Help! Egg bound, calcium deficient veiled/yemen cham

[Chu'Wuti]

A family was referred to me by a mutual friend because they are moving 2000 miles away and needed a new home for their veiled chameleon. The family acquired the chameleon as an adult of unknown age about a year ago. I posted their information on our local herp society's forum several months ago, shared it at meetings, etc., but to no avail. They are moving on the 25th, and as their last resort, on Saturday (2/9/13), they asked me to take the chameleon, saying they would give me her entire habitat and supplies as well.

Being a sucker for orphans and unwanted pets, I agreed to take her, but I am a snake-keeper and have never had a chameleon, so I'm a little nervous. After agreeing to take her Saturday, I began researching like crazy to learn as much as I can about the husbandry and feeding of veiled chameleons--read every care sheet I could find online (including those posted in this forum) and ordered books from amazon, two of which arrived yesterday. DH & I have already read through those and are trying to distill the conflicting pieces of information enough to generate a reasonable plan for caring for the chameleon.

However, to add to my sense of inadequacy, Sunday morning (2/10/13), the family discovered the chameleon on the floor of her enclosure, gray and weak.

They called me in a panic, and I recommended that they take her to Dr. Brad Minson, a herp-certified vet in Oklahoma City who is recommended by the Oklahoma City Herpetological and Invertebrate Society (of which I'm a member). He was out of town, but his office referred them to Neel Veterinary Hospital, telling them they had an exotic animal vet. I don't know whether or not that is the vet they saw, but apparently she seemed competent and comfortable with chams. Other than that, I don't have any further information about the particular vet they saw, except that a herper/pet store owner in OKC says she's

OK--not as knowledgeable as {the herp certified vet I recommended}, but better than a regular vet.

They spent $166 on her--she is calcium deficient, dehydrated, AND egg bound. She was given a calcium injection, IV fluids, and calcium drops that must be given to her daily for an unspecified length of time (I have the veterinary report and instructions). The vet also instructed that the UVB bulb be replaced. Finally, the vet told them to give her a "container that has 6-12 inches of over moist play sand in it" so she'll have a place to lay her eggs. Let me quote the entire set of instructions from the vet:

Lea presented for weakness and lethargy. She is egg bound and has low calcium. We can try medical management, but it is likely that she will need to be spayed. I have given her a calcium injection, some fluids under the skin, and am sending you home with an oral calcium supplement. Her humidity needs to be at 60-70% and her environment should be kept at 80 degrees until she is feeling better. I would recommend changing your UVB bulb, just in case it is not emitting the UVB rays that she needs. She needs a container that has 6-12 inches of very moist play sand in it- It should be moist enough that she can dig a tunnel in it and it will not collapse on her. Please see the handouts I am sending home with you for more information. Please don't hesitate to call if you have any questions or concerns.

The vet also said that she's overweight--"Body condition 6," if that means something to anyone.

The family brought the chameleon, her Exo-Terra glass enclosure, her meds, and a few crickets to my house Tuesday evening. "Lea" has been kept in an 18" x 18" x 24" GLASS enclosure with a screen top (for the year this family has had her) ; she's currently in that enclosure, as I do not (yet) have appropriate housing for her and there was no time to do anything else Tuesday.

I have ordered a 24" x 24" x 48" screen enclosure and a tray for that enclosure to rehouse Lea after she moves here; that should arrive today, but my Thursday-Friday work schedule is crazy and I won’t be able to move her into it until Saturday (unless I do it in the middle of the night . . . which would disrupt her sleep).

We bought a Zoo Med mini-combo deep dome (dual-dome) light fixture, a new UVB bulb, and an infrared bulb for that fixture. I also bought a Schefflera (one-gallon pot size; 40" from base of pot to top leaves) to put in her enclosure.

In addition, they were keeping an infrared light on above her at night . . . ACK! Everything I've read says that keeps them awake, and the vet told them that as well . . . Anyway, I have a ceramic heat emitter that we've put on the top of the cage screen for a night-time heat source in place of the infrared light, but it is only raising the temp to 77 deg F even in the glass cage. It’s an old one I hadn’t used in a long time, so apparently I need to get a new one.

Unfortunately, the “pot” the current owners provided for egg laying was only about 5" x 5" square and less than two inches deep—it was a sandwich box!

After much reading, I bought a paint bucket (clean, never used for paint), play sand, and Eco Earth. Dh & I soaked the Eco Earth and mixed it with play sand (about 75-80% sand because the Eco Earth was really wet). We filled the bucket to about 1.5 “ below the top. We also planted two small Schefflera on one side of the bucket.

Lea has been fed only gut-loaded, calcium-dusted crickets--no other inverts, no vegetable matter of any kind. This morning I tried to coax her to eat some spinach and other greens, but she is really not interested in them. I also went up to a good pet store in OKC and bought more crickets and gut-loading food—double what I had planned, because the proprietor (well-known to the local herp society as a reputable person) encouraged me to buy more and to try to feed Lea several times a day rather than only in the morning to stimulate her appetite and help her regain enough strength to lay her eggs.

Regarding Lea’s calcium deficiency: I'm not seeing the double elbows shown in some pics posted on the MBD info at another forum for chams. Nevertheless, I am concerned about what appears to be some curvature of leg bones, but I don't know enough about chams to determine whether the curvature I see is abnormal or not. The vet implied that Lea’s calcium deficiency could be contributing to her egg binding issues, though I suspect the primary issue was lack of an adequate place to lay.

Lea is to be given 0.1 ml of the calcium drops twice a day. We have been able to do that without a problem. She doesn't appreciate it, but we can do it.

Lea is able to climb and cling, though she seems to move pretty slowly, which makes me wonder if she is somewhat weak. I know that chams generally do move slowly, but I'm thinking she moves unusually slowly . . . but what do I know??? I take care of snakes, not chams, usually! Though we did end up taking on fire-bellied toads about six months ago . . . Anyway, she was up in a corner when I went back upstairs to get her for her photo op on Tuesday night, and she didn't seem to be having any difficulty hanging on to her vine and the Schefflera last night. Today she is down on the sand in the nesting container, but I haven’t seen her digging—just lying on it.

The owner of the pet store in OKC also wondered whether a shot of oxytocin might help her lay. Apparently the vet to whom Lea was taken only mentioned the possibility of spaying her for $500 and did not give Lea or mention the possibility of giving Lea a shot to stimulate egg laying. Is anyone familiar with this?

What else do I need to do to save this poor chameleon? Is there anything I'm planning that I should NOT do? I've saved a number of snakes and fire-bellied toads, but I've never had a chameleon--and I wasn't ever planning to have one, but here I am . . . just sign me,

A Sucker for an Orphan!