chameleon egg bound

RE: chameleon egg bound

Gillian Mostyn — Sat, 15 Oct 2016 16:35:57 GMT

[quote user="niall morton"]Forgot to say, owner does supplement with calcium[/quote]

This phrase means nothing unless you know how. You wouldn't give a bitch with eclampsia a cuttlefish bone to chew on- and yet most reptile calcium supplements are simply this. You need to know what type of calcium, it's ratio to iP, Vit D levels and UV light etc etc..

[quote user="niall morton"]and was known to have metabolic bone disease when with previous owner..... Which was only 2 months ago!!! [/quote]

In which case it still has secondary nutritional hyperparathyroidism. But we knew this anyway- it is obvious from the radiograph.

[quote user="niall morton"]Owner 'rescued' the chameleon and I think was genuinely trying to help and do the right thing in giving the wee girl a home. [/quote]

Again, a common thing. Kind people rescuing reptiles, which are often already in a really poor state of health. Unless they are also prepared to find the money to house and treat them properly, they haven't really done it any favours though!

RE: chameleon egg bound

niall morton — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 18:54:41 GMT

Forgot to say, owner does supplement with calcium and was known to have metabolic bone disease when with previous owner..... Which was only 2 months ago!!! Owner 'rescued' the chameleon and I think was genuinely trying to help and do the right thing in giving the wee girl a home.

RE: chameleon egg bound

David Mills — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 15:59:42 GMT

It's high time exotics were banned completely for the general public.

I read an interesting paper recently that was of the opinion that all rabbits if given the choice would run away from their owners, seems about right.

RE: chameleon egg bound

Gillian Mostyn — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 14:58:01 GMT

I have zero tolerance for exotics owners these days. They have two choices. House and treat their creature correctly, or euthanase it when (not if) it becomes sick. Just because they bought it for £25 and could replace it for the same amount doesn't excuse their resentment at finding £200 for a basic clinical work-up. I'd rather PTS than watch the poor creature suffer any longer. I guess it doesn't help that I no longer find it acceptable that birds are kept as ornaments in small cages, many rabbits live a miserable restricted life and most reptiles spend their whole life in a little box. The ethics of this job concern me more than they ever used to...[:(

RE: chameleon egg bound

grumpyoldman — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 12:19:51 GMT

The worst exotics people are the ones with no ££ on a quest for the magic wand ,because they are quite likely to take their whinging a step further . It also leads to welfare issues. We had a guinea pig admitted last night with a Caecal tortion and no £££ . offered surgery /referral or euth but no it had to sit in a cage all night dying slowly. We have actually talked about banning guinea pig nutters. They also leave a trail of bad debts.

RE: chameleon egg bound

Gillian Mostyn — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 12:07:53 GMT

GOM - loving your post!

RE: chameleon egg bound

grumpyoldman — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 11:43:58 GMT

Agree with everything above , reptiles do everything slowly including dying. We quote £200 for a basic work up that involves X-rays ultrasound and bloods . There are rarely any takers. At 1st opinion level they want baytril /metacam/pro-kinetics for a bit to ease their feeble minds over the bridge of sorrow towards euthanasia.

We get regular abuse for the fees, the referral option is therefore a joke, my response to the whinging is why should I subsidise your pets treatment with the fees payed by people with cats and dogs?.

RE: chameleon egg bound

Gillian Mostyn — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 23:14:59 GMT

Marie has been incredibly polite but I'm afraid I disagree with her. As she said, this radiograph is very abnormal and indicates a significant pathological process. The chameleon may appear bright and eating well at the moment (are they sure!???) but, believe me, it won't remain that way without significant medical intervention. As Marie said, there is likely to be an underlying husbandry problem, alongside the general unsuitability of chameleons as pets, that has led to this problem. Thus, this animal should either be seen by a vet who is able to discuss both its current condition and future care, or it should be euthanased. I think that conservative care in cases such as these can simply extend the length of time these animals suffer.

I'm sorry if my advice sounds harsh, but these animals' behaviour traits mean they don't really display pain and distress in a way most vets and owners recognise. They often suffer for weeks and months without adequate treatment because they 'seem OK.'.

(Probably doesn't help that I've seen a tortoise and python in the last two days, both of which were emaciated and probably terminally sick but whose owners had watched them be anorexic for at least 2 months because 'they looked alright and it is normal for reptiles to do that'.

RE: chameleon egg bound

Marie Kubiak — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 20:43:15 GMT

That looks more like a horribly obstipated gut with the accumulation of dense material - is that its substrate? Bone density isn't great and there maybe a hypocalcaemic GI hypomotility complicating this.

You should be able to palpate what is going on fairly easily and start oral fluids/laxatives plus gentle warm water enemas but these are very sensitive animals typically with multiple issues (dehydration, follicular stasis, endoparasitism, malnutrition, immunosuppression...) so you may be better trying to persuade them to follow up on referral.

Marie