Vet killed my cham

Rucalee

Rucalee

New Member
Well I purchased a cham from a pet store (I know I know) he looked healthy when we got him. We was eating fine and was active-ish. After a shed he retained patches of shed. We took him to the vet for a check up and to have the spots checked. The vet manhandled the little guy. He ripped off the patches of shed and pried open his mouth to administer and dewormer. He said the pet store had brought in their chams with the same patches. It was an infection of some kind. He said mine looked like he was healing and that what ever I was doing was right. The stress the vet put him through was too much. He died later that night. Two things I learned: find a new vet and don't ever buy a Cham from a big chain pet store..
 
Rucalee said:
Well I purchased a cham from a pet store (I know I know) he looked healthy when we got him. We was eating fine and was active-ish. After a shed he retained patches of shed. We took him to the vet for a check up and to have the spots checked. The vet manhandled the little guy. He ripped off the patches of shed and pried open his mouth to administer and dewormer. He said the pet store had brought in their chams with the same patches. It was an infection of some kind. He said mine looked like he was healing and that what ever I was doing was right. The stress the vet put him through was too much. He died later that night. Two things I learned: find a new vet and don't ever buy a Cham from a big chain pet store..
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I am so sorry to hear that. The vet should have never handles him like that. I hope you find a great vet and your future chameleons will have a better chance.
 
Gwendalyn.brock said:
I am so sorry to hear that. The vet should have never handles him like that. I hope you find a great vet and your future chameleons will have a better chance.
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No he shouldn't have. He was supposed to be an expert on exotics. I wouldn't even take my dogs to that vet.
 
I would notify the vet and make him at least pay for the cost of the chameleon and not pay for the visit if they refuse then I would go to court I would also find a a good reputable vet (that really knows chameleons to do an autopsy so you have a record.
 
JGuinan007 said:
I would notify the vet and make him at least pay for the cost of the chameleon and not pay for the visit if they refuse then I would go to court I would also find a a good reputable vet (that really knows chameleons to do an autopsy so you have a record.
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I'm not going to court over an $80 vet bill and a $50 chameleon. It's not worth my time. On a positive note I did get some good antibiotics out of it for my next Cham. I let them know about it and that none of my animals will be going there again. I have a panther breeder in my area. I'll pick their brain about the best place to take my next one.
 
Yikes! Sorry to hear about your cham, that's a vet to avoid at all costs.

I don't have any "reptile/exotic" vets near me, they're all 2+ hours out. The one "exotic" vet guy that so many people recommended me to take my one male panther to was a total nut job. Charged me $80 to just look at him, and tell me after 5 seconds that he had "fungus" and it was my terrible husbandry. He didn't take any samples to send off to a lab, look under a microscope... NOTHING. He gave me (well, I paid dearly for it) silver sulfadiazine cream to put on all his spots (they were all over his body). After 5 months I started doing more research, and his spots turned to hard growths. We suspected (we meaning my NEW vet I've been using) papilloma, we did a full biopsy and removed 6 of the growths and after a histopath, it was papilloma.

Just because a "vet" claims to have experience with exotic animals, doesn't mean jack to me now. I didn't care for how he handled my cham (he wasn't super rough, but just acted careless), and I felt sick giving him $120 for that crappy visit. I went to a few local/state based reptile groups asking if anyone knew of any good vets to use, and NOT Dr. blow-smoke-up-my-butt-and-charges-outrageously guy, and someone gave me the name of the vet I have now. She doesn't have the schooling for exotics, but she doesn't jump the gun on treating my animals. She knows basic worms/parasite stuff.... But like when it came time to see about removing his papilloma spots, she went and researched, and got on some special vet-only forum and reached out asking for help. Those vets gave her advice, and for $150 Chief got 6 spots removed, a definite answer for what was wrong, and a happy owner. I couldn't have done this without asking my local reptile enthusiasts. Find a local rep group and ask them for vet names.

Good luck :)
 
xraygirl said:
Yikes! Sorry to hear about your cham, that's a vet to avoid at all costs.

I don't have any "reptile/exotic" vets near me, they're all 2+ hours out. The one "exotic" vet guy that so many people recommended me to take my one male panther to was a total nut job. Charged me $80 to just look at him, and tell me after 5 seconds that he had "fungus" and it was my terrible husbandry. He didn't take any samples to send off to a lab, look under a microscope... NOTHING. He gave me (well, I paid dearly for it) silver sulfadiazine cream to put on all his spots (they were all over his body). After 5 months I started doing more research, and his spots turned to hard growths. We suspected (we meaning my NEW vet I've been using) papilloma, we did a full biopsy and removed 6 of the growths and after a histopath, it was papilloma.

Just because a "vet" claims to have experience with exotic animals, doesn't mean jack to me now. I didn't care for how he handled my cham (he wasn't super rough, but just acted careless), and I felt sick giving him $120 for that crappy visit. I went to a few local/state based reptile groups asking if anyone knew of any good vets to use, and NOT Dr. blow-smoke-up-my-butt-and-charges-outrageously guy, and someone gave me the name of the vet I have now. She doesn't have the schooling for exotics, but she doesn't jump the gun on treating my animals. She knows basic worms/parasite stuff.... But like when it came time to see about removing his papilloma spots, she went and researched, and got on some special vet-only forum and reached out asking for help. Those vets gave her advice, and for $150 Chief got 6 spots removed, a definite answer for what was wrong, and a happy owner. I couldn't have done this without asking my local reptile enthusiasts. Find a local rep group and ask them for vet names.

Good luck :)
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Damn sorry to hear that. I hope he is doing better. Yeah I've never liked the clinic I took him too. They are way too stuck up.
 
Wow sorry to hear that I'm lucky my breeder is an exotic reptile vet so if I ever have an issue he comes out to my place for free knock on wood haven't had to call him yet
 
I have bought 2 chams from a chain pet store ,I guess maybe I'm lucky because there 4-5 months old and very healthy,so sorry because I am attached to them and would hate for something to happen to them ,wish you luck on your next purchase
 
marley patches said:
I have bought 2 chams from a chain pet store ,I guess maybe I'm lucky because there 4-5 months old and very healthy,so sorry because I am attached to them and would hate for something to happen to them ,wish you luck on your next purchase
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Yeah my girlfriend was very upset. The next one will live a long and healthy life!
 
I am very sorry for your loss. What was the name of the dewormer? Where do you live? I might be able to help you locate a vet with chameleon experience.
 
jannb said:
I am very sorry for your loss. What was the name of the dewormer? Where do you live? I might be able to help you locate a vet with chameleon experience.
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I'm in Cincinnati. I'm not sure of what exactly it was. I only got the syringe not the tag.,
 
Rucalee said:
Well I purchased a cham from a pet store (I know I know) he looked healthy when we got him. We was eating fine and was active-ish. After a shed he retained patches of shed. We took him to the vet for a check up and to have the spots checked. The vet manhandled the little guy. He ripped off the patches of shed and pried open his mouth to administer and dewormer. He said the pet store had brought in their chams with the same patches. It was an infection of some kind. He said mine looked like he was healing and that what ever I was doing was right. The stress the vet put him through was too much. He died later that night. Two things I learned: find a new vet and don't ever buy a Cham from a big chain pet store..
Click to expand...

I'm sorry for your loss. I absolutely do know how you feel.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and defend your vet. Hear me out.

First off, did you have a necropsy done? It is very unusual for someone to take in a perfectly healthy animal and have it die that night. There could be many reasons for that and a necropsy would likely have cleared things up. Few animals die of one single stressful incident, although a few species are known to. I am not positive, but I believe that when an animal dies from the stress of restraint, the mechanism is capture myopathy. I do not believe chameleons are susceptible to capture myopathy.

I had one newly imported animal die after I was treating it. It seemed fine in my hands and then suddenly crashed. I put it back in its cage to recover. The next day it was worse so I rushed it to the vet where it died. We immediately did a necropsy--I believed I had killed it from capture myopathy brought on by the stress of handling. We didn't find any signs of capture myopathy but we did find that his lungs were completely trashed by three big lungworms. Perhaps my handling caused the lungworms to become active. Maybe they had already died and the added stress on an already trashed respiratory system was just too much. Regardless, at the time he died I believed I had killed him, which was not the case at all.

It is possible your vet did do something that led to your chameleon's death. It is quite easy to aspirate a chameleon. That is a very real possibility, and again, a necropsy would have shown that.

Suppose your vet had aspirated your chameleon. That is not necessarily a reason to find another vet. Mistakes happen, especially when trying to work with tiny struggling little creatures like a chameleon.

My own vet recently nicked a vein or artery giving subcutaneous fluids to one of my young females and she bled out. I was a little upset, but a dear friend, an avian vet working overseas, told me that these things happen in clinical situations. He knew of one very well respected avian vet who put a little tear in the jugular taking a routine blood draw and the person's pet parrot died. Mistakes happen.

Maybe your vet was too rough. I don't know, but sometimes I have a heck of a time opening a chameleon's mouth that doesn't want to open it.

Most vets do try to do the best for their clients and patients.
 
I'm sure their could have been an underlying issue that could have surfaced when he was stressed out. He was active and hunting Crickets before I got him ready for the vet. After the vet he was weak and died within about 6 hours. I took him in for the spots and just a basic check up. The way my vet handled and squeezed, and pried open his mouth was a bit alarming. The little guy was only 2 inches long. I just think the vet could have handled him much better than he did. I've never liked that place to begin with. I may let them do my fecal samples but that's it.
 
You might be right. A necropsy would have answered your questions, and if it were mine, I would have wanted to be present for the necropsy.

Again, sorry for your loss.
 
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