Hello everyone!
I have a Jackson's chameleon I have had since November 2020. She has always been healthy, and amazing eater, and very calm (aside from scaring easily once and awhile from visitors).
I feed her small-medium dubia roaches, lightly dusted with calcium once or twice a week. She has a 5.0 UVB bulb and her cage is 24x24x48 inches. I made sure to give her tons of fake plants to hide and climb on everywhere. She has bend-a-branches too that she loves to sleep on. For water, I have a water glass, a dripper plant, and I mist her cage 2 times a day heavily. Right now I'm not misting as much because she's in shed, and I try to avoid getting her wet.
A few days ago, less than a week ago I bought some roaches and accidently got the wrong size online. They weren't giant, she could definitely fit them in her mouth, but I was wary on feeding them to her because they weren't the usual size she eats. I know this next part was wrong, please don't tell me it was because I know 100% that I probably shouldn't have. (Im not sure if this is an important detail but I want to make sure to write everything down that happened.)
Well, when I went to feed her, she was already acting very strange. She wouldn't strike at the dubia roach on my hand (she has always been comfortable with hand feeding), wouldn't even try. Eventually, she did get it with her tongue, but I was horrified when she quickly lulled her tongue out of her mouth as far as it would go until the roach came off. She has NEVER done this before, and I was extremely worried. I tried feeding her another, smaller one, from my hands, but when she went to reach it she instead bit it from my finger as if her tongue didn't work at all and she didn't dare try to use it. She let it sit in her mouth for an EXTREMELY long time. As if it was too big to swallow. After atleast 5 to 10 minutes of her doing this I very, VERY gently (I still know I was probably wrong for this but I was thinking she might choke and I got scared for her) grabbed the sides of the dubia roach that were sticking outside of her mouth and slowly pulled it away, making sure she wasn't resisting at all when I did. She didn't resist in the least.
Naturally, I was pissing myself in terror wondering what the hell is wrong with her. I let her be alone for the rest of the day, hoping that it was just a weird fluke and would try feeding her the next day.
The same thing happened twice. She drooped her tongue all the way out of her mouth until the roach came off and then wouldn't eat again.
Today, I went to check on her at around 6 PM. Her mouth is fucking horrible. Her jaw looks slightly dislocated almost, with the bottom jaw not being aligned properly to the top. There is a black, almost bloodly looking scab on the side of her mouth. I started to cry, honestly, terrified on what was happening and not being able to think straight. After several hours of weeping in self blame and terror/trying to calm down and assess the situation, I checked on her again dispite me half not wanting to see it at all and noticed that under her jaw is turning brown. It doesn't look like she's purposefully changing colors that way, it looks like it's shiny almost. She opened her mouth slowly several times, and I saw her tongue was a sluggish ugly purple color.
Please don't mind me if I sound panicked and terrified because I am, and if I'm short with anyone please understand I'm mortified. I think this is mouth rot but I don't understand how it's progressing so fast. I will upload pictures in the morning of her current state because I don't want to disturb her resting tonight.
NOTE: I already sceduled a vet visit for Thursday the moment I noticed this happening today, and I bought some antiseptic that was recommended for mouth rot that should be here within the next day or two.
All I want to know is if these symptoms sound like mouth rot, MBD, etc, and if she will live until Thursday. (That last part may sound a little dramatic, but please keep in mind that this is my baby)
I have a Jackson's chameleon I have had since November 2020. She has always been healthy, and amazing eater, and very calm (aside from scaring easily once and awhile from visitors).
I feed her small-medium dubia roaches, lightly dusted with calcium once or twice a week. She has a 5.0 UVB bulb and her cage is 24x24x48 inches. I made sure to give her tons of fake plants to hide and climb on everywhere. She has bend-a-branches too that she loves to sleep on. For water, I have a water glass, a dripper plant, and I mist her cage 2 times a day heavily. Right now I'm not misting as much because she's in shed, and I try to avoid getting her wet.
A few days ago, less than a week ago I bought some roaches and accidently got the wrong size online. They weren't giant, she could definitely fit them in her mouth, but I was wary on feeding them to her because they weren't the usual size she eats. I know this next part was wrong, please don't tell me it was because I know 100% that I probably shouldn't have. (Im not sure if this is an important detail but I want to make sure to write everything down that happened.)
Well, when I went to feed her, she was already acting very strange. She wouldn't strike at the dubia roach on my hand (she has always been comfortable with hand feeding), wouldn't even try. Eventually, she did get it with her tongue, but I was horrified when she quickly lulled her tongue out of her mouth as far as it would go until the roach came off. She has NEVER done this before, and I was extremely worried. I tried feeding her another, smaller one, from my hands, but when she went to reach it she instead bit it from my finger as if her tongue didn't work at all and she didn't dare try to use it. She let it sit in her mouth for an EXTREMELY long time. As if it was too big to swallow. After atleast 5 to 10 minutes of her doing this I very, VERY gently (I still know I was probably wrong for this but I was thinking she might choke and I got scared for her) grabbed the sides of the dubia roach that were sticking outside of her mouth and slowly pulled it away, making sure she wasn't resisting at all when I did. She didn't resist in the least.
Naturally, I was pissing myself in terror wondering what the hell is wrong with her. I let her be alone for the rest of the day, hoping that it was just a weird fluke and would try feeding her the next day.
The same thing happened twice. She drooped her tongue all the way out of her mouth until the roach came off and then wouldn't eat again.
Today, I went to check on her at around 6 PM. Her mouth is fucking horrible. Her jaw looks slightly dislocated almost, with the bottom jaw not being aligned properly to the top. There is a black, almost bloodly looking scab on the side of her mouth. I started to cry, honestly, terrified on what was happening and not being able to think straight. After several hours of weeping in self blame and terror/trying to calm down and assess the situation, I checked on her again dispite me half not wanting to see it at all and noticed that under her jaw is turning brown. It doesn't look like she's purposefully changing colors that way, it looks like it's shiny almost. She opened her mouth slowly several times, and I saw her tongue was a sluggish ugly purple color.
Please don't mind me if I sound panicked and terrified because I am, and if I'm short with anyone please understand I'm mortified. I think this is mouth rot but I don't understand how it's progressing so fast. I will upload pictures in the morning of her current state because I don't want to disturb her resting tonight.
NOTE: I already sceduled a vet visit for Thursday the moment I noticed this happening today, and I bought some antiseptic that was recommended for mouth rot that should be here within the next day or two.
All I want to know is if these symptoms sound like mouth rot, MBD, etc, and if she will live until Thursday. (That last part may sound a little dramatic, but please keep in mind that this is my baby)
