Marks on grips of back feet

[maryanne27]

Hey everyone, yesterday I was chilling watching Olivander.... He was in a strange mood haha super active but not happy with me, just twirling around this vine and glaring at me where normally he would just stay still or move slowly while glaring. He wouldn't even take the hornworms I offered. Anyways, when he got bored with his tricks and found a comfy spot in the corner stretched between two branches, I noticed his one back foot had a mark on the grip. I carefully made him show me the other foot; same mark. He has no grip issues, no lumps or bumps or anything like that. Aside from not wanting the hornworms yesterday (which I think he ate them later because they have disappeared) he has had no eating or digestive issues that I have noticed.

I don't take him out very much because he really doesn't like it, so I'm not sure how long these marks have been there. Here are a few pics I could get. His front feet seemed OK, but I couldn't get pics.... He was getting really stressed and puffed out at me. Like I said, aside from the marks and the excessive sass, he has shown no signs of any issues or unhealthy behavior. He has a variety of vines and branches in varying thickness and texture, some live/natural, some synthetic. Thoughts are appreciated!

@jajeanpierre pertaining to his attitude, could it just be that he is getting to maturity and sort of territorial?

Top of the feet seem good.

Overall pic

 

[maryanne27]

Update from today: Olivander is happily hunting and munching crickets (after he got all fanned out at me for putting them in there). Now I'm definitely not concerned about him not eating the hornworms. He still seems to have no trouble walking, but I'd love opinions about those marks on his grips in case it is something I should fix before it gets worse.
Thanks!

 

[jajeanpierre]

@maryanne27 Those are pressure sores. In birds it is called "bumble foot." Often what happens is there is a break in the skin and bacteria gets in setting up an infection that can often destroy the whole foot--bone and tendons.

I see you have one of those rough-surfaced fake vines. GET RID OF IT!!!

I would recommend you switch out all your perches and replace them with natural branches with bark on it. Have a wide variety of sizes right down to tiny branches thinner than a pencil. You want to change the way he bears weight on his feet. I think if you did a biopsy of those lesions you would find that at the cellular level, the structure of the skin is crushed. By changing the diameter of the perch, you change the places of contact and pressure. I would be inclined to go smaller rather than larger--you want him to grip with his whole foot, not stand on the palm of it. Don't be afraid to give him tiny pencil-sized perches where is likes to sleep.

I'll PM you in a day or so.

 

[maryanne27]

@maryanne27 Those are pressure sores. In birds it is called "bumble foot." Often what happens is there is a break in the skin and bacteria gets in setting up an infection that can often destroy the whole foot--bone and tendons.

I see you have one of those rough-surfaced fake vines. GET RID OF IT!!!

I would recommend you switch out all your perches and replace them with natural branches with bark on it. Have a wide variety of sizes right down to tiny branches thinner than a pencil. You want to change the way he bears weight on his feet. I think if you did a biopsy of those lesions you would find that at the cellular level, the structure of the skin is crushed. By changing the diameter of the perch, you change the places of contact and pressure. I would be inclined to go smaller rather than larger--you want him to grip with his whole foot, not stand on the palm of it. Don't be afraid to give him tiny pencil-sized perches where is likes to sleep.

I'll PM you in a day or so.

THANK YOU!! I'll switch those out today.... I had no idea.

 

[maryanne27]

Ok I'm glad I was off today and that a recent storm blew some branches down in my yard Hahaha I spent the last few hours cutting new branches including thin lilac switches, deconstructing most of his cage, cleaning/disinfecting EVERYTHING because I could, and redoing the layout. It is similar but without the fake rough vines. Some of my thicker branches I found had rough bark so I sanded them a bit just to get the bumps off before cleaning them. Here are a few pics.... @jajeanpierre let me know what you think of the new branches. I've been having issues with live plants so I'm still using the fake leafy vines with smooth plastic. There is a strong live pathos vine down where he usually sleeps now, along with thin switches. Please let me know if there is anything else I could/should be doing in the meantime to facilitate healing.

Olivander was NOT happy. He already ate so there was no way to lure him with food. Eventually with no place to hide I was able to coax him onto my hand with lots of puffing and huffing. Then he spent the rest of the time trying to escape his holding area I arranged with live plants. Almost had a few great escapes, and he was drying out because of the A/C. After the last break for the bookshelf, he got super dark and angry, but I was close enough to finishing that I could put him back in his home. We're all good now.