Chameleon Skin Necrosis? :(

LivingDeadGirl

New Member
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Male Nosy Be Panther chameleon, 4yrs old. He's been in my care for around 3 years.
How often do you handle your chameleon? Never - he doesn't like people being around him and I make sure I keep his stress levels to an absolute minimum.
What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? - I feed him 5/6 gut loaded crickets a day(they eat spring greens and bug grub).
During a week there are 3 days with calci-dust, 2 days with calci-dust w/ d3 and 2 days with no dusting. I sprinkle reptivite on them instead of regular calci-dust twice a month.
What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? I use a mistking system which comes on 4 times a day for a few minutes at a time. I also use a drip box once a day to ensure he sees moving water and drinks.
Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? I am unsure when he last defecated but the droppings I have found have been solid and the urate has been yellowy white. He's not been tested for parasites before.

Cage Info:

Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
He lives in a Zoo Med ReptiBreeze Screen Cage 46x46x92cm.
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? He has a 60w spot light and a Reptisun 5.0 UVB tube.
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? His basking area is around 80f and the area where he usually sits in the shade is around 70f. His overnight temps are around 65f. I use digital thermometers.
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? Unsure at the moment as I need to buy another digital hygrometer.
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? I use one large live plant, I can't currently remember the genus but I know it's a safe plant as I spent a couple of months trying to find the right plant species and size for him. There is also a small fake plant on the floor of his cage.
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? He is located in a bedroom which doesn't have much traffic at all. He is away from a window and any vents. The top of his cage is about as high as me (5ft5) as his cage is on a stand.
Location - Where are you geographically located? England, UK.

So this is the first time my chameleon (Sulley) has had any health issues since I've owned him and it's not looking good for him :( Here's what's happening( apologies for the long post):
Sulley shed a couple of weeks ago and there was a light patch left on his side which looked like leftover shed so I didn't think anything of it. Around 10 days ago or so I noticed a mouldy growth forming on this patch and it seemed to appear almost over night. I took him to the vets the next day to get it looked at, (the vet had dealt with exotics before but she isn't a specialist), she agreed with me when I said I though it might be a fungal infection and he was put on a course of antibiotics. It started to look better after the first couple of injections but then it took a turn for the worse again. A few days ago, whilst he was back for another injection, the vet told me she had gently rubbed the infected skin with a cotton bud and some dead skin came off. What was left looked like an open wound, which she told me was almost like a human graze - where the top layer of skin has come off. I was then given Flamazine cream 1.0% to apply to this wound twice day. Today he went back to the vets for another injection and he is now being referred to a specialist who will hopefully be ringing tomorrow. The wound appears to be spreading and from what I can tell it's looking like necrosis :( I've also noticed that the skin along his spine and on his knees isn't looking as bright. I would just like to know your opinions and if there's anything else you feel I can do to help him until he sees this specialist. He's eating well but he's starting to look more lethargic and dehydrated than usual and I'm so worried about him! :(
I've taken some pictures for you guys to take a look at:

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I'm by no means an expert, but it looks like a possible thermal burn. What are you using to measure temperatures? It could very well be fungal as well. Monitoring his humidity should be a priority though, so get a new gauge!
 
I'm by no means an expert, but it looks like a possible thermal burn. What are you using to measure temperatures? It could very well be fungal as well. Monitoring his humidity should be a priority though, so get a new gauge!

It started off as a fungal growth and has developed in to this - there's no where he could get burnt as far as I know and I use digital thermometers.
 
It does look like a burn, and that is a pretty common location for a burn. Just in case, you should check your temperatures and distances to light bulbs.



Did the vet prescribe any anti fungal treatment for the skin? Is that what flamazine is for? Did the vet take a biopsy of the area or culture the wound to try to identify the infecting agent? The antibiotics will help any bacterial infection in the body but will not kill fungal infections. You need a specific medication for that. Since it's a open wound, the vet may need to remove infected skin and prescribe a course of topical medications. It sound like this process has started.



It may be that the mold was just affecting the stuff dead shed and not the underlying skin. So the infection may not be fungal but more related to damage to healthy tissue due to lack of blood flow or other issues. Again, the specialist will probably want to clean the area and prescribe medications. Reptiles heal very slowly, so don't be discouraged if it takes months to go away.



That's all the advice I can offer unfortunately. I'm definitely not a vet, so the above are just my thoughts. I really hope your little guy makes it through this okay. Antibiotics are very hard on the body, so make sure he is getting plenty to drink. Definitely get him into the specialist as soon as possible.
 
Flamazine : Silver sulfadiazine cream is used to prevent and treat wound infections in patients with second- and third-degree burns.

Silver sulfadiazine is an antibiotic. It works by killing the bacteria or preventing its growth.

Info taken from Drugs.com

I didn't think it had anti fungal properties but looked it up to be sure
 
It could have been a burn intially but then the fungal or moldy growth opportunistically infected the wound if the skin was not intact. Silvadene is for burns. It contains silver which has antibacterial properties, but silver (Ag) is a metal that can also be toxic in accumulation. It is also a topical sulfonamide which is also antibacterial. However it has fallen out of favor recently because there has been research to show that it actually INCREASES healing time. I am really sorry to hear the problems you have been having and I don't really know what to tell you. I hope your vet can help with this.
 
Thank you so much for your replies!
The vet never said anything about it being a possible burn, but if that's what it appears to be then it's better to be safe than sorry - I will double check my temps with a different thermometer and I'll move the lighting. It's good to know that the cream he was subscribed helps heal burns aswell.
Sulley is seeing the specialist on Thursday - until then I will continue lightly cleaning the wound and using the Flamazine. He's still eating and I saw him drinking a fair bit yesterday so at least there are signs of him doing ok.
 
Awesome. Definitely let us know how the visit with the specialist goes. I'm curious what he says.
 
Update:

So Sulley went to see the reptile specialist yesterday. I told her what you guys said about it being a possible burn and she agreed it could be, but also said it looked like a fungal infection too. He stayed over night and they took a skin sample and cut away the dead skin this morning - I won't get the biopsy results back until next week. Sulley's currently at home recovering from his surgery, he looks rather sluggish but they kept an eye on him throughout the day and he kept climbing around and took plenty of fluids so that's a good sign. Now I just need to carry on with the antibiotics and cream until they find out what's caused his skin problems.
Here are a couple of pictures that show how his side is looking now (apologies for the quality):

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Thanks again for your responses!
 
Thanks for the update. I was wondering about your little guy. I'm glad they cleaned the wound out. Did the underlying tissue look okay? Keep us updated if you get anymore info from the vet regarding the biopsy.
 
Thanks for the update. I was wondering about your little guy. I'm glad they cleaned the wound out. Did the underlying tissue look okay? Keep us updated if you get anymore info from the vet regarding the biopsy.

The vet said that the muscle looked healthy, it was just his skin that was looking infected. He's looking good today - full of feist and eating and drinking :) Fingers crossed he makes a full recovery!
 
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