scabbing/decaying on limbs and tail

[alibali]

Hi! Please help!

I work at a pet store and we have a veiled chameleon who is ill. We have taken her to the vet 4 times and still have no positive results.

She has not responded to Xenodine or Orbax. She has been isolated in the quiet room since mid October when I first noticed her back left foot beginning to scab.

Since then, the entire back foot has steadily gotten worse to the point where it looks ready to fall off.

Her front left foot and parts of her tail are beginning to show similar signs of deterioration also.

She eats well, had normal droppings, and sheds as usual.

I want to save this sweet girl if I can. Has anyone seen this? Do you know what it is?

 

[jajeanpierre]

I wonder if the shed didn't come off properly and constricted around the leg and tail, cutting off the blood supply.

 

[Djturna4thakidz]

Reptile vet asap, I think amputation may be a viable option.

 

[alibali]

She has been to the vet several times but I think the guy is a bozo...He doesn't know what's wrong and the antibiotic (orbax) and the topical treatment (Xenodine) didn't help.

 

[kinyonga]

I would private message ferritinmyshoes or one of the other vets on here.
Did the vet do a biopsy or anything to test to see what it was?

 

[alibali]

Thanks for the suggestion, I sent her a message.

Unfortunately I did not go to the vet with my manager so I don't know exactly what was done.

 

[LilBlue]

Poor lil gal. You're lucky you have a manager that cares for the pets at the store, I know many who won't give vet care to store animals(I have experienced this and had to learn fast and try my best with sick reptiles when my boss refused medical care...)

I hope ferritinmyshoes has some answers for you. I agree that it looks like retained shed that has cut off the circulation. Now, if there's the chance that the store can't afford any more visits, this is what I would do to treat this: Get betadine and poly/Neosporin without the pain relievers. It would be best to swab the areas with the betadine(use betadine first, before the poly), but with needing to target so many areas, and I wouldn't normally suggest this for a cham as it's stressful for them, is to prepare a 50/50 water and betadine soak. Just a shallow amount in a tub. The soak will ease off the shed, while cleaning it(don't pull skin off), then apply the poly after you dry her off. On the upside she does look bright and hydrated. I have had amazing results treating burns, scale rot, etc with this method. I have also used the "Poly on the go", it comes in a small key-chain type spray bottle, it was great for areas that were just too sensitive to touch with anything.

I'm not familiar with those medicines that you used. Were they a topical ointment, or an oral treatment to fight off any internal infections?

Keep us posted, I'm curious how this turns out. Hope she feels better soon

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Holy smokes that back foot is horrifying. It will most likely need to be amputated as I don't see any way to salvage that at this point. If it was still functional that would be one thing but it looks like the foot is dragging. And the abnormal skin almost looks likes it's trying to spread up the leg, which is very bad. Antibiotics will only help if the primary underlying cause was bacterial to begin with or to prevent secondary infection from another cause. If it was just the tail and feet I would say it was probably a problem primarily caused from constricted shed as it seems to be affecting only extremities. But that large circular crusting on the right side would not fit with that so that makes me more suspicious of something like fungal or potentially just bad bacterial from an underlying lesion there. I would definitely do good antibiotics since there are several areas of compromised skin and bone exposure where infection has a portal to the rest of the body and I would remove that back foot/leg, possibly even the abnormal portion of tail, clean the lesion on the side and if abnormal beneath biopsy it. Ideally I'd send off the foot for histopathology where the lab looks for bacterial or fungal causes for what happened. Husbandry correction is definitely needed or this wouldn't have gotten to this point to begin with.

 

[carol5208]

Thank you for responding Dayna(Ferritt) as always! Love learning from you! I just wanted to wish you luck with her and hope there is something that can be done so she can atleast lead some quality of life. Please keep us updated.