I have a 14 month old male veiled that I'm pretty sure is starting to develop edema around the neck area. It shows up as a ventrally sagging pouch just cranial to the shoulder area. It is very soft feeling to the touch. I have been noticing it for about a week If I turn the cham upside down, the edema leaves this area. The cham still seems healthy and hasn't changed behaviours in any way.
This cham spent 24x7 outside this summer, and has been inside for a couple of months now. I wonder if this drastic change has anything to do with it.
He's in a 4x2.5x2' enclosure. He has a new MV bulb. Schefflera and pothos are pretty thick. Basking is 90F and coldest is 70F. I'm not able to make much of a night time temp drop. I hardly ever feed crix, but still do sometimes. He gets silks, waxies and a couple of kinds of roaches. The roaches are loaded with cat food, romaine, squash, collards and other veggies as available. I supplement with vitimin dust once every two weeks and calcium once a week (w/d3 since he's been indoors and w/o d3 when he was outside). Based on the base of the tail rule, I've always considered him a little skinny which is why I've continue to give him waxies, maybe 4-5/week.
It's always been difficult to get this cham to drink much at least in my presence. I've upped his dripping and misting and will leave out the wax worms.
I've looked at this http://www.chameleonjournals.com/vet/vetcare.cgi?show=7.0_Edema
I'd like to have bloodwork done, but my vet is not comfortable with drawing the sample.
How serious are edemas? Any ideas on what else I should be doing?
thanks much,
Joel Fish
