Seriously worried.

I wasn't thinking burns...there's a fungal infection that looks somewhat like that but develops blisters/pox at some point during its development. It was the scabbing that made me wonder if the scabs were like blisters/pox before becoming scabs...were they??
 
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Well this happened at 3 pm Sang. I wouldn't think it would've healed by now?

To clarify, this happened TODAY... er, well yesterday. If nothing changes by this weekend, I'll take him to my herp vet on monday.
 
leid said:
kinyonga --

no blisters, no lesions. I walked in at 3 pm to mist him and he had shredded skin. It looked like he had scratched himself. Two hours before this he was fine. My first theory was that his shed caused him to try and scratch it off. Now, they're black scabs which you can view in the pictures. They do look like burns, but they were never lesions or blisters, or any indication of a burn to begin with!



LOL funny story--

I had eaten carrots with my meals for like three days straight. The next time I went to the bathroom I freaked out and thought my liver was failing!
Click to expand...

Oh god, lets talk about our feces now... :rolleyes:;) You made me laugh haha
 
A female I have developed a similar greyish black lesion during a shed. She had a URI at the time and was given a shot of Vit A, D3 and calcium. Three days later I went to clear some mucus out of her mouth, and ths skin just came off either side of her head, small spots but still was scarey. At the time she wasn't sheding but did two days later. Immediately after it was greyish brown, and later within a day or two started to scab over, reddish black.

I later looked into why this happened, and I've read that high levels of vit A have been linked to skin peeling off like that. When I asked the vet about it, she seemed to think it was plausible given that no blood work was done prior to the shot. Just a thought, hope you are able to figure out what caused it though.

Hypervitaminosis A: Hypervitaminiosis A is a true toxicity and is usually caused iatrogenicly by an overdose injection of concentrated vitamin A preparation by the veterinarian. Clinical signs mimic a dermal burn and include sloughing of the skin. Treatment resembles burn wound therapy, including antibiotics, addressing the open wound and administering parenteral fluid.

Injections with highly concentrated vitamin A (e.g. 500,000 IU/ml) should be avoided and this preparation given only orally. Aquasol A (by Astra) is a good alternative for injection because it contains only 50,000 IU/ml.
Click to expand...

http://http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/vet-dept/avian-exotic-dept/nutritional-related-diseases-in-reptiles.aspx
 
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This thread has gone in 100 different directions.... Tera, take it to the vet on monday unless the problem miraculiously disapears over the weekend.

When you have 20 people who respond to a post and say " It could be ...... but I don't know for sure, so dont take my word for it." Why the hell would you even post. Just shut up and leave it at that!

I cant begin to tell you how frustrating it is to weed through post to get answers when they get ambushed by amature vets!


Sorry if you feel offended by any of this, but deep down inside many of you feel the same yet bite your tongue for the sake of saving face.

-Malicious
 
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So too much vitamin A? This is interesting. My vet administered the vit A three weeks ago, would they show signs now? What can I do to prevent this from occurring? I'm going to halt cricket gutloading of carrots, but should I continue dusting with vit A once a week?
 
leid said:
So too much vitamin A? This is interesting. My vet administered the vit A three weeks ago, would they show signs now? What can I do to prevent this from occurring? I'm going to halt cricket gutloading of carrots, but should I continue dusting with vit A once a week?
Click to expand...

Maybe speak to your vet about this? He did issue it to you, so you may want to run it by him about the skin, im sure it wont cost anything for a simple phone call :)

-Levi

Goodnight
 
Jason, I know. Now I'm just interested though. It might have not been my vet if it were vit A deficiency. It could have been me. The tests run on my cham said he had a vit A deficiency and I upped his vit A quite a bit, which could have contributed to this. If I don't see any improvements in my chameleon by Monday I will take him to the vet, you have my word.

Levi--

I will definitely ask them.
 
As I said it was just a thought. And was sharing what happened to my female after a vit A injection. I was very careful not to mess with her anymore after that first bit of skin slouthed off. I cut back on the supplements for about a month, just as a precaution.

Those are all questions better answered by a vet. I believe the gutloading is ok as it is not performed Vit A, and if it is not needed or excess it will remain as beta carotene.

What supplement are you using to provide the performed vit A and how much does it contain? Just curious.
 
I use reptivite with vitA and no d3. I use it twice a week. I use d3 twice a month (until hes 8 months so i'm told by vet) and the rest just straight calcium powder. Im not sure about the ug unless i go into my bedroom and wake up my husband. If you have reptivite its the same amount on your label as it is mine.
 
From all that Ive read gutloading to achieve a balanced diet of vitamins and minerals is much safer than trying to add supplements. Hertitvite has betacarotene as its source of Vit A, and in proportion a very small amount per Kg, 44mg in the standard 100g tub. Betacarotene is the safer way of providing Vit A as it has to be converted to become Vit A. And there is some debate over wether or not chams can actually convert it, but thats something else entirely.

I use a supplement from trex that has Vitamin A acetate, instead of beta carotene. The entire bottle, same size as the herptivite contains 36000IU. I use this once every 4 to 6 weeks. If the shot contained around 50000, just speculating, it would be like dusting with a bottle and a half in one day.

If it is related to Vit A I would suspect it has more to do with the injection than the supplements or gutload. The shot may have elevated the levels and the supplements kept it up there? Really the only way to tell would be blood tests.
 
Leid said..."No, like i said. It looked like shed pieces but they were brown, not typically white. The marks were linear, which made me believe they were claw marks. Is it uncommon for chams to try and scratch their shed off of them?"...chameleons do pull/scratch their shed off but I have never seen one injure itself doing so.

And..."The scab is hard. No blisters or pox. There weren't blisters or pox before that either, just... peeling skin."...good to hear that ('cause it won't be that fungus then).

I'm glad you are taking your chameleon to the vet....hopefully the problem will be solved. Good luck!
 
I hate to think what I've spent in over 20 years of keeping chameleons!
What time is it where you are?? Its 5am here....and I have to go to bed!
 
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