Black tail

[Sligadoo]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Male panther, age 5-8 months been in my care 3 months
Handling - three times for cage cleaning
Feeding - crickets dubia silk and horn worms, about 15-20 1/2 crickets? i give 10 crix at 9:30 and trhe rest at 1:00. gutloaded with cricket crack orange carrot collard green apple peach. Supplements - rep-cal calcium no D3 every feeding reptivite and calcium with D3 twice a month
Watering - Mist king 8:30 2min 10:30 1min 12:00 3min 6:00 2min and i have a dripper going he drinks all the time
Fecal Description - white urate with soft brown poo, normal
I have never had him tested for parasites

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 2x2x4 screen
Lighting - arcadia, 6% T5, zoomed 75w basking bulb? on 8am off 8pm
Temperature -floor is 75 basking is 81, night temp is 68-71 zoomed thermometer at basking spot and zoomed tempgun
Humidity - stays around 65 drops at night 45-50 hydometer in cage
Plants - umbrella plant
Placement -in computer room top of the cage is a little over 6 feet
Location - texas

Current Problem - half of his tail is black he is acting normal eating and drinking fine still uses his tail like normal i am just worried!!!

 

[camimom]

your basking temp is way too low.
that should be up around 88 or so.

as for the tail0 not sure.

 

[Sligadoo]

i will fix the temp right now thank you for the advice

 

[Sligadoo]

could it be a bruise? and his basking spot is now 88.3

 

[carol5208]

that would be a heck of a bruise because it looks to be pretty far up the tail. Funny you should post this thread today. I just got back from the vet to have my chameleons tail checked out. It doesn't look like yours exactly and it is not dark as far up as your chameleons but I will tell you what my vet said. My chameleons tail can curl and wrap and he using it just fine It is not necrotic. He said there is a main blood vessel that supplies blood to the tail that runs down the tail. If it was injured somehow it could cause the tail to lose color as the the vessel is not supplying blood to the tail properly. He said there is really nothing that can be done and as long as it does not become necrotic and it does not keep traveling up the tail, then it is ok. My guys tail is very dark black but it turns dark greeen and then to dark black. Much darker than yours. Is it possible that he got it caught in the door or something? I have no idea why my chameleon's tail turned dark. It just kinda came out of nowhere and he did not injure it(if it is indeed injured) in my presence. Another member whose cham had something similar said her vet said it could be a pinched nerve. My vet did not agree with this, so not sure who is right and who is wrong. hope this helps you some.

 

[carol5208]

here is a pic of my chameleons tail outside that I took. I was touching it so he curled it. It does not go as high up as yours and is much darker as you can see. BTW mine is mostly on one side also. The other side is colorful with a few black specks here and there.

 

[Sligadoo]

ya that helps i just don't want him to loose his tail. I don't know if you can tell from my pics but on one side of his tail his color is normal, compare the pics and thanks for the post

 

[carol5208]

ya that helps i just don't want him to loose his tail. I don't know if you can tell from my pics but on one side of his tail his color is normal, compare the pics and thanks for the post

hopefully it will disappear. Mine has beenlike this for a few weeks. It looked dry at first and I thought it was going to shed but no such luck. I did not want to screw around so got him in today to my vet. I am confident in what my vet said and seeing there is no magiacal cure I can only hope my guys tail does not get worse or necrotic.

 

[Sligadoo]

that is similar it took about 24 hours for it to develop he can still change his color a little from dark to light but not much i hope he gets better and best wishes for your cham!

 

[Sligadoo]

anyone else have an opinion? i will post more pics later

 

[twatts704]

Has he sustained a fall? Or maybe pinched his tail in between something like the door or in between some potted plants? Could be the nerves got pinched. Had the same on my female but on her backside due to eggs pinching the nerves. She was fine, I just kept supplementing and took her outside everyday.

 

[Sligadoo]

i didn't see anything happen but its possible. If it is a pinched nerve is there anything i can do to help him and will the color ever return?

 

[carol5208]

according to my vet there is nothing you can do for a pinched nerve or the blood vessel if it is blocked. My vet said that a pinched nerve would not cause color loss but a blood vessel that was constricted would. He never mentioned any type of surgery for my chameleon. He said as long as the tail was functional we would keep an eye on it. I am hoping for it to go away on its own. It has been like this for a few weeks.

 

[ScreamingIncognito]

my opinion

it looks like he czn curl his tail fine. why dont you hold him and get him to curl his tail around your finger to see if it still has strength if so i wouldnt worry about it. unless it travels or gets bigger kinda thing.. one thing i have learned in my experience of raising my 2 panthers is at first every little thing freaked me out. but they actually seem to be quite hardy strong animals.

 

[twatts704]

When my female had her black spot it took about 2-3 weeks to go away. I was advised to just keep supplementing and taking her outside daily. It never spread or got worse and she was fully mobile. She is doing great now.

 

[Sligadoo]

Thanks for all posts, I was freaking out that the tail was a goner but as long as he is not feeling pain i am happy. His tail is still strong i swear he uses it more than his legs. I will be keeping an eye on him and you guys updated

 

[gutesglutes]

Mill has a similar tail.

He didn't eat all of his crickets today either and he's been super eager to get out of his cage, climbing the walls, etc.
He's still in his small cage at 6 months...so I think he's restless. His big cage is almost done!!
Hang in there mill.

 

[CaseyP]

My female has a spot like that she has had it since I got her from the pet shop about 3 weeks ago anyone have a clue what it could be?

 

[kinyonga]

The two spots are not the same.
Did the tail get caught in the cage door? It could be a number of things that are causing it.

The spot on the side could also be a number of things...a burn, a fungus for example.

A visit to a good chameleon vet might be the best idea.