Huge Cyst

[chamlover]

I am really not having a good month with my chams. One of my melleri had a severe burn, then we found out he had round worms, and today when putting the salve on his back for his burn, we noticed a huge cyst on the top of his thigh. We took a syringe and drew out fluid and it was yellowish, not really pussy, just liquidy. Really gross. This is the reason i saw him always leaning onto one side with his leg hanging over the edge. We kept on checking to see if he had any problem with his leg and of course he has been to the vet, so this cyst is new. But i think it has been the reason for almost a month that he had his leg hanging off the vine all the time. Has anybody ever come across this before? He is going to the vets again Mon afternoon. He is eating and drinking fine.

Debby

 

[studiocham]

...we noticed a huge cyst on the top of his thigh. We took a syringe and drew out fluid and it was yellowish, not really pussy, just liquidy. Really gross. This is the reason i saw him always leaning onto one side with his leg hanging over the edge. We kept on checking to see if he had any problem with his leg and of course he has been to the vet, so this cyst is new. But i think it has been the reason for almost a month that he had his leg hanging off the vine all the time. Has anybody ever come across this before?

I'm sorry to hear your melleri has had some problems lately, I hope it heals well!

A couple thoughts on the "cyst":

Is the skin around or on top of the swelling discolored or changed in pigment, or unusual in texture besides the accompanying stretching of the skin between scales?

Does he itch or rub it?

Was there a centralized, tiny black dot, prior to drawing fluid?

Was the yellowish fluid perfectly clear, or opaque? Clear, peachy-yellow (like watered down orange gatorade) leans more towards an allergic/inflammatory/burn, at least IME, and opaque (even runny) = pus, active infection.

It may just have burned the top of its thigh/femur (if that is the part we're talking about) when its dorsum burned, and a blister formed.

Was the leg X-rayed before?

Since this melleri has a history of lameness, however short, and the swelling is occurring at that spot, you may be correct that they are one and the same. Was there a weeping opening for you to draw from, or did you make an opening with your syringe? If the swelling erupted on its own, it might be an infection that the body is trying to expel (abscess).

Good luck with it, I hope this helps,

 

[chamlover]

Thank you for your reply Kristina, I am really worried about my buddy. Between you and me, he is my favorite. I don't want the others to know. lol. I am really sure that it is the same problem because it is the same leg that he has been hanging off the branch for over a month but when the dr. checked it he didn't see anything. Of course he was looking for some kind of break or something not a cyst or infection. To answer your question he was never ex-rayed for the above reasons.

The skin shows no other obvious signs short of the "lump". No discolorationor anything. In fact i will see if i can take a pic of it in a minute. I don't know how good it will show up though. Texture is the same as well. He didn't really mind us removing the fluid for the first minute or two then he did object. We withdrew 7 cc of fluid and it doesnt even look it.

I have never seen him itch or rub it at all. The only thing was he hung over towards that side. Like he was falling off the branch. I kept on putting him back up thinking he was falling and he kept on leaning off again. Like it hurt for him to keep his leg up.



There was not a centralized, tiny black dot, prior to drawing fluid.

The yellowish fluid was perfectly clear. I don't think it was related to his burn because he actually came to us with that but it had turned gray already and even though we put stuff on it, it didn't stop it from getting necrosis on it. I don't know if it was a burn or shed skin that never came off.

There was no weeping opening to draw from, we made an opening with your syringe? If the swelling erupted on its own, it might be an infection that the body is trying to expel (abscess). I didn't want to extract anything that was hubby's idea. I think he was trying to find out how urgent it was and if it could wait till Mon. I think if it had been puss, we would have wanted him to go in earlier.

Do you have any ideas as to what could have caused this all of a sudden? Or what it could be? I'm clueless on this one. And seriously, i love all my guys, but him and the other melleri i just rescued are certainly my favorites. By the way, he is doing awsome. He's gained 48 grams in 3-4 weeks and looks better by the day. Yeah!

Debby

Debby

Good luck with it, I hope this helps

 

[chamlover]

The first pic is kinda blurry but you can still see how large it is even after drawong out 7 cc of liquids. Do you think it will be ok waiting until Mon? I don't really have any chose.I was at the vets today and he is flying out to DC tomorrow for some conference and won't be back until Mon.

The black mark that is showing in this pic doesn't really show up in real live, don'tknow why it looks so obvious here. But you can see what i mean as to why it is so obvious that he wouldn't want to hold that leg on the branch and chose to lean to one side and let it hang down.

Debby

 

[studiocham]

The black mark that is showing in this pic doesn't really show up in real live, don'tknow why it looks so obvious here. But you can see what i mean as to why it is so obvious that he wouldn't want to hold that leg on the branch and chose to lean to one side and let it hang down.

Not the femur or leg, that's the pelvis. Not exactly good. A whole bunch of thoughts about it:

First, you did the right thing by taking pix. It helps narrow down causes. Pix are a great tool for keeping chams because our brains are wired to generalize the visual input we take in. The eye of the camera is more objective, even if imperfectly 2D. The discoloration suddenly being more noticeable in an objective photo is a good example. It looks red, not black, on my monitor- and reddening of the interstitial skin can be seen when swelling is this sudden and severe. But my monitor is not great, either! I once found a pinprick abscess' start in an earlier photo of one of my guys, only after it started swelling on the live animal. I never saw the issue before "in person", but with the earlier photo, things started to make sense. You may want to look at older pix of the area to help determine the progression... even if he's always been off, since arrival.

I have seen a short-term swelling on the pelvis before. Someone has to take a pretty hard fall to have it stick around. Since the swelling is unilateral, I'm guessing it is not related to renal failure (gout is usually bilateral swelling when seen at the pelvis).

The fluid being clear actually raises more questions. If he has fallen recently, I'd say it was inflammation/edema from impact.

Get a Culture & Sensitivity done on the fluid (have the vet draw off fresh), and also have them eyeball it under the microscope. Sometimes, they can tell what kinds of body cells are present in the sample, and it helps direct the next step.

X-ray it, yes, ASAP... The C&S results will take a week, X-rays will tell you something right away (assuming your clinic does its own developing).

If this was on the soft tissue of the upper leg (femur), I'd wonder if an encysted worm (in the muscles, like the quadriceps) was dying and causing the inflammation response. But it is on a boney area of the animal, so I doubt that.

Is it possible that his leg is dislocated from the pelvis? That would certainly account for the lack of use, the leaning, color of the fluid, and swelling. If it has been dislocated the whole time you've had it, the vet may need to surgically put it back in the socket, as there may have been muscle and tendon tightening during that time.

Some animals get viral infections in their synovial fluid (in their joints). The virus can "hide", dormant in the joint of a toe or whatever for a long time, then suddenly pop up- first, as a tenderness/lameness, then swelling. I do not know if this affects reptiles, but it is worth asking your vet.

The part that is not good about it being in the pelvis is, if it was an infection and limited to the leg, and the bone was eaten away, the leg could be amputated, and the cham lives to breed another day. The pelvis is a much more serious area. I really hope it was just dislocated during importation, and a little PT is all it needs to recover.

Hang in there, Debby!

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Looks red on my monitor, too.