Update on Fred

[leid]

Well Fred got worse, so I took him to a different herp vet this morning, one closer to my university in Missouri. Fred was active, wandering around on me, but his eyes were still closed. The vet said he seemed healthy in weight (55 grams), no signs of calcium deficiency, the inside of his mouth is good, and his colors look good. The vet asked me about my environment, and he said it sounded pretty adequate. He thinks it may have been a vitamin deficiency from the pet store not feeding him a balanced diet. He gave him an injection of Vit. B and A. He hasn't been drinking, so my husband and I are having to make him drink through a syringe. He told me I might want to buy some liquid calcium to give to him. Does anyone know where I might be able to get it? I dont think its sold at any pet stores here.

 

[oofu53]

I just bought some of this the other night. Still waiting for it to arrive.
http://www.amazon.com/Calcionate-Sy...ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1236705682&sr=8-1

 

[leid]

I found some liquid calcium at Petsmart, which seems to provide a lot better products than PetCo in my area.

Fred is doing much better!! He's acting like his stubborn, grumpy self, and his eyes are now open 50% of the time (while before he wasn't opening them at all). The injections seemed to help tremendously, but he still doesn't seem interested in food, so we've been just hand feeding him. For some reason he'll eat out of our hand but not in his cage. I am also trying to push fluid on him, since he seems disinterested in drinking. I caught him once over by the dripping plant after I had misted and assumed he was drinking since his mouth was all wet, but this still doesn't seem like enough water. I've been using an eyedropper to hydrate him outside of the cage instead when we are hand feeding him.

I just took a fresh fecal specimen from his cage (his digestive system is fine. he goes like every other day usually a little while after he eats). It looks healthy, but his urate is -still- slightly yellow. Should I ask the vet to maybe do some bloodwork on him to make sure his kidneys are okay? After reading all the kidney problems on here I think I'm paranoid now. Lol.

Another thing: my husband and I are going to try and introduce vegetables to him, since it may be a good way to get nutrients and vitamins in him. My vet suggested beta-c, as it digests as a more safe vitamin A. Would feeding him carrot shavings be okay?

Oh, I also forgot to ask: We don't know how old he really is. Vet said he looked healthy, not skinny, good casque and good limbs. How old would a healthy 55 g chameleon be, experts?