Broken leg! :( ?

[ange loves chams]

So over the past 5 or so days i found baby pygmies in my adult pygmy inclosure. So I put all 3 of them in their own inclosure and have been tending to them. Yesturday I went to go take out their fruit fly cup before they went to bed and i found the little run of them inside the cup unable to get out! I helped the little guy out and placed him on his branch and noticed that one of his back feet is all swollen and black I am not too sure as to how this happened if he may have smashed it some how when he fell because when i looked at them earlier all of them were perfectly healthy alert and looked great. After i picked the little guy up from inside the cup his ankle and foot are all swollen and black.
He wasn't using his bad leg very much thats why he was unable to get out of the very small shallow cup, and he was in a little puddle of water from when i misted i felt so terrible. Its morning now and he looks pretty good considering his still swollen ankle and foot, it's still black. But he is very alert eyes wide open not sunken in and looking around. He hasn't moved too much tho.

So i know obviously with babies be prepared for the worst, survival of the fittest but I was wondering since he's so small and still developing could he be resilient to this injury? Could it heal itself the best it can and still survive or is an injury like this almost fatal to a hatchling? Or what else could it possibly be? I thought since they are so small and tiny they are prone to being clumsy but very pretected against falls, it wasn't a large fall at all, but who knows since he is so very very tiny. please give me your imput i'm such a worried mamma

 

[ange loves chams]

and that was "runt" not run. the guy whos leg is hurt is the smallest out of the 3

 

[greenguy420]

Thats not good, he probably fell poor guy. if its black its not getting any blood, so it could possibly fall off, ive seen this with bearded dragons but not with a cham, its possible. as of him surviving its going to be tough..........

 

[ange loves chams]

ya he deffinatly did fall poor little thing, and his ankle is all swollen and his foot too, and its black. Not as bad as last night, i really pray it doesn't fall off tho that would be horrendous It wouldn't be fair for him to suffer like that but i wouldn't be able to do anything about it. I'd probably be traumatized. And theres nothing i can do for him at all? i hate seeing innocent helpless animals suffer.

 

[greenguy420]

It mite be healing give it some time, there is no point of getting all worried.
If it looks a little better then last night i would give it some time a just see what happens, you could take it to the vet, but i doubt they would be able to do anything since its so young.........
Has it eaten, have you seen it shoot and everything

 

[PedroANDAshley]

Im not a pgymy expert
and I dont know the behavior of pygmies at all but he could have gotten bitten by another or have fell,
I would put him in a seperate container so that you can moniter him and see how much he eats.
I would also IF POSSIBLE (I know hes so so small) soak him and his swollen leg in some warm water see if you can get the swelling to go down.
I dont think there is much you can do since he is so small just make him comfratble.

Also just because his leg is black doesnt ALWAYS mean its not getting blood flow.
When chameleons bruise the area in which it bruises turns black.
So have a little hope he wont lose it!

Now we just gotta wait for the pgymy experts to come

 

[PedroANDAshley]

ALSO when you put him in his new container do not put alot of foilage or high branches to avoid another fall.
I say avoid folaige because it my be hard to get around and find food so removing the foilage would eliminate the hiding spots for his prey and make it a little easier on him

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

I know in other reptiles loss of limb is almost unoticeable to some of them. I've seen lots of beardies missing toes/feet/legs and I had a wild skink with no back legs or tail after a dog attacked it. I don't think it even noticed because it scurried around without any trouble and managed to bite me every chance it got. I eventually released it again because it was just as fast and independent as before. I don't know about success in chams, but with a prehensile tail (somewhat in pygmys) I would think they'd have a better shot than others at still being able to get around. But no experience with it personally. Just give it time and lots of mistings so the dark skin doesn't get too dry and see what happens. It's not the end of the world yet

 

[ange loves chams]

Thing is there's not point of bringing a baby pygmy to the vet. Idk if you've seen pictures but these things are so small and fragile. Like this guy since he's the runt is a little bigger than the size of my pinky nail plus legs and a stumpy tail. They would probably laugh at me and be like are you serious? But as for eating i mean im not sure if this one has eaten yet because these guys aren't even a week old yet, there about 5 days old. The one that hatched the first is significantly bigger than the others and i've seen him eat some of the fruit flies and they've all been drinking. The other two i have not seen them eat at all but their all drinking. Everyone ive talked to has told me that with baby chams they will go up to about a week before finally eating sometimes because when they hatch they are still living off of the egg embryo for a little while. S not to freak out if they dont eat for a bit. I am recieving a shipment of baby pin head crickets tomrrow which i think will probably entice them to eat more than the flies. The fruit flies are more of annoyance to them than potential food, i hate fruit flies lol

 

[ange loves chams]

Do you think the soaking will help? I really dont want to be handeling him at all sicne this injury, i might move him to a seprate enclosure tho, but i dont know how i will be able to soak his leg since hes soo small. Do you think that using a q-tip soaked with luke warm water and lightly putting it on his ankle would be benificial too? I mean the last thing i want to do is be handeling the poor little guy in his condition

 

[PedroANDAshley]

Please reffer to my post above make sure you read it and do what I asked so that you can moniter him, put him in a seperate cage NO HIGH BRANCHES NO FOILAGE so he wont fall again and no foilage so he doesnt have to hunt hard so his prey wont hide from him

 

[PedroANDAshley]

Go ahead and try the warm qtip thing, anything is worth trying, but your gonna have to semi-handle him to get him into a seperate container

 

[ange loves chams]

Ya true i will seperate him for sure today because since their babies then tend to carelessly walk all over one another lol and i dont want one of them making it worse thanks for the tips tho hun i appreciate it. I will put him into a seprate enclosure and try the warm qtip thing when i do move him. Like i said too my pinheads are coming in tomorrow so i will monitor his eating and make sure to offer him lots of food to build up his strength and dust with light calcium aswell, hopefully that will help build up and repair his bones if it is a break

 

[PedroANDAshley]

I wish you luck

 

[Jonasburns]

Sorry to hear this happened.

I am curious though, you would never apply warm anything to a broken bone on a human, this will only increase the swelling.


Is this different b/c they are cold blooded? Non of my herps ever got hurt like that *knock on wood* so i haven't done any reading on injuries like this yet.

Perhaps that can be today's research topic for myself. Seems apropro

 

[PedroANDAshley]

Well when I had a bearded dragon his leg was hurt when I got him.
The people on the bearded dragon forums told me a warm bath would help.
SO Im assuming it would work the same way with chams?
Like I said Im not a pygmy expert LOL or a vet
hopefully dodolah or some other cham expert with sickness and stuff get on soon.

 

[ange loves chams]

I think yes it might be reverse because they are cold blooded, so since we are warm blooded we find relief and reduce swelling in a cold application while since they are cold blooded they might need something warm? I mean im not going to apply hot water or even warm at all, just luke warm water on a q-tip. Just like if your male chameleon has a sperm plug or a sore some where you are recomended to soak him in luke warm water, and if you have a gravid female having trouble passing eggs you are supposed to give her a luke warm shower. But since this question has been raised i am going to be calling around to a few vets before i apply the technique safety first. I do not want to make anything worse

 

[Jonasburns]

not really questioning the application, i have no exp to speak of at all. I was only curious.


TYVM

Ill see what i can find today

 

[ange loves chams]

But as far as i've heard for wounds on reptiles luke warm water is the way to go for relief. Oh man i really hope he's going to be ok poor little guy. And yes thats true too when chameleons bruise the area turns black just like we do. When my female veiled needed shots the area around the injection sight would turn black for a while

 

[PedroANDAshley]

not really questioning the application, i have no exp to speak of at all. I was only curious.


TYVM

Ill see what i can find today

You should let me know what you find out
Im interested too why that is when in humans it opposite.