eyes were closed I could see his eye moving in a million different Chameleon directions under the lid. Not going to lie it was kind of creepy looking Lol since it literally looked like the eye was tying to pop itself out. Then it stopped after a few seconds and went back to not being as full again.

Hope that's not a bad thing that's come from something I've done :( and that it's a good sign?
 
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