Shotgun treatments can be problematic - for importers that know what they're doing, they can go either way. Some importers simply give each chameleon a dose of wormer and that's it. some do the same thing, but they make sure the animals are well hydrated and fed.



The stress of importation can cause parasite loads to get out of hand. Provided that they are well cared for and not on death's door, such shotgun treatments CAN help. Keep in mind, they do not get rid of all parasites - it's a first dose, a first of many, usually.



The stress of capture and importation is one of the biggest any animal will face. Captive bred animals are exposed to far less parasites, and undergo far less stressful situations (excepting the ones sold at petsmart and bought as presents to 10 year olds...). Odds are parasites are not a problem when one of these animals gets sick.



TOO MANY vets will still routienly shotgun any chameleons they see with fenbendazol, metronidyzol and even ivermectin on occation! Even experienced reptile vets often are unaware that most veileds are CB, and treat them as if they are WC, and full'o worms.



This has lead to too many chameleon deaths being blamed on parasites - whent he thing was probably clean as the day it hatched!





My female deremensis were shotgunned upon arrival, and were doing well. I guess most of the big, mature worms were killed by Nick Mole, when he got them. They certainly looked clean, and their feces wasn't runny or wormy. They weren't losing weight or gaining weight - they stayed healthy, but NOT fat - and they ate like pigs. I gave them a second dose a couple weeks after I got them. One day, one passed a worm - a 2 incher - totally disgusted me. I gave them a third, large dose of paste fenbendazol. Over the next month, their feces became perfectly firm, and they started to plump a bit - but not too much.



With the worms, they werent' getting fat - but they maintained weight. It's amazing how much weight they've gained, despite me cutting their food intake. Those worms take a toll, and they had a light load too.

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