Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i dont know if this will be enough info for but maybe someone might have some what of a clue.

i was just checkin on my male pygmy leaf chameleon just now and he was laying on his right side. he was fine an hour ago but now he cant stop laying on his right side. his left side(the side facing up) is all black and his right side is very light in color. he is movin his legs around pretty lively except for the fact he wont sit straight up. he keeps twisting around any which way he can and just going back to laying on his right side. almost like he cant help it or something. i have no idea what to do or how to help. or even what went wrong.

any ideas?

I'm no expert, but my baby panthers will sometimes hang on to their vines /leaves at a sideways angle. It's like they're just trying to soak up the heat on that side. Do yours do this with the side up facing the heat or light source? As far as the color, they turn dark to absorb heat better, but I don't think they typically do one side at a time. I have sprayed my male panther with a mist a little too directly and it caused him to temporarily turn almost completely white on just the side that the mist hit. Hope this helps a little.

thanks for the reply but i know its not something he wants to do. its like his his neck is being restricted to the right or something. like i try to hold him up right and he keeps twisting right. i cant explain it. he cant move the other way for some reason. i try and roll him onto his other side and he stays twisted and rolls back onto the other side. right now he is just laying on his side on the ground looking completely dead. i turn the light on him and he frantically moves his eye around looking all over. his color has lightened up a little bit. but still no progress.

the only thing i can think of is we had a dog who developed a brain tumor on the right side of her brain and she would always walk in right circles and would fall over a lot. i dont know.

could you give us a little information on the set up you have?
and the substrate you are using?

he was in a 20 gallon tank with one other female. i mist it 2x a day and temp is between 70-80 degrees and humidity is about 80% the substrate is coconut fibre and fir bark and i have some ficus benjamins and few other plants and sticks for them to climb all through. i have live moss on the bottom as well. i have a uvb light on them during the day. night the temps drop to 70. i feed them little crickets every other day and or fruitflys. i havent had any luck getting them to eat anything else and dust with a multi-vitamin once every cuople weeks.
they both where very active earlier today and looked like they had no problems at all. then i found him laying on his side.

Im not sure. But my best guess,Is he may have ate some substrate
and is compacted.Also it could be a number of things,From a fall to a parasite. I sincerely hope he gets better!

if he did eat substrate and get compacted what can i do to help him right now. i dont think he fell because i dont think he would be able to get high enough to have such a devastating fall. if its a parasite or something i still wont be able to get him to a vet till tomarrow. is there anything i should try to do now?

im not sure of any home remedies,i would not stress him out just leave him alone till' u can get him to the vet!

I'm no expert on leaf chams, but this doesn't sound like an IMpaction to me.
It almost sounds like a stroke, or some sort of neurological disorder.
Impaction wouldn't cause a constant pulling, or leaning to one side.

That being said...I have no suggestions on how to treat the cham.
A vet would be able to give you far better advice on what it is, and what to do about it than we can by guessing on here...in fact we may end up doing more harm than good.
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Kim

I haven't encounter this with my male. Instead, my female pygmy cham play dead several times and she really give me stock when I first encounter. One night I found she was laid down on the floor without any movement. I pick her up try to see what's happen, while I thought she was dead (2 mins after). Then all of a suddent, she was moving again and seems normal.

Regarding to your case, try leave him alone for awhile and see whether he could recovery himself. If not, send him to the vet is best you could do.

Hope he get well soon.

If your chameleon was a dog or cat, a vet would say he was experiencing neurologic symptoms consistent with a central nervous system deficit or lesion. If he can move all of his legs, then most likely the deficit is located in the brain. If the pet could not move his legs voluntarily, then the lesion would be more likely located down the spinal column, the farther down toward the tail indicated by which legs he had control of function.

The symptoms you described could be caused by anything from seizures, a temporary pinched nerve, inner ear infections, encephalomyelitis, parasites or a virus invading the CNS, trauma to the spinal column, a blood clot or bone fragment (or other foriegn body) wedging in the brain vessels or spinal canal, a brain tumor, as well as a whole slew of other causes. And this is just a partial list for dogs and cats. Reptiles? We know even less what might be on the list of diagnoses.

As advised already, seek out a DVM ASAP, he or she might have something up his/her sleeve that could help. Sometimes vestibular signs (circling, falling over, etc, as described) in small animals can simply resolve on their own with only good nursing care as treatment. Keep your little guy as comfortable and as stress-free as possible, get a vet appt pronto, and keep us updated on the progress.

Good luck.

~Kerry

just as i was afraid of, i woke up this morning to only find him dead : (

thanks everyone for the responses. if it wasnt 1am i would have taken him to the vet yet i still dont think they would have been able to help him either. it happened so suddenly. for my own acceptance im just gonna say he had an aneurysm or something.

very sorry to hear this. It is so much more difficlult when we don't understand why this happens - and with chams we often don't I lost a trio of brevi's last summer and the not knowing why was probably the most difficult aspect.

I do not know what your financial situation is or where you live but you may want to have a necropsy done (or do one yourself if so inclined. A few on this forum have done them and could guide you.) I only say this as it might be helpful to know what happened, but it is a decision you need to make. There may be someone locally who is interested enough in chams and will do it for nothing "in the name of science" to help all chams. I you do choose to do it it has to be soon or at least get him into formalin to preserve him until you find someone.
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

i would want to find out how he died but i am 23 and dont have much money. if a necropsy was gonna save him i probably would but i have already buried him outside.
all i can do now is name one of their eggs after him if it hatches.