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I have a 8 month old Panther Cham that I never had any problems with until recently. He hasn't eaten by himself in the last 2 and a half weeks except for 1 cricket I seen him catch himself. The crickets are right in front of him though and he isn't eating them. I've had to give him water through a syringe also. I have taken him to the vet twice for blood tests and they said he has an infection of some sort. I started giving him the medication on May 5th. I'm giving him 0.2 ml of Baytril 20 orally everyday and 0.4 of Metronidazole every 48 hours. I personally think it's a respiratory infection becasue I can hear a crackling noise when I put him by my ear. I'll take pics of him in the next day and post. Also his eyes aren't open in the morning like usually but he has been moving around throuhout the day and seems that he isn't really weak. How long till I see some improvements? It's hard spending all this money and doing all these things without seeing improvements. Please help me if you've had to medicate your cham. Thanks, AJ

I would do what the vet recommended...if you hear crackling sounds when he breathes, it is most likely a repiratory problem. Is this a wc cham? How soon did you notice his decline? Chams hide illnesses very well and he could have been doing bad for months. How is his habitat? All the right temps/humidity/water availability, etc. I assume...it could take a couple of weeks to see improvements, he will not recover overnight, especially if this illness has been getting worse over time and you haven't noticed it until now. Good luck!
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He has a 48X30X24 enclosure with 2 100 watt bulbs for basking and a 30" UV light. I have a dripper that drips into a 10 gallon tub below. There's a humidifier in the room he's in now and I mist 2x a day to keep the humidity around 60-70. The temp is around 80 during the day and 70 at night. I got him from Kammerflage Kreations so he is captive bred. I know it's a respiratory infection almost 100%. I think it got cold in my room one day in the end of winter when he was sleeping and I think that did it. I watched him everyday and like a couple days before he started sleeping in late I noticed a flakey looking thing over his eye. So I called the vet,but by the time they called me back the thing was gone. Then he was sleeping in later so I decided to take him in. They flushed his eyes out and gave me eyedrops and did a fecal test and blood work. They did another blood test the second time I came back, and that told them that he had an infection. It's frustrating taking such good care of him everyday and spending all this money without seeing any improvements. If anyone has had to give their herp Baytril what doseage did you give it in? I was looking online and it said every other day at a high dosage. Now I give it to him everyday at a lower dosage like the vet told me. I've read to keep them on it for 3 weeks at the minimum which will be on Thursday. What if he doesn't start eating on his own? I hope something happens soon. Thanks for the quick reply, but I'm looking more for an answer on when he should start eating or drinking on his own or being active in the morning? Thanks again

Did the vet say how he knew the chameleon had an infection?
If the medication doesn't seem to be causing some improvement
by the time you've been giving it to him for a few days
(and its been a few days now), then I would suggest that
you talk to the vet about it. Its possible that the
baytril doesn't work on whatever is causing the infection.
With mouth rot or a wound its easy to get a swab/sample of
the pus. The bacteria could be grown and a test done to see
which antibiotic would kill that germ....but with a respiratory
problem its a different story. Its harder to get a bacteria
sample.

The fact that he isn't drinking on his own worries me. As someone
already mentioned, you need to keep him well hydrated while he's
on the medications. I can understand that he might not be feeling
like eating...but that can't go on for too long. If the
antibiotic was working, I would think he would begin to feel
more like eating.

What I have done when a chameleon doesn't eat on its own is,
while his mouth is open while he's drinking, slip a cricket that
is not too big in between his teeth. (I usually squish/kill the
cricket so that it will not bite or climb back out of the mouth.)
He may eat it this way. This is less stressful than forcefeeding would be
and if he won't eat it this way he won't likely eat it if he's
forcefed.

You said he had a fecal done....did it turn up anything? Is that
why he's on the second antibiotic?

Is his movement around the cage normal once he has opened
his eyes or is it more like he's in a bit of a stupor? (Wandering
aimlessly?)

You said you have a humidifier going...is it kept clean? Does it
shut off in time to let his cage dry out for the night? His cage
isn't near a window or in a draft, is it?

I don't know what the flakey thing you saw on the eye could have
been (unless it was a piece of shed). What are the eyedrops you
are using?

It might be a good idea to bump the temperature of the basking
area up to 85F or so.

With him being on three different medications, this might be why
he's sleeping more/longer...or there could be other reasons.

I have used baytril quite a few times on different chameleons
with different problems over the years with good results. I can't
remember the dosage (the weight of each chameleon was different
so the dose was different for each one)...but it was given orally
every day. Three weeks has often been the time frame for giving
it to them.

Good luck with him!

He was drinking on his own for the first time yesterday. He tried to eat a cricket but he hit it with his tongue but it didn't stick. I think he needed to drink more. His fecal never turned up anything. He's on the other med. b/c the vet said whatever the Baytril didn't get the other med. would. He was also awake in the morning when I got up yesterday,and that's only the 2nd time in the last 3 weeks that he's been awake when I got up. Maybe things will turn around. I'll keep you posted. Thanks, AJ