Veiled with possible abcesses in mouth?

[Chromashumans]

Hi Everyone. I haven't posted too much, but my veiled cham has a problem, and I was interested if anyone else has had the same experience. Any knowledge I can pass along to the vet would be helpful. He is a good vet, just not a huge amount of experience with chameleons.


Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon -Female Veiled, approx. 10 months old, have had her for 7 months.
Handling - She's been handled about 6 times in these 7 months.
Feeding - Medium sized crickets, gutloaded with Fluker's cricket diet. 12-14 day on "hungry" days, 5-7 on less hungry days.
Supplements - Fluker's Calcium with D3 2x/month, Rep-Cal Herptivite 2x/week, Exoterra powder calcium every feeding.
Watering - Hand misting 2-3 times per day. She seeks out the droplets and drinks in front of me now (as of past three weeks.)
Fecal Description - She has not had a fecal done. Her waste has looked normal (according to photos I have seen on here) with white urate.
History - She has always been a good eater, not friendly, moved into a new cage three weeks ago.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - 18x18x36 ReptiBreeze
Lighting - Repti-Sn 5.0 UVB CFL, 40 watt basking bulb
Temperature - 72 degrees to 87 degrees at basking spot.Lowest overnight temp?70 degrees.How do you measure these temps? Zoo Med digital thermometer
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? 50-60 all the time.How are you creating and maintaining these levels? Naturally Humid climate, and hand misting.What do you use to measure humidity? Zoo-Med dual therm & humidity gauge
Plants - all synthetic plants
Placement - Where is your cage located? In office used mainly by myself only. Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? It's a small room, about four feet from ceiling fan, which is usually on. At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? Four feet.
Location - Where are you geographically located? Arkansas

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

Noticed two days ago, a small bump on side of Chroma's mouth. It has gotten larger, and today, I noticed one on the opposite side. They don't appear to be inflamed, or causing trouble for her now, but things can change so fast. Has anyone seen this before? Thanks for your help. -Sarah

I haven't figured out how to post photos yet, but will as soon as I can. Thanks again.

 

[Chromashumans]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/gallery/browseimages.php?c=3&userid=27562

 

[junglefries]

I have an idea. let me fix my kids food and take care of dog. will do a quick look to make sure my guess is right and i will repost later tonight for you. in the mean time, you can take a dentist syringe with the pointed end and squirt some distilled water or saline in between the lip and gum. will remove any trapped particles and give some temporary relief.

 

[SaintJimmy]

Other than what junglefries said you'll probably have to go to a vet to get it drained properly without totally hurting the cham

 

[Chromashumans]

Thank you, Saintjimmy and Junglefries. I'm going to try a little warm saline right now.

 

[Chromashumans]

Chroma was already asleep when I read this, so I will try the saline in the morning, and anything else you could recommend, Junglefries.

 

[junglefries]

My phone won't let me search, sorry. it loads then disappears. (have glaucoma and pc gives me migraines to look at). I wanted to say abcess, but wanted to rule out temporal gland infection. i find the outcome to be very different. i wanted to do a quick search of both first, before ruling out temporal. as it seems to mainly affect jax, & your lumps are a little far forward. i had a jax develope a similar lump in the lip at the very front of his mouth. I assumed it to be a fever blister as the temps got a little hot that day, while i was away. open his mouth a little, & look for trapped cricket legs or etc... if nothing can be seen or washed away, please seek a vet's help. again, i am sorry my phone is giving 'us' such a hard time. don't wait too long or you may end up regretting it in 3-6 months, as i did.

 

[pssh]

Definitely go to a vet. Other than rinsing it a little, there isnt much you can do for an infection/abcess. Also, bring in a filled out copy of the how to ask for help form as well as any concerns/observations you have made. It will help the vet a lot if they know how you are keeping it.

When she gets better, I would suggest cutting back on her food a bit to try and prevent laying eggs. 4-7 crickets (or the equivalent of) every other day is what most people do for their females. Lowering the temp to about 83-84 in the basking spot helps too. You should also try to gutload with fresh fruits/veggies (scraps from your meals would be easy, you can also buy a bunch and blend them into a smoothie and freeze it in ice cube trays) and switch to a better brand of dry gutload (dinofuel, cricket crack, bug burger are a few that come to mind.)

 

[Chromashumans]

Update

Thanks for your replies and advice. We were able to see a reptile vet in Little Rock yesterday. He took samples of the pustules and it was a gram negative strain. Chroma is on crushed up Baytril (in solution) for seven days. When we got home, I gave her the meds,and then offered her a couple of small mealworms.She was hungry, but her tongue would not extend. I gave her a little Pedialyte and this morning, her tongue was back to normal. So, hoping all turns out well. I hope we caught this in time. I really appreciate the advice and your time. -Sarah