Injured lip, Won't open his eyes, wild chameleon.

[arama]

• Your Chameleon - Jackson Chameleon, Male, Unknown age. We found him 5 days ago.

• Handling - We check on him once every hour

• Feeding - We feed him flies, small cockroaches and we purchased gourmet grasshoppers from Petco, We feed him every two, hours

• Supplements - N/A

• Watering - We give him water from a syringe every hour.

• Fecal Description - Don't know what his dropping look like or if he has defecated recently

• History - We found him stuck on some string in the sun on Saturday, his lower lip is peeled back a bit and he doesn't open his eyes. We took him into our home and we have been caring for him ever since. He has gotten better. At first, he wouldn't move or eat, Now whenever we warm his body up with a heated rag (not too hot) he is active and he can eat larger insects such as the abdomen of a grasshopper.

• Cage Type -Small - Medium plastic Petco container

• Lighting - N/A He is next to a window in the shade using the natural light from the sun.

• Temperature - He is a wild chameleon so we keep him in the natural temps he is used to. Low 80's in the daytime and lowest temp @ night can get to Low 60's high 50's

• Humidity - I don't know.

• Plants - We have wild grass, Mango sticks and coffee tree leaves in his container.

• Placement - His Container is located next to an open window during the day which is closed at night, plenty of fresh air. not a highly trafficked area.

• Location - We are located in Kealakekua on the big island of Hawaii

Pictures of him and his lip are attached to this thread. please tell me what I can do to help rehabilitate him. He has made great progress so far but I'd

like to heal his lower lip, any tips help

 

[Dave85731]

A vet would be your best bet but might be hard to find one there

 

[Mjdwicinski]

A vet is your best bet. A plastic container isn't a great idea for housing any chameleon. A cage by a window does him no good. He needs uv light which he isn't getting by sitting by the window. Uv doesn't penetrate thru glass and screen. The cage by window if in the sun will heat up alot quicker than us humans realize. Accurate temp and humidity measurements are essential. A uv light is a MUST.

 

[JacksJill]

He looks like he had some kind of trauma or infection in that jaw. Vet care would be best. If that's not possible than supportive care is his next best bet.
Here is the care sheet so you can adjust his husbandry while he heals. https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/jacksons/
This might help also. https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/health/vet/

 

[kinyonga]

It looks like it might have a bit of mouth rot in it's upper lip below the horns. Not sure why the lower lip is like that.
Is it's tail kinked too?
Are it's eyes open at all during the day?
Have you tried placing an insect between it's teeth when it's mouth is opening and shutting? This might show the prospects of recovery in a way because if he eats it willingly it shows that it still has a "will to live" ...if it spits it out or just sits there with it in it's mouth then it will need a lot of support to have a chance of survival.

Be careful giving it water from a syringe that you don't put too much in it's mouth at once so it won't aspirate it. You could making try a dripper so that the water can be dripped on it's nose to see if it will drink without assistance. all you need is a plastic drinking cup with a small hole punched in the bottom so it will drip at the rate if one it two drips per second.

It really does need a good vet.
Good luck with it!

 

[timw1]

Thanks for helping him, please read up in the care section. Also be careful not to bake him in that small enclosure in the sun.

 

[Amanda.lynn]

I love jaxs! Reptaid helps with eye and nose and mouth infections. I'm still new to this though.

 

[Kristen99]

I love jaxs! Reptaid helps with eye and nose and mouth infections. I'm still new to this though.

Reptaid can help but if it is an infection it will need antibiotics and proper diagnoses reptaid alone will not heal the problem. With mouth rot there is often an underlying issue that needs to be pin pointed a culture may be done by a vet if it becomes vary serious it may need surgery please never just rely on reptaid.

 

[Amanda.lynn]

Okay. Yeah I would definitely schedule a vet visit or find a wildlife rehabilitation. I just thought retaid may help a little until she can get it to a professional.