Heat lamp blister?

[elesdee]

I was just feeding Lola some worms and was about to turn off her light when I noticed what looks like a blister on her head. Sorry if the picture is a little fuzzy all I have for a camera right now is my crappy phone and it was hard to get a good angle of her head. There's also some discoloration above her eye on the same side but not blistered looking like her head.

I haven't changed the position of my heat light since I got her but could that be the cause?

 

[Elizadolots]

Maybe...that's certainly a good guess. It's definitely something you want to keep an eye on. As it's not broken skin I don't think putting any antibiotics on it would be helpful at this point. If it were a mammal, I'd say to put a cool rag on the area to help prevent the damage from spreading. I don't know how well that would work with a chameleon.

Can you post a few pictures of the cage? I think that would help people in understanding what caused the problem.

 

[suzi]

It looks like she is starting to shed, but it is hard to tell from the picture

 

[JFodera]

How close can her casque get to the heat lamp? Does it seem like it is filled with fluid?

 

[elesdee]

It seems like there could be something in it, it's kind of hard to tell. She doesn't like being held too much and doesn't really let me get my face close to hers lol. I'll be checking it more tomorrow to see how it looks.

 

[elesdee]

Her head still looks the same as it did yesterday, should I just let it go and see if it gets worse?

 

[Ekaj13]

I thought I read somewhere that reptiles don't get blisters.

 

[Ekaj13]

Ok I googled it and found they can blister from burns. It can also be a sign of reptile blister disease. Sounds like you need to see a vet.

 

[Ihrtcham]

Burn or skin disease

So i found my 4 months old veiled chameleon have some fluid filled blister on his back. I took him to the vet and the dr. had no clue what the issue is. They are going to do a CBC and fecal analysis to rule out any parasites or bacteria in the system. I am really worried.

 

[Carlton]

IMHO, both these "blisters" could very well be from thermal burns. They are in the classic places burns show up. Just how a burn starts to show depends on how much damage there was and how deep into the tissue the injury goes. I would treat these as burns...probably nothing you would do will cause further damage even if it was an unrelated infection. Dab some Silvadene on the blister to protect the tissue and prevent secondary infection. Drop the basking area temp either by moving the lamp farther away, moving the perch farther down, or reducing the wattage of the bulb.

One problem our chams have in a captive situation is that they are basking under a pretty intense focused beam of heat unlike basking in "real" sunshine. If they spend too much time in one posture exposed to that sort of heating for a long time (if your room and the rest of the cage is a lot cooler than usual during a cold winter they probably don't use the other areas of the cage to cool off enough) they can get burned. It happens.

If the burn damage isn't severe it will heal OK. It will take time, but will happen.

 

[Carlton]

So i found my 4 months old veiled chameleon have some fluid filled blister on his back. I took him to the vet and the dr. had no clue what the issue is. They are going to do a CBC and fecal analysis to rule out any parasites or bacteria in the system. I am really worried.

I really doubt this is related to parasites. Be aware that most chams even captive ones carry some parasites. You probably won't get rid of all of them because they are also present in their food, and it isn't really necessary. Test to find out what the cham is carrying and at what level. If your cham is otherwise healthy, maintaining its weight and isn't sick, just monitoring the parasite load is an OK approach over time.

All chams are going to have some bacteria in their systems....many are beneficial especially in the gut. Don't expect to eliminate bacteria in general.