Mouth rot?

[ScottChoc]

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 18x18x36 screen cage (LLL Reptile)
Lighting - 18" Reptisun, 7am - 7pm
Temperature - 80-85 basking, 70-80 ambient, 60-70 overnight
Humidity - 30-50, up to 70-80 during/after misting
Plants - ficus, hibiscus, fake vines
Location - Southern California

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Chamaeleo rudis, male, approx 1 - 2 years old best guess. Handling - Rarely handled by hand, maybe once a month for only a few minutes
Feeding - crickets
Supplements - sticky tounge fams with d3 about every third feeding
Watering - misting twice a day

Goggles started getting this brown crusty stuff at the corners of his mouth. Has anybody had this problem before? does he need medication???

 

[Warrix642]

Can you get a pic w the mouth open?

 

[xanthoman]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/proven-method-clearing-up-23708/index3.html (not neccessarily an endorsement, or recomendation, just letting you you know that a previous thread exists, and might be worth checking out)

 

[Niels Pedersen]

Stomatitis is not that rare in chameleons. offen its caused by stress and/or wrong care. I have seen it with my own chameleons even though they haven seen healthy.
Treatment is offen Baytril.
Strong animals can fight it back, is they get enough water, I have seen this with parsons.

Good luck with him

 

[kinyonga]

IMHO, the areas need to be cleaned out properly and a culture and sensitivity test needs to be done to determine what antibiotic to put the chameleon on. Baytril could work, but without the culture there's no way to be sure. Mouthrot is often stubborn/hard to get rid of.

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy Scott,

If you want to attempt to get this under control more quickly, Dr. Greek is about 35 minutes NE from you.

Are you also using a vitamin supplement like Herptivite? If not, add it to your list maybe twice a month.

Maybe more access to water might be something to try. Dripper? Mister?

 

[ciafardo 4]

I have just delt with the same exact thing you are, right down to the same species. What i did was rap a small peice of cotton on the end of a tooth pick and dipped it in providone iodine and slipped it into the little pocket in the corner of the rudis mouth twisting it gently to clean out the abscess . then i gave him a daily dose of reptaid every day and now it appears to be gone. It took a little over two weeks.What happens is pieces of insect become lodged in the little pocket and over time it gets infected.If you do decide to try this method and you see no improvement at all in 7 days contact your vet.

 

[ScottChoc]

Thank you all for the advice. I think I will go get some iodine today to start treating the outside of his mouth. Should it be mixed with water before use?
If I don't get any results in a few days I will contact Dr. Greek and set up an appointment. I do not use Herptivite, I use the Sticky Tongue Farms with d3. Does Reptaid work well? Is it worth the $24.97 per 1oz. bottle?

 

[Dave Weldon]

...I think I will go get some iodine today to start treating the outside of his mouth. Should it be mixed with water before use?

...I do not use Herptivite, I use the Sticky Tongue Farms with d3...

Howdy Scott,

I'm struggling to remember what Dr. Stein said about iodine in his lecture at our last SBCK meeting last month but I think I recall him saying to dilute it to the color of weak tea and not to use it at full strength. Others at the meeting may be able to confirm or correct this dilution factor .

I too, use Sticky Tongue Farms Miner-All (I) to cover the mineral and vitamin D3 requirements. Many keepers (me too ) use Rep-Cal's Herptivite once or twice a month to cover vitamin requirements.

 

[dodolah]

Scott, if you can get your hand to Nolvasan, I think it is better for your cham than iodine.

you need to dilute the nolvasan with water first before administering.
http://www.petvetsupply.com/dismfra001.html

 

[ciafardo 4]

Scott, if you can get your hand to Nolvasan, I think it is better for your cham than iodine.

you need to dilute the nolvasan with water first before administering.
http://www.petvetsupply.com/dismfra001.html

Hey dodolah thanks so much for posting that i am definately getting this product!

 

[Chuck G]

Cleaning the area out is mandatory but you need to go to a vet. Most likely there is an infection involved and the right antibiotic will have to be administered after the culture. Any old antibiotic just won't work.

 

[Dave Weldon]

...i am definately getting this product!

Howdy Philip,

Chlorhexidine is used in many products for its antimicrobial characteristics. A gallon of the usual undiluted chlorhexidine makes about 100 gallons . Chlorhexidine diacetate seems to only be sold as Nolvasan. Generic chlorhexidine gluconate is available from many suppliers and most vets buy the generic version and dilute their own. They use it as a wound wash and as a working surface sanitizer. Just keep it away from eyes and mucus membranes. If you can't find it in the quantity/price/form that you want, you could also get it in products like this: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3100960. I didn't work out the dilution factor of this product but it is likely to be strong enough to do a reasonable job. A pre-mixed product like this may have a longer shelf life than mixing your own. Mixing your own with normal tap water does cut its shelf life down to something like a month or two...confused.