MoldyBread
New Member
Chameleon Info:
I’m trying to focus on what I can do to make him as comfortable as possible as well as getting him on the fast track back to health. We are going back to the vet tomorrow to get his eyes flushed again and will go over any concerns we have with her as she is very experienced with Chams, but I wanted to use every resource available to us. I will include several pictures of Moldy Bread, as well as his enclosure.
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Our main concern right now is that he is not moving around his enclosure and therefore not thermoregulating, which I know is very important to his recovery. His back seemed arched, his back legs very weak and when he tries to climb the vine, he often tips over and falls onto his back. Since we picked him up from the vet he has been keeping his mouth open, and his tongue pushed forward. He does still have some strength to his bite though. He spent a lot of time today drinking water, and allowing the water to flow down his face and he started drooling pretty heavily while doing so. He only drinks when we place him in front of the water. He had been trying to eat hornworms, but started having problems swallowing so we stop attempting to feed him live insects for now.
I’ve been reading just about everything I can about MBD, and about the D3 cycle and how they process calcium and I want to ensure we are doing everything possible to give Moldy the best chance of recovery. I’m planning on asking the vet about switching to a T5 HO light fixture and whether we should be using 5.0 or 10.0 UVB lights, as well as getting ¼ inch banded crickets and small silkworms to start him off on solid food again.
Any information about MBD recovery and what we can expect these next few weeks is really helpful. We are concerned that his energy level and balance has decreased since we brought him home, and we know it will be a tough recovery but we want to do everything possible to ensure he’s on the right path.
This is Moldy Bread the day we brought him home.
Few days after bringing him home, included for size.
This picture was taken in November.
This picture was taken the day we took him to the vet. He had not been eating, and we were concerned about his eyes, bone breaks visible.
This is the enclosure we had him in.
This is the first day he was home from the vet, here he is still using his back legs, but was tipping over so we switched out that vine with foliage for one we know he has an easier time gripping.
Here is a picture of his enclosure modified for recovery. you can see the temp/humid. gauge there reading 80% humidity and 65 F temp at the bottom of his cage.
Here is Moldy Bread drinking water Sunday. You can kind of see his thick saliva as well as some food in his mouth that he had trouble swallowing.
This is Moldy Bread today, taking a break before taking a long drink. You can see that he is barely holding on with his back legs. His tail is pretty much always curled up like that.
- Your Chameleon - Moldy Bread is a Veiled Chameleon, Male, approx. 7 months old, weighs 33 kg. 2-3 months of age when purchased 09/03/17.
- Handling - Daily, he will climb onto my hand.
- Feeding - Currently we are feeding .50 ml 2x Daily of Oxbow carnivore care provided by our vet. Before that we were feeding banded crickets gutloaded with fluker’s high calcium gutload(which I’m reading is probably garbage and we should’ve provided additional supplements as well). We occasionally fed hornworms as well.
- Supplements - Currently giving .03 ml calcium Glubionate daily with oral syringe. Rep-Cal ultrafine calcium with D3 and Rep-Cal Herptivite, and we were given Nekton Rep multivitamin (for use weekly) by our vet for Dusting when he’s back on solid food.
- Watering - We have a dripper, and we mist 3 times a day, we do see him drink however he is currently having problems swallowing, but he does drink. We also have a humidifier that runs 24/7.
- Fecal Description - Negative for parasites, he is currently pooping every other day, his urate was peach colored before the vet visit but is now completely white and very liquidy.
- History - Diagnosed with Metabolic Bone Disease at the vet Monday, 1/29/18. He remained at the vet where they flushed his eyes (eyes were swollen and had debris), gave him a calcium injection, subcutaneous fluids and calcium with D3, we picked him up Wednesday, 1/31/18 and giving Carnivore Care, Tramadol for the pain, and Calcium Glubionate.
- Cage Type - We had him in a mesh cage 30 x 18 x 30, but since he is having trouble moving around, we have placed him in a smaller spare cage that is mostly glass, although we leave the top screen wide open and when we are in the same room we leave the side door open as well. We have placed washcloths in the bottom of the cage to keep him from hurting himself, and we have a vine that he has an easy time gripping around the bottom of the cage, and I have taped some foliage to the walls of his enclosure to give him some shade.
- Lighting - Dual Deep Dome Light Fixture with 100w ceramic heat emitter and Repti-sun 10.0 UVB light. We switched to a ceramic heat emitter because we were worried it was too cold at night and we were concerned about his eyes as well.
- Temperature - 60-80. We are concerned that he is getting too cold sitting on the bottom of the cage with the wet washcloths. He is currently not moving around his cage at all, so it is up to us to help him try to regulate his body temp. Since his bowel movements have slowed I am thinking he is too cold, and I’m running the ceramic heat emitter at night as well as during the day.
- Humidity - Humidity levels are between 50 and 80 everyday. We had live plants in his large enclosure as well as a dripper and we mist him by hand daily.
- Plants - two Golden Pothos were in his original enclosure.
- Placement - He is positioned upstairs in the quietest room of our house, he is in the back corner of the room about 3 ft off the ground. There is a small fan near him to increase airflow while he is in the glass enclosure.
- Location - Illinois.
I’m trying to focus on what I can do to make him as comfortable as possible as well as getting him on the fast track back to health. We are going back to the vet tomorrow to get his eyes flushed again and will go over any concerns we have with her as she is very experienced with Chams, but I wanted to use every resource available to us. I will include several pictures of Moldy Bread, as well as his enclosure.
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Our main concern right now is that he is not moving around his enclosure and therefore not thermoregulating, which I know is very important to his recovery. His back seemed arched, his back legs very weak and when he tries to climb the vine, he often tips over and falls onto his back. Since we picked him up from the vet he has been keeping his mouth open, and his tongue pushed forward. He does still have some strength to his bite though. He spent a lot of time today drinking water, and allowing the water to flow down his face and he started drooling pretty heavily while doing so. He only drinks when we place him in front of the water. He had been trying to eat hornworms, but started having problems swallowing so we stop attempting to feed him live insects for now.
I’ve been reading just about everything I can about MBD, and about the D3 cycle and how they process calcium and I want to ensure we are doing everything possible to give Moldy the best chance of recovery. I’m planning on asking the vet about switching to a T5 HO light fixture and whether we should be using 5.0 or 10.0 UVB lights, as well as getting ¼ inch banded crickets and small silkworms to start him off on solid food again.
Any information about MBD recovery and what we can expect these next few weeks is really helpful. We are concerned that his energy level and balance has decreased since we brought him home, and we know it will be a tough recovery but we want to do everything possible to ensure he’s on the right path.
Few days after bringing him home, included for size.
This picture was taken in November.
This picture was taken the day we took him to the vet. He had not been eating, and we were concerned about his eyes, bone breaks visible.
This is the enclosure we had him in.
This is the first day he was home from the vet, here he is still using his back legs, but was tipping over so we switched out that vine with foliage for one we know he has an easier time gripping.
This is Moldy Bread today, taking a break before taking a long drink. You can see that he is barely holding on with his back legs. His tail is pretty much always curled up like that.
