Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female veiled fell over dead yesterday with signs of why. She was 20 days gravid, good color, eating and drinking, active and seemed in perfect health. This would have been her second clutch of eggs. She was 1 1/2 old. I came in to spray all the chams and she was fine, 4 hours later when I came in to turn off the lights she was dead! Can anyone tell me what the heck happened!?

I don't know but if you hurry, you can save those eggs! At 20 days along, you can save them and they'll hatch. They will be small and will take longer than 6 months, but why not try? GET ON IT!!!! Let us know what happens. If you're afraid to cut open a dead cham, have your little brother do it lol.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
1.2 Nosy Be Panthers
2.2 Sambava Panthers
1.0 Tamatave Panther
1.0 Nosy Be X Unknown Cross
1.1 Veiled Chameleons
0.0.2 CBB Desert Tortoises
0.0.1 Sulcatta Tortoise

Ewwwww! Sorry, but I couldn't do it. I feel bad enough and besides she's been dead for almost 24 hours. I'm sure things are pretty funky by now. I just wish I knew what happened. She was one of my favorites.

are you sure she didn't have mbd?

or too much fat(wax worms,mealworms)?

those can lead to heart failure.

Even at 24 hrs, you could probably save them. I read that somewhere and asked my vet about it and she said it could be done as long as the female was still kinda "moist" like not dried out. I asked another vet about it that I'm friends with (a horse vet) and he said it would probably work. I've never tried it, and I backed out of opening up my jackson's female when she died (at 4 years old) even though I SWORE she was pregnant.... I just wanted proof. If U want to go for it. If not, I wouldn't either.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
1.2 Nosy Be Panthers
2.2 Sambava Panthers
1.0 Tamatave Panther
1.0 Nosy Be X Unknown Cross
1.1 Veiled Chameleons
0.0.2 CBB Desert Tortoises
0.0.1 Sulcatta Tortoise

Hi-

Well it could be a number of factors. If she was gravid and laid one clutch already, I would be concerned about dystocia if she died days after. I would open her up and do a necropsy, you say she was still eating and drinking. Was she still defecating, she could be plugged up from a retained egg or eggs blocking her up. This would cause a toxic build up in the blood and could explain her death. This is just one possible scenario. Here is a link on necropsy in the e-zine archives. Hope this helps!
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John W. Lucas

CHAMELEON PARADISE

CHAMELEONS ONLINE E-ZINE AUTHOR

Feeding Baby Chameleons
Caging Baby Chameleons

F. pardalis

Ambilobe Locale
Nosy Be Locale
Sambava Locale

Rhampholeon uluguruensis

Eggs Incubating-

F. pardalis - Ambilobe Locale

got SILKWORMS!

Photo © Chameleon Paradise 2003

Thanks a ton for the help guys.
Now that I think about it, I hadn't seen her poop in a while. I still feel awful about her death. I'll be sure to keep an extra close eye on my other females now though.

The only person who can tell you is a veterinary pathologist. If you want to save the eggs OK, but get your cham necropsied with tissue/lab work or no one will ever know.