Baby has a broken arm!!! What can we do?

[selfmade64856]

One of our week old babies got it's arm stuck between a branch and the cage mesh and now it's arm is broken. What can we do to help it? Can we put on a mini cast or something? I don't see how since she/he is so small.....but I would be willing to try. Is there anything we can give it for pain?

Thanks!

 

[laurie]

I am sorry to hear about your baby. Is it a front arm or back arm? As far as I know there is nothing much you can do and I would be afraid to give a cham that small medication for pain even if you knew what to give it. Just try to keep it where it can't fall or get hurt and let it heal. The cham will adapt to the broken arm.

 

[Carlton]

One of our week old babies got it's arm stuck between a branch and the cage mesh and now it's arm is broken. What can we do to help it? Can we put on a mini cast or something? I don't see how since she/he is so small.....but I would be willing to try. Is there anything we can give it for pain?

Thanks!

I don't know how tiny this little one is, but would it be possible to put a small piece of vet wrap (that self adhesive flexible bandage) around the leg to help support the break until it stabilizes? A baby like this is actively growing so it might not be needed very long.

 

[selfmade64856]

Thanks for the advice Laurie. It is his front right arm between the wrist and elbow. I have since trimmed back the branch to prevent this from happening again. He seems to be doing ok so far. I will keep an eye on him. Poor little guy. I love all eight of them! I wish I would have been paying closer attention.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

I think Carlton has the right idea. There's no real splint or cast for something that small unfortunately but it will heal pretty quickly at that age so if there's any way you can just stabilize it to try to keep it straight for a few weeks until then that's about all you can do. Pain meds may knock out its kidneys at such a young age so best to avoid those. Make sure he gets lots of calcium for good healing! what are you using for gut loading?

 

[selfmade64856]

Thanks everyone. The baby is super tiny, but that same day I took his arm and very gently think I put it back in place. The next day I could see that his arm was a bit swollen and that he was favoring it. By day 3 I had to visually watch for a good 10 minutes to find out which one had the bad arm.....today I cannot tell. All of the chams are using their arms and "hands" just fine so it seems that I got lucky and the arm is healing nicely.

Thank you all for your advice and support. It's comforting to know that I can pop online and get any questions or concerns answered by a knowledgeable group.

Thank you!

 

[kinyonga]

You may want to post your husbandry by filling in the questions in the "how to ask for help" thread in the health section just in case there is a nutritional issue.

 

[Ash407]

I am sorry to hear about your baby. Is it a front arm or back arm? As far as I know there is nothing much you can do and I would be afraid to give a cham that small medication for pain even if you knew what to give it. Just try to keep it where it can't fall or get hurt and let it heal. The cham will adapt to the broken arm.

My chameleon is egg bound and has a broken front arm by her shoulder she’s about 9mo old and has been using that arm to dig but it needs to rest and heal is their any way to splint/tape it up to heal straight

 

[Beman]

My chameleon is egg bound and has a broken front arm by her shoulder she’s about 9mo old and has been using that arm to dig but it needs to rest and heal is their any way to splint/tape it up to heal straight

This is an extremely old thread. You will want to start your own thread. If she is egg bound and has a broken arm you need a reptile vet asap. They die when they are eggbound if they are not able to lay the eggs. No way to easily splint an arm... If she has MBD then there are more issues that would have to be addressed. But again egg binding would be the extreme worry here.

To start your own thread go here then click post thread button. https://www.chameleonforums.com/forums/health-clinic.7/

To find a reptile vet near you. https://arav.site-ym.com/search/custom.asp?id=3661