Vitamin A deficiency in chameleon

RE: Vitamin A deficiency in chameleon

Mark Rowland — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 14:11:43 GMT

Echoing Marie I would NOT use the injectable form

ADE forte contains 500000 units per ml

Toxicity occurs at 10,000units per kilo and is well documented in reptiles

so for a 100g chameleon (and thats quite big for lots of chameleons) a 500th of a ml is the MAXIMUM you can give

Many advocate giving the injectable form orally. I have done that.

But basic supplements added to syringe feeding work in most cases IMHO

RE: Vitamin A deficiency in chameleon

Emily Rainbow — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 13:31:51 GMT

Thanks Marie. We have ADE (for now- but it's been discontinued), so I guess dietary will be the way forward in the future!

RE: Vitamin A deficiency in chameleon

Marie Kubiak — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 13:00:51 GMT

[quote user="Emily Rainbow"]

Sorry to bring up an old thread but I have a post-hibernation anorexic tortoise with clinical signs of hypovitaminosis A.

What are you guys using for supplementation?

[/quote]

Long term dietary/oral supplementation is still the mainstay of therapy but is slow to take effect.

Where severe deficiency is present I have used Duphafral ADE Forte as a short-term measure but the solution needs diluting down for small reptiles and it is easy to overdose so this is not ideal.

Marie

RE: Vitamin A deficiency in chameleon

Emily Rainbow — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 12:18:27 GMT

Sorry to bring up an old thread but I have a post-hibernation anorexic tortoise with clinical signs of hypovitaminosis A.

What are you guys using for supplementation?

Re: Vitamin A deficiency in chameleon

Marie Kubiak — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 19:12:09 GMT

The multivit injections are a bit hit and miss now. There's no pure vitamin A injectable, so you are likely to be dosing inappropriately with other components even if you get the Vit A dose spot on. None of the drug companies are planning to change this either irritatingly.

Dog/cat food is a very contentious issue - reptiles need a low purine diet so commercial mammal diets are not suitable.

Re: Vitamin A deficiency in chameleon

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 09:18:21 GMT

I'm no exotic specialist but would give an injection of Vit A, I can't see that it if is that deficient its going to get hypervitaminosis A from a single shot, then as it's diet is likely to be deficient in other vits. and mins. advise the addition of dog or cat food to the diet either voluntarily, by stuffing the crickets if they'll take dead bait or force feeding with forceps.

Re: Vitamin A deficiency in chameleon

Marie Kubiak — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 19:41:20 GMT

The most important factor is diet assessment rather than numerical blood value.

Crickets are a common staple diet but lack significant Vitamin A storage capacity in their liver so a cricket-based diet without additional supplementation will lead to deficiency. Failure to gut-load feeder insects with a vitamin-A rich diet accelerates the process.

We recommend diet improvement (varied insects, gut-loading and addition of commerical supplements) to give adequate levels long-term with oral supplementation in the short term to boost levels in suspect cases. Moderate oral supplementation means overdose (seen with injectable dosing) is uncommon as you allow homeostatic mechanisms to better control levels. All reptiles are susceptible to hypervitaminosis A when given parenterally in large doses, as far as I'm aware chameleons are not more presdisposed than other species.

Most reptile species should be considered subclinical for a number of nutritional deficiencies (including vitamin A in insectivores and herbivores) and educating owners about diet and husbandry is critical with any consult.