Need some quick advice

Chloe a while back fell of her vines and hit her face. She's fine but it made it to where her mouth stay open a little. I took her to the vet and he said to jsut wait and see if the swelling goes down. It hasnt gone down and although she eats ect just fine i stoped misting her in her cage. I mist her outside her cage only to prevent an RI from her not being able to close her mouth. Well i heard her weez today so shes got one of those but i also was doing a mouth exam and it seems like she now had an infection. I can get her to the vet untill monday. Is there anything i can do to keep it from getting worse untill then? i think theres some puss. should i clean it? she just ate this morning. i'll feed her extra in case she loses her apitite during treatment.

I'm so sorry!
I've read that it's good to remove the puss if you can.
Can we see a pic?
When did she fall?

Kermit says to give her a kiss from him!

camimom said:

I'm so sorry!
I've read that it's good to remove the puss if you can.
Can we see a pic?
When did she fall?

Kermit says to give her a kiss from him!

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over a week ago. she got a black eye and bused her lip. :/ She now stays in the little cage but when im home she FR's. i say around to watch in case she falls. im working on getting her a nice big screen cage with lots of biovine but i have to keep tking her to the vet lol. its been clean the entire time but i've been scared of infection, so of course this morning thers puss. pic coming right up.

Yesterday there was no puss. :/(but hey, no more endama)

Is that puss coming out or a bump?
She looks great aside from her mouth so happy the edema is gone.

I think she's even lost some weight!

I removed alot of the puss and swabed her a little to remove and mucus. Sadly i made a bad discovery. i think her jaw is broken or dislocated. the row of teeth on the infected rsde are connected from the back but are able to disconect from the front of her mouth. idk how to explain this 100%.


is there a way to fix this or will it heal enough to be ok on it own?

camimom said:

Is that puss coming out or a bump?
She looks great aside from her mouth so happy the edema is gone.

I think she's even lost some weight!

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thats puss. i just removed it.

Oh honey!
I guess it depends on how bad it is.
You may need x rays to determine what is going on with her jaw.

Hopefully someone else has some info that can help you as this is way over my pay grade

i removed more puss. heres some pics where you can see the part of the jaw that is coming up. i have a sudden fear that this is very serious and painful for her. looking in her mouth the diffrence between this side of her jaw and the other side is terrible.

Okiroo, I'm no vet but it sure looks like and certainly sounds like she broke her jaw. Poor thing.
I am amazed that she can eat.
Here's a post about stomatitis aka mouthrot and treating it with diluted povidone iodine or diluted chlorhexidine.
You need to be extremely cautious because of the break. You wouldn't want to worsen the damage or cause even more pain. Even humans can go into shock from pain.
I don't know what a vet can do for the broken jaw but she must be in considerable pain and has to be seen.
Can they see her as an emergency if you explain the severity of the injury?

https://www.chameleonforums.com/momma-my-quad-has-mounth-issue-w-pics-69244/index5.html

Lovereps said:

Okiroo, I'm no vet but it sure looks like and certainly sounds like she broke her jaw. Poor thing.
I am amazed that she can eat.
Here's a post about stomatitis aka mouthrot and treating it with diluted povidine iodine or diluted chlorhexidine.
You need to be extremely cautious because of the break. You wouldn't want to worsen the damage or cause even more pain. Even humans can go into shock from pain.
I don't know what a vet can do for the broken jaw but she must be in considerable pain and has to be seen.
Can they see her as an emergency if you explain the severity of the injury?

https://www.chameleonforums.com/momma-my-quad-has-mounth-issue-w-pics-69244/index5.html

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sadly my vet doesnt work on weekends and there are NO exotcis vets near me or even far. i drive 40miles to get to my current one. i dont feel that there is a way to cure a break on a chameleons mouth either. hoping a vet will chim in and tell me what im looking at doing to her and if theres any hope.


Shes going to go monday when he's back in.

Maybe you should message one of the vets on here and direct them to this thread. It is possible that they haven't seen it.

Sorry I am no help (really new to this forum and to raising my chameleon).

I think that she is still able to eat is a bonus. It could be that the bones have not displaced too much. Hopefully your vet will be able to see you on Monday.

I think you are dealing with some mouth rot there. Mouth rot will infect the bone and will weaken the area alot.
I suggest a vet do a culture and senstivity and see waht will work best.
The typical perscript seem to be baytril.
Also good cleaning and flush with a 1% solution of provdine iodine.
Best of luck

okiroo said:

sadly my vet doesnt work on weekends and there are NO exotcis vets near me or even far. i drive 40miles to get to my current one. i dont feel that there is a way to cure a break on a chameleons mouth either. hoping a vet will chim in and tell me what im looking at doing to her and if theres any hope.


Shes going to go monday when he's back in.

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You must have missed it, but if you click on the thread I posted earlier, you'll see that my suggestions of povidone iodine or chlorhexidine are also recommended by veterinarian "ferretinmyshoes" (and by Hoj, too.)
Either of these is good in that they will not damage healthy tissue and may keep the infection from worsening before Monday.
Here it is again:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/momma-my-quad-has-mounth-issue-w-pics-69244/index5.html

It's a shame that there's no one competent who can see her before Monday but maybe a little of either of those antiseptics will help her in the meantime.
The good thing is that your local pharmacy/Walmart, etc. should have the povidone iodine on hand, since it's used on people.

In the meantime, I'll be rooting for your little girl.

Looks to me like she has had an infection orally for quite some time? Perhaps that is what caused her to fall? Your vet will probably cut out the teeth that are no longer connected to the jawline and place her on some Baytril injectable. I rescued a Jackson years ago with the same problem. The teeth didn't grow back the the chameleon learned to chew on one side of its mouth. Hope everything turns out well for the both of you. Ruth

A fracture like that is typically at the symphysis where both sides of the mandible meet up front. Most common area for a fracture. Typically it can be fixed in most animals with mild orthopedic surgery; usually a figure-8 of SS suture wire is looped around the front to keep it stable. There's obviously an infection too which doesn't make it a great surgical field, but the right antibiotics should knock that part down.

As for her tolerance of the wire.....she will still be able to open and close her mouth (it's not wired shut), but every cham is different. Some will freak and not do well, others need to be hand fed while healing (2-3 months), and others won't care at all and will still be able to shoot their tongue.

It will require X-rays, anesthesia, surgery and meds and lab work if the vet feels it's necessary. Without repair it's unlikely to heal on its own due to constant movement and the slow healing time. Lots of little old poodles with horrific dental disease often have it broken (actually dissolved is a better word) but they can do ok since they're just lapping up soft food.

dr o—

I PMed dr O after reading his responce

I asked a few questions on the time period i have to help chloe and a few things i tend not to discus in public. anyways, he has some gr8 adivce that should be shared in case other people here face something like this with their animal. I will update what me and my vet are doing monday or tuesday.


getting the infection under control is critical. there are open loose ends of bone right now and if the infection sets in those bones it will completely destroy her jaw and kill her.

the surgery price just severely depends on the practice itself and the doctor and how that do things. some might charge a bare minimum b/c they love herps and its a good surgery to train with on herps as it's somewhat common to do with dogs and cats. some might charge fair but expensive surgical prices. I think it's worth a shot to see where that may go.

living with a broken symphysis has got to be painful for however one describes pain sensation in reptiles. chams as you know can and often bite down pretty hard and that's just going to feel bad. even softer worms like silkies still involve a lot of chewing, it wouldn't be enough.

if my cham had a broken jaw and I could not repair it, I would euthanize him or her. they would unduly suffer and still most likely die one way or another. but I would also make sure I knew all of my options before I did that, and you're going to find those options at your vet. start with an exam and an opinion, and see where it goes from there is my best advice. but be prepared to hear some potentially unsettling news.

o—

To the OP, I'm not sure where in sc you are located but there is an exotic vet in west Columbia right off interstate 26 not even a quarter mile from the big Lexington medical hospital. Its called sunset animal clinic I've always heard good things about the staff Dr foy in particular. He is a member of the association of reptiles and amphibian vets

http://sunsetanimalclinic.com/site/view/168843_Home.pml

maddashash said:

To the OP, I'm not sure where in sc you are located but there is an exotic vet in west Columbia right off interstate 26 not even a quarter mile from the big Lexington medical hospital. Its called sunset animal clinic I've always heard good things about the staff Dr foy in particular. He is a member of the association of reptiles and amphibian vets

http://sunsetanimalclinic.com/site/view/168843_Home.pml

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Thanks, i'll keep that in mind. It's about 2hours away and thats not bad. For now i want to stick to my current vet. He's been helping me with chloe for a while. the one you gave me is only open mon-fri- the same as mine. already contacted a few emergency vets. None take exotics.


~thankyou though