An Update on Kiwi the Chameleon

One of my chameleon rescues, Kiwi, came back to me a couple months ago and I put her immediately into a new foster home. After a month or two, Kiwi stopped eating and I had a vet tech friend take her. The 2nd move stressed her out and she ended up at my Utah vets’ office today where they found her belly and throat filled with fluid. It’s not looking good for her. 

Right now I’m waiting on the blood work results to come back. 

Kiwi was a spontaneous pet store purchase. She didn’t have a good cage or a good UVB light and had severe Metabolic Bone Disease when I got her. Her bones were so fragile that the moment she started crawling along her new screen tank, her arm & leg bones broke. She spent several months in a flat 10 gallon sick tank while we strengthened her bones. MBD has long lasting consequences on bones and internal organs (like the kidneys & liver). 

Sweet Lotus

I got the news yesterday that Lotus, a chameleon I rescued, had died. :(

She was the most expensive chameleon rescue I've ever had, spending well over $1,000 trying to keep her well. Poor baby. Fly high, pretty girl.

Kiwi's Upgrade

Kiwi has been eating on her own and getting around in her sick tank more lately so I decided it was time to put her into a small screen cage. I moved her over tonight. 

I'll watch her closely for the next few days to make sure she's not falling or struggling to hold on. I think her broken bones have knit together enough now that she is ready to go back to being more chameleon like. Today alone she spent most of the day on the small ladder turned sideways in her cage instead of sitting on the towel on the bottom of the tank.

Hopefully she'll start to get stronger and more active in a more normal chameleon environment and then I can upgrade her back into a large screen cage with lots of room. My goal for her is to become like a regular chameleon again.

Eye Bulging

It's pretty normal for some reptiles to "bulge" their eyes out. They have a little blood vessel flap they can open that releases blood into their eye sockets, forcing their eyes to push out into their eye lids. When they are done, the little flap opens again and the blood returns to the vessel.

The first time you see eye bulging, you might be creeped out. It looks like their eyes are going to explode.

I've seen it on bearded dragons, chameleons, and iguanas.

They do it if their eyes are itchy or if their skin is shedding or if there is something in their eyes or if they are bored or whatever. My beardie rescue Dory had a malfunction with the blood vessel flap behind one eye and so her eye was perpetually swollen. Turbo, my sweetheart iguana, developed an aneurysm behind one of his eyes and it was a mess every time he rubbed the eye and it ruptured. That poor iguana lost SO much blood. He eventually had to have is eye removed because it had died after being shoved up into his eyelid for so long.

So next time you see your beardie (or iguana or chameleon) and it looks like their eyes are going to bulge out of their heads, don't panic. It's totally normal. :)

Poor Broken Kiwi

While I had the flu, my husband took Kiwi the chameleon and Baby Sawyer to the vet and dropped them off for me.

Kiwi's assessment was bad. :( She has severe Metabolic Bone Disease which has caused multiple long, lateral fractures in her arms and legs. She has limited mobility currently because her legs are so broken. Poor baby! Because her bones are so empty of calcium, every climb and movement broke them further.

Kiwi got a shot of calcium and a shot of Calcitonin (a miracle med that helps pull calcium back into the bones). The vet also measured a tube for her so we can tube feed her nutrition daily.

Here at my house, Kiwi is in a 10 gallon tank. I had her in a screen cage, but she wouldn't stop climbing the walls. She mostly just sits on her belly or side during the day. I'm sure it is almost impossible for her to walk without pain.

She has a long road of recovery ahead of her. It's going to take awhile for her bones to heal and for her calcium levels to become normal again. So far she's not eating on her own, so I'm still tube feeding her.

Her last owners provided a UVB light for her, but it was a coil bulb and not very effective. Young chameleons particularly need a high powered, quality bulb to help them metabolize calcium as they grow so much in the first year. Perhaps an adult chameleon with strong bones who is done growing would be okay with a coil UVB, but never a baby. Kiwi will be handicapped for the rest of her life and will not likely grow very big either.

Kiwi has really struggled the last few days and I've found myself wondering if we did the right thing by keeping her alive and trying to help her heal. I'll keep watching her and discussing her with my vet. If it becomes unkind or unfair to keep her alive, then I will let Dr Folland put her down. To force her to live because I want her to isn't humane at all. Without my intervention, she would have already died, but that doesn't mean I now have to keep her alive at any cost.

Poor Kiwi. :(

Changes for Kiwi

The stress of moving Kiwi and putting her into a bigger tank has really taken its toll on her. Poor baby has even worse coordination in her back legs than before. I feel so bad that I didn't start off putting her into a short, sick tank in the beginning.

I took her out of the tall Reptibreeze cage and put her into a small one with no climbing branches. This is the same thing I had to do with Newt years ago because his coordination was so bad.

While I was swapping out the cages, I had my girl hold Kiwi. Kiwi is super happy to just sit, curled up in a ball. It's very adorable, but very tragic. 

I added in a tiny bed that Newt used to love for her. She wasn't thrilled with it and tried to climb the mesh instead. At one point, she even reached out flailing with her front arm and latched on to her eyeball instead. It looked just like Newt! So sad! 

I've been chatting with my chameleon expert friends so I can get a better idea of what to do with Kiwi. Until today, she didn't seem that bad. Her legs were a little wobbly yesterday, but I thought she was okay. Today I can see how bad it is. Our guess is that she has poor coordination and mobility due to Metabolic Bone Disease and possibly some nutritional deficiencies. 

She's got a brand new Mercury Vapor bulb on her tank and today I gave her some carnivore Critical Care mixed with Repashy's Calcium Plus powder. I'll keep doing that every day for awhile so we can get her calcium levels back up. I may or may not take her to the vet this week. 

I know people think chameleons are cool, but they are HARD! Especially in Utah where it's so dry. I'm glad this little girl is with me now. I'll work my hardest to get her all better and then she'll go to my friend in California who has Lotus, Akime, and Hazel (the last female cham who I never named). California's climate is much better for chameleons than Utah's is. 

Kiwi, rescue 170

I'm on a local reptile group on Facebook and I get tagged ALL the time. ALL THE TIME!

Yesterday, I made this to express my feelings for being tagged on E.V.E.R.Y. sick, sad, lonely reptile post that comes up.

Last night's tag?

A sick chameleon.

Yes, another chameleon. I just got rid of my last chameleon! I took the no name chameleon to California last week!

And I have another one.

Kiwi is 6 months old and did not look good on her "For Sale" pic that someone shared. And I got tagged.

Moments before I arrived, Kiwi had crawled to the bottom of her tank and curled up into a hide on the ground. That is very BAD. Her colors were dark and she was all curled into a ball. Her colors improved as I held her, but she still didn't recover all the way.

Her ankles and wrists are lumpy which is a good indicator of Metabolic Bone Disease. Her jaw is okay, not super floppy, which surprised me. I carried her home in my shirt (instead of the ice cream bucket chameleon carrier). I put her in my big cage with a brand new Mercury Vapor Bulb on top.

Kiwi is still pretty freaked out by all the changes. I've tried to leave her alone as much as possible today. Tomorrow, I'll force feed her some calcium and food.

Yes, another chameleon. A female.

Tally ho!

This week has been CRAZY! So many rescues and my stupid phone still won't talk to my Blogger app so I have to do all my blog updates on my laptop. That's why I post four or five in a row.

Update on the latest Rescues

Sunny had surgery on Thursday and had a rough weekend. The 3rd day always seems to be the worst day. She's more active today. 

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Leo the Russian tortoise is doing GREAT!! He eats and drinks everyday and looks & acts so much better. He loved the raspberries I gave him today: 

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The unnamed chameleon is putting on weight and still hates my guts. She should be ready to be adopted out soon. 

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Drake is doing terribly. :( He's going to the vet again tomorrow. His eyes used to seal shut every few days, but now it's almost twice a day. He acts like he can't breathe either. I'm not sure what else we can do for him. He hates me cleaning his eyes and the stress of it makes him struggle to breathe. 

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Dash has been eating like a pig!! He will be able get back up to normal weight easily. He loved the raspberries today. I had to flick them with my finger to catch his interest. 

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Curly will be headed to his new foster home tomorrow. He is active and loves eating. I had him wrapped in a blankie the other night and he loved it! 

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3 of the 6 snakes are going home tomorrow. Phew! That will leave me with 3 snakes, 1 tegu, 1 chameleon, 6 tortoises, and 9 bearded dragons. Only 20 reptiles! That's sorta low for me. :) 

Akime Update

Akime is doing great. Her arm is healing. She eats like a pig! Somehow she managed to pull her wrapping off last night and I need to rewrap it today. 

She still can be fairly clumsy as she moves around, but her tongue aim is straight on. Last night, she snatched a cricket off my thumb without any hesitation. 

Lotus this Morning

I found a sick Lotus on the bottom of her cage this morning very dehydrated. I tried getting her to drink some sugar water from a syringe but she wouldn't have it. She spit most of it back out. She *hates* when I touch her! 

I got her fogger going and let her dripper run fully too. She did drink a little off the leaves, but not enough. 

I finally chose to give her a saline injection to help rehydrate her. A cc of warm saline on each side above her arms. She had little "shoulder pads" for a little bit. I hesitated to do it for fear the stress of holding her while injecting her would kill her. So far, she seems to be okay. 

She certainly is a difficult chameleon! I have part of her cage covered to hold in the humidity better and I'll keep checking on her today. She's supposed to get her second antibiotic shot today, but I may wait until tomorrow to limit her stress. 

Lotus Update

Lotus is doing okay after her surgery. She's been eating and drinking on her own. She's on antibiotics. She still hates me and everything about me. ;) I can handle it. I have tried to limit my interactions with her so she has less stress. 

Her surgery ultimately cost me $670. The thought of spending that much on her to have her just die on me is a painful thought. I did what I had to do to save her life at the time without paying attention to the cost. My rescue credit card is back over $2,000, but it's only money-- right? ;) 

Eating! When Food is a Good Sign

Lotus chowed down on 6 large superworms today! 

Humpty Dumpty got in his water bowl and ate 8 pellets. 

Woo hoo! Glad both of them are eating again. 

Odd Ball Sleeping

Tonight I found Midnight sleeping with his head hanging over the edge of his water bowl. 

Then I found Akime holding on with one foot and one hand. I took a pic and then moved her. Boy! She was ticked off at me! 

Reptiles sleep weirdly sometimes. 

Laying Lotus

Female chameleons frequently lay infertile eggs. The last Cham* I rescued laid eggs in one of my plants a couple days after I got her. 

Lotus is obviously filled with eggs. You can see the egg-shaped bulges in her belly. But she hasn't touched the lay box in her cage. 

Time to be more creative. 

I drug in the houseplant that the last Cham* laid her eggs in, set the mercury vapor bulb above it, and am letting Lotus 

free roam in it. Hopefully, she'll find the big pot of dirt and go crazy! 

It's not a very pretty houseplant, but it's got nice, sturdy limbs that are perfect for Cham feet. 

Here she is-- not sure if she's okay with her new digs or not. 

Eggs can be tricky with female chameleons. If they don't lay them, they will die. If they lay too many, they can die. They don't even have to be with a male Cham. They just lay eggs. It can be very nerve wracking. . . Okay, at least for me it is. 

I'll give Lotus a couple days to lay her eggs in the dirt. If she doesn't, she'll get an oxytocin shot on Monday to induce her laying. 

*Note-- I cannot remember what that girl's name was! That's why I keep a blog. It's part educational and part an external memory for me. :) I'll look it up. 

Chameleon Eggs are Cute!

I think there were more, but I'll leave them to fertilize my plant. 

Finally Finished!

After a long night, Verde Hissy Pants finally finished laying her eggs. 

I checked on her several times to make sure she was okay. Each time she gave me the stink eye. 

When I finally found her on top of the hole she had filled in, I pulled her out of the dirt. 

She looks terrible. I'm going to let her warm up and then I'll get her hydrated. 

I'm glad she made it. I have no idea how long she was waiting to lay eggs, but I'm glad she found the dirt in my pot. 

Egg laying is so hard on the female chameleons! It amazes me she had the instinct and strength to do everything she just did. 

Verde, rescue 111

Tonight I rescued a juvenile female chameleon who I named Verde. 

She wasn't in a *horrible* situation, but it wasn't very good either. :/ Poor cage, terrible diet (all veggies), not enough heat or humidity. 

Verde's pretty stressed tonight so I put her in a quickly arranged Reptibreeze. It's not perfect, but it's also not in a cage held together with hot glue, twist ties, and clothespins. 

Tomorrow I'll add a live plant or two and some more climbing branches. 

Midori, rescue 110

Today  I got a totally normal chameleon named Midori. Normal? Healthy? 

That's crazy! What do I do with it? ;) 

He was adopted out from a pet store who has been treating him for an upper respiratory infection for the past 3 months. When he was finally healthy, they decided he was "too big to sell." 

He's in a small cage right now while I get a large cage set up. Considering he was in a large plastic critter keeper for 3 months, I'm sure the small cage is fine. 

And it looks I'll be getting another chameleon tomorrow. Oh boy! 

Prissy made it!

After a long and stressful night of waiting and waiting and waiting and praying and praying and praying and praying, Prissy made it to Georgia!

And, bless her diva heart, the first picture taken is of her giving her new momma the stink eye!

Ha, ha, ha, ha!

And now she starts her "Happily Ever After."

Stink Eye

Remember back when Ramses (the Evilen Froggen) gave me the stink eye? 

Well, tonight I got the stink eye from Miss Prissy Pants. She was NOT amused when I put her in her shipping cup. 

Sorry, Baby! And, knowing me, I'll stress about the Diva Prima Donna until she arrived safely in her new home. :)