Update on Hope the Jackson Rescue with MBD

[Andee]

Hope went to the Vet today, she is improving a lot, stronger grip and more coordination in her front limbs. She is no longer falling. She got a Vitamin B shot today and a tiny bit of D3 to see if we could get her bowels moving, she's been constipated for a while. She took the biggest poop afterwards ^^ I am so happy and she must be too. I will see if the Vit B makes her hungry and the pooping does too. I would love for her to start eating on her own again.

The Vet says her legs will always look bowed because of the way she is healing and how badly they broke. I am fine with this as long as she is healthy over all. She seems very grumpy today and considering she had both a shot and a warm water enema at the vet I don't blame her. She must be just done. I put some wax worms in her feeder cup to see if she'd show any interest. I also increased my automatic mister to 4 minutes. She should be getting more water now.

 

[Lathis]

That's such good news! Updated pics soon? Go, go Hope!

 

[Andee]

I will try and get pics of her tomorrow, she is sleeping right now and would not be happy if she was woken XD

 

[jpowell86]

That's awesome news!! I always love hearing good updates! I'm glad she is in your care.

 

[wodesorel]

Yay!! This is so great to hear!

 

[KLowery88]

Very good! Fingers still crossed for more and more improvements.

 

[Andee]

Ok so new turn with Hope, something that worries me, she has what looks like to be a small swelling in the lower neck/chest region, which looks like gular edema to me. I am not sure if this is from her Carnivore Care, which has preformed Vit A in it... Or if it's because she's been so thirsty lately. She's been having a hard time getting to the mister when it goes off in time to drink. And she only drinks if water is hitting her on the face directly, so I tried to make the mistings longer. I just now took her into the shower for 15 minutes and let her have a nice long drink, and then because of the cruddy lighting in my bathroom she fell asleep on my hand enjoying the "rain". Absolutely adorable, I wish I could've gotten a picture. When I took her back into her cage she looked so confused as to why the sun was out so quickly XD. Any ideas guys? I plan to give her a shower tomorrow for a bit longer. But she seems to be a bit perkier now.

 

[Andee]

It seems like her gular edema was from dehydration, after her shower and a couple extra mistings through out the day the swelling has gone down. I plan to shower her at least once a week. I am still wondering whether I should take her into the vet and get some blood work done, or let this one go. I already have the appointment set up for tomorrow... what are your guys' thoughts? Should I still get the blood work?

 

[Andee]

She is now eating on her own ^^ she ate five roach nymphs today and a wax worm. I'm trying to get some weight on her so the wax worms will be a bit more of a staple than I like for now. I plan on ordering more hornworms soon and feeding her some of the smaller ones. I don't know if I trust superworms enough with her yet. Her jaw is still kind of soft, though it has greatly improved and she no longer has prey crawling out of her mouth. I just worry about them possibly injuring her more than a normal chameleon could get injured.

 

[MaiRemy]

Heard of someone using phoenix worms and it saved the cham from MBD. Good luck!

 

[laurie]

Keep up the good work, our chameleons really are a labor of love.

 

[Andee]

So I was really afraid Hope would eat for a couple days and then go back to not eating for weeks on end. However she is still powering down 5 roaches a day plus some worms. I got in a order of 100 small silkworms which are the perfect size for her. She ate three of them today with her roaches. She seems like a happy girl now that she can eat by herself, much more active and drinking more readily by herself without the need of extra hand mistings and showers. She seems stronger too, no prey is escaping her mouth and she just seems like a normal chameleon now. She knows when I put food in her feeder cup. I am starting to take her outside for an hour a day too. I don't trust to put her in my outside enclosure yet, she doesn't seem to be strong enough in my general opinion and I would hate to have her hurt herself. But she's doing soooo much better, it practically makes me cry because I am so happy to see her explode so quickly in this area of improvement. I am still giving her liquid calcium, but will no longer need to go to the vet to get vitamin shots every few months because I can just dust her feeders when need be. She's such a fighter, she's amazing, she is the embodiment of hope. I am so glad I gave her that name, she truly wears that name with every fiber of her being. And I couldn't be happier to be her caretaker. I can't imagine giving her to anyone else, which is what I originally planned to do. I've seen her go through to much, I don't think I could trust anyone else with her care unless they were a rescue or something. She will forever have a home with me.

 

[brownie64]

This is great news. She is lucky she has you as her mommy!

 

[KLowery88]

So glad to hear this. She's lucky indeed to have you caring for her. I'm dealing with my own on again, off again feeder so I hope he turns the corner like Hope has.

 

[Andee]

Hope loves her silkworms eats about 3-4 every day, is eating about six 1/4 roach nymphs every day, and occasionally packs a wax worm onto that. For something that only weighs 58 grams at the moment (she lost about 10 grams while I was trying to get her to eat on her own and trying to balance out liquid feedings also) she eats like a machine. I would guess she's only about 6-7 inches from nose to tail, she's absolutely tiny. But she's able to go upside down now and I don't worry about her falling when she does it. It's getting nearly impossible to wedge open her mouth enough to give her liquid calcium and make sure it doesn't roll out her mouth. She's gotten extremely feisty and strong. Her bones are much stronger, her jaw is stronger, I just feel such bursting happiness for her.

 

[JGspecial]

nice job! glad you didnt give up on her. i have a jacksons male that got swollen back legs because of a cut he got somehow and the infection traveled quickly. i got him to the vet and they had to drain stinky puss from the wound. he had medication i had to give him in a dropper and ointment as well as me making sure to drain any other of that puss if it occurred. hes made a full recovery and only lost a toenail. it amazes me just how strong the little guy is, his grip is out of control!

 

[Andee]

I'm so glad he did so great 8D It seems these little ones have the most amazing will to live. I'm just hoping with her it will keep going this well ^^. I am so excited for her progress.