...new melleri girl, but turns out having severe mouthrot

[Miss Machine]

Hi everyone,

For 6 months I was searching for a Mellers girl for my boy Melle. Melle is doin' great. Finally I found a store who had lots of melleri and had just one left.

A friend of mine bought her for me last thursday. When I got home from work that day, i looked at the animal and showed her to Melle. He displayed flickering with his earlobes, and was nodding his head and wagging his tail up and down. No aggressiveness..so I jumped up and down by the idea she might be a female. I also noticed she had a bump on the left lower side of her jaw. That night I decided to leave her be and check out the bump the next day.

Friday I did a check up on her. I rubbed the bump and the puss sprayed out! Oh my!!! I rushed her into the bathroom to clean her mouth with 1% hydrogen peroxide. And then I discovered her whole mouth is rotting away.. I first cleaned the abcess but then wiped out her lower left row of teeth, then her upper left row of teeth, upper right was already gone and lower right was also loose.. NOOOO i screamed!! This animal suffers so much.
I have antibiotics at home (marbofloxacin) so I measured the dosage based on her weight and gave her the medicine. I also called the store and I could bring her back and get my money back. But i don't want that. I want to try to save her....bringing her back certainly means death.

I soo hope that I can save her life, but wonder if she can survive not having any teeth. Her jawbones, or what's left of them, are so fragile.

Can a chameleon eat 'normal' having no teeth or fragile jawbones after it recovers from this infection?

I try to hydrate her very well by letting her drink as much as she can. As recoveryfood I give her mashed up rosebeetlelarvae (large beetle larvae) for now...I clean her mouth once a day with the hydrogen peroxide solution and give her 3 drops of the antibiotic.

Poor thing...I just hope she doesn't die of all the stress and pain

 

[Lovereps]

Oh, that is so sad. I hope your efforts save her help her to recover soon.
You are very kind to help her, instead of returning her.
I don't know if she will be able to eat chewy bugs after she recovers without help but maybe softer bugs will be fine--like silkworms, hornworms.
Perhaps CaptainMorgantown can answer that, since he rescued a cham with the worst MBD , as shown here after recovery
https://www.chameleonforums.com/jojo-pictures-96730/

Wishing you great success with her!

 

[Miss Machine]

Thank you Lovereps, I will do my utter best!! She stole my heart!

 

[Carlton]

Thank you Lovereps, I will do my utter best!! She stole my heart!

When an infection like this travels to the bone of the jaw it is very difficult to stop. You have no way of knowing how long she's had it either so no way to know if it has spread to other parts of her skull. Possibly an xray could tell you how much of the bone is left or if there are any fractures due to bone loss.

Another problem could be that her tongue and the bone and muscles that control it will also be damaged. She might lose her ability to swallow.

Poor little thing!

 

[djfishygillz]

It is good that you are taking care of her, but I would return her. It is not your responsibility to spend hundreds on an animal that was supposed to be healthy ans that was purchased assuming it was in good health.

 

[Chameleonmaster]

if you go on melleridiscovery.com they have a whole section on mouth rot if you havent visited there site yet. i hope she will pull through!!!!

 

[Miss Machine]

Thank you all.

djfishygillz: I understand your point completely. Normally I would do this, but she already stole my heart and I can't help it but I will try to get her healthy again. Returning her certainly means death...

It's her 5th day on antibiotics and cleaning with hyd.perox. and I must say she has healthy no stress colors, walks around and tries to communicate with my male melleri. I also found some of her stool because i (force) feed her the beetle-larvae.. She also drinks a lot of water and sticks her tongue out a bit to lick up the drops..

In about a week I will go to see my vet and will ask him to make x-rays of her skull to see how much is left of her jawbones..and what the average status on her skull is.

 

[Decadancin]

Best of luck for a nice recovery! Hope you found the problem in time so she can live a full and happy life. Keep us posted with what the vet says!

 

[kinyonga]

I had a Parson's female chameleon once that lost all the teeth and jawbone supporting them in one quarter of her mouth. She did fine regarding eating. I don't know how much trouble one would have if it lost teeth and bone in both halves of the mouth though. Hopefully she will be okay. Maybe you will have to feed it more soft bodied insects if it has trouble chewing?

 

[Miss Machine]

Thanks again!

I so hope that the bacteria did not destroy to many jawbone. I will know in a couple of days.

I will post if i have new information..

 

[Miss Machine]

One update on my melleri girl which i am very happy about! I have her on Baytril now for almost 14 days. I also give her Rimadyl drops, a painkiller, because of her broken jaw. I had to forcefed her because she became anorexic due to her condition.

Today she ate by herself again!!! There was a loose cricket in her cage and suddenly I saw her aiming for it. She is not accurate in shooting, i hope it is not because her tongbone has also deteriorated by the bacteria. But she also eats out of my hands, so I am very happy for her! She tries to bite on the crickets but is actually moving it around in her mouth but swallows it. I give her crickets with a soft shell.

This monday, on the last day of 2012 I'm seeing the vet and so hope that he knows a way to work on her broken jaw.

 

[rsepiphyte]

So wonderful to hear this!
Ruth

 

[jannb]

One update on my melleri girl which i am very happy about! I have her on Baytril now for almost 14 days. I also give her Rimadyl drops, a painkiller, because of her broken jaw. I had to forcefed her because she became anorexic due to her condition.

Today she ate by herself again!!! There was a loose cricket in her cage and suddenly I saw her aiming for it. She is not accurate in shooting, i hope it is not because her tongbone has also deteriorated by the bacteria. But she also eats out of my hands, so I am very happy for her! She tries to bite on the crickets but is actually moving it around in her mouth but swallows it. I give her crickets with a soft shell.

This monday, on the last day of 2012 I'm seeing the vet and so hope that he knows a way to work on her broken jaw.

That is really great news that she's eating on her own. I hope she will continue to improve. Merry Christmas Wendy!

 

[Miss Machine]

Thanks again Jann!

I have great news to tell you guys. She is doing great! I visited my vet on the last day of 2012. He was very pleased with the treatment I gave her. Her gums were nicely healed and pink again. No dental x-ray was needed. He could see the reason she has a curly lower jaw at the tip of the mouth. About 1 cm of jawbone is missing. Unfortunately for that reason she is unable to close her mouth fully, but according to the vet this was not a problem. Only when she drinks she salivates a lot. I let her drink as much as she can because I worry she will become dehydrated.

She eats like crazy and because she is skinny, i let her eat all day . I also use Nutribac (reptile probiotics) with every feeding to give her a healthy gut again. Mostly i feed her medium sized well gutloaded crickets and small desert hoppers and rose beetle larvae with chopped of jaws, for safety.

She is also getting more and more along with my male mellers, so I am hoping they will produce offspring in the future. They both are free ranged and can climb between eachother's enclosure or can sit by the window and look outside to watch the trees and the birds and stuff..they seem to enjoy that. The window/room is on the topfloor..

(sorry, bad quality)

I am a glad chameleonmomma, for saving my little big girl

 

[CLP]

Wow! What a great story. I love these happy endings as so many of these unfortunate creatures we find in poor condition don't always turn out well. Congratulations! She is so lucky to have such a wonderfully loving and persistent "mom".

I look forward to hearing about your upcoming babies from this beautiful gal in the future!

 

[deadhd5]

I wish I could start everyday with a heartwarming story like this!

You truly saved her life and the bond that you will share with her for the rest of her life will be very special. It is truly inspiring to see of such compassion and commitment on your part.

I wish you continuing good luck with her recovery and eventual motherhood!

 

[Miss Machine]

Thank you both for your kind words!

 

[leedragon]

hope is goes well man, keep it up

 

[Chameleons09]

thats great news

Glad to hear that your Chameleons is doing so much better! Great work bringing her back to health.

 

[Decadancin]

Way to go!!! I am so happy to read this. Best of luck for a long, healthy life for your STILL beautiful girl . Can't wait for babies!!!