Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well the vet is comming over tomm afternoon. FINALLY. I have more concerns about them now.
Several now have very stinky diarrhea, no one is eating, no one is moving about. I am force feeding them.
I still don't see bubbles in their throat or thick saliva.
I did give them a dose of Parazap. Now I am concerned about the vet. Her lack of experience maybe? She told me to save fecal samples. But not more than one. Now someone else told me I need 3 each?
Also she said she determines a URI by an examination...Do some of these tests need bloodwork or something? I just think that would get to the bottom of this, but I don't know.
She is coming here, so if anyone can tell me what she is supposed to do so I can make sure they are getting the best of care. It would be greatly appreciated.
Please pray for my babies.

URIs don't need bloodwork, but a swab of any mucous can help determine what bacteria is causing it. Stinky diarrhea could be from an intestinal bacterial infection and she should be able to test both for parasites AND bacteria. Any competent vet should be able to do those cultures. More likely it is an infection, as it seems to have started along with their other problems. Something like that could also be passed from cham to cham by you. Are you sterilizing your hands, bowls, spray bottles, etc between cages? Using antibacterial cage cleaning supplies? I don't know if you need multiple fecal samples all at the same time, but rather a fecal culture repeated 3 times over a period of weeks. Maybe that was the intent?

Hey,

While I haven't seen the chameleons, it sounds like a parasite to me. I would have her do more than one if I was in your situation(I know you have multiple chams). If I am not mistaking, even if they are kept in the fridge, they only stay good up to 24 hours.

Ank-Inc.
Adam.