Syringe-feeding sick baby need a lil advice

JlaPinska

Member
Just a little bit of info i took in a young female veiled back in late september because her 12 year old owner wasn't keeping up with her feeding and watering. Fast forward to last weekend she quit opening her eyes and started refusing food. 4 days ago she started refusing water as well. Yesterday i took her to the vets. After going through my husbandry and feeding/watering schedule with him he said everything i'm doing is perfect. He concluded that her being sick is basically carried-over malnutrition from the previous owner. The previous owner wasnt giving her any supplements, also her basking areas were VERY far from the lights i would say almost a foot away so i had to fix that the first night i had her. He said by the time you visually can see they are sick it means they have been sick a long time already. So like a cat. He didnt see any traces of infection or mouth problems. He gave her a few shots one vitamin b and one for hydration, then he force fed her 2mL of something i forget but it was basically food.

I now have to syringe feed her C/N (critical nutrition) in a 1:1 ratio with vegetable baby food mixed with pedialite 2-3 times a day. So far today i've fed her once, and she did not approve. She tried real hard to bite me and get away. That vitamin b shot yesterday really gave her some strength back.

My question is, when i'm putting the syringe in her mouth, do i need to aim it toward her throat, or does just getting it in her mouth acceptable. I don't want to choke her.

It took 4 squirts to get 2mL of slurry in her mouth, and i gave her time in between to swallow.
 
I had to do this once before. You just need to get it into their mouth unless they are not swallowing. Chameleons should inpulsively swallow when there is something in their mouth. Just feed her in about 2 or 3 second increments and then give her time to breathe so she does not choke. Wait until she stops swallowing, and then do another increment. Hope that works
 
I had to do this once before. You just need to get it into their mouth unless they are not swallowing. Chameleons should inpulsively swallow when there is something in their mouth. Just feed her in about 2 or 3 second increments and then give her time to breathe so she does not choke. Wait until she stops swallowing, and then do another increment. Hope that works


awesome thank you i was giving her lots of time between squirts so it sounds like i'm doing it just right. good good. i hope she gets better fast, it's very heartbreaking to watch her constantly roam the cage blindly. I was given the o-k to keep a pillow in the bottom of her cage temporarily in case she falls. i take it out when i mist and stick it back in when everything stops dripping. Poor thing!
 
That is so sad! I hope she feels better. It is so heartbreaking when you see a chameleon come from a neglect situation like that. I am so glad she got rescued, and I bet she will recover 110%! Good luck and good job! :) If you need any more help, there is always someone online!
 
You don't want to squirt food in...ease it in somshe has time to swallow. You don't want her to aspirate it.
The esophagus is right at the front of the mouth...
https://www.chameleonforums.com/med...ed-arrow-is-glottis-opening-to-trachea.15338/

Also...please post a recent photo of her.
Did the vet say she has MBD?


when i say squirting i mean when i am pushing the plunger on the syringe.. there's no other way to do it except to give small squirts. and no, she definitely does not have MBD. I have to be doing something right because not only is she swallowing the slurry but she's much stronger today and has been basking like normal. She is trying to bite me during feeds now which is a really good sign. I'm not having to pry her mouth open because shes opening it herself and its making the process easier. I don't have a recent photo except up close pics of her eyes being shut from like 4 or 5 days ago. Take my word for it she is very skinny and her eyes are shut. But she is showing signs of getting better already. I literally had to wrap her like a burrito today because she is so strong she was wriggling out of the towel
 
maybe when she gets back to basking i will snap a new pic. but for right now she is pissed off from the feeding at 2:30pm and is wandering the cage all pissy-like
 
If she's not bad then she's not going to be able to digest her food properly. If she's still declining in health...looking worse each day then I would think there's more going on than malnutrition and that it needs to be dealt with.
 
just an update still no improvement. she hasn't gotten worse but hasn't rapidly gotten better like i'd hoped either. i can't take her back to the vet this week but i can next week. so i will continue with the slurry diet until i can get her back in
 
yess it is! i won't leave my house because i have to feed her every 3-4hours. im gonna keep up with the slurry diet for another week, until both eyes are open, then i will give her some gut loaded crickets which are her favorite and see what happens!
 
i have 2 children under 4, if it wasn't for them, i would take in every sick chameleon in town and run a nursery. my local pet shop gets sick ones turned into them all the time and i feel so bad because only 1 person in their staff is knowledgeable enough to care for them and he is only there 5 days a week. seems like every time the other staff take over, the lizards die on them. I'm lucky to have a history of caring for all kinds of sick animals, mostly small mammals, abandoned babies etc. So putting in the effort is nothing new to me :)
 
Back
Top Bottom