Didn't Make it....(Necropsy Details, no pics)

[HeatherRose]

This post gets its own thread 'cause I've been up all night running around.

Well, this morning at around 4 am (I'd been staying up watching him) my cham's condition was really worsening by the minute, so I called a 24-hour emergency vet and took him there. They rarely get herps in, and did the best they could. They kept him warm, put him in an oxygen tank and injected him with antibiotics and gave him a subcutaneous injection of fluids to hydrate him. He seemed to become a little better, but by about 6:30am he was gone.

I was intending to keep him at this vet until about 8:30am when my regular hospital opened and the exotics vet would be in. I brought him in for a necropsy with the herp vet.

Turns out the cause of death was completely natural. (I flat out asked him "did I kill my chameleon" and he said there was no way.) The cause was either kidney failure due to gout, or gout due to kidney failure. The chameleon was about 3 1/2 to 4 years old, which is getting up there. (The vet said the average he sees is 3-5 for males) He said a general build up of toxins (natural toxins) would cause the cham to not want to eat or drink and be generally lethargic.

The vet said that chams in captivity often have heart failure, kidney failure, and ailments like tumours for which there is no obvious cause.

If ANYTHING could possibly have been to blame, it could possibly have been a high protein diet. This would have been long in development, when he was a baby, long before I ever got him. (these are the vets words, not mine. I'm not laying blame anywhere.)

Otherwise, if, somehow it had been caught early (which is really impossible without a necropsy) the only thing we could have done would be to possibly slow it down. It was unpreventable.

I'm a little relieved that it was a natural death, although it sucks in general anyways.

The vet I went to was just wonderful, Dr. Darren Auger at the Blair Animal Hospital, 849 Shefford Road in Gloucester. If anyone in the Ottawa area is lacking a herp vet, I highly recommend him. He's been absolutely wonderful with all of my animals and really seems to love herps and what he does.

Anyway, I posted here to let everyone know what happened and in the name of science, to possibly educate and help other cham-philes down the road.

Rest in Peace, Turk <3

Heather