swolen spine

hi,
im booking Pascal an appointment at my specialist vets tomorrow morning hopefully for monday, so please no "get him to the vets, terrible owner" comments
just wondering if anyone's had this before or knows what it is.
the experts in the shop i bought him from and visit regularly for supplies said it looks like he's rubbed hi back and it should clear up. ive givven it two weeks and it hasnt cleared up but it hasnt gotten worse.
i first noticed along his back had gone a dark grey colour, it does change but is mostly grey, like a strip along his spine on both sides.
then a few days later three of the spikes went clear and came off over a 3 day period, leaving tiny black spines in their place. it seemed like he was shedding his spine but only 3 spikes (all next to eachother) came off. the rest are fine, the black is still there.
now im noticing on one side where the missing spines are, it is quite swolen and hard.
he otherwise seems fine but im also going to ask about what i think might be a potential problem where i sometimes catch him with either eye closed.
he has had an eye infection before which cleared up with medication after a week but this is on both eyes. he opens them after 2 - 4 seconds. i have bought a new UVB bulb which i am now using alongside the old one which i was told has run out of uvb/d3 whatever is in those things
so does anyone have any idea what it could be?







these photos were taken before the spines fell off


^one side, the side where the black is more obvious but not the side where it is swolen.


side without as much black but swolen on the side below the missing spines

i thought it might be clearing up because where before it was bright and obvious, its now quite faded and although the spines arent growing back (i was told not to expect them to grow back) no more are falling off. the only change i have just noticed is the swelling :/

p.s.
the fan wasn't on lol

Looks like a mycosis to me. Would even match that you said he had an eye infection before, because most fungi need a immunocompromised situation to grow. But your vet will surely clear it up. May it be he burned exactly this area before, too?

looks like a burn to me. might be that you are using two bulbs at same time?

Looks like it got burnt on the other side, you can tell how the spine is totally damaged on the very tip of it. Bro. maybe its time for a Vet visit just to have a peace of mind and to have a quick solution to your friend chameleon as well. Good luck!

Alexl said:

Looks like a mycosis to me. Would even match that you said he had an eye infection before, because most fungi need a immunocompromised situation to grow. But your vet will surely clear it up. May it be he burned exactly this area before, too?

Click to expand...

I agree...it could be a combination of a thermal burn that compromised the skin in that area leaving it vulnerable to a secondary infection. A burn alone could cause spine and tissue loss and the skin color change, but something is still going on (swelling). This is a very common area for chams to get burned especially because the heat we provide by lighting is very focused compared to the sun outdoors. Many fungal infections glow under a medical grade black light. Not all, but that is a very simple way to check for some of the more common types. An anti fungal anti bacterial ointment should help a lot. Check your lights...check the temp right under the lights on the surface of the basking perch. It could be a lot hotter than you realize.

hi,
thanks for the replies.
i think the theory that he has burned it and it has got infected might be it, he has moved around a fair bit recently, i know where he was when i noticed the marks first and perhapse the bulbs were a little low - we were having difficult weather and i thought it would help keep it warm. he's now moved and ive had the lamps permanently fixed a good 20 centimetres (from bottom of the bulb to roof of flex) above, maybe 30 cm from his basking point which he seems to not go to very often anymore (but i think this is because his basking spot doesnt have the best view of my room, he fancies himself a spy and likes to know whats going on.)
i presume that whatever he has will need some kind of ointment or cream. does anyone know how much it costs to get this kind of treatment?
i have £800 to play with but i know when he went in for the eye infection he only cost me £26 at one vets (< this first vets was not a specialist, i came away with nice experiences as they were lovely, but no treatment) and £45 at the second vets (<specialist, working treatment and some tips for the future ) i will take him to the specialists but i'm dreading the price as there are things i wanted to get this month but of course pascal must come first.
any vet experiences you could share?
thanks

Pascal saw his vet today, he's been given antibiotics, will be going back in a week to check their progress.
hopefully the antibiotics will treat both the infection in his spine and eye. apparently it was a narrow miss with his spine which could have spread downwards.
cost me £41 for today and will cost another £41 for next week when i go again.

apparently it was a narrow miss with his spine which could have spread downwards. -- Can you please tell me what the vet says? how did your chameleon acquire that infection on the spine? any specific that you give us would help a lot and maybe how to avoid it. Thanks and i hope that your chameleon recovers from his illness.

the vet said it looked like he'd done one of two things, either it had gotten a itchy and he'd rubbed it, or he'd burned it, and from there it had gotten infected. not sure how it got infected as the last time he was treated for an eye infection was well over 5 months ago. the vet said that the infection was treatable but could, had i left it, have spread benieth his spine and reached the bones. something like that.
to avoid him getting burned again his lamps are now 30cm away from his basking spot. i removed a few vines and plants, it's still nicely full of plants and things but not as much so he's less likely to rub himself on anything by accident.
he's been given baytril or something, one drop a day (0.1ml i think, the marker on the syringe, not sure what the unit is, just where to fill it up to) to be taken orally. pascal's not too impressed with having his mouth held open. the vet also checked his jaw because he said pascals sudden dislike of crickets could be caused by a deformed jaw that hadnt developed properly. his jaw is fine, ive ordered him some different bugs online - he's only ever had the basics from the local store - locusts, brown crickets and wax and meal worms. i ordered calci worms, small earth worms, cockroaches and some more locusts to see if it's variety he wants.
he's going back next tuesday so the vet can see how he's doing and should the antibiotics not work, what else we can do.
he is completely clear of any symptoms of common chameleon health problems like MBD so i feel i must be looking after him well so far :/