Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello again. i am the person with the panther that has what i really believe is a tongue infection. It can't be MBD, i'm almost positive its not a vitamin deficiency, but i have changed up her vitamin supplementation just in case. I can't afford all the tests run for her at the vets around where i live. they want like $300 not including medication, just for an the initial visit, a fecal, CBC and a culture. I absolutely cannot afford this right now, and this problem with the lizard needs to be attended to quickly.
i am going to put her on a broad spectrum antibiotic, just to be safe in case it is an infection. Something like Baytril or Arithromyacin. I wanted to know some of your opinions, i work with horses and can get whatever antibiotic etc... needed from our vet. that is what i plan to do unless i am convinced it is a horrible idea. Chameleons are not my specialty. Advise please.

thank you....brittney

I know what you mean about the vet costs. They can be outrageous. A friend of mine just maxed out her credit cards paying over 7k for a sick cat who was in the hospital for 2 weeks. One problem I thought of with antibiotics is that you won't necessarily know how much to give her. If you weight her then you might be able to get someone to give you an accurate dose. But I would also be concerned about what strain the bacteria is because you don't want to give her the wrong antibiotic thereby strengthening the bacterial colony. Not to mention the impact it will have on all the good flora in her body. I don't know for sure anything more than that. I am sure that the others will have some more sound advice, but those were just some things that came to my head when I read your post. Good luck with her. I hope she will get better!!!

First of all...I have never had a chameleon with a tongue infection. I'm not a vet and can't tell you if its a tongue infection or not.

You said..." i'm almost positive its not a vitamin deficiency, but i have changed up her vitamin supplementation just in case"...if you read the articles in the site below you will see that calcium, vitamin D3 and vitamin A are the three major players in MBD...and it involves overdoses as well as not enough. Not saying that MBD is the problem...just that you might like to read these articles and decide for yourself....
http://www.chameleonjournals.com/vet/

Concerning the chameleon...I think something needs to be done quickly (as you said) since some have already died with the same problem.

You said..."i am going to put her on a broad spectrum antibiotic, just to be safe in case it is an infection. Something like Baytril or Arithromyacin. I wanted to know some of your opinions."....if you use the wrong antibiotic you could do more harm than good. If you do nothing, the chameleon will likely die. You are between a rock and a hard place if you don't go to the vets IMHO.

I work in a vet hosp. and I agree with the post above. If you use the wrong antibiotics you Will do more harm than good. Some antibiotics can be toxic to specific reptiles especially if you do not have the proper doses. You can cause kidney and liver damage. If were thinking about using injectable medications, baytril can cause skin and muscle necrosis and you could lose a leg.

If you do go to the vet you can always pick which tests you want to have done. Ask the vet what they suspect the problem is and do the the test accordingly. Also find out what medications they would put your cham on and let them know you have access to you own meds and have them give you the doseages. Some vets will do this some may not, but it can't hurt to ask.

Good luck with your little one,
sdaly

Hello. I always shudder when I think about chameleons on harsh medicines such as antibiotics. I breed chameleons and have faced many tongue problems over the years and have found that baytril is one anitbiotic that a chameleon (as long as it is an adult) can tolerate. Baytril is usally effective for chameleons also. So I would recommend that one. Be extra cautious with the dosage since horses and chameleons vary greatly in size. Good luck!

I have always found baytril to be one of the best too, chaco! And amikacin is one that I avoid.

What was she recieving as supplements? Not all "cricket dusts" are good, some are harmful. Also, what kind of UVB bulbs were used?

These things are of such varying quality, some are less than worthless.

Some brands will work fine, and your animals will be healthy. Some brands are just no good. period.

What brand of vitamin/mineral powder are they using, and what brand of UVB lighting?

A HUGE problem I've seen is that people know to use calcium powder, and UVB lighting, but they end up buying the WRONG type of supplementation and the wrong type of UV light! Brand names with similar names do NOT help. rep-cal is great - reptocal and reptical have bad vitamin levels and can cause imbalances in calciumhosphorous, and A3 - both major causes of MBD.