Possible crest wound?

[PBandJammers]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Piebald Veiled Chameleon. Male. I’m not 100% on exact age, maybe 10-11 months. I’ve had him for 9 months.
• Handling - I only handle him when needed, i.e. shower time, moving back to cage, etc.
• Feeding - Mainly Dubai roaches, with supplemental hornworms. He generally eats 3-4 quarter sized roaches daily. I have my Owen Dubai colony and feed them a variety of fruits and veggies.
• Supplements - I don’t remember the brand of vitamins as i moved them to different containers, but he gets calcium every day to other day if i forget and vitamins once a week.
• Watering - He has an automatic mister that goes off every 6 hours for 1 minute and gets weekly showers. I see him drinking frequently.
• Fecal Description - dark brown with white urates. They are solid.
• History - never had any other problems.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - He has a screen terrarium, 24x24x48
• Lighting - I have the T something bar light for uvb and a combo uvb heat bill for basking. Lights are from 6:30am-7pm.
• Temperature - basking is 92f. Ambient is 80f, bottom is 70f. I have a digital laser thermometer.
• Humidity - humidity stays between 50-60. I have a meter in the middle of his terrarium. What are your humidity levels?
• Plants -No live plants.
• Placement - it’s in our bedroom, as it’s the least trafficked room in the house. No vents or drafts that I’ve felt on him. The top of the terrarium is about 8 feet high and the bottom sits about 4 feet off the ground.
• Location - Northern California.

Current Problem - I was giving Patches his weekly shower when I noticed the top of his crest looked discolored. He’s a piebald, so he’s got a lot of weird discolored patches, but this one was different. I tried to take some pictures, which I have uploaded. I’m wondering if this is something serious, or a minor scrap or something from Rubbing his head on his terrarium. Any input on this would be very helpful.

 

[PBandJammers]

Some additional photos

 

[SerpeRoma]

Definitely injured, probably from heat lamp. Can you post pictures of the enclosure please? Including lights

 

[PBandJammers]

Definitely injured, probably from heat lamp. Can you post pictures of the enclosure please? Including lights

Of course. The bottle is a feeding bowl I made. The clear thing is where his bowl was before I had the feeder, but he liked to sit on it. Where he is now in the third pic is about where he has been basking the past month or so. He discovered that he can climb on the screen and has not stopped.

 

[AmandaS]

You definitely want to raise the basking fixture up, off of the screen.
I agree that it looks like a burn.

 

[SerpeRoma]

yeah, definitely basked on top of that vine and burned his casque, 92f is too high, keep it around 80-85f and try to keep it a bit dryer during the day. You want to aim for 30-50% RH during the day and 70-100% RH at night. Also being a veiled I would get rid of all fake plants, he could eat one and that doesn't usually end well.. first thing raise the heat lamp though, if he keeps basking with the casque like this it'd only get worse.

 

[PBandJammers]

yeah, definitely basked on top of that vine and burned his casque, 92f is too high, keep it around 80-85f and try to keep it a bit dryer during the day. You want to aim for 30-50% RH during the day and 70-100% RH at night. Also being a veiled I would get rid of all fake plants, he could eat one and that doesn't usually end well.. first thing raise the heat lamp though, if he keeps basking with the casque like this it'd only get worse.

I will certainly make all those adjustments. As for his wound, should I do any additional things like clean it, neosporin, or anything like that?

 

[SerpeRoma]

I will certainly make all those adjustments. As for his wound, should I do any additional things like clean it, neosporin, or anything like that?

That could work, but it'd be better to ask a vet.

 

[MissSkittles]

It would be best to take him to a vet for treatment. You’ll be able to get some silver sulfadiazine cream to apply topically and he may need antibiotic to prevent infection. In the meantime you can apply a thin daub of plain neosporin without pain relief or manuka honey.

 

[PBandJammers]

Update, took him to the vet and the vet said it looked like it was already healing just fine. I’ve made the light adjustments and my boy is doing great. Thanks for all the help!

 

[Beman]

Update, took him to the vet and the vet said it looked like it was already healing just fine. I’ve made the light adjustments and my boy is doing great. Thanks for all the help!

I would request the silver sulfa cream from the vet anyways. You should be applying this to the top of the burn. It does not matter if the outer part is healing they can develop infection inside and actually lose the entire part of the burned area. The deeper the infection the more of the casque is at risk for dying off and falling off.