Help needed with mellers cham

[Ian]

I have a fairly young mellers chameleon, as shown in the picture in the other chameleon thread. But it seems to have come down with an illness. It is loosing weight quite rapidly, and will not move. It spends most of it's time asleep, and refuses to eat. She has a dripper, and we spray her, and she seems to drink a lot, but water is readily available all day. Temp in the day around 20, and a basking spot of around 30c. Night time drop to around 15c, and these are pretty constant figures. If anyone could help, it would be gratefully appreciated.
Many Thanks,
Ian

[t-bo]

Sorry to hear about your cham..

I think your hot ambient day tempature could be a little higher, up to about 25c (with a lower gradient ofcourse).. but the rest seems good.

Is it CB or WC, and have you had it long? If its WC its likely to have parasites.. has its turds been runny or nasty at all? either way, you will probably have to get it to the VETs if its condition doesnt change.

I found quite a good care sheet for the mellors that said about the stress colouring of the mellor, have you noticed any of this:

Stress Coloration: Excitement or mild stress begins to show with dark green spotting overlaying the chameleon’s normal coloration, as above. Dark green spots turn to black. As stress builds, the spotting expands to black mottling in all stripes. Low-level stress, such as a mild parasitic infection, left unalleviated over long periods, will turn the chameleon brown, pink, gray, and white mottled. As stress becomes severe, the chameleon starts to turn charcoal gray, eventually turning pure white with yellow stripes. At this point, the animal is near death from extreme stress. Never buy a melleri that is gray or white. A gravid melleri is cream, gray, and black colored, with a bloated torso, and should be considered “at risk”, not a good candidate for purchase.

Source Care Sheet

Good luck, hope he gets better soon!

[Ian]

Well, she does seem to be rather pale, but I wouldn't say white or grey, just a light green. She very rarely goes spotty, so I think she is fairly calm. I bought her supposedly captive bred, but when I was speaking to a guy over here, he said £80 for a captive bred one is far to cheap, so he was almost sure that it would have been wild caught. We have taken it to the vet, and got a vitamin injection to give her for this week, but doesn't seem to be making a huge difference. She does have fairly runny turd, and comes out in wierd shapes a blobs, unlike our others. We were also thinking about getting her wormed, as that could clear out any possibility of morms efeecting her. What do you think?
Many thanks for your help,
Ian

Hi Ian i would say if it is at all possible to take a stool sample to the vet so it can be analized that way if there are worms or anything else it can be spotted and treated.Was your vet a herp vet or just a general vet.Silly question i know but some general vets claim to deal with exotics and then treat with a general medicine.

Ryan

[t-bo]

It probably is WC.. so would definately recommend taking a stool sample to the Vets, especialy as its turds are runny.. most probably either paracites or worms.

Good luck, let us know how she gets on

[Ian]

Yeah, that is waht the vet suggested, but it is finding a viable stoll sample to take. Our vet is not so much of a herpetological vet, but he does specialise in reptiles, so I would go along with what he says, but yes, I agree, some vets claiming to have studdied herpetology, haven't got a clue! Cheers for your help guys, will get back to you on her results.
Cheers,
Ian

[mad man 666]

Sadly almost all mellers in the uk are imported adults or farmed babys that will still have gone through the stress of shipping witch is a real shame as these are one stunning cham! Often called the 90 day cham in the trade!

Heres a link i found out about recently thats very very good for mellers!

http://www.melleridiscovery.com/

[Ian]

Wow, cheers mad man, that is probably one of the best sites I have come across. I have never seen a site with such detailed information about 1 species.
Cheers,
Ian

[mad man 666]

yep it amazed me as well, i would deffently love to see more sites like that one about.
I really love mellers chams and sadly being close to a importer ive seen to many large imports that dont live to long, infact he got the hump last time they sent him babys (the buyers wernt complaining though, babys mellars are pretty cute).
Hope all goes well with yours ian.

That site is amazing.The info is very detailed and from what i could see if it isnt stated on the site then you really dont need to know it

Ryan