Veiled struggling to poop

Nomes92

New Member
Hello everyone,

My Veiled chameleon Lancelot is about 3 years old and recently I've noticed a change in his bowel movements. About 6 weeks ago I noticed his behaviour was a lot more aggressive and he hadn't pooped. S I give him a warm bath daily and after 10 days there was still nothing. I took him to the vets and we x rayed him and found he was slightly constipated but came across no blockages, problems with his tongue or organs. However his bone density wasn't the best and since he's been given a brand new UVB, despite his old one being just a few months old. He also gets each feed calci-dusted with Nutrobal. On the way home from the vets he pooped in his travel faunarium before I give him his laxative (prescribed by the vets).

However now two weeks later he is repeating the same symptoms again. This time he's had baths and his laxative but still nothing. I'm taking him back to the vets on Saturday

His setup and husbandry is below -

Spray 4x daily
Fed every other day with 5th hoppers
Expandable soil as substrate
Exoterra plastic leaves and logs for climbing
Water bowl
Temperature daily - 25'C +- 1-3'C
Nighttime - 19'C +- 1-3'C
Humidity -day = 55%-60%, night 70-75%
Bathed every other day
Nutrobal every feed

Symptoms -

Interested in food and water
No change in coloration
No signs of wounds or mouth problems
More aggressive - hissing, biting
Tummy looks more 'full'
No bowel movement

Has anyone every experienced this before? Or knows what else I could do?
He's back at the vets on Saturday and I'm prepared for the worse :(

Thanks,
Nomes92
 
For lizard constipation my vet recommends canned pumpkin. Not the prespiced stuff, just raw pumpkin pulp in a can. I normally can smear it on a feeder or a berry he likes. Some will just strait fork feed it.
 
If this is recurring I'd start double checking the cage humidity levels (test your gauges) and how much he is actually drinking each day. If you can add some softer bodied feeders that may help too. Is the urate portion of his poop white or yellow/orange? Hard and dense or soft? These are signs of dehydration.

The baths and oral laxatives are pretty stressful so you won't want to keep doing these.
 
Thanks guys
I've monitored his humidity over the last few months and it always stays in the range that I mentioned in the original post.
Didn't think of monitoring water intake though, as he just drinks the water when I spray him :) will start doing so!

The last urate was quite yellow, and harder than usual. Is that a sign of dehydration?

And what bugs would you suggest? He's currently fed on hoppers and I forgot to mention waxworms
 
I wouldn't use Nutrobal at every feed as it contains D3 you will need to get some plain calcium I am not sure if this helping to cause the problem (but probably not as you have been using it for a while). As for the not pooping issue I am unable to help. I hope you get him sorted. It is horrible when your animals are not well.
 
Hey there,

my veiled is about the same age and I have encountered a similar problem recently. He used to drink from a bottle, but after we moved to a new apartment and he moved to a new terrarium he stopped doing that. I tried with warm showers to begin with and at first it helped, but then he got constipated again.

What helped in my case:
- I started offering him water from a syringe at every misting, so now I am sure that he is actually drinking every day.
- sun-bathing in the balcony whenever the weather allows it (I live in Denmark, so would have been complicated if it was winter), sunshine is a known laxative for these guys :)
- started offering him fruit: mango, strawberries, blueberries, pears - so far he likes mango most. They are all rich in liquid and fibers, which definitely helps.

It didn't take long to get him back to the normal pooping schedule. Now he poops like a champ again - two, sometimes even three times a week :D

He didn't take fruit to begin with - I had to trick him by cutting long stripes and sticking it into his mouth, when he was almost done chewing something else (like a cricket or a roach). Once he could feel the sweet taste, he would actually take a bite himself.

Otherwise you could also try offering him some baby-food, again banana or mango, or pear, or apple, or a mixture of those from a syringe. BUT! You have to be careful when feeding or giving water from a syringe - if you don't know what you are doing, your cham can easily aspirate! When giving water I would just drip it on his nose and he would drink like that. Not sure that would work with baby food, but you can try - e.g. first give some water and once he starts licking, switch to dripping baby food, but don't force the syringe into his mouth for the reasons stated above!

Finally, I remember I read some people simply injecting the feeder insects with water before feeding them to their cham, in order to increase the uptake of liquids.

Hope this helps ;)

Julija
 
If he does have MBD then it can slow the bowels down since the lack of calcium also affects the muscles. Too much D3 can lead to calcium issues....so you need to balance the calcium, phos, D3 and vitamin A. To get things back to normal and then keep them there....if it is MBD.

Is there any oossibility that he has been ingesting some of the substrate?
 
I only use nutrobal one day a week to 10 days. The rest of the time I use Komodo cricket dust - no d3:)
 
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