Help!! First time chameleon owner, doesnt seem well

[mintloki54]

Hello! I got a chameleon 2 days ago from previous owner who didnt have the time for him and he has some skin issues. He (or she?) is shedding but his color is pale grey/brown. I have yet to see him turn green. He seems stressed. He is eating fine and moving around okay. He has some marks on his back, looks like scabs? I uploaded some pics. It is hard to see due to his shedding. Please help!

 

[JamesBryan]

It's a female panther, so the colours won't be as vivid as a male.

The scabs look like burns possibly, has she been getting too close to the heat bulb?

Her colours look a bit like gravid colours too, she could have eggs. Is she pacing around at all?

 

[Carlton]

It's a female panther, so the colours won't be as vivid as a male.

The scabs look like burns possibly, has she been getting too close to the heat bulb?

Her colours look a bit like gravid colours too, she could have eggs. Is she pacing around at all?

I agree...looks like a female to me. Scabs should be pretty obvious once the old shed is gone. Typical places for thermal burns too. BTW, the cham doesn't necessarily need to "touch" a heat bulb to get burned. If the basking temp was too hot, or the cage not set up well they can burn themselves just by sitting too close for too long at a time. Ironically chams don't have many heat sensors in their skin and as they are basking until their internal organs warm up they can end up burning themselves under the more focused heat beams produced by lamps.

Maybe this cham is crouched on the branch because she is stressed, but I would ask the previous owner what he supplemented with and how often. There may be some nutritional deficiencies going on too.

 

[mintloki54]

The branches were pretty close to the top when I received the cage, I moved them down a bit just in case. I am trying to get in touch with the previous owner but its hard! They suggested to use Baytril for the skin issue. A friend of mine saw there was real sticks in the cage (which it came like that) and said to take them out due to possible parasites. I messaged the previous owner to find out if the branches were from outside or not. I think the humidity is an issue, its staying at around 25-30% is it ok to use a humidifier near the cage? Its a mesh screen cage.

Thanks!

 

[mintloki54]

The shedding is gone but the scab is still there, it is slowly peeling but leaving a scar. Is there an ointment to be used for this? Thanks for the help!

 

[mintloki54]

Pic of back

 

[brownie64]

Ouch! That looks nasty. I would put just plain Neosporin on it. And your humidity should be 50 -70% with a dry out in between misting's. So yes you can put the humidifier next to her cage if it is a cool mist "the kind that throws out the hot stem can mess with your heat gradient, or burn your cham." And watch the humidity and make sure it doesn't stay too high because that could cause a URI and you don't want that. Good luck.