Update on "hermie"

[Jam]

A little while ago i posted about my male veiled hermie wtih kidney problems. We just had our recheck appointment today.

The goodnews is that clinically he is doing better: eating and drinking on his own and active. At home his coloring is a little better ... but when he went to the vets he turned BEAUTIFUL green/turquoise/yellow colors. THis I CANNOT figure out. I thought that they were dark when stressed ... and I would think that a trip to the vet would be stressful...

His blood work showed that his ca ratios were a LITTLE better but not very good. Calcium was 11ish and phos was 8ish. Both are high and the 1:1 ratio. Vet recommended to keep him on subq fluids 1x a day for another 1.5 weeks to see if we did in fact get rid of the problem and it's just going to take some time for his values to normalize. I'm also going to start him on some mylanta I think. For hermie's sake I wish he didn'thave to have more injections (he HATES them and assoc. me with them now) but hopefully it will pay off for him in the long run.

Jam

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Glad to hear he is on the mend, and that you are doing followup appointments. At one time we had our male veiled cham on a diet of almost exclusively super worms. His ca ratios were all out of whack and he was overweight and lethargic. He's doing great now.

As for the stress induced when giving a course of meds- chams can hold a grudge, of course, but there is a way to get them over it. Once all this is over, and no more meds are necessary, you can give him "space", wear very subdued clothing, appraoch him even slower than usual, and be very polite around him. If he indicates that you are too close, or that he's seen enough of you, back off right away and disappear. This will show him that he has some control over his territory, which helps his self esteem and general sense of well being. This sounds hoaky but it really works and is actually quite important to them. You then work your way back into his life, slowly establishing trust while respecting his boundaries (this takes a surprisingly short period of time).

I have seen male chams so demoralized by a course of meds that they won't even mate. They become stressed by every little approach or intrusion. A few weeks of esteem therapy seems to work wonders.