Unwell veiled chameleon advice - please help

Griffinandele

New Member
I have a 5 month old male veiled chameleon who became lethargic and weak.
He hadn't eaten for a few days, however he drank roughly once every other day in front of me from droplets placed on his nose (which I do twice everyday) along with the misting of the walls 2-3 times a day. I only ever give him natural spring water. I understand that chameleons are very difficult animals to keep and i previously kept my current ones brother, who was ill and died (the vet took his body and analysed it. I was never told what was wrong with him).

Temperature is 78-84º and i have a UVB light which is on for approximately 12 hours each day. The set up has many fake plants and branches for him to climb on.

I started to notice a slight shift in his behaviour, and he seemed less agile and active than he used to. He then closed one eye and I started to worry. I left it for a day and looked on here for an answer, but i found no conclusive answer so I just left it and thought it would be open the next day.

But the next day his eye was still closed so i took him to the vets that same day. The vet said he was quite sluggish and weak, and i thought that must be because he hasn't eaten in a few days (he won't eat off my hand, i leave the locusts in his cage for a bit but they irritate him so i have to remove them after a while. I've tried crickets, mealworms, waxworms and locusts/grasshoppers, which i ensure are no bigger than the width of his head, and he only seems to like hoppers) she also gave me liquid calcium, anti-inflammatories, antibiotics, worming treatment and some food that i had to mix with water.

My instructions were to place a drop of each of the medicines in his mouth every day for a week with a dropper and feed him as much of the food as he would take 2-3 times day, as he was skinny and weak. (excluding the worming treatment which i had to give him a drop for 3 days, then repeat in 2 weeks). I started giving him the medicines and I'm currently on the 4th day of treatment and i have seen a change in him. He is a bit stronger, his eyes are open, and he is bright eyed. However he still spends most of his time hugging close to branches and has closed eyes occasionally, almost like he is completely exhausted all of the time.

-He absolutely HATES being force fed medicines and food, but i don't know a good technique to do it so that is my first plea (sorry for the back story but i thought you would need context). Right now i gently pull down his lower lip with my thumb until he opens his mouth, but he gets more stubborn as i give him more medicine, and forces his mouth shut making it really hard for me. He also gets very very stressed when i have to force open his mouth, to the point where he forces his eyes shut, goes pale, and very very weak and lies in my hand barely gripping onto me. I get so worried, but i either give him medicine and food or he dies, so i don't have much of a choice (I feel so cruel). But an hour later he's perked up and bright so i know the medicine must help. So do you have a suggestion for a better way to get him to open his mouth, with minimal stress?

-He also hardly drinks anymore. He used to drink all of the time but now he hardly ever does. His eyes today were worryingly hollow and i had to put water directly into his mouth because i was so worried about him. Is this the right thing to do? I am so worried about him, he seems to recover a bit but then another thing goes wrong. I really need advice.

Im so so sorry for the essay and a half, but i think its better to supply more information than needed, than less.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and replying, I hope my post will hep someone else get answers they need.

Please help to save my baby Griffin, my reptiles mean the world to me.
From Ele
 
Hi welcome to the forum. I am sorry to hear that your chameleon has not been well.

Could I ask, have you in the past been dusting his feeder insects before he eats them? He should have everything dusted with plain, phosphorous free calcium at every feeding, once every fortnight with D3 and once every other fortnight with a broad spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement.
 
Hi welcome to the forum. I am sorry to hear that your chameleon has not been well.

Could I ask, have you in the past been dusting his feeder insects before he eats them? He should have everything dusted with plain, phosphorous free calcium at every feeding, once every fortnight with D3 and once every other fortnight with a broad spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement.

I followed a strict supplement regime and used a plain calcium dust in general feeding, and vitamin and mineral once a fortnight, but i never used a supplement with D3. I always gut load the grasshoppers before giving them to him. Now he rarely eats so i struggled to get the vitamins in him, I'm only feeding him on a liquid diet now.
 
You mentioned you have to administer drops of medicine? If he's willing to eat prey items, try putting the drops on the cricket and letting him eat the cricket like he would any other time. That way you won't have to force it into his mouth. If he doesn't eat live prey, try mixing doses that have to be taken at the same interval, so you only have to administer the minimum number of times. You may also want to talk to your vet about this concern, and ask if the dosage can be adjusted.

I'm not a vet, so I can't say what's wrong with him exactly, but if you're not sure if the vet you have knows what's wrong, I would always look for a second opinion. The question I always ask new vets first is "have you dealt with chameleons in the past?". Not saying yours is doing this or not, but some vets will throw diagnostic treatments out there before knowing what's wrong. Did they test for worms or signs of infection? If that's not the case, not only can the treatments be unnecessary, they could also do more harm than good. Don't stop the treatment on my accord, but I would advice you seek a second opinion. Hopefully one of the vets here will pick up on this one?
 
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