Sick Male Veiled Cham---Help!

[Wndwlckr]

Hello,

I'm new to the forum. My girlfriend showed this website to me and said I should register.

My year old Male Veiled, Jambi, is not doing well at all.
It started last wednesday when i fed him. His tongue shot out and didnt retract..then he fell to the bottom of the cage (i'm assuming out of pain). It looked really painful for him to retract his tongue but over time he managed to.
I took him to the vet soon after that happened and they told me they "thought" it was due to low calcium. I dont understand how, as Jambi has all the proper lights, gets fed calcium dusted crickets, and so on. The vet gave me these calcium drops to give Jambi once a day for ten days.

Well its been about a week now and Jambi's eyes are still sunken in, he looks lethargic. I've never seen a chameleon just lay on the branches the way he does. very sluggish. he's losing his strength every day.

Things I've been doing:
-Giving him his medication every day
-Misting a hell of a lot
-Force feeding him water and food

Has anyone else had this experience?
Will metabolic bone disease or calcium deficiency cause Jambi's tongue to not retract?
Any advice is helpful.

For now, I'm going to put a spare reptarium in the shower and run some water on him for a while. Hopefully the high humidity will perk him up a bit.
its not looking so good.

thanks
-josh

 

[MWheelock]

Hopefully this is helpful to you.

Hey,

This is the article that you are looking for:

http://www.adcham.com/html/veterinary/vet-tongue-problems-kramer.html

Most probably this is trauma induced (as this was a sudden problem). I would go over the husbandy practices and make sure there is no deficiency; appropriate uvb lights (and appropriate distance from lights), appropriate supplementation protocol... If you are really worried about whether this is a supplementation issue, have your vet run a Ca+hos ratio to see if it is off. If not it is fairly unlikely this is the problem. Anyhow, it sound like supportive care is in your future. You might discuss how to syringe feed and whether you might try some pain meds for the next few days.

(Here's the rub. There are no "true doses" for reptile pain meds. It's all speculation. I am of the veterinary corner of trying to treat for pain anyway. You might ask your vet if buprenorphine is an option.)

Well, good luck!

Matthew

 

[kinyonga]

Has your chameleon shot its tongue out since the tongue retracted?
Can you see the tongue at all inside its mouth or not?

 

[Lunatic913]

just keep hope. my cham at about 4 months old had mbd along with for fractures..each in his limbs..he couldnt even climb up, let alone eat. i hand fed him babyfood like veal. its high in protein. i used a syringe and shot some babyfood in his mouth and i would also feed him his liquid calcium this way also.....i did this for about a month or so. and now he has recovered. all im saying is have hope and stick to the diet. dont get lazy. good things will happen