Mellers lobe!!!

[dante8858]

I hope someone can help me with my Mellers question. A few days ago I noticed that one of the lobes on my Mellers looked a different color and shriveled up a little compared to the other side. I took my Mellers out and the Shriveled up lobe is hard! I don’t want to get too freaked out but what can this mean? He is eating, drinking and pooping so this has not changed his behavior but I am wondering if this is ok?
Here is the other info to help:
Cage type: All screen, 2x2x4
Lighting: 20” Reptisun 5.0 & a Zoomed 75w spot light
Temps: Bottom 68-71 degrees & Top 75-83/5 degrees
Plants: One large Ficus, bamboo, and store bought vines (can’t recall the brand)
Chameleon: Mellers, unknown sex, I have had since last June. He gets 7-12 large crickets every other day. I gut load them with Naturezone Total bites(green), Naturezone water bites(blue) and Rainbow cricket feed.I dust crickets once every two weeks with Zoomed repticalcium. He drinks water every day from a spray bottle, then drinks off of the leaves. Here are a few photos that I took a few days ago...I also noticed that his shoulder seems to be the same color as the lobe....any ideas?

 

[Syn]

Question: Could it be a burn?

 

[chamelisa]

Looking at the discolored area behind the lobe leads me to think this could be a burn from a basking light.

He looks stressed. I've only had one melleri and the first couple of months he looked spotted black, white, yellow and only slightly green.

What are you doing for hydration on this fella?

 

[Syn]

He drinks water every day from a spray bottle, then drinks off of the leaves.

There you go.



Is it possible this could be from a bad shed?

 

[Sepioteuthis]

If it's not a burn, it could be fungal. I've never dealt with this problem myself, but I know that last year (or the year before last) some people got WC melleri with fungal skin infections. And the yellowish skin on your cham's back and head kind of reminds me of that.
There's some info about it on www.melleridiscovery.com. Look under 'health' and than 'medical'.

 

[Eric Adrignola]

looks like unshed skin for sure. That stuff will become hard, and it will laminate over time. Layers of unshed skin with space in between are prime breeding grounds for fungi. I'd try to remove the unshed skin, if that is what it is. A bit of mineral oil, soaked in for a while, should loosen it. If there is no tissue damage underneath, then it should peel off. IF you have a fungal infection, a vet will prescribe something for it.

Regardless, a vet visit wold help determine exactly what's wrong.

Melleri are prone to necrosis of the lobes and back, as these areas tend to accumulate dead skin and be more prone to damage from burns. They tend to be the hardest areas to shed, too.

The hardness makes me think it's a bunch of unshed skin with some fungus in it. We had a pardalis with a thick layer of the stuff, and some mineral oil removed almost all of it.

 

[dante8858]

Looking at the discolored area behind the lobe leads me to think this could be a burn from a basking light.

He looks stressed. I've only had one melleri and the first couple of months he looked spotted black, white, yellow and only slightly green.

What are you doing for hydration on this fella?

He was basking in the sun in those photos but he gets a very pretty green with no spots...he was probably stressed being outside since it had been months!
If it is a burn how do you treat it?