Respiratory Infection.

[ISA my Veiled]

Alright guys I wanted to ask what some clear signs of a R.I. are. I don't want to start a whole new thread over Ezio but he has been doing weird and is only 2 maybe at the most 3 months old. If that. But I mean a list of signs please. Thank you.

 

[AngieL]

Ok. Signs of an RI are

Gaping while in cool areas

Popping and crackling noises while breathing

Extra saliva in the mouth

Swallowing a lot at times when no eating or drinking are taking place

Raising the head up in the air

Snoring or wheezing at night while asleep.

Your Cham will do its best to hide these symptoms from you. It's a defence mechanism, they don't want you to know they're vulnerable.

 

[ISA my Veiled]

Oh my well he has a couple of those symptoms..My car just broke down and I had to spend my money fixing it. Is there any home remedies I can do for him?

 

[AngieL]

No I'm afraid not! These symptoms are merely a warning of things to come, when they start to look properly ill then it's even harder to correct it.

Your going to need a vet and an antibiotic of some kind if it is an infection. My vet visit was £18 and a 2 week course of baytril was £6. Really didn't cost a lot!

There are things you can do to help but you'll need to do these with the antibiotics. You can up temps slightly and night time temps too. Chams don't get fevers to fight infections so the extra heat may help him along.

You can also help clear the airways by using a warm mist humidifier or what I did, put him in the shower room with the shower running so he can breath the warm air.

Most importantly, you need to find out what could have caused the infection a d do your best to correct it. If its not corrected promptly then the cham isn't going to be able to get better.

 

[ISA my Veiled]

No I'm afraid not! These symptoms are merely a warning of things to come, when they start to look properly ill then it's even harder to correct it.

Your going to need a vet and an antibiotic of some kind if it is an infection. My vet visit was £18 and a 2 week course of baytril was £6. Really didn't cost a lot!

There are things you can do to help but you'll need to do these with the antibiotics. You can up temps slightly and night time temps too. Chams don't get fevers to fight infections so the extra heat may help him along.

You can also help clear the airways by using a warm mist humidifier or what I did, put him in the shower room with the shower running so he can breath the warm air.

Most importantly, you need to find out what could have caused the infection a d do your best to correct it. If its not corrected promptly then the cham isn't going to be able to get better.

Well at the moment he does not have a heat lamp because of him being so young. That may be what is prompting this. He only have UVB because he really isn't quite the age for a basking spot yet. I may take him in the shower room then. He just seems to raise his head quite a bit which is a major concern. He gapes a little bit and it sounds more like a wheezing type of gape.

 

[Zen Reptiles]

Who told you he wasn't old enough for a basking spot?

Panthers and veileds can have a basking spot from 1 day old.

Basking spot is a relative term though. It doesn't mean it has to be 95F. But he does need a warm spot about 80-84F to sit under and digest food and regulate metabolism.

I have had the odd baby panther with respiratory problems (gaping, popping sound when breathing, lethargic, ill looking) from too much spraying that got on their face and not a warm enough basking spot.

The 3 that succumbed to it all died (tough to help them when they are under a month old), however there were 2 others that were showing signs but were fine after increasing the basking spot from 80 to 85 and spraying them just once a day instead of 3 times a day. Just make sure the rest of the cage is a cool temperature so they can thermoregulate, don't wanna cook him.

Hope that helps.

PS if you do the warm-shower thing make sure you only do it for 20 mins or so, you don't want to leave him in high humidity for too long or it will make it worse....you wanna basically give him the opportunity to dry his lungs out and heat (but not HOT heat) will help him accomplish that on his own.

 

[ISA my Veiled]

Actually I did hear from a fellow forum member that is highly regarded say that you should wait until about 3-4 months for a basking spot for males. Which is what I am going off of. My Female I got at about 3 months old so I didn't really have this problem but thank you so much for your reply. I just put a basking lamp on his cage so we will see. He hasn't started to go over there yet so I will update as the day goes on. And I use luke warm water, would warmer water help at all?

 

[AngieL]

I've heard of a great keeper on here that uses a normal strip light for baby heat. It gives off heat but not too much. You're right in thinking that babies don't need a spot much hotter than the rest but they do need an 80ish temp around the top of the enclosure or baby bin so they can keep warm.

 

[Zen Reptiles]

Well you can take advice any way you want it, from whoever you wish, but you have a young chameleon with a respiratory infection. That doesn't just happen out of nowhere and generally a decent heat source along with dips in humidity levels is what cures & prevents respiratory problems. A heat source also helps prevent high humidity from lingering around for too long, and cold-humidity is a culprit for respiratory problems.

The first month I can understand without a basking light, because they have the low heat from the UVB lights....but 3-4 months? I have seen pics of 4 month old male chams on this forum that were the same size as adults!

You can grow females slowly with lower temperatures, but I think food intake has much more to do with eggbinding than temperatures...based on my own experiments between females I've raised and bred.

Males you don't have to worry about that issue, so I don't understand the advice you were given.

Like I said the term basking spot is relative....A basking spot doesn't mean a mercury vapor ultra high powered basking light, which would give you a crisp baby-chameleon-kebab. You can use a 25-40watt bulb or a linear UV or UVB bulb, if they can get right up close to it they will be basking @ very safe 78-84F range.

@ 4-5 months you can start giving males a real basking spot of the high 80s to low 90s, maybe that is what the person meant who gave you the advice??

I start off with a 15 watt bulb for babies, to a 25 watt for 2 month olds, to a 40 watt for 3 month olds, to a 50 watt for 4-5 month olds, to 60 watt for 6 months to adults (basically I increased wattage every month of growth). In the winter I use 75 watt halogen bulbs.

Goodluck!