Dez
Chamalot Chameleons
Some things are scary to see your chameleon do even if you are an experienced keeper.
We had a bit of a chameleon crisis this weekend and wanted to share. I don't know if anyone has had a similar thing happen
Saterday night after we got back fro Orlando Repticon we observed our Veiled girl, Hazel acting like she was choking. Here is a video. She did this 4 times that we saw.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUq_blDWiVQ
I have not seen anything like this before and was not quite sure what to do. I looked down her throat to see if there was anything she was choking on but didn;t see anything. I DID see a fleshy growth on her gums (you can see it in the video on her lower jaw)
Again something I had never seen before. She fell asleep with her head in the up position.. My mind was racing from anything from a RI to Mouth cancer.
Sunday we packed Hazel up (who did the tongue drop once again that morning) and headed back to Orlando Repticon to see Dr Alfonso. I showed him the videos.
Looking in her mouth he saw behind the fleshy growth was all discolored and rotted on her jaw. Like a cavity that humans get. Now what do you do about chameleons with cavitys.. not like they can brush and floss!
He offered to take her home with him and do minor surgery to remove the growth.. He also cleaned the area of the jaw.
I was able to get her back today and she is doing very well. She ate as soon as I got her home. Her mouth surgery site looks very clean.
She did not do the tongue drop thing while in Dr A's care. And we are only speculating that this behavior had something to do with the growth in her mouth.
One theory is that the rot behind the growth was causing a gag reflex..and her dropping her tongue was just a reaction of gagging. Or maybe she felt the growth in her mouth and was trying so hard to spit it out.
I don't know But I am happy to have her home and out look is good.
Picture is from an hour after I got her back
We had a bit of a chameleon crisis this weekend and wanted to share. I don't know if anyone has had a similar thing happen
Saterday night after we got back fro Orlando Repticon we observed our Veiled girl, Hazel acting like she was choking. Here is a video. She did this 4 times that we saw.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUq_blDWiVQ
I have not seen anything like this before and was not quite sure what to do. I looked down her throat to see if there was anything she was choking on but didn;t see anything. I DID see a fleshy growth on her gums (you can see it in the video on her lower jaw)
Again something I had never seen before. She fell asleep with her head in the up position.. My mind was racing from anything from a RI to Mouth cancer.
Sunday we packed Hazel up (who did the tongue drop once again that morning) and headed back to Orlando Repticon to see Dr Alfonso. I showed him the videos.
Looking in her mouth he saw behind the fleshy growth was all discolored and rotted on her jaw. Like a cavity that humans get. Now what do you do about chameleons with cavitys.. not like they can brush and floss!
He offered to take her home with him and do minor surgery to remove the growth.. He also cleaned the area of the jaw.
I was able to get her back today and she is doing very well. She ate as soon as I got her home. Her mouth surgery site looks very clean.
She did not do the tongue drop thing while in Dr A's care. And we are only speculating that this behavior had something to do with the growth in her mouth.
One theory is that the rot behind the growth was causing a gag reflex..and her dropping her tongue was just a reaction of gagging. Or maybe she felt the growth in her mouth and was trying so hard to spit it out.
I don't know But I am happy to have her home and out look is good.
Picture is from an hour after I got her back
