sick chameleon.

[StacyDiaz]

Chameleon Info:
• Your Chameleon -Veiled
The species, sex, Female
age of your chameleon:1 yr
hw long has it been in your care? 7months
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? not often
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? crickets, milworms
What amount? has slowed down but she about 5 a day
What is the schedule? give to her in morning
How are you gut-loading your feeders? yes
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? I realized that I was dusting to much cause it contains D3.. so I have stoped.{maybe the cause of her being sick}
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use?Spraying
How often and how long to you mist?3 to 4 times a day
see your chameleon drinking? yes
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. white, solid
Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? no
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. She was taken to the vet about 3 months ago, we found out then that she was calcium deprived, fix that with dusting.. but now I think she has to much in her.

Cage Info:
• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass)
What are the dimensions? put her in a smaller 10 gal tank to better control heat|humity
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? uv bulb not sure brand. turn on a 6:30am off at 8pm
• Temperature - What temp range have you created. called vet he said she may have goting cold so keeping heat at 85to90 and humity around 60
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? on a table. because it is a small tank. about a foot below my eye level. she was in a larger tank. but moved her because she was getting sick.
• Location - Where are you geographically located? texas

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
she is shutting down..vet said she has gotten cold thats why her back legs and tail is black. good color in the face and front legs. she was eating and drinking fine until today.. was able to give her 6 tiny milworms which she eat.. her tounge not working to get the food she needs. am putting water in her mouth for her..
The closest vet that have any knowledge is a hour1/2 away and i am afraid the ride will kill her.. but she is not doing better, and looks worse today with less movement

Pictures are helpful

 

[camimom]

for supplements- you need a calcium without d3 for every feeding, a calcium with d3 twice a month, and a multivitamin twice a month.
you said yes you aer gutloading,, but with what?
do you have a laying bin for her?
why did you not provide a basking bulb for her?
Has she ever laid eggs?

 

[lslcronk]

From what I have read on here, it has been suggested that when the back end goes black like that the cham could be egg bound. The eggs cut off circulation to the back end somehow.
Did your vet take an x-ray when determining she was calcium deprived? If not I would get her back to the vet and have that done. That would show if her bones are in fact well calcified or not and also show if she is full of eggs. If she is in fact lacking calcium to her bones it could be due to egg production, and if she has not had a laying bin it could all be related.

I don't keep a veiled so as far as husbandry I am not sure about temps and what not. I would be more specific about your gut load and also they need more than just calcium and calcium with D3. Do you have a multi-vitamin of somekind?

Good luck, you will get more response but I would start making plans for a re-visit to the vet, I know you are concerned about the trip but I think things may not turn out well if you don't go, so it may be well worth the risk IMO

 

[StacyDiaz]

she has both a uv light and a heat light.. she has laid 2 eggs a while ago but nothing since. I dont know how often or how many she should be laying..she laid those at the bottom of the cage in the sand.

 

[lslcronk]

My understanding is that clutches are fairly large. Even infertile ones. Again, husbandry aside as this is more of an emergent thing, if she has not had an
x-ray I would get her in.

 

[Olimpia]

I'm concerned she is in a condition known as egg-binding. Essentially, the female is no longer able to lay the eggs because they have become "stuck" inside her. You can imagine that this is a really serious condition! Clutches of eggs will range anywhere from 10-70 eggs, so I don't think she was only carrying 2.

I would certainly risk the trip to the vet, although I hope it's not too late.
What were you providing as a place to lay the eggs? When you say the sand, how deep/big is the area with the sand? And was it moist sand or totally dry?

 

[camimom]

How long was a while ago that she laid these two eggs?
and normally when a female goes lame and black in the back end, it can because of egg binding.
I thnk you need a vet visit, and xrays, now.

 

[pbveiled]

I would also recommend getting to a vet ASAP. Once her current problems are resolved, you will need a new cage. A 10gal glass tank is way too small for a 1yr old veiled.

 

[kinyonga]

IMHO you need to get her to a vet right away and you also need to make some changes to your care.

You said..."she has laid 2 eggs a while ago but nothing since. I dont know how often or how many she should be laying..she laid those at the bottom of the cage in the sand" ....2 eggs is not normal. The clutch would normally be close to 2 dozen but could be over 100. She should have dug a hole, laid the eggs in it all at the same time, filled the hole in and returned to the branches. I won't be surprised if she is eggbound....and if she is she will eventually die. Sounds like she is heading down hill now...sorry to say...so you need to help her right away.

You don't say what you are gutloading with and its important to dust the insects with a phos.-free calcium powder at almost every feeding. See information below about gutloading and dusting.

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.

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).

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.
Please note that various supplements have various amounts of D3 and vitamin A and so some can be given more often than others. The idea still is not to overdo the fat soluble vitamins like D3 and prEformed vitamin A.

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.

Have you changed your UVB light since you got her?

I would recommend that you use a dripper in addition to spraying the cage.

You said..."She was taken to the vet about 3 months ago, we found out then that she was calcium deprived, fix that with dusting.. but now I think she has to much in her"...calcium issues can be the result of too little calcium, too much D3 or too little D3, an imbalance between the nutrients (particularly calcium, phos., D3 and prEformed vitamin A). Generally just dusting with more calcium won't correct it quickly or may not be enough to correct it. The quickest way to correct it is for the vet to give injections of calcium until the blood calcium levels are high enough to give it a shot of calcitonin which rapidly draws the calcium back into the bones. Calcium deficiency not only affects the bones, but other systems in the chameleon so its important to get it corrected quickly. Lack of proper tongue function is often connected with calcium issues.

You said..."called vet he said she may have goting cold so keeping heat at 85to90"...how cold was it when you thought the temps were too cold?

Good luck with her.