As many of you know, we have many chameleons - usually about 200 at any given time, with bunches of eggs incubating, and eggs hatching every month.
Once in a while... something goes wrong.
This is the story of the most recent scary scenario.
Dixxy is a tamatave panther, she recently turned 2 and was gravid with her 3rd clutch from Cymaron (retained sperm). Her first clutch is close to hatching and second clutch is doing well. We didn't think this time would be any different - as she indicated she wanted to dig by going to the bottom of her enclosure and began scratching a small hole in the "alert" bucket.
We keep a small shoebox of dirt in each female's cage that has been bred. When we see them go to this box, we take them out and place them in the big laying tub.
Last Saturday (Sept 13), she was placed in the tub and she began digging. By Sunday, the hole was covered and she was roaming around as if she was done. As we removed her, her tummy was palpated, and it was evident that she still had more eggs. We brought her home from the breeding facility and gave her another tub to dig in. We watched her closely.
By Tuesday, we knew something was amiss. She was just laying on her log, keeping warm under the basking light. No digging or eating. Off to the vet she went. He agreed that she had more eggs, and an injection of oxytocin was administered. He gave me 2 more injections to take home.
After watching her and waiting for 1.5 hours, I gave Dixxy another injection. She didn't like me much for doing that. By 5:30 pm, I knew she was in trouble. I called our vet. He was doing bone surgery on a cat... but told the assistant to have us bring Dixxy in. We bundled her up, and we went to the vet (keep in mind they close at 6pm).
Our vet explained that he had tedious surgery scheduled for Wed morning - so we needed to do the c-section on Dixxy immediately. He invited us to watch the surgical procedure. Within a few minutes, the office had closed, and most of the staff was watching the surgery with us.
The doctor was removing eggs (placing them in a box I had brought) using a tiny spoon. Soon it became clear why Dixxy had gotten into trouble - she had 3 extremely large eggs - over 1-1/8" long and very wide. Upon closer examination, it became clear that these were not a single egg - but several that had fused together. One mass was 5 eggs, another 4, and yet another was 3 with a small string to another egg.
All total, she had 38 eggs (alot for her).
The doctor did not remover her oviduct tubes or ovaries - he said everything looked good, and thought she would heal. The aenesthesiologist started bringing Dixxy back to consciousness. For a few minutes, we thought Dixxy had died... but with administration of oxygen and some physical stimulation, she came around and started breathing again normally. WHEW....!!
By 7pm we were on our way home with Dixxy and her eggs. Once home, I placed her on a damp towel over a heating pad, and let her rest. After 1.5 days in our I.C.U. tub... Dixxy is doing fine. I tube fed her last night, gave her a drink and she rewarded me with warm, wet dropping. *LOL*
Things are looking good... 
Dixxy is active - and has a tummy full of purple stitches instead of eggs. There are no words to tell you how important it is to find a good vet!
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