Meller's Skin issue

[Paul August]

A friend of mine is in the hospital and I am taking care of his collection of snakes and 2 Chams. His stated his Meller's is very sick so I brought it home to give it 24 hour attention. Once to my home I noticed the animal has what appears to be a skin infection and emaciated. I assume if I correct the infection feeding will resume.
So to the infection, it is brown and appears wet. But is hard when I touch it, like a scab and is on the back legs mostly. I just signed up for the forum but I will try to take and upload pics. Thanks in advance for any help.

Paul August

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Im no expert on Mellers. There was a post on here several weeks ago about a cham that had a recurring skin infection. So if you search the forums you should be able to find it. It would be very beneficial for you because they spoke about what medication they were using for it. Good luck, and kudos for helping your friend out and helping that poor mellers. They are awsome creatures.

 

[Elizadolots]

You might not be able to post pictures right off the bat. You can use Photobucket or Flickr and post the images that way.

 

[Julirs]

A friend of mine is in the hospital and I am taking care of his collection of snakes and 2 Chams. His stated his Meller's is very sick so I brought it home to give it 24 hour attention. Once to my home I noticed the animal has what appears to be a skin infection and emaciated. I assume if I correct the infection feeding will resume.
So to the infection, it is brown and appears wet. But is hard when I touch it, like a scab and is on the back legs mostly. I just signed up for the forum but I will try to take and upload pics. Thanks in advance for any help.

Paul August

I would hope that your friend has taken the animal to the Vet? This does not sound good. Mellers once going downhill, as any cham, are hard to bring back.

 

[skyedog]

It's really nice to see you are taking the steps to try to help. Thumbs up for that.

Do you know what kind of setup your friend has for the mellers, anything relating to the care of the mellers that is being given? Obviously if the mellers hasn't been to a vet it needs to go to one from the sounds of it.

You said there was another chameleon. What kind is it? How does it look?

 

[Paul August]

Double post

 

[Paul August]

Wow. Thanks for the response. Good to see there are so many good Cham people out there. And I just stubbled on this forum through Google!

Let me try to answer the questions the best I can.

Tex Panther,
I'm going to search for that thread STAT. I did play with the search function a little before posting but couldn't find anything similar.

Julirs,
This animal has not been to the vet. It might be needed and we have a couple of decent ones in the area. IME, Vets often know less than regular herpers and I find myself usually telling the vet what is going on rather than the Vet determining the problem. I'm a GTP guy and I know vets mean well, but often more success is gained from fellows like yourself with direct animal experience.

skyedog,
I have the whole enclosure now at my home. And I think it is part of the problem. I called a fellow GTP guy whom dabbles in Chams, I believe the Meller's is getting too close to the heat lamp and the marks I am seeing are burns. They are on the top of the animal like the problem is coming from above. i.e crest, top of the legs, etc. I have removed the heat light until I can raise it off the top of the enclosure.
Still doesn't explain the emaciation and lack of appetite.
Also, he has an amazing male Panther, same set up. I fed and sprayed him today while caring for his GTPs.

Thanks again

 

[Elizadolots]

You probably found this site, but if not, it's worth a look, there is a lot of important information on health in Meller's.

http://www.melleridiscovery.com/