Help! Gout? MBD?

[TrippyDoll]

This is my chameleon Orochimaru. I noticed today while cleaning poop out of his cage that one of his legs were dangling down and looked swollen at the joint. I took him out and examined him a little more closely. It appears just to be the one joint so far. He also has some swelling next to his mouth that I noticed as well. He is a very friendly chameleon and really lets me pick him up or touch him whenever I want and when I touched his knee he opened his mouth and lunged at me. It seems like he isn't wanting to put weight on it as he just has it dangling. My vet isn't open until Monday and I am not sure if I can even get an appointment that same day. Does anyone know what this is?

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Veiled Chameleon, Male, I am not sure exactly how old he is but I have had him since December 2021 and was around I would say 4-6 months when I got him
• Handling - Almost everyday
• Feeding - 3 Dubia Roaches every 2-3 days, every other feeding mealworms and wax worm with dubias, occasionally hornworms
• Supplements - Zoo Med Repticalcium w/o d3 every feeding and Reptivite w/ d3 every two weeks
• Watering - Mister for 4 mins (15 mins before lights on) in the morning and 4 minutes (15 mins after lights off) at night, fogger on halfway all night, dripper all day
• Fecal Description - The poop I cleaned up today was brown and the urate was mostly white with a yellow end

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Reptibreeze XL (24L x 24W x 48H)
• Lighting - 100w incandescent bulb x 2 and arcadia 6% t5HO bulb 36"
• Temperature - Temperate gun read basking is 75 ish but I moved branches around so it would be in the 80s. Ambient is around 70
• Humidity - During the day humidity is around 20-30% and at night is gets around 70-80%
• Plants - Golden pathos
• Placement - Against wall in living room
• Location - Sioux Falls, SD

 

[TrippyDoll]

This is a picture of his enclosure. I rearranged his cage around tonight so there isn’t any branches at the bottom or plants because I had to hurry to put him back in before lights shut off.

 

[TrippyDoll]

This is another picture of his leg. You can see it’s swollen and dangling in this pic. He was asleep.

 

[kinyonga]

welcome to the forum!

I’m not a vet and can’t tell you if it’s gout or damage to his knee or what it might be. You’ll need a good chameleon vet for that.

If you’re referring to the bump near the joint of his upper and lower jaw as the swelling, that’s normal in veiled chameleons.

Go easy on the waxworks…they’re fatty and should only be treats. Roaches, silkworms, bsfl, crickets, locusts are good feeders. Super worms, tomato hornworms, waxworks make good treats. Use mealworms sparingly.

 

[Thatcher]

Love the name!

 

[MzLaurie11]

You need to get him to a vet monday morn. I think its broken. You really should not have rearranged his cage while he is disabled you dont want him exploring in his condition. Also i would hand feed him until you get him to the vet. Also since he cannot bend or put weight on that leg, you need basking branches horizontal about 8 inches below light with temp aboit 83. Since he seems to be comfortable there maybe put both basking above him for now and put the temp guage near him. I doubt he can climb well if at all and you really dont wznt him to. Consider him a high fall risk. You might need to set up a hospital cage. Some people put the entire cage on its side so they dont have far to fall and put foam or bubble wrap on the floor to break the fall. You need to check the expiration dates on the supplements and make sure the uvb isnt over a year old, if it is, he may not have been getting the right uvb light and it only takes a few.months for mbd to become noticable. I noticed on a few pics there is a black ring around the ankle with the injury but the front leg has black too. Is this normal? Please let us know what the vet says. Your poor guy is in pain. Please treat him as if it is broken and take your supplememts with you to the vet. You dont want to take any chances of another fall.

 

[TrippyDoll]

He can walk on it just fine it seems when he is stagnant he dangles it and doesn’t want to put much weight on it. The basking temp right now is around 83 degrees and the uvb light bulb was purchased a little over 2 weeks ago so it’s brand new. The black rings are from him being piebald. I put brought him in the shower with me this morning to get some more hydration even though I don’t really think he needs it but I am going to try my best to get him in on Monday and I’ll keep you posted.

 

[MissSkittles]

He can walk on it just fine it seems when he is stagnant he dangles it and doesn’t want to put much weight on it. The basking temp right now is around 83 degrees and the uvb light bulb was purchased a little over 2 weeks ago so it’s brand new. The black rings are from him being piebald. I put brought him in the shower with me this morning to get some more hydration even though I don’t really think he needs it but I am going to try my best to get him in on Monday and I’ll keep you posted.

Hi. It’s best not to put your handsome guy in the shower. Water that seems lukewarm to us can actually feel scalding hot for our chameleons. You could add an extra long misting session for him, add a dripper or even just put some ice cubes on the top of his enclosure to melt down thru the day. A vet visit is definitely in order for his leg. Once you have that sorted out, I would suggest perhaps a full husbandry review to ensure everything is 100% perfect for your sweet guy. Look for the questions under health section and ‘how to ask for help’.

 

[TrippyDoll]

Hi. It’s best not to put your handsome guy in the shower. Water that seems lukewarm to us can actually feel scalding hot for our chameleons. You could add an extra long misting session for him, add a dripper or even just put some ice cubes on the top of his enclosure to melt down thru the day. A vet visit is definitely in order for his leg. Once you have that sorted out, I would suggest perhaps a full husbandry review to ensure everything is 100% perfect for your sweet guy. Look for the questions under health section and ‘how to ask for help’.

I give them showers in cold water and I just sit and hold them a few feet away from it so it kinda mists onto them. I have pics of his enclosure above as well as a description of the husbandry

 

[MissSkittles]

I give them showers in cold water and I just sit and hold them a few feet away from it so it kinda mists onto them. I have pics of his enclosure above as well as a description of the husbandry

Ok, relieved it’s cold water. Pardon my completely missing your husbandry My mind is not my own lately and I’ve obviously got a case of the “Doh!”s

 

[TrippyDoll]

Ok, relieved it’s cold water. Pardon my completely missing your husbandry My mind is not my own lately and I’ve obviously got a case of the “Doh!”s

I definitely feel you!! Yeah I’ve given both my Chams showers since they were little and they love them. They just sit and sip until they’re done then they start crawling up my hair

 

[Beman]

You want to get him into a vet... They will need to run bloodwork to determine gout.