Sudden death of jackson

[jpowell86]

Thank you everyone for the help and information. Just wished I knew about how to prevent this before hand. After looking it up more the symptoms look and sound all too familiar. Also wished I had spotted he was in trouble earlier on, there wasnt much I could do at mid night apart from give him water and heat. Suppose it shows you shouldn't always listen to pet shop owners. Going to miss watching the little guy.

Yes, that is the saddest part. In your mind you were doing it right by emulating the enclosure at the pet store. Very sad that they don't know what they are doing.

Sorry again that you lost your chameleon.

 

[acarrera]

Thank you everyone for the help and information. Just wished I knew about how to prevent this before hand. After looking it up more the symptoms look and sound all too familiar. Also wished I had spotted he was in trouble earlier on, there wasnt much I could do at mid night apart from give him water and heat. Suppose it shows you shouldn't always listen to pet shop owners. Going to miss watching the little guy.

I'm very sorry for your loss, and I hope that you find closure on this tragic event. I do apologize if what I'm about to say offends you or cause further anguish, but without further examination of the deceased body, we must not be too quick to rule out other causes of death (i.e., infection,, organ failure, etc.) rather than attribute it to "impaction." My condolences to you and yours.

 

[jpowell86]

I'm very sorry for your loss, and I hope that you find closure on this tragic event. I do apologize if what I'm about to say offends you or cause further anguish, but without further examination of the deceased body, we must not be too quick to rule out other causes of death (i.e., infection,, organ failure, etc.) rather than attribute it to "impaction." My condolences to you and yours.

I mentioned the necropsy above and he had disposed of the body already. "Organ failure" would have showed signs prior to death unless there was instant heart failure. "Infection" would have caused symptoms prior to death. This was not a slow decline, this was sudden death. Internal bleed out from a torn digestive system seems the culprit to me. Especially since there was blood in the mouth.

 

[Twitchet]

I'm very sorry to hear you lost your Jacksons, My condolences.

 

[OldChamKeeper]

After seeing your setup, my first inclination as to his sudden death is impaction. Having substrate is okay if it is the appropriate substrate. But bark chips is a real killer in chameleons. That would totally explain his sudden death. They can get pieces of the bark in their system when shooting prey. These pieces don't digest and don't always get through the system without catastrophic effects. Your setup otherwise is fine. But if you bring in another chameleon, ditch the wood chips or you will more than likely see the same result.

This. The visible blood could easily be from this causing a tear. While many offered their help, mistings etc etc. Joel ( JP) is spot on in his assessment this was beyond the normal stuff (improper habitat or parasites) The bark is deadly if the animal goes to the bottom to catch a cricket and instead gets a piece in their mouth and ingests it.

 

[rminnis]

Yeah the reptirain was brand new and cleaned before hand. Also both the fake and live plants were also cleaned. The previous owner was a pet shop, they bred chams upstairs and used a reptirain up there. In the shop area they had smaller vivs with fake plants, branches, seemed to be hand sprayed, and had simular heating/lighting system to mine.

What kind of water did the cham get thru it?

 

[SunflowerSupreme]

I'm so, so sorry for your loss!!

If you're planning on getting another Chameleon and wanting to set up a cage, I'd suggest giving this a read for information about substrates, its from my favorite blog about Chameleons http://www.muchadoaboutchameleons.com/2013/11/thoughts-on-substrate-other-natural.html