Question about Bacterial Infections

shrink9

New Member
Today I lost my beautiful Nosy Be (see pic in avitar). He has been ill for over a month and fought a good fight; however, the bacterial infections won out. We have been giving him antibiotics prescribed by our vet (exotic animal vet); however, the infection was just too much.

Here are my questions: 1) are chams particularly vulnerable to airborn bacterium; 2) are bacterial infections contagious?

I am wondering about whether I need to clean his cage with some heavy duty cleaner or if a thorough cleaning will be adequate.

Any input will be appreciated.

FYI when the vet ran the tests, he found numerous strains of bacteria present. I had had this guy for almost a year with no problem before he became ill. Once he showed signs of sickness, it was a daily struggle for him. May he rest in peace.

Allen :(
 
So sorry to hear about your beautiful boy. For cleaning the cage I would recommend Novasan solution. It is available online, and is used to kill bacteria in cages and instruments, and misting systems, etc. My husband ordered it, probably from reptile depot.
 
Howdy,

I also have Nolvasan. It kills a bunch of different bacteria and virus types along with other "bugs". It doesn't kill common parasites like coccidia :(. So if you think there is a possibility that you are dealing with parasites then you need to work with chemicals like bleach and ammonia. And as always, never mix the two or death will result :eek:. The nice thing about Nolvasan is that it is much safer to use around animals. Vets use properly diluted Nolvasan as a wound wash. Just keep it out of mucus membranes.
 
Sorry to hear about your beautiful boy Allen. I'm sure you did all you could but as everyone on hear knows by the time they show they are sick it is usually too late. What kind of infection did he have? The vet didn't give you any idea how or where he could have gotten it?

His memory lives on inside of you.

Debby
 
The vet did identify the various bacterium--there were several; however, he did not suggest how my guy might have gotten them. It was my understanding that the bacteria was in the air. I will talk with him further about this. Thank you, everybody, for your support.

Allen
 
OK. I got the names of the bacterium. They are as follows:

Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Corynebacterium species, Enterococcus species, and Proteus Vulgaris.

They have awful names so I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for him.

Any ideas about the possible sources of these bacterium?

Thanks everybody!

Allen
 
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic gram negative bacteria found in water, soil, on skin. It usually does nothing to healthy tissue. (Its one of the bacteria people with severe burns have to worry about.)...
http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/pseudomonas.html

Proteus vulgaris is another gram negative bactera...it inhabits the intestinal tracts of animals, soil, stagnant water, standing water, fecal matter, raw meats, and dust...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteus_vulgaris

Enterococcus is a gram positive bacteria normally found in the bowel of people...
http://www.lambtonhealth.on.ca/communicable/vre.asp

Corynebacterium...gram positive...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corynebacterium
 
I've done a bit of research into bacteria as of late, my female ambanja has an unexplained mucus in her throat. All of those bacteria are waterborne. The pseudomonas are quite common in many public water supplies. The enterococcus could be a species which is found in the human intestine. Proteus Vulgaris is found in stagnant or standing water, soil or fecal matter. Much the same for the corynebacteriums, they grow in soils and sewages as well as some vegetables. I did have to look up the last two, if your interested wikipedia has general info on alot of obscure bacterias, including all of the ones you mentioned. My guess would be the water supply, but its really just a guess based on what I've read.
 
Howdy Allen,

My gut feeling is that since those bacteria; being easily found all around us, if actually responsible for his fatal illness, may have become deadly by way of a suppressed immune system. Chameleons are often reported as to have died from one thing or another yet the root cause was actually a husbandry issue. For example, low temperatures might result in a bacterial illness that a vet might diagnose as such, yet the underlying cause was the low temps impairing his immune system :eek:. Your situation may not have anything to do with this line of thinking but it is something for all of us to consider when things go wrong.
 
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