drewlowe
New member
Hello all, I've been a lurker for quite some time on these forums, but have never posted, so this is a doozy for my first post.
I have a situation that i know is not right, but can not find out any detailed answers on what i should do other than go to a vet.
I have spoken with my vet (which is highly recommend, and i have used him for a little over a year and i think he's great) and am awaiting a call back about the steps he wants to take with my veiled cham.
I'll give a little back ground info on this guy. Neo came to me malnourished and dehydrated very badly!!! He came to me over a year old and he was housed with a female that passed away shortly before i aquired him. His cage, care, and everything else was no where near where it should have been for the first year of his life. He had one small pitiful ficus in a 270 gallon reptrium, a water dish a big one at that on the bottom(don't ask), and that was it NO lights for heat or UVB. I don't know how his feeding and mistings were, i highly doubt they were good either.
Well all that changed when he came to me his cage (260 gallon repterium) is full of branches and vines and NO water dish, he has a 2 basking branches one at 95 the other at 90 the rest of the cage is ranging from 85-70 (depending how high or low he goes . After the first intial week (which was hell), getting him plenty of water and hand feeding (he didn't have hardly and strenth) he started eating like a champ and has continued to do so, except the fact that he will only eat mealies and a few butters (i've tried everything to get him back to crix or silkies, but all he wants is mealies) I even have hornworms at the moment and he will NOT eat them. The meal worms he eats are breed by myself in a higher than normal substrate (for calcium). There were several small problems that we were able to fix that i won't go into yet.
Now that the background is a little filled in i'll fill you in on my concern. I've had him for almost 8 months now and the situation has NOT changed. His urates go back and forth between all yellow (hard and crystilized) to half yellow (hard and crystilized) and half white. Very rarely do they come out half and half, it's mostly all yellow nice and hard and shinny. I know this has something to do with him being dehydrated, I just can't find any info on it, sites mention it but do not go into any detail. I know there is possibe damage to the kidneys that can be contributed to dehydration but i'm not sure what all they are and the outcome of the situation. I'm afraid the damage has been done and this may claim his life sooner than it should, but am wanting to know if there is anyway to reverse the effects. I'm also wanting to find any article dealing with dehydration in veiled chameleons, if anyone can give me a nudge in the right direction.
I'm sorry for all the jumbled up thread i've been VERY concerned on this for quite some time and my internet searching isn't coming up with anything, i also have a few books on them and there isn't anything in detail about this. If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Jamie
I have a situation that i know is not right, but can not find out any detailed answers on what i should do other than go to a vet.
I have spoken with my vet (which is highly recommend, and i have used him for a little over a year and i think he's great) and am awaiting a call back about the steps he wants to take with my veiled cham.
I'll give a little back ground info on this guy. Neo came to me malnourished and dehydrated very badly!!! He came to me over a year old and he was housed with a female that passed away shortly before i aquired him. His cage, care, and everything else was no where near where it should have been for the first year of his life. He had one small pitiful ficus in a 270 gallon reptrium, a water dish a big one at that on the bottom(don't ask), and that was it NO lights for heat or UVB. I don't know how his feeding and mistings were, i highly doubt they were good either.
Well all that changed when he came to me his cage (260 gallon repterium) is full of branches and vines and NO water dish, he has a 2 basking branches one at 95 the other at 90 the rest of the cage is ranging from 85-70 (depending how high or low he goes . After the first intial week (which was hell), getting him plenty of water and hand feeding (he didn't have hardly and strenth) he started eating like a champ and has continued to do so, except the fact that he will only eat mealies and a few butters (i've tried everything to get him back to crix or silkies, but all he wants is mealies) I even have hornworms at the moment and he will NOT eat them. The meal worms he eats are breed by myself in a higher than normal substrate (for calcium). There were several small problems that we were able to fix that i won't go into yet.
Now that the background is a little filled in i'll fill you in on my concern. I've had him for almost 8 months now and the situation has NOT changed. His urates go back and forth between all yellow (hard and crystilized) to half yellow (hard and crystilized) and half white. Very rarely do they come out half and half, it's mostly all yellow nice and hard and shinny. I know this has something to do with him being dehydrated, I just can't find any info on it, sites mention it but do not go into any detail. I know there is possibe damage to the kidneys that can be contributed to dehydration but i'm not sure what all they are and the outcome of the situation. I'm afraid the damage has been done and this may claim his life sooner than it should, but am wanting to know if there is anyway to reverse the effects. I'm also wanting to find any article dealing with dehydration in veiled chameleons, if anyone can give me a nudge in the right direction.
I'm sorry for all the jumbled up thread i've been VERY concerned on this for quite some time and my internet searching isn't coming up with anything, i also have a few books on them and there isn't anything in detail about this. If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Jamie
. Good luck- Eric Lago *MS Reptilian Hobbyists*