Broken Leg

[Fool2Think]

My female Nosy Be named Masque has broken her right hind leg.
Masque laid 24 eggs last week and that day I found that she was not using her back leg. I thought that maybe she had pulled a muscle or injured it while digging or sometime during the laying process.

I took her to Cornell yesterday, the x-ray shows that she has fractured the bone just below her hip joint. The doctor wanted to "tie" her leg to her tail. This is not able to be done because the bandages used will shrink when they get wet and could cause too much constriction, also it would cover her vent.

He then wanted to pin it back together but realized after x-ray that this could not be done either. She has old fractures on the 2 bones below her knee joint that have calcified(so they are stronger) If pinned, the weaker bone above would likely fracture or shatter(since it is weaker).

He opted to do nothing with it for now. I am to give her liquid calcium glubionate(.05cc orally/daily) and metacam(.02cc orally/daily for 3 weeks)
The metacam is a pain killer, anyone have experience with this drug? Is it really safe? It worries me to give her pain killers as she may try to use that leg more than if it was painful.
The calcium hopefully will make the weak bone stronger, at which point they will then pin the leg together. It's going to be a slow, long recovery.

She has been put into a smaller cage(18"x18"x36") with more plants and all of her vines and branches are as low to the floor as possible. This is suppose to limit her movement and limit the height if she falls. The vet thinks she was out of energy when she was done laying and probably took a fall from one of the higher areas. She was housed in a 2'x2'x4' cage before.

Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to share my experience so far.
Anyone have any advice on the pain killer?

 

[jannb]

I am sorry to hear about Masque. My little Elly also broke a leg during egg laying. She was put on a heavy dose of the liquid calcium and the Metacam. I also have a male that has been on Metacam in the past for bone spurs and one of my daughter's chams was on Metacam for gout.

Dr. Alfonso my cham vet told my local vet how to wrap Elly's leg which was her back leg and broke at the top also. I will find the instructions and post them for you below.

Use liquid calcium before egg laying so Masque's bones will hopefully be stronger.

For the make shift cast you will want something sturdy but not super stiff like a bandage made out of flexible non-stick tape called Vet-Flex of Co-Flex. It will be strong enough and cushioned enough to provide stability. This is what my vet used to wrap Elly's broke leg. You will have to cut the tape into long narrow strips to wrap the little leg.


It could also be wrapped instead of the first wrap around the broken part (upper arm), the first wrap could go around both upper andlower parts of her arm, then over the back. This might give it even morestability.

We changed the bandage every Sunday at home and it stayed wrapped for about a month. If you do decide to wrap make sure to loosely wrap.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

It is a common old belief that being in pain will make the animal respect the injury more. This has fallen completely out of favor since it can be cruel (don't give pain meds after the surgery so the dog won't run around) and at best is inhumane. While an animal is in pain it will release lots of corticosteroids in response to the stress of the pain, and those substances actually delay healing. So proper pain management actually promotes better healing, as well as makes the animal more comfortable. I certainly hope my doc wants to make me more comfortable if I'm injured! It is rare that we can eliminate all the pain, especially from a broken bone, so your cham isn't going to overdo it since it will still hurt if there's too much activity. Plus, chams aren't very active compared to other animals anyway.

The bones are too small to pin usually, and the bone often breaks at other sites around the pin since it's weak already. In reptiles more often than not we just let them heal on their own, and they actually do a good job with it all by themselves. By the time the bones are strong enough to pin the fracture is usually healed enough to be stable. Taping and bandaging has been tried, but sometimes isn't successful and may contribute to further breaks while they struggle to get free. It depends on the location and ability of the cham to tolerate it.

Definitely continue the calcium glubionate for at least 30 days because a pathologic fracture like this means she has taken too much calcium out of her bones to make her eggs. She has MBD. Replacing the deficit is going to be the biggest help to her and if she lays eggs again in the future you should supplement with it while she is gravid as well to prevent it from happening again.

Metacam (meloxicam) can be hard on the kidneys so make sure your cham is well hydrated while on it. It is generally a very safe drug to use though, and it helps minimize inflammation so the bones can heal faster. Just make sure she gets lots of water often.

In other words, you did good taking her to the vet! And your vet made all the right calls!

 

[Miss Lily]

My Tommy was prescribed Metacam twice. I found it easier to administer by injecting it into a feeder - much less stressful than trying to get the chameleon to gape! Apparently it takes quite sweet and he ate his medicated feeder every day for over two weeks with no problem.

 

[Fool2Think]

Thank you both for the responses. For now I will leave it unwrapped and watch for swelling and discoloration.

I will give her the metacam, thanks for the reassurance on that.

I'm going to call Dr. DeMatos to get more of the calcium for my other girls, that are gravid.

 

[Fool2Think]

My Tommy was prescribed Metacam twice. I found it easier to administer by injecting it into a feeder - much less stressful than trying to get the chameleon to gape! Apparently it takes quite sweet and he ate his medicated feeder every day for over two weeks with no problem.

Yes, I was told to that I could just put it on the feeder and it would be just as effective and stress free for Masque.

 

[Miss Lily]

I was also told to put a drop onto the feeder. It didn't stay on there! I ended up injecting it into a locust to ensure he got the full dose! The problem with just putting a drop onto a feeder is if they don't hand feed and eat it straight away then the meds tend to drip off!

 

[kinyonga]

One more thing...since the chameleon's bones are breaking you should look at your supplementing, what you are feeding the chameleon and what you are gutloading/feeding the insects with. Also...is your UVB light still good? Does the UVB pass through any glass or plastic? A balance of nutrients is important...especially the D3, phos., Calcium and vitamin A....for good bone health and in other systems in the chameleon too.

 

[Fool2Think]

One more thing...since the chameleon's bones are breaking you should look at your supplementing, what you are feeding the chameleon and what you are gutloading/feeding the insects with. Also...is your UVB light still good? Does the UVB pass through any glass or plastic? A balance of nutrients is important...especially the D3, phos., Calcium and vitamin A....for good bone health and in other systems in the chameleon too.

Yes, I have been thinking about all of that. The UVB is around 3 months old. I have only had the chameleon about that long.
I had been using Repashy Calcium Plus for dusting. Now I am going to switch back to rep-cal/herptivite. All of this talk about Repashy and nobody has mentioned how it will affect adult, laying females, or have they?
i am also going to make sure I feed more of a variety to the feeders.

 

[SilverDragoness]

Ferretinmyshoes is right especially about pain and the pathophysiologic reasons behind it not being good. Also about metacam being hard on kidneys or at least we know so in cats. Perhaps they could consider tramadol for pain? It's commonly used for orthopedic pain although it's super bitter. There are no studies on pain management for chameleons that I know of.