Chameleon mouth abcess

Nathanb

New Member
Hi,
Looking for a bit of advice - my chameleon has an abscess on the side of her mouth, she's been to the vets - he's given her a couple of shots and sent her home with antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, he did comment that one challenge with chameleons is their metabolism isn't the quickest, I didn't think to ask him while I was there - is it worth whacking her temps up by a couple of degrees on the dimmer stat to like 33 C to try and speed her metabolism a bit and as a result her recovery? Has anyone got any experience doing that. She's a female ambilobe panther
Thanks
 
I have to say - I don't see the relevance of pictures. She has been to the vet who has confirmed it is an abscess, she's had 2 shots and she's now on oral antibiotics and anti inflammatories.

Will increasing the temps increase her metabolism and therefore the speed the drugs are absorbed into her system or will it make no difference?
 
Take her up to the maximum recommend basking/ambient temps, no higher. Anything higher and your just adding additional heat stress on her already weakened body.
 
Take her up to the maximum recommend basking/ambient temps, no higher. Anything higher and your just adding additional heat stress on her already weakened body.


Thanks - I'll increase it a bit then towards more 'summer' temperatures. It proved challenging but I did manage to get the first set of oral antibiotics into her, which is a start and better than having to take her back to the vet for more shots!
 
Thanks - I'll increase it a bit then towards more 'summer' temperatures. It proved challenging but I did manage to get the first set of oral antibiotics into her, which is a start and better than having to take her back to the vet for more shots!

Personally I don't know how to help you with no other information.. I don't know the size of your terrarium.. don't know the % of humidity (can be fatal to have too high humidity with high temperatures..) and more important I don't know what kind of chameleon species you got (big differences between a Jackson and a veiled indeed..) .. pictures can be relevant because it can reveal other problem (if your chameleon in dehydrated I will avoid the temperatures raise just because it will be dangerous), I don't know if you plan is to raise the temperatures at night or during the day? etc. etc. (aces of mouth rot of any disease usually come from bad husbandry, go with any antibiotic you want it will come back more stronger if you don't try to correct the situation)

Anyway, for a answer to your question, yes when I go a sick/rescue chameleon I increase the temperature.. but I dot take any moral responsibility if you raise the temperature and your chameleon died or get more sick.. so for now stick too what your vet say ;)

M.
 
Personally I don't know how to help you with no other information.. I don't know the size of your terrarium.. don't know the % of humidity (can be fatal to have too high humidity with high temperatures..) and more important I don't know what kind of chameleon species you got (big differences between a Jackson and a veiled indeed..) .. pictures can be relevant because it can reveal other problem (if your chameleon in dehydrated I will avoid the temperatures raise just because it will be dangerous), I don't know if you plan is to raise the temperatures at night or during the day? etc. etc. (aces of mouth rot of any disease usually come from bad husbandry, go with any antibiotic you want it will come back more stronger if you don't try to correct the situation)

Anyway, for a answer to your question, yes when I go a sick/rescue chameleon I increase the temperature.. but I dot take any moral responsibility if you raise the temperature and your chameleon died or get more sick.. so for now stick too what your vet say ;)

M.

The vet has said very clearly that the cause of the abscess is an insect bite as opposed to husbandry - when he got her to open her mouth he said he could obviously see the puncture wound. I was talking to the breeder about it as well - he's got over 60 adult panthers and said he averages 2 trips to the vet each year with mouth abscesses from insect bites, he says it goes with the territory and is inevitable for most people if you have several chameleons at some point

The vet (who is an exotic specialist so I haven't taken her to any old vet) asked a bucket load of husbandry questions and was comfortable that the setup, feeding schedule, supplements, lighting etc is right for her. The husbandry and setups are the same for all of my chams - the males have much larger enclosures though and this is the first issue I've had in years.

As I stated in the first post she's an ambilobe, so panther. Plan is to possibly raise temp during the day - at night they rarely drop below 19 degrees in that room so I don't see the point in altering that, currently her basking spot at the top is set to 31C it drops lower towards the bottom. Her Viv is about 1.8 ft x 1.8ft x 3.5 ft high - bioactive, planted, UVB is arcadia tube 6% (changed in November so recently). She's on a rain system - comes on twice a day morning and evening for 45 seconds so humidity goes up in the morning, down during the day and then up again a bit in the evening
 
The vet has said very clearly that the cause of the abscess is an insect bite as opposed to husbandry - when he got her to open her mouth he said he could obviously see the puncture wound. I was talking to the breeder about it as well - he's got over 60 adult panthers and said he averages 2 trips to the vet each year with mouth abscesses from insect bites, he says it goes with the territory and is inevitable for most people if you have several chameleons at some point

The vet (who is an exotic specialist so I haven't taken her to any old vet) asked a bucket load of husbandry questions and was comfortable that the setup, feeding schedule, supplements, lighting etc is right for her. The husbandry and setups are the same for all of my chams - the males have much larger enclosures though and this is the first issue I've had in years.

As I stated in the first post she's an ambilobe, so panther. Plan is to possibly raise temp during the day - at night they rarely drop below 19 degrees in that room so I don't see the point in altering that, currently her basking spot at the top is set to 31C it drops lower towards the bottom. Her Viv is about 1.8 ft x 1.8ft x 3.5 ft high - bioactive, planted, UVB is arcadia tube 6% (changed in November so recently). She's on a rain system - comes on twice a day morning and evening for 45 seconds so humidity goes up in the morning, down during the day and then up again a bit in the evening

So! with that info, yes small increase of the temperature could be ok!

I know you trust this vet.. but one vet specialized with exotics animal kill my chameleon with massive fatal Ivermectin dosage (strong anti-parasitic.. not recommended at all for chameleon.. he got lock jaw and major system breakdown) with no prior fecal testing too confirm the parasitic infection.. so after this episode.. im not blindly trusting all the exotic vet.

You can also feed with silkworm time of the antibiotic (easy to digest and got anti-inflammatory property) and you can dust the work with bee pollen (can help with immunity system boost and healing)

Ps : sorry I didn't notice you give the chameleon species ;) my bad here
 
Thanks for the advice folks, I've upped the temps a little bit. My wife saw her for the first time in a few days today as she's been away and she commented how much better she looks and how much the swelling has gone down.

Other good thing is she's eating again, she seems to prefer smaller bugs but she's eating! (I'm also feeding her things that are very unlikely to bite her again!)

Finally she's back to her normal salmon pink colour.

I'll persevere with the antibiotics on the vets advice and hopefully she'll be back to normal in a couple of weeks. Then I can introduce her to the male once she's fully back to normal :)
 
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