Veild casque issue !

[Jeremy l]

i just noticed today my veild zuse's casque has a seperation in the top of his head. it dosent seem to be bothering him at all but i was curious if this has happened to anyone elses veild. it looks like he caught it on a stick trying to go under something.

 

[Jam]

Hermie's did the same thing at one point (just slightly lower). The piece eventually fell off on its own, with what does not appear to be any ill side effects. I had been watching his come on for a while ... i noticed that part of his casque didn't appear to have skin/scales on it and thought "weird" and then this little hard strip just popped off during a shed.

 

[Jam]

ps -- this is your MBD cham right?

 

[Jeremy l]

yes, but that was cured long ago. hes doing great now, and has been.

 

[rcmike]

Interesting. I wonder what caused it?

 

[Eric Adrignola]

looks like a healed up burn - check the temps near our heat lamps - probably too hot.

 

[HairyScaryMark]

worried

I came across this thread during a search. Today, I noticed what looks like it might be a similar problem with my Chameleon. Does anyone else think it looks like it might the same thing?.

My initial thought was this could be a result of a burn. I think I made a mistake in the placement of the heat lamp as it allowed and probably even encouraged him to sit far too close to it. This is quite unforgivable but it has been moved as soon as I noticed the problem.

I'd noticed white skin at the front of his casque for some time but I just assumed this was leftover from a shed as it doesn't always drop off 100% straight afterwards.

He has appeared quite restless for the last week or so and rarely stayed in one spot for long. I thought my UV tube may need replaced as he spent a lot of time next to it. It would now appear this injury is the reason he has been distressed.

He has been eating fine recently and otherwise looks his normal self and I noticed this problem after he ate around 8 locusts.

I have booked an appointment with a Vet who specialises in exotic animals but as she's currently away, the earliest I could get an appointment was Monday. She gave the number of another vet who lives around 2 hours away (Falkirk), in case I needed to go sooner. This gives the impression to me that she doesn't think there is anyone else with sufficient knowledge in the city I live (Aberdeen).

The lady on the phone suggested rubbing E45 cream on the injury but I think she possibly didn't quite get the full idea of the nature of the injury.

My big worry is it could already been infected or become infected.

I could make a new thread if that would help....

 

[kicsylany]

Don`t worry about it, it had happened with my boy exactly the same way as on your picture. that dead bit will just come off but will not cause any problem. it is nothing to do with MBD or burn.

 

[dtown]

It almost looks like its a natural part of them shedding skin??

 

[PedroANDAshley]

I think this happened to miss lily's tommy
but not as dramatic.
Alot of people suggested it was a fungus that had built up under the skin.
She took tommy to the vet I believe but I forgot the out come.
Perhaps she'll see this thread and answer

 

[bradmeyer57]

The same thing happened with my female. We were at the vet for a routiene check up and the vet said not to worry about it and if i wanted to put something on it use betadine and rub it on with a q-tip

 

[summoner12]

burns.

Seems to have healed up just fine.

 

[dodolah]

http://chamworld.blogspot.com/2008/01/health-chapter-f-burn.html

Get a sylvadene cream. Very handy
it's a burn case. The dead tissue is falling off.
nuff said..

 

[HairyScaryMark]

I've tried phoning the other vet who lives around 2 hours away but was currently operating. He's going to phone me back when available.

Based on Summoner's photo. I think it is likely this is the result of a burn. At the moment, I'm primarily worried about the risk of infection. The likelihood of this makes the difference to whether I rush him to a vet (irrespective of their specific knowledge of Chameleons) right now or if I wait till the appointment on Monday.

My chameleon appears to be doing fine today and when I last looked, was basking in the light from a greater distance. Chameleons are famous for hiding their medical problems, however.

I've still got my UV tube switched off as I was initially worried about that but baring in mind the location of the injury is the casque and he tended to approach the UV tube from his front and underside, it would seem more likely the heat bulb was the cause of the burn. I've also previously measured temperatures of the UV tube itself (when new) and it got up to 50.5 C after the sensor had been placed between the reflector and top side of the tube for 30 minutes. I'm not sure the UV tube (which he typically would not be exposed to) would be enough to give this kind of burn to a chameleon. I believe it more likely that he managed to sit with his casque touching the mesh between the heat bulb for a notable amount of time and has gotten a nasty injury as a result. There was a small amount of space between the heat bulb and the mesh but it obviously wasn't enough.

I plan to change my heat bulb setup this weekend (currently 1 x 60W bulb on dimming thermostat) to 2 x 60W bulbs at a much greater distance, so the heat will be less focused and less risk of this happening again. It will also increase the ambient temperatures (which are unlikely to be too great in Scotland and I struggle to get them up high enough during winter).

At one point I had as many as 3 heat bulbs but 2 of the holders de-combusted and I was just left with this one and decided to keep it in it's original place and didn't bother replacing due to summer months and parents complaining about electricity bill.

 

[Xepera]

This kind of injury happened to my cham too last friday. Could you please tell me how they healed and/or send some pics of healed casques!?

My veiled accidently scraped the top of his casque on the mesh top of his enclosure a couple of times. The scales must have been injured because they slowly became dry looking and finally the same kind of separation part appeared as in these other pics. It got caught on something right away and the whole thing just dropped off! Because the skin under it hadn't yet developed it was bloody and fleshy.

I called an expert vet and she said I should only keep it disinfected and apply a creme she suggested. It'll leave a scar and no scales will grow back plus it's off course sore right now. So I'd like to know what happened to these guys, did anyone loose the scab too early and what the healed casque looks like?