big black spot on veil

[transdel]

i have a 1 year old male veiled cham that has a nasty dark spot towards the top of his veil. it almost looks like his skin is rotting. it's been there for a little over a month and is gradually getting worse. also, the area of skin around it doesn't change color with the rest of his body. any ideas of what it could be or what i can do to help would be appreciated

 

[brandychams]

sounds like a bad burn but picks would help

 

[Symbiot]

We would need to see some pictures to give a proper guess of what it may be.

 

[carol5208]

if it is spreading and getting worse it could be a fungus then. I don't see a burn to keep getting worse unless he keeps burning himself again and again. Is his casque high enough in proximity to the basking light to receive a burn? Definitely post some pictures.

 

[camimom]

Carol, its possible that the burn is not 'spreading' so much as more skin is dying. which can make it look like the burn is spreading.
But pictures would be helpful.

and it could still be a fungus.

 

[transdel]

i have a terrible update to the situation
i got home from work today to find a hole (literally) on the opposite side of the dark spot. i don't know if it's from crickets chewing on him or if he has a major issue with his skin. i'm going to take him to the vet as soon as possible.

 

[lindawaz]

Oh my! Good luck at the vet and keep us posted!

 

[transdel]

 

[KCcham]

Can you tell us about your husbandry??? maybe fill out the ask for help form? It might be late in the game, but you never know!

I had almost the same thing happen once..... that hole looks awful!!! please let us know what the vet says!

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

I know bugs often eat the decaying flesh. It's most likely an infection.

 

[Elizadolots]

Just noting that a really bad burn does develop over time. About a week and a half ago I tapped my arm on the inside of my oven while roasting peppers. It didn't really hurt, so I ran some water over it and forgot about it. Later that night it was "tingly" but still didn't hurt. A couple of days later I noted a discoloration. Then, a few days after that the skin flaked off and it started bleeding (so, neosporin and bandaids came into play). Currently I have a raised, pink, glossy area surrounding a still not quite healed wound. I'll have a permanent scar. But for 2 days it was nothing, for 3 days it was just "discolored".


It's conceivable that it's a burn or a burn combined with insects.

 

[kinyonga]

IMHO it looks like the crickets are chewing on your chameleon.

 

[Carlton]

Certainly possible, but I have seen a completely different cause for a hole like this. I had a wc verrucosus who started showing a swollen area on his snout. There wasn't any surface discoloration really, so it wasn't a burn. Took him to the vet, who started probing the swelling. As he did, we realized the skin was just laying on top of something underneath. The skin peeled away to expose a good sized abscess. The more we cleaned out the deeper the pocket went. There was healthy tissue around the pocket, but it extended from the top of his snout all the way through to the inside of his mouth (where the palate would be on a mammal). Really alarming to realize! We cleaned the whole area out and it eventually closed over again. Whether there was an old encapsulated nasal cavity infection, an old injury or simply dead tissue or something else we never knew.

Either way, first things' first. If your crickets free roam, start confining them so they don't chew on your cham. Take him to a vet to look closely for signs of infection or dead tissue. Check the temps right under your basking light and either use a lower watt bulb or move it farther away. Protect the raw edges of the hole with something like Polysporin so any infection does not keep spreading.

 

[camimom]

Im not totally convinced it was a burn. I dont see any singed flesh, or anything like that. It appears to be like carlton said, an abscess that has now burst.
If he got a scratch there, or even it was a small burn, an infection set in and esentially ate the flesh away, leaving the hole.
i concur with putting some neosporin on it until you get to the vet, and keeping the crickets away from it.
Crickets just LOVE to eat things like that, saw a forum member who had half of her pygmy chams eye and face eaten away by the crickets, not a pretty sight.
your cham will def need antibiotics, whether oral or topical i dont know, maybe both and maybe some other meds.
Fortunately, ti does not appear that it is too severe to save him, so long as he was healthy before it occured, and the infection hasnt taken over his body.
Good luck with the vet and keep us updated!

 

[ataraxia]

on one side of the casque you can see a knot and on the other side a hole.

i would take some povidone iodine and bottled water and mix the two into a solution that resembles "mild tea". becareful not to get any in his eyes. i would flush the area by taking a needless syringe, squirting the area inside and out. then i would apply some polysporin.

as mentioned be sure to keep any crickets out of the cage overnight. they will feast on this area.

id take your chameleon to the vet as soon as you can. he may need to be put on some antibiotics.