Swollen Toe, please help!

[Fidget321]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - She is a beautiful Flap Necked Chameleon, I have had her five years.
Handling - Not unless I have to, the only time I handle her, is if I have to clean her cage and take her out, even then I just take the branch she sits on and move her, I found out long ago that handling chameleons stresses them out so I don't do it unless I have to
Feeding - She is on either a cricket or meal worm diet. I feed her whenever she goes down to her feeding bowl, or at least ever second day. I feed her about 5 - 8 crickets or 8-9 meal worms - I don't really count. Mealworms are on a carrot diet and so are the crickets. Or cereal.
Supplements - Bone Aid microstick Calcium powder, i dust food every week. Calcium with vit D3 is fed to her about once a month.
Watering - I mist with a spray bottle and then I see her drinking, I don't really know how long I mist, but it's usually until the 500ml bottle is empty. Other than that I have a hand made dripper during the gaps between spraying.
Fecal Description - Normal brown color, the white parts where a white with yellow tip.
History - Not that might help this situation.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Firstly, she has two cages, her normal cage is a mesh screen cage all around with a door up front. Then she has a travel cage, which she currently is in as I am on holliday - I couldn't find anyone to look after her, so I took her with - this cage I made myself with two round kitty litter bowls as the bottom and top part and plastic screen mesh in a circle shape.
Lighting - Florescent tube - Incandescent light - Repti Glo 5.0 - This is on for 12 hours a day, I could not take this bulb with me so now she is on natural sunlight.
Temperature - Temperature is about 24 - 26 during the day and then about 18 - 20 at night - Centigrade.
Humidity - Humidity peaks when I spray, then I let the cage dry and spray again the cage is well ventilated so humidity is around 40 - 50 % on average.
Plants - I am soon to buy yet another Ficus Benjamin, as I buy them every four months or so because they keep dying - I do not have a green thumb.
Placement - Normal placement is in our dining room where there isn't much traffic, now she is in the room I stay, I am not in here permanently so traffic isn't heavy
Location - I stay in Cape Town South Africa, I am on holiday in Johannesburg. I have been in Johannesburg for a week so I do not know if the pressure above sea level might have a role to play here.

Current Problem - Her toe on the back is swollen badly, I do think that something might have either bitten her, or she snagged her toe on something and it became infected.

The reason I am posting this is that I need help for now, my vet can only see me on Wednesday and that is too long for me to wait until I can do something.

I have attached pictures, any help on some ointment or anything that might help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[kinyonga]

Unfortunately it will need to be cleaned out properly by a vet and flushed. A culture and sensitivity test should be done on the exudate to determine what antibiotic will be needed.

Good luck!

 

[Fidget321]

Okay. So I had her at a vet today.

Outcome: toe is very infected, they cut it open and drained it. What came out was blood and puss with the consistency of cottage cheese.

There are a few things my vet told me that I am a bit concerned about. (first time at this vet)

1. She tells me that chameleons are very sensitive to anesthetics and they tend to die if they are put out by this. This of course means my poor child had her toe cut open without anything to help.
2. I have noticed Fang's toenails are growing too long. When asked what I can do, she told me to clip them. As far as my knowledge goes, you can't simply clip their nails as they are attached to the bone and theh will hurt. Or am I wrong here?
3. She also told me to go back tomorrow because she wants to see what the wound looks like. Fang was not given any antibiotics because she told me while frowning - that the antibiotics aren't really made for them...

So I need some advise here please, because what she also told me was that if these steps did not work, they will have to consider amputating the toe.

Am I a paranoid mom, or should I consider another vet? And please if anyone knows what the name is of antibiotics that I can ask my vet to use, that would also help me a lot.


Thanks in advance

 

[Fidget321]

Forgot to mention: I was told to clean the wound tomorrow morning with a salt water solution and I was given an ointment in a siringe, after I clean the wound, I should get this ointment in the wound and this will help. She did not tell me what the name was of this ointment

 

[faye]

I hate to say but if I were you try and find yourself a specialist with reptiles... there are antibiotics you can use with chameleons, i used two or 3 different ones, Baytril is the most common but seek advice from a vet who knows about it because you have to give the right dose. My cham had a swollen foot once and was given antibiotic, also had an x-ray, showed no break... are you in America or England? If you need to travel a distance to get to a good vet do, as apparently a vet who dosnt really know reptiles will probably do more harm than good... I dont mean to be critical of your vet, I'm sure they mean well... Faye

 

[Fidget321]

I went back to the same vet today. She tells me that the toe looks better save for the fact that she cut it yesterday. They started her on Baytril today. They did weigh her before injecting her but I'm concerned about the discoloration where they injected her with.

I stay in Cape Town South Africa but I am on holliday until Tuesday in Johannesburg. They started her on a 7 day trial. I will go back tomorrow for the second injection. Then with the first being a holliday, and me travelling back home on the second, she will only get her next dose on the third. There is really no way I can avoid this unless I inject her myself, which is not a good idea because a am not medical person and will do more harm than good.

I have attached photos I took after getting back from the vet. The vet also recommended x-rays after antibiotics since they are still not sure how deep this infection has gone.

 

[kinyonga]

The chameleon should definitely be on an antibiotic after having had her foot cut open. The vet should have done a culture and sensitivity test to determine the right antibiotic to put the chameleon on...but baytril is generally a good one. Was the puss greenish? Did it smell like rotten grapes?

Baytril can be given orally as well...but you need to get it mixed for that and to be told how much to give per dose by weight of the chameleon...but its not hard to learn to inject it into the arms if you are given loaded needles. You just have to get it into the muscle.
Baytril almost always causes discoloration where its injected so you have to alternate injection sites.

You said..."She tells me that chameleons are very sensitive to anesthetics and they tend to die if they are put out by this"...quite a few of my chameleons have been put under and survived with no problems...so I have to disagree with this.

You said..."I have noticed Fang's toenails are growing too long. When asked what I can do, she told me to clip them. As far as my knowledge goes, you can't simply clip their nails as they are attached to the bone and theh will hurt. Or am I wrong here?"...if you clip the nails they won't be able to grip the branches properly...so I wouldn't do it. Some females grow longer nails when they are getting close to egglaying time.

You said..."Fang was not given any antibiotics because she told me while frowning - that the antibiotics aren't really made for them"...there are a number of antibiotics that work well for chameleons.

You said..."Mealworms are on a carrot diet and so are the crickets. Or cereal."...mealworms, superworms, crickets, locusts, roaches, etc. can be fed a wide variety of greens and veggies such as dandelion greens, kale, collards, endive, escarole, sweet red pepper, sweet potato, squash, zucchini, carrots, etc. If you want a healthy chameleon its important to feed it healthy insects. Your supplementing also needs attention....
Here's some information I hope will help you ....
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.

Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.

A wide variety of insects that have been well fed and gutloaded should be fed to it.

Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).

If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).

Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)

Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)

Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.
Please note that various supplements have various amounts of D3 and vitamin A and so some can be given more often than others. The idea still is not to overdo the fat soluble vitamins like D3 and prEformed vitamin A.

Here are some good sites for you to read too...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.