Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been trying everything for two weeks now. He has had his eyes closed for about 3 days now and only oppens them to eat(at least he is eating a little)but i don't know what else to do i just set up a drip system this morning so hopefulyyy that may solve my problem.prior to this i have misted 5 times a day used pedialyte used an eyedropper and an airstone and he still got all slugggish and slept all day for the past 3 days SOMEONE HELP PLEASE!!!even put him in the shower for 10 minutes a couple of times he opened his eyes for 5 mionutes then closed them and went back to sleep

What is the air humidity in your cage? If the air is very dry in the house (are you running an AC during summer??) your cham can get dehydrated just from respiration and misting won't be enough. How long are you spraying at a time? Duration of spraying is more important than volume and it should be gentle and slow for 5-10 minutes rather than one dense quick burst. 10 minutes in the shower is not long enough. A dehydrated cham will need a long slow shower of 30-60 minutes to make up lost ground. And, once the cham is dehydrated it will take some time for it to recover, not a day or so. Pedialyte should only be used if the cham is not drinking at all. You need to get a good electronic humidity gauge and keep track of how dry the cage gets between mistings. It may really surprise you. Measure the humidity from right after you spray until you spray again. You probably need a room humidifier or a misting system cycling on a timer. Some other ideas. Drippers and airstones don't raise the humidity much at all. Not all chams drink reliably from drippers so don't count on it. How much foliage do you have in the cage? Probably not enough. So, add live plants to the cage, measure humidity and get a room humidifier if it's too low. You can set the unit to cycle on and off with a lamp timer. There are lamp timers that let you set multiple on cycles of up to 30 minutes many times a day. They are great! As for the humidifier itself, get an ultrasonic type not evaporative. This should help!

Is he still drink? or willing to drink?

If so, you may want to try following step

1) prepare 'hydro life' or 'reptile boots'
2) use a syringe (remove the pin) and drop liquid near his mouth to stimulate drinking
3) if point 2 fail, gently put some force on side of his mouth to open (be sure not to stress him much).

The above works for me and hope these can help.

I'm not expert, that's for sure, but as soon as I read this post, I immediately assumed that the replies would be: Take your cham to the vet.

With his behaviour being odd for two weeks, and now he's not eating much, not drinking, and sleeping during the day for the last 3 days...to me, that says there is a bigger problem going on than dehydration on it's own.

Even if your cham is "just" dehydrated, after being in this state for the last two weeks, I would think a trip to the vet would be warrented anyway.

I am not passing judgement on you, and I know that it's SO frustrating to hear "take him to the vet" and nothing else, when you're simply looking for advice on what to do right NOW, and thankfully a couple people have given you that advice that you need at this minute.

I'm just thinking that once you get the immediate crisis looked after, your cham would be better off with a check up from the vet. Just to make sure that nothing else is going on.
I'm assuming that your cham is not a newborn, so something has happened to cause him to go off his food and water, that needs to be found out.

Good luck to you and your cham.
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Kim

>>I'm not expert, that's for sure, but as soon as I read this post, I immediately assumed that the replies would be: Take your cham to the vet.
>>
>>With his behaviour being odd for two weeks, and now he's not eating much, not drinking, and sleeping during the day for the last 3 days...to me, that says there is a bigger problem going on than dehydration on it's own.
>>
>>Even if your cham is "just" dehydrated, after being in this state for the last two weeks, I would think a trip to the vet would be warrented anyway.
>>
>>I am not passing judgement on you, and I know that it's SO frustrating to hear "take him to the vet" and nothing else, when you're simply looking for advice on what to do right NOW, and thankfully a couple people have given you that advice that you need at this minute.
>>
>>I'm just thinking that once you get the immediate crisis looked after, your cham would be better off with a check up from the vet. Just to make sure that nothing else is going on.
>>I'm assuming that your cham is not a newborn, so something has happened to cause him to go off his food and water, that needs to be found out.
>>
>>Good luck to you and your cham.
>>-----
>>Kim
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (both MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog (for summer)
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

I too was surprised that a vet was not mentioned. Do you have a local herp vet? I have linked that might help if not. I would suggest you get him there as soon as you can or there may be some more serious problems (kidney?). Just becasue he is not eating or drinking you do not know what the actual cause of this was in the first place and may be very serious.

Also, what are you set up specs? light (uvb, basking temps), food (what, when), supplements, gutload, etc.
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (both MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog (for summer)
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

I did not mention the vet because I felt from reading his post that the most IMMEDIATE thing to do was rehydrate him. It didn't sound as if he was getting enough water either by spraying, showering (duration), or from air humidity. I have gotten rescue chams whose dehydration was their key issue, and treating them for it did turn them around. Of course it can be the start of so many other problems, but the chams can also respond fairly fast if this is the case. If the cham doesn't respond then they definitely need a vet.

I totally agreed with everyone, it is better to send her to vet to find out the actually caused of the problem. However, keeping her hydrated would have a better change of survival.