A little worried

Ok a lot worried. I got a Jackson almost 2 weeks ago from a petsmart. I have had a lot of lizzards before and have wanted a cham for years. I read for a while on care and set up everything. I didn't read up on what could go wrong. I got my little guy home and saw one side of his mouth don't close right. didn't think much about it till I was reading up on mouth rot and now i'm scared. I asked the pet store today where they take them if something happens and they take them to a reg vet ;( The closes vet is about 4 hours and I'm now about out of money because of his set up, and with it being a long weekend I'm not sure what to do. I already love this guy and today I think my 14 days is up on taking him back. Here is a pic of his mouth. Any help????

i havent read anything but i know Jacksons can have problems with there temp glands and that looks that, or mouth rot. im thinking the gland tho. your going to need a vet no matter what.

Hi! Great job on finding the right place for information early.

My thought, also, would be the gland....

Here's a thread that has great information: https://www.chameleonforums.com/temporal-gland-info-please-74955/

I can't find it right now but I remember one of the experts with Jackson's saying he had a way to help with them at home, but I'm going to say that he only developed that after taking his chameleon to the vet. I think you need to schedule a vet appointment.

You might want to advise the store, just in case they will share the burden on that.

I will be calling the store in the morning. They shouldn't be selling things they don't know enough about or they would of spotted this out before selling him. who knows they may of known and didn't care. After reading this forum and a few other sites, half the stuff they sold me for him was wrong. I will find a vet in the next few days and get him checked out. Thanks for the help. Now I just want to cry I already love this guy.

Not to be negative, but if only half the things they told you were wrong they did better than most big box pet stores.

This is not a life threatening thing as long as it's treated...you will have a lot of happy times with him, I'm sure.

Please do let us know how things go. We get invested in the chameleons we see and care what happens to them.

I will keep you updated. He is eating ok right now. Some people just don't understand. I was told today by a friend to just get a new one, it would be cheaper than taking him to the vet People think i'm a crazy women when I tell them I'm already in love with him and can't trade him in or just let him die and get a new one. I guess you have to be a lover and this looks like a good place for me

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've been told to my face that I'm a crazy woman...of course, as I have a 17 year old daughter, it's almost an hourly thing in my house....but he's lovely and you are right to be totally in love with him.

RobinLewis said:

I will be calling the store in the morning. They shouldn't be selling things they don't know enough about or they would of spotted this out before selling him. who knows they may of known and didn't care. After reading this forum and a few other sites, half the stuff they sold me for him was wrong. I will find a vet in the next few days and get him checked out. Thanks for the help. Now I just want to cry I already love this guy.

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Don't stop at the store level, ask for a visit with the store vet (assuming they have one) or other qualified vet on the stores dime. I imagine they will just offer to replace your "merchandise". Ask for the number for their district and regional managers. That usually gets some attention. Pictures are very good as well. Document everything you can, it will make your case stronger and harder for them to not listen to you. Most importantly, be direct and assertive but respectful and polite. Do not accept no for an answer but the last thing you want is to come across as a raving "liberal peta freak" I think was the phrase a petco manager used to describe a customer that complained about some of their pets. You'd be surprised what a smile and a thank you will get you.

Best of luck!

Update on Petsmart

I talked with them and they were very nice, They are setting a vet visit and paying for it. I will let you all know how he is doing after we see the vet.

This does look like a classic temporal gland infection, but it could also be an infection on the gum just in front of the gland itself (stomatitis or mouth rot). A close exam looking inside the mouth may tell more. The abscess MUST be cleaned out manually to get rid of the infectious material and the cham will need to be treated with a systemic antibiotic as well. These infections can be hard to get rid of, they can spread under the skin of the cheek, and they can recurr. They can be painful so don't be surprised if your cham stops eating well. It will be very important to keep your cham drinking if not eating soft bodies feeders.

AFAIK we don't really know just what triggers temporal gland infections in some species. Probably nutritional on top of the long term effects of stress that suppresses their immune system. A little tip I heard years ago was to increase the amount of vitamin C in your feeder gutloads. Supposedly it can help the cham fight them off either by supporting the immune system or maybe changing the pH of their saliva.

Just got back from the vet. It was mouth rot, they cleaned it and they gave me Muricin to use 2x a day for 10 days.

My panther has what I think is mouth rot, and I have been treating it with vetyricin, it is almost gone.

As much as Petsmart shouldn't have sold a chameleon in that condition, I'm really impressed that they were responsible enough to pay for veterinary treatment, it's definitely increased my respect for them.

I was impressed also. they have a vet in the store but sent me to a wild live and rep vet and picked up the bill and it was after my 14 days.
Now to take back all the lights they sold me and get other stuff I need that I found out from here. lucky for him i found this forum or he would of been dead from the 100 wat lights they sold me.

RobinLewis said:

Just got back from the vet. It was mouth rot, they cleaned it and they gave me Muricin to use 2x a day for 10 days.

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By "cleaning it" I hope they opened the abscessed area up and removed the "cheesy stuff" and applied an anti infective scrub. You can also keep the area clean with some Betadyne and a Q tip.

No, he took a Q tip and wiped out a black spot that was there. I will keep a eye on it to make sure it don't come back.

Trillian said:

As much as Petsmart shouldn't have sold a chameleon in that condition, I'm really impressed that they were responsible enough to pay for veterinary treatment, it's definitely increased my respect for them.

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Yup....the image of overpowering evil monster is severely weakened by this....

Looks rough, best of luck with the treatment and recovery!

UPDATE on Jax. He mouth is all healed I have had a little trouble getting his lighting right, Still not sure its all the way right. seems like I'm redoing it everyday to make it just right. He has slowed down on eatting the last few days but did drink alot tonight. He was trying to drink right from the spay bottle whick is strange because he hates to get sprayed. The calcium they sold me has Vit D in it. I have been to every pet shop around and they all have vit D. Is there a site I can order it? Also for the last hour he is sitting there with his mouth open and never done this before, I was worried he drank water to fast. but other than that lol he seems to be doing ok

LLLReptiles sells calcium without D3

http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...d-cage-cleaners/reptile-calcium-and-vitamins/

Gaping is often a sign of over heating. Jackson's aren't "hot" chameleons, so maybe you need to drop his overall temps a bit. I think you want it to be about 83 degrees at the basking spot, dropping to the low 70s at the bottom of the enclosure.