jannb
Chameleon Enthusiast
Has anyone ever experience a chameleon that cannot open their mouth or can barely open their mouth?
As many of you know Luie had some bone spurs on his back left leg. He still has them but I don’t think they are causing the problems that he’s currently having. He’s had some lumps and bumps removed over the past six months. Several on his sides and one in his mouth; pictures and his path report below.
Luie started getting some gular edema about 5 months ago. I’ll post photos from when it first started. The edema has continued to get worse and he lost the use of his tongue. His vet was here in April and did some blood work but the blood work didn’t show anything that could be causing the problem. I took him to his vets in June and he had x-rays in July that I’ll post below. The x-rays didn’t show anything out of the ordinary. Luie continues to get worse. Now he can barely open his mouth and has a hard time eating and drinking. He’s also having a hard time getting around. He falls some and I’ve had to move him to a short tree with towels pilled under it. He also has this hard knot on the end of his chin. We saw the vet again this week. Blood was pulled and edema fluid and send to the lab. Dr. Alfonso said the edema fluid looked like normal edema fluid. He took out quite a bit of the fluid but it just fill back up within a very short time. We are still waiting on the results from the lab on the edema fluid. The report came back on the blood word but it was inconclusive because of the hot weather some of the blood cells ruptured while waiting to be analyzed and altered the results. From the altered results everything looked good except the Phosphorus were high at 16 and CPK which was really high and could be because of the altered results. His value was 9008 and normal value is 850. Dr. Alfonso says we definitely have something happening in the jaw area. The uric acid was normal at 7. So as of right now we are no closer at being able to determine the problem. Next week we are going to Orlando to have more blood pulled to be analyzed and for a panoramic x-ray like the one the dentist gives that goes around the jaw. I believe that the edema is coming from something that is affecting the jaw.
One of the bumps on Luie's side
Bump in Luie's mouth
Path report from one of the bumps on Luie's side
CLINICAL INFORMATION
There was a sudden appearance of a hard growth on the cutaneous surface of the right side of the
thorax.
MICROSCOPIC
Submitted is the mass. The nodule, which is supporting a section of overlying skin, is a discrete
expansile tumor comprised of streaming to sheets of pigment-bearing cells. These cells have
indistinct cytoplasmic borders and moderate amounts of a fine amphophilic slightly granular to
lacy cytoplasm. Some cells are supporting heavy amounts of slightly refractile golden-brown
pigments, which is obscuring the cytoplasm and the cell nuclei. The cell nuclei that can be
identified are oval with a homogeneous chromatin pattern and 1-2 small indistinct amphophilic
nucleoli. The mitotic index is extremely low at <1 per 10 per high-power fields. This has a thin
compression capsule of which is forming the deep and lateral borders of the tumor mass.
DIAGNOSIS
SKIN MASS: CHROMATOPHOROMA
COMMENT
This particular mass appears benign; however, this may be deceiving in that many of the
chromatophoromas with a relatively benign appearance have had a malignant behavior and
metastasized widely. Systemic evaluation is recommended.
Chromatophoromas are common neoplasms of pigment-producing chromatophores in reptiles.
Tumors may arise from melanophores (melanin pigment producing cells), iridophores (cells with
birefringent intracytoplasmic particles that refract and reflect light), erythrophores (red/orange
pigment producing cells) and xanthophores (which produce yellow pigments). Although most of
these tumors involve only one type of pigment cell, multiple pigment cell types have been
involved in some cases. Rare cases have been described in lizards and these few reports do
describe metastasis.
DRURY R. REAVILL, DVM
ABVP, Certified in Avian Practice
Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Pathologists
Luie on 4/6/12 when he first started getting the edema
Luie's edema on 8/6/12
X-rays
X-ray with human fingers
As many of you know Luie had some bone spurs on his back left leg. He still has them but I don’t think they are causing the problems that he’s currently having. He’s had some lumps and bumps removed over the past six months. Several on his sides and one in his mouth; pictures and his path report below.
Luie started getting some gular edema about 5 months ago. I’ll post photos from when it first started. The edema has continued to get worse and he lost the use of his tongue. His vet was here in April and did some blood work but the blood work didn’t show anything that could be causing the problem. I took him to his vets in June and he had x-rays in July that I’ll post below. The x-rays didn’t show anything out of the ordinary. Luie continues to get worse. Now he can barely open his mouth and has a hard time eating and drinking. He’s also having a hard time getting around. He falls some and I’ve had to move him to a short tree with towels pilled under it. He also has this hard knot on the end of his chin. We saw the vet again this week. Blood was pulled and edema fluid and send to the lab. Dr. Alfonso said the edema fluid looked like normal edema fluid. He took out quite a bit of the fluid but it just fill back up within a very short time. We are still waiting on the results from the lab on the edema fluid. The report came back on the blood word but it was inconclusive because of the hot weather some of the blood cells ruptured while waiting to be analyzed and altered the results. From the altered results everything looked good except the Phosphorus were high at 16 and CPK which was really high and could be because of the altered results. His value was 9008 and normal value is 850. Dr. Alfonso says we definitely have something happening in the jaw area. The uric acid was normal at 7. So as of right now we are no closer at being able to determine the problem. Next week we are going to Orlando to have more blood pulled to be analyzed and for a panoramic x-ray like the one the dentist gives that goes around the jaw. I believe that the edema is coming from something that is affecting the jaw.
One of the bumps on Luie's side
Bump in Luie's mouth
Path report from one of the bumps on Luie's side
CLINICAL INFORMATION
There was a sudden appearance of a hard growth on the cutaneous surface of the right side of the
thorax.
MICROSCOPIC
Submitted is the mass. The nodule, which is supporting a section of overlying skin, is a discrete
expansile tumor comprised of streaming to sheets of pigment-bearing cells. These cells have
indistinct cytoplasmic borders and moderate amounts of a fine amphophilic slightly granular to
lacy cytoplasm. Some cells are supporting heavy amounts of slightly refractile golden-brown
pigments, which is obscuring the cytoplasm and the cell nuclei. The cell nuclei that can be
identified are oval with a homogeneous chromatin pattern and 1-2 small indistinct amphophilic
nucleoli. The mitotic index is extremely low at <1 per 10 per high-power fields. This has a thin
compression capsule of which is forming the deep and lateral borders of the tumor mass.
DIAGNOSIS
SKIN MASS: CHROMATOPHOROMA
COMMENT
This particular mass appears benign; however, this may be deceiving in that many of the
chromatophoromas with a relatively benign appearance have had a malignant behavior and
metastasized widely. Systemic evaluation is recommended.
Chromatophoromas are common neoplasms of pigment-producing chromatophores in reptiles.
Tumors may arise from melanophores (melanin pigment producing cells), iridophores (cells with
birefringent intracytoplasmic particles that refract and reflect light), erythrophores (red/orange
pigment producing cells) and xanthophores (which produce yellow pigments). Although most of
these tumors involve only one type of pigment cell, multiple pigment cell types have been
involved in some cases. Rare cases have been described in lizards and these few reports do
describe metastasis.
DRURY R. REAVILL, DVM
ABVP, Certified in Avian Practice
Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Pathologists
Luie on 4/6/12 when he first started getting the edema
Luie's edema on 8/6/12
X-rays
X-ray with human fingers
