Chameleon Abdominal Mass

JenniK

New Member
Hello,

I have a two year old, female veiled chameleon, Agnes. I am currently working with a vet, but also wanted to see if anyone here might have insights as to this x-ray. Does this look like a massive bowel impaction or something else? The vet was unable to say, and we are waiting on some blood results to decide next steps. They also don't think it is egg masses, Agnes was previously spayed. This is the x-ray taken by the vet today:

I00037412737.jpg


Some background on her health and recent behavior:

She is a rescue who was surrendered just after reaching maturity when she became egg bound, after which she was spayed. The small metal foci in the x-ray are from her spay. However, this past summer when talking to the vet, Agnes was looking a little chunky so the vet did warn me it was possible for her ovaries to regenerate and to set up a lay bin just in case. She was not interested in the lay bin and a change to her feeding helped her slim down a bit, so I stopped worrying about this possibility.

Before the holidays I noticed her roaming the bottom of her cage and she'd been looking a little plump. I put in the lay bin and prepped our pet sitters to let me know if she was digging. She ate and drank fine for the pet sitters. The night we returned from vacation, Agnes had dug up the lay bin and made a big mess, so I thought maybe her ovaries regenerated after all. The next morning she was in the hole looking very rough and dehydrated, so we used the steamy shower method to get her to drink (I didn't let the water hit her, just let the humidity accumulate on a plant that she could drink off of). This seemed to perk her up and she resumed digging for three more days, even sleeping in the hole at times, and refusing to eat (normally very food motivated, and wasn't even eating hornworms which she normally goes crazy for). She stopped digging 2 days ago and has just been basking and looking increasingly lethargic and refusing food.

I'm not sure about her bowel habits while we were away. She has been exclusively pooping in the plants and because of this I've been finding it difficult to tell when she's relieved herself and usual have only been finding signs when they are dried out later.

We took her to the vet today, and we got back the above X-ray. We are waiting on the blood draw results. I just figured I'd share the x-ray here in case anyone has any experience that could help us when we talk to the vet again.

Here is a picture of her as well, taken after I misted her:
IMG_4942.jpg


Thank you.
 
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Pretty little girl!

What’s going on with the dark mark on her left ankle?

It is possible for them to regenerate reproductive parts and produce more eggs…but the eggs should show up in the X-rays. I’m not a vet and can’t see eggs in the photo…but I’ve also never looked at an X-ray where the organs regenerated…so I don’t know what to say. Your vet sounds like he/she has a knowledge of chameleons so hopefully the vet can figure it out.

There were studies done on dystocia and follicular stasis and that vet might be able to give you incite into it….I played a very small part in this first one…
https://atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca/serv.../7e194832-85f4-4e76-9878-972f112c295f/content

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016648010002303

https://bioone.org/journals/journal...ULAR-STASIS-IN-REPTILES/10.1638/2024-0112.pdf
 
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Thanks for the response! I should clarify that the vet said it was possible to regenerate ovaries but cannot tell if this is the case in Agnes, and as far as they could tell this is likely not eggs. The mass could be anything at this point really.

Agnes is a little piebald on her limbs and face so she's always had a few black and white spots (I've also wondered if this has something to do with her kind of flat casque).

Thank you for linking the papers! I've been wondering if it was possible for them to reabsorb follicles and now I at least have an answer to that :)
 
Piebald…the mark makes sense now!

I’ve only seen one case of reabsorbing the eggs myself in many years…but the paper I sited seems to indicate it happens more than I was aware of. It’s not something you can see or be sure is happening without X-rays.
 
Talked to the vet and it’s not good news. The mass is apparently some kind of growth in her intestine (not an impaction) and it is not realistically operable.

Blood test revealed some elevated white counts so we are giving antibiotics more as palliative care in hopes she will be less uncomfortable.

We are just shifting gears to keep her as comfy as possible. We decided to show her one new thing a day (while being mindful of stress of course) to enrich her life as she is quite lethargic now.

Thank you for the support and please enjoy this picture of Agnes looking at a new object


IMG_4957.jpeg

(Please also note that the humidity gauge in the back was low as this was before a misting and she got plenty to drink right after!)
 
I incöine tonsay she is overfed and the visible body in her body cavity might be the corpus adiposum.
I strongly advise to finetune the care: misting her at lights on is a wrong and dangerous approsch, she has been injured by casque burn, the cage interior as fas as seen does not seem to be ideal
Steamy shower is a very problematic
approach which I do not recommend at all
And the örobability she was really dehydrated after su short period of time is very unlikely and was. wry likely misinterpreted eg by sunken eyes possibly
 
I incöine tonsay she is overfed and the visible body in her body cavity might be the corpus adiposum.
I strongly advise to finetune the care: misting her at lights on is a wrong and dangerous approsch, she has been injured by casque burn, the cage interior as fas as seen does not seem to be ideal
Steamy shower is a very problematic
approach which I do not recommend at all
And the örobability she was really dehydrated after su short period of time is very unlikely and was. wry likely misinterpreted eg by sunken eyes possibly

Thanks for your reply and concern, but I’m not sure most of this applies.

Casque burn happened before I got her when she was young, so it’s always looked like that. Vet did not think that she was overfed, her size was due to the mass (tbh I did overfeed her for a bit once and had to adjust her feeding, so I def know the difference). The vet thought her feeding schedule as well as cage set up were all fine.

She was indeed very dehydrated as she was not drinking at all during the digging episode. Perhaps the steamy shower was not the best approach (it definitely seems a topic of some debate across chameleon forums). But it was that or nothing as she will not take hand watering from a dropper, and at least in this case, did result in her finally drinking and regaining enough strength to transport her to the vet.

This all being said, the antibiotics did wonders!! So perhaps the mass was swelling from infected intestinal tissues. Which is interesting that the vet didn’t suggest that as a possible cause. Otherwise, Agnes has since resumed eating and has being having regular bowl movements with good hydration.

Not sure what might have caused the mass/possible infection so that remains a concern. Definitely taking suggestions for good, clean food sources that can deliver to the Boston area and don’t require bulk orders.

Thanks again for the concern.
 
Thanks for your reply and concern, but I’m not sure most of this applies.

Casque burn happened before I got her when she was young, so it’s always looked like that. Vet did not think that she was overfed, her size was due to the mass (tbh I did overfeed her for a bit once and had to adjust her feeding, so I def know the difference). The vet thought her feeding schedule as well as cage set up were all fine.

She was indeed very dehydrated as she was not drinking at all during the digging episode. Perhaps the steamy shower was not the best approach (it definitely seems a topic of some debate across chameleon forums). But it was that or nothing as she will not take hand watering from a dropper, and at least in this case, did result in her finally drinking and regaining enough strength to transport her to the vet.

This all being said, the antibiotics did wonders!! So perhaps the mass was swelling from infected intestinal tissues. Which is interesting that the vet didn’t suggest that as a possible cause. Otherwise, Agnes has since resumed eating and has being having regular bowl movements with good hydration.

Not sure what might have caused the mass/possible infection so that remains a concern. Definitely taking suggestions for good, clean food sources that can deliver to the Boston area and don’t require bulk orders.

Thanks again for the concern.
So glad that she’s recovered. I feared and assumed the worst from the way she looked. Poor sweet girl. 💗 There are many on line feeder vendors who sell variety packs. Check the forum sponsors here https://www.chameleonforums.com/sponsors/?tag=food and I believe Josh’s Frogs sells variety packs too. I always got quality feeders from them, but the shipping problems were terrible - not their fault and they always made good on it. While Florida is a distance, https://www.lindasgonebuggie.com/page/397479218 has fantastic feeders and has been my go to for everything except crickets (she doesn’t sell the quantity I need of them) and her prices are hard to beat. Being Florida though, she can’t sell dubia, but we have discoid, which are super similar and some say healthier.
 
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