Tail Problem

[PVsPlayHouse]

Hi,
I’m new to this Forum.
I have two Chameleons a Male and a Female. The male has a problem with the end of his tail. It has turned brown and he cannot curl it up any more. I called FL Chameleons were I bought them and he said the Female could have bit it. He said to leave it alone but if it gets hard to soak it in Iodine with some water so it will fall off and not get infected. Here are some pictures of what it looks like. Has anyone experience anything like this? Do you know what could of caused it and how it could be treated?
Thank You

 

[chams1]

Do you keep both chams together? If so, Mike is right and it looks as though the tail might have been bitten. Or, and I speak from experience here, it's tail could have gotten caught in the door when you were closing it. That happened to me a long time ago and I felt terrible, but it would look like that. Also, sometimes if a cham has a shedding problem and all of the shed didn't come off the tail, this can happen as well and it will cause that portion of the tail to die if not treated properly.

 

[bradmeyer57]

My newest rescue lost a portion of his tail due to a bite from another cham. You should take him to the vet and get it looked at and it should probably be amputated. Iodine will work for tissue infection but he could also get bone infections and iodine wont treat that. The amputation procedure costs about 250. hope this helps here are spome pictures of Pauleys ( my panthers) tail

 

[kinyonga]

If its progressing up the tail further and further it could be dry gangarene. It might be a wise idea to have a vet look at it even if it isn't.

 

[jannb]

I agree with a vet visit. Where do you live? Maybe someone here can recommend a good chameleon vet for you.

 

[PVsPlayHouse]

Thank You going to the Vet tomorrow.

 

[PVsPlayHouse]

Well- I went to the vet today and he gave my cham an injection of an antibiotic called Convenia. He also suggested that I bathe the tail in an Epson salt and water mixture 4 times a day followed by applying a thin layer of triple antibiotic cream to his tail.
I hope this works- I really don't want to see him loose his tail. He charged me $90 for the visit and injection combined. What do you think?

 

[bradmeyer57]

In my opinion judging from all my past vets visits you got out of there very cheap. Hopefuly the antibiotic will stop any infection there may be. I have never heard of saoking it in epson salt but thats why we have vets. Good luck keep us posted

 

[Ellron]

To avoid future problems, you might not want to house the male and female together.

 

[PVsPlayHouse]

Tail Update!

Thanks to everyone and FL Chams for their great advice! After a vet visit and several calls to FL Chams, I applied Iodine to the tail once daily as suggested by Mike and the tail finally fell off. It seems to be healing very nicely. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!