Please Help...

[Jesslyn]

I have had my Veiled Chameleon for about 4 months now, I purchased him at Petsmart while he was about the size of a quarter. Due to my ignorance, I wasn't aware that he needed UV-B lighting. I had a standard light on it, that was not heating in a 10-gal tank set upright. I have a lot of branches that he can climb on and I mist him 4-6 times a day. His diet mainly consisted of crickets because he disliked mealworms. I powdered his crickets with Calcium and D3 occasionally and gut-loaded them.
Just recently, we realized that he has had trouble walking and everytime he moves is front limbs he grabs his face. He has also been laying on the bottom of the cage instead of at the top. Extremely concerned, I took him to a vet that said he needed sun and more nutrition and that grabbing his face was a way of showing he "didn't feel right". I wasn't satisfied so I researched online and realized he had MBD. He won't catch his food so I've been blending wax worms, water, and calium, feeding him through a syringe.

I'm really concerned and love this chameleon more than anything, and I'm desperate for help. Is there any way we can make him better?

(The white stuff on his head is from recently shedding)

 

[docmacbj]

Get another Vet

Did you go to vet that specializes in Chameleons. Youre chameleon looks like he has a bad case of MBD and needs special care to recover. More senoir members will chime in here but that vet you went to may not be very good if he told you take your cham home and give him sun. I think he needs medicine to boost his calcium levels.

 

[kinyonga]

Its definite that he has MBD.

The quickest way to correct it is for a vet to give him injections of calcium until his blood calcium levels are high enough that he can be given a shot of calcitonin which quickly draws the calcium back into his bones.

Until you can get it to the vets you can give it some liquid calcium sandoz or calcium gluconate...and make sure it gets some UVB either from the sunlight or a proper (most often recommended UVB...Repti-sun 5.o long linear fluorescent tube light) UVB light. The UVB from the sun or the UVB bulb should not pass through glass or plastic.

In the meantime, you need to fix your husbandry so it won't come back again.

Here is some information that pertains to bone health/supplements, etc....
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.

Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.

A wide variety of insects that have been well fed and gutloaded should be fed to it. At that size you only need to feed it every two or three days. Feed it enough that it doesn't get fat (and, of course, doesn't get thin either).

Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium). Not sure how to tell you to dust WC insects if that is what you will be doing.

If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).

Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)

Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)

Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.

Here are some good sites for you to read too...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.

 

[Olimpia]

There is no way to reverse MBD, but you can halt it. This is going to sound like a lot of changes, but they're all for the best.

1. Natural sunlight will do WONDERS. If you can get him outside for a few hours in the morning or evening, when the temperatures are not super high (85* is where I usually draw the line of too hot, especially for an unhealthy chameleon like your poor guy) he will benefit greatly from it. If you are up for it, put him on a small plant on a yard table or something and keep an eye on him the entire time he's outside. OR, buy a small screen cage to take him outside in. Take him out as often as you can, at least a couple days a week.

2. Get him a screen cage. An aquarium has terrible ventilation and will not be an ideal cage for him. I think for your location screen will work well. I would tell you to get something smallish, maybe with a height of 24" so that he will not break limbs if he accidentally falls, which is likely in his condition right now. If it were me, I would make him something more horizontal than vertical while his condition improoves, but not everyone agrees with that opinion.

3. Get a Reptisun 5.0 UVB bulb and have it on 12 hours a day along with a basking household bulb as a heat spot. 40w should work but you may need to go higher or lower depending on the temps you're getting. Hottest temp should be between 80-85* with the ambient cage temp staying at around 75*.

4. Make sure you have these supplements: (1) Phosphorous-free calcium without vit. D3 (2) phosphorous-free calcium with vit. D3 and (3) multivitamin. You will want to provide (1) at every feeding by dusting the feeders lightly, and (2-3) twice a month lightly. I like to alternate the last two, one week (2) one week (3)... etc. But you don't have to.

5. See if you can get your hands on high calcium feeders like butterworms. If he won't try them then stick to just gutloading your crickets as well as you can.

I think that's all I can think of to help your guy. It will take work to get him well but his condition shouldn't go towards worse. In some cases vets will also give calcium shots but if you don't trust your vet then it's probably better to find another reptile expert or skip those. You may have to hand feed him for life, though. Hopefully he regains the use of his tongue!

Best of luck to both of you.

 

[camimom]

As the previous post-er said, get a smaller cage so he has less height to flal from. Also, i have heard that to help prevent chams from getting hurt when they fall bc of the symptoms of mbd, to put a washcloth on the bottom of the cage so thye have something softer to land on.
He will never be normla, and you may have to set up a special cage for him that is wider than it is tall to accomodate his special needs.
Good luck.
BTW, find a vet that can help you.

 

[Jesslyn]

Thank you so much for all of your help. Unfortunately, we took him to a vet that specialized in Chameleons and found out that his MBD was extremely progressed and that he was in a lot of pain. Even after the calcium shot and continuing to help him, he would never be the same. It was very hard, but we decided to put him to rest. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but I didn't want him to be in pain anymore. He left me with many good memories.
Again, thank you for all the help; it's greatly appreaciated

 

[Olimpia]

I'm so sorry to hear that but I understand your desicion. I'm glad you still tried to do everything you could for him, that's really great of you.

 

[camimom]

I hope that before you get another achameleon, that you do more research so that you fully understand their special needs.
While I know its hard to resist buyin them cuz they are so cute, you HAVE to know what you are doing.
You should ask as many questions on this forum as much as you need to so that once you have learned what you need to know, then it will be time to get another one.
On a side note, while I am sorry you had to put your cham down, I am glad that he is no longer suffering.