Spaying Experience & Infection

Quinnbys

Member
Hey Folks,

This is a "can you share your experience" ask, not a diagnosis request:

We're having a scary couple of weeks with Peach our 9 mo old F. Pardalis. We have had her for about 3 mos and have been super focused on her husbandry and overall care. She's been a strong eater, pooper and active and colorful during this time. Her husbandry is strong (thanks to this forum, Bill Strand's podcast and conversations with our vet). But about 4 weeks ago she started closing her and rubbing her right eye on branches, but showed no swelling or pus. She is/was still eating and pooping normally. We took her right into our local herp vet and started her on antibiotic eye drops. It took 2 weeks but it mildly improved, but is not 100% better (she is still holding it closed most of the time). However during this time we also drew blood (first time blood draw, since at her introductory vet appointment right after we got her she was a little too small to draw) and found that she had a "profound" White Blood Cell Counts that indicated both a severe Active and Chronic infection. At the same time they also did a Blood Chemistry test which indicated that she was in her reproductive cycle phase (reproductive up-cycling, which was indicated by a higher than normal total Calcium and total Phosphorus, as well as Cholesterol) .

Our vet thinks Peach could have complications with egg production and this would be the source of the inflammation/infection in her body. She believes this theory correlates with how significant the infection appears to be in the labs (which does not line up with the rather mild state of her eye). She preformed an ultrasound to see if she could verify her theory, but the results were not super conclusive. She could indeed confirm follicles were present on the ovaries, but did not see clear obvious signs of complications, only some gray area indications.

She is recommending a spay surgery (in addition to new inject-able antibiotics which we have already started). Her attitude around the surgery is very casual, making it sound almost like something she would do even if Peach wasn't sick which is making me a little nervous. We're getting a second opinion from another well liked herp vet in the area this week, but my advice request is the following:

How many keepers of females out there have had a lady with no reproductive issues at all, just smooth sailing? I feel like I only hear about female cham problems...

Can some keepers out there who have had to spay their cutie babes, chime in on the recovery process? I realize in most cases the Cham is pretty ill at this stage of requiring a surgery like this, and recovery might be tough, but any input would be valuable. Again the vet made it sound like a walk in the park.

Thanks all :(
 
The veterinary hospital I work at/am studying at has done spays for iguanas before. I’m sure it isn’t totally the same because they’re much larger, but the surgeries I have witnessed have gone smoothly. (Im going into large livestock so I haven’t actually taken part in any of them) The healing process is similar to dogs spays, keep them from moving around too much, giving pain meds etc.
Again, it may be different because they’re different reptiles but that has been my knowledge and experience.
 
Definitely ask re: how experienced your vet is with this surgery... I've personally seen this procedure go wrong with a vet whom I love and trust, and is very experienced. The smaller the reptile is, the trickier the surgery... and you never know what kind of complications you might find once you're in there!

I only ever recommend spaying reptiles and birds if it's the only option left, though it sounds like it might be a choice to consider given your girl's condition.
 
The veterinary hospital I work at/am studying at has done spays for iguanas before. I’m sure it isn’t totally the same because they’re much larger, but the surgeries I have witnessed have gone smoothly. (Im going into large livestock so I haven’t actually taken part in any of them) The healing process is similar to dogs spays, keep them from moving around too much, giving pain meds etc.
Again, it may be different because they’re different reptiles but that has been my knowledge and experience.

Thanks for the input :)
 
I’m very sorry to hear about the problems you are having with your girl. Did your vet take X-rays? A high white blood count can also mean cancer. Very few vets are successful with this surgery. I’d ask your vet how many time have they successfully preformed this surgery.

No X-Rays yet, thanks for suggesting. I will ask about doing one. This vet seemed to sort of jump to the reproductive issue as the cause, but it sounds like maybe there are more options we can exhaust before being left with that only option.
 
Definitely ask re: how experienced your vet is with this surgery... I've personally seen this procedure go wrong with a vet whom I love and trust, and is very experienced. The smaller the reptile is, the trickier the surgery... and you never know what kind of complications you might find once you're in there!

I only ever recommend spaying reptiles and birds if it's the only option left, though it sounds like it might be a choice to consider given your girl's condition.

I will ask for the #s. I can't imagine it's a lot, but the vet was so confident and cavalier about it maybe it's more common than I'm realizing. Thanks very much for the feedback.
 
Hi I am going through a similar situation my girl layed her first clutch smooth as silk, this time she is Egg Bound without a doubt and the vet just postponed the surgery for another week and doesnt feel this is as much as an emergency as I do. she has never preformed surgery on a Chameleon only Iguanas and I am a nervous wreak. I am trying to find another herp vet for another opinion.
 
Hi I am going through a similar situation my girl layed her first clutch smooth as silk, this time she is Egg Bound without a doubt and the vet just postponed the surgery for another week and doesnt feel this is as much as an emergency as I do. she has never preformed surgery on a Chameleon only Iguanas and I am a nervous wreak. I am trying to find another herp vet for another opinion.

Ugh I'm so sorry to hear you're going through something like this too--it's so stressful and worrying. I hope everything goes super smoothly for you both, we'll be sending you a bunch of warm thoughts.

You've probably already seen this, but there is a thread of Herp Vets listed by area here on the Forums (to help with the second opinion) and I also used this site too when looking for more vets:

https://arav.site-ym.com/search/custom.asp?id=3661
 
Hi I am going through a similar situation my girl layed her first clutch smooth as silk, this time she is Egg Bound without a doubt and the vet just postponed the surgery for another week and doesnt feel this is as much as an emergency as I do. she has never preformed surgery on a Chameleon only Iguanas and I am a nervous wreak. I am trying to find another herp vet for another opinion.

Where do you live? I might can refer a vet.
 
Hi I am in Albany NY, the vet I am using has never done surgery on a chameleon but has spayed iguanas, her bloodwork came back good and we are scheduled for Thursday for surgery. I just love my Ellie she is as big as a house but her appetite is good and her colors are good so as long as that doesn't change all is alright for now. I am just fanatical over her and don't want her suffer,
 
Hey there! My female chameleon just got spayed yesterday. My situation was a little different. My 2 year old veiled chameleon(kiwi) has laid multiple clutches before. Her husbandry is spot on and she is a very healthy girl. Unfortunately sometimes no matter how good her environment is, they still struggle when it comes to their reproductive cycles. I noticed that kiwi was developing eggs and should start laying soon. Unfortunately she seemed eggbound and I was worried. My last straw was when she stopped eating and using the restroom. I took her to the vet after she hadn’t eaten in a week and the vet told me that her follicles weren’t developing correctly and that she could not pass the eggs because they weren’t even eggs yet. So I gave her assist feed and calcium for 2 weeks and noticed no change so I took her back. They said that the eggs were never going to develop correctly so I needed to have her Spayed. So I did the following week. She is now on 3 different medications for antibiotics, pain, and anti inflammation. I’ve noticed that she is still lethargic and her eyes are sunken in, but apparently that’s normal for about 3-4 days. So wish us luck on kiwis recovery! That’s my experience. Best of luck with your cham! If you need anything don’t hesitate to reach out !
 
Hey there! My female chameleon just got spayed yesterday. My situation was a little different. My 2 year old veiled chameleon(kiwi) has laid multiple clutches before. Her husbandry is spot on and she is a very healthy girl. Unfortunately sometimes no matter how good her environment is, they still struggle when it comes to their reproductive cycles. I noticed that kiwi was developing eggs and should start laying soon. Unfortunately she seemed eggbound and I was worried. My last straw was when she stopped eating and using the restroom. I took her to the vet after she hadn’t eaten in a week and the vet told me that her follicles weren’t developing correctly and that she could not pass the eggs because they weren’t even eggs yet. So I gave her assist feed and calcium for 2 weeks and noticed no change so I took her back. They said that the eggs were never going to develop correctly so I needed to have her Spayed. So I did the following week. She is now on 3 different medications for antibiotics, pain, and anti inflammation. I’ve noticed that she is still lethargic and her eyes are sunken in, but apparently that’s normal for about 3-4 days. So wish us luck on kiwis recovery! That’s my experience. Best of luck with your cham! If you need anything don’t hesitate to reach out !
Hi,
The post you responded to is a little old. I wanted to wish Kiwi good luck and a speedy recovery! Nice work observing and knowing something was wrong and acting on it. I hope if anything ever goes wrong with my little guy, I catch it in time as well.
 
This thread is about my girl Lola’s surgery. You can see pictures of her before, right after surgery and her progress over the weeks. I would never allow a vet to do this surgery on one of my girls that had not done the surgery successfully at least several times before. Oftenyou have to travel a ways for a good reptile vet that can do this surgery on a tiny chameleon girl. Seven of my girls have had this surgery over the years and only one’s eyes were sunk in after surgery and she passed two days past surgery. I had another girl pass two weeks after surgery and the other five went on to live long healthy lives. Lola that’s in the link below will be five years old in December.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/lola-is-doing-well-after-surgery.166678/#post-1446254
 
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