Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my cham wont eat, wont drink, and looks dehydrated, ive called every vet in the phone book and no one will take him right now they said they can get me in thursday. i dont think he will make it that long. he usualy tries to bite me and is pretty active. but now he wont open his eyes and can hardly hold him self up, i have no clue what happend. i thought i was doing everything right. is there anyway i can force feed him?
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brandy

In the mean time before your vet app't, please give us more information about your setup, what you've been feeding, what gutloads and supplements used and how often, type of lighting, temps, humidity, is this a wc animal, etc. Considering that your cham has probably been sick for quite a while to get to this stage, and today is Wed, your cham may not get significantly worse between today and tomorrow. I'm NOT saying this isn't serious, but without more info we just can't help long distance and without seeing your cham. Just force feeding without knowing what's wrong won't help. The most important thing is to hydrate it. If he gapes at you you could probably get some rehydration fluid like Pedialyte into his mouth with an eye dropper. Do it carefully and let him swallow on his own. This may help until the vet visit. Chams can go quite a while without eating, and most "force feeding" foods people try can actually do more harm than good. There is a "bug juice" recipe on www.adcham.com that will be safer for him if the vet does prescribe force feeding. It is always a gamble to force feed a cham, and until the underlying problem is identified will just cause a lot of stress. Raise the humidity in your cage, give a lot of privacy, try the dropper method for rehydrating, and get to that vet. Be prepared to describe your cham's diet, setup, lighting etc. to the vet in detail too. Good luck!

the temps read 80 F and in the basking spot 95 F. i feed him 6 crickets a day and give him mealworms a few mealworms every other day. but he stoped eating all of his food about 4 days ago but seemed fine otherwise. i mist him 3 times a day but he does not like it and will not drink so i put a bowl of water in there and would not drink that eaither. his cage is all wire 3 foot high and 2 foot wide and 2 foot deep. lots of branches and fack leaves. he is acting worse today then last night when i first posted. he hangs on his cage but is not holding himself up he kinda stays upside down. so i took him out and have him sitting on a towl under a heat lamp and uvb. im trying to find someone to take him to the vet for me tomorrow because i cannot get off work. i may have to take off anyway. he just lies there i dont think he is going to make it. he looks real bad. thank you for any help
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brandy

The overall temp in your room is too high. Your basking spot is fine. Chams also need complete darkness and a drop of at least 15 degrees at night to rest. No heat lights at night! If the room does not cool off to the upper 60's or 70, he's stressed by the heat and this is adding to his dehydration problems. Dehydrated chams stop eating too. Many chams don't drink when sprayed directly. You should spray the foliage in the cage with HOT water (it cools to warm quickly), and let him lick the leaves on his own. Most chams never see still water sitting in a bowl. It has to be dripping or moving. You can also set up a simple water drip system in the cage. Safest is to spray the foliage gently for 5-10 minutes so it is saturated and has many hanging drops for him to lick. Don't put him under a heat light on a towel...you are making his dehydration worse. Leave him alone in the cage and spray, spray, spray to encourage him to drink on his own. Again, if he gapes at you try dropping Pedialyte in his open mouth. You've got to get to that vet.

thanks for your help the apointment is at 4 ill let ya know how it gos
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brandy