Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My 3yr old male veiled has suddenly become extremely weak and has been having muscular spasms. He looked ok yesterday but had not been eating well the past week now that he's been shedding. He hasn't had as much calium as he used to because I thought that they needed much less as they got older. We have the correct lighting so I know that's not the problem. If this is a calcium problem...is there any way to reverse it? He cannot hold himself up anymore and you can see all of his muscles twitching. He has also been having seizures every 30min or so.
I have been trying to give his some calcium powder in water with a little bit of Centrum liquid mixed in it. He hasn't gotten any better, but not much worse either since this morning. Please reply if you have any ideas. Thanks.

Have very little experience with chams, but water dragons (and I imagine most herps) can get calcemic tetany from lack of calcium which includes tremors and seizures such as you describe. A vet would have calcium glubionate or neoglucagon which are potent forms of liquid calcium. It sounds like your chameleon needs some of this immediately. Do you have an after hours vet? I would cetrainly try to find one. If not keep keep introducing calcium as you have been until you can get into one. This is very serious. Diane
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago
Valentino, Veiled Chameleon
Chyam, Nosy Be Panther Chameleon

these are serious symptoms and no one here can diagnose this. Even if it is due to calcium, getting a little bit in him now (at home) will not do much good. He could also be dehydrated as well and need Sub-Q fluids.

If you do not have a vet (3 years of owning a cham I assume that you do) go to link below for state, ARAV and other listings. I would NOT wait.
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she's back!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

Well, we took him to the emergency vet yesterday being that it was the weekend, we couldn't take him to the avian exotic, but it was ok because they were able to speak to their vets about his condition. Mr. Bojangles (our veiled cham), was already in a pretty serious and sad state when we got him to the vet. We,(the vet and us) decided to opt to just treat it like a calcium problem because we knew he couldn't make it if they took blood from him for labs, he was only weighing 150g. So we took some sub-q calcium and some cal gluconate to give him twice daily and decided that if this didn't work, we were just going to let him rest, because it was just so sad seeing him having these seizures. So about 2hrs later we checked on him, we had a shade of hope because his colors did improve somewhat after the sub-q, but apparently he had been having seizures and biting his tongue on the side where we culdn't see it, so it was bloody. After that, we decided that it was inhumane at this point to let him continue in this state, because his nervous system seemed completely destroyed, it was as if you saw someone with severe parkinsons disease. We took him back and had him put to rest.
This was such a sad and upsetting ordeal. Mr Bojangles was one of two "kids" of ours, the other is Giblet our beardie. I never expected to cry so much over a such a moody lizard! He was three years old and a b-day present for my fiance 3yrs ago. I knew what I was getting into and had done my research and really had an awesome setup for him in a cage I built from scratch. I knew about calcium and lighting as well, trust me, everything was covered. In the end though, I admit, lately I had become kinda slack about supplementation because I felt that as an adult, he didn't need the calcium that he needed when he was young. I was wrong. Although we don't know exactly what happened, I think this may be where we slipped up, lesson learned.
So last night, after midnight when we got back, we laid him to rest behind our house where we plan on planting a tomato garden. Mr Bojangles loved to eat cherry tomatoes so we felt it to be only fair that he gets a cherry tomato bush right near him so that he can just reach over and get one whenever he pleases.
-Daniel

That is a pic i accidentally attached over our other child giblet when she was young. I don't have a pic of Mr Bojangles on this computer.

So sorry for your loss. It is hard anytime we lose a pet. I hope that your experience will be a lesson to the rest of us who are new to this. Hopefully we will learn that there is always more to learn, and when in doubt, go to the vet. I'm sure Mr. Bojangles is happy now, and enjoying all the cherry tomatoes he want's without any worries.

that you lost him but glad you did not "force" him to live any longer. Did you consider a necropsy to determine cause(s)?

I think it is easy for some to get lax in their care b/c everything seems to be going just fine. You are not the first nor will you be the last. As nymph said this might be a wakeup call for others to reevaluate their setups, regimens, etc.

If you consider getting another you may want to review setup points such as replacing your UVB bulb every 6 months, what to gutload your feeders, etc.

Pretty beardie, hope she has a long, healthy life

lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she's back!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

No, we will not be getting another. This has been our first pet loss and we never expected it to be this hard. We have rethought having pets...at least those that don't live that long
We honestly don't know what happened to him, the bulb was always changed every 6months. It could have been anything...at tumor, product of bad breeding, husbandry.....anything. It would be a good thing for some of you to re-evaluate your setups and make sure your bases are all covered, because when you purchased this animal you made a commitment to care for it all the way...so do your research, or get a dog..it's easier and you can actually pet it

I pet Darwin, my beardie and scratch hi little chin

Glad you have been thoughtful and realistic about your limitations, needs and committment and I think although you were only here (forum) for a short time it may have inspired others to take a look once again at their own setup. Best of luck with your little giblet

lele

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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she's back!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

So sorry he had to go through all that and YOU also.
I know how terrible it is losing any pet , and my thoughts are with you, hoping you will feel better soon .
Very Sad News!
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PHEve / Eve

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