jajeanpierre
Chameleon Enthusiast
This is Miley, a wild-caught Trioceros quadricornis gracilior. She was imported June 2, 2016. Shipments coming from Equatorial Guinea take six days to arrive at the importers--that's six days in a shipping crate.... The importer has told me that no exporter packs up the animals as poorly as this particular one does. Unfortunately, there is no other exporter in that area. It is unlikely that there will be anymore imports from the area for years to come.
Miley was purchased June 12th, ten days after import.
Any keeper who thinks chameleons are fragile or delicate should read Miley's story. She is not an anomoly; I have many wild caughts who like her refused to die.
June 14th, 30.0g: Two days after purchase, 12 days after import. Facial injuries exposing bone of both the upper and lower jaw. Very large abscess on the tip of the tongue which surprisingly didn't stop her from using it. Mangled feet.
June 18th, 35.4g: I don't think you can tell from this picture, but her feet/toes are very mangled and swollen.
June 23, 37.3g: The abscess on her tongue is noticeably smaller.
July 9th, 41.5g: The tongue abscess continues to get smaller. At around this point I took her to the vet for an opinion on what to do. Although I had discussed her with the vets (including showing them the pictures of her injuries), I hadn't taken her in. I feared her face was so fragile that trying to medicate orally would have collapsed it. Around this time, we put her on a round of oral Baytril, more as a prophylactic than anything else, both of us believing that eventually she would succumb to bone infections to her jaw. Her fecal came back with the odd hookworm, too low a count to treat. Notice how swollen her toes still are.
September 5th, 50.9g: Face continues to heal, feet look good.
October 27, 2016, 61.5g: I debrided most of the dried dead tissue (jaw bone/teeth?) from her face to actually see what was left. I was thrilled with what was underneath. As you can see, she is quite happy to use her jaws to voice her opinion. It took a long time before she finally let go. No blood but my hand can still feel her bite this morning. Her tongue abscess is still there but very small. Her toes are also pretty much healed up. As you can see, her nails are even growing back--I had thought they were ground down right down to the bone. The red in her claws is finally starting to show although you can't see it in the picture. (Damaged nails don't show the red the same as undamaged nails--it can take a year for the red to come back to a mangled nail.)
Three weeks earlier.... October 6, 2016: I introduced Miley to a wild caught male from the same June 2, 2016, import. Poor battered babies! You can even see the exposed bone on the spinous process of the male's sail fin just to the left of Miley's tail. He has little abscesses all down his tail that are doing well.
Miley was purchased June 12th, ten days after import.
Any keeper who thinks chameleons are fragile or delicate should read Miley's story. She is not an anomoly; I have many wild caughts who like her refused to die.
June 14th, 30.0g: Two days after purchase, 12 days after import. Facial injuries exposing bone of both the upper and lower jaw. Very large abscess on the tip of the tongue which surprisingly didn't stop her from using it. Mangled feet.
June 18th, 35.4g: I don't think you can tell from this picture, but her feet/toes are very mangled and swollen.
June 23, 37.3g: The abscess on her tongue is noticeably smaller.
July 9th, 41.5g: The tongue abscess continues to get smaller. At around this point I took her to the vet for an opinion on what to do. Although I had discussed her with the vets (including showing them the pictures of her injuries), I hadn't taken her in. I feared her face was so fragile that trying to medicate orally would have collapsed it. Around this time, we put her on a round of oral Baytril, more as a prophylactic than anything else, both of us believing that eventually she would succumb to bone infections to her jaw. Her fecal came back with the odd hookworm, too low a count to treat. Notice how swollen her toes still are.
September 5th, 50.9g: Face continues to heal, feet look good.
October 27, 2016, 61.5g: I debrided most of the dried dead tissue (jaw bone/teeth?) from her face to actually see what was left. I was thrilled with what was underneath. As you can see, she is quite happy to use her jaws to voice her opinion. It took a long time before she finally let go. No blood but my hand can still feel her bite this morning. Her tongue abscess is still there but very small. Her toes are also pretty much healed up. As you can see, her nails are even growing back--I had thought they were ground down right down to the bone. The red in her claws is finally starting to show although you can't see it in the picture. (Damaged nails don't show the red the same as undamaged nails--it can take a year for the red to come back to a mangled nail.)
Three weeks earlier.... October 6, 2016: I introduced Miley to a wild caught male from the same June 2, 2016, import. Poor battered babies! You can even see the exposed bone on the spinous process of the male's sail fin just to the left of Miley's tail. He has little abscesses all down his tail that are doing well.
Poor babies love your story
