NOOOO! Papilloma?

MissSkittles

Chameleon Enthusiast
My beautiful Stella has had this little spot on her for about a week now. I’m worried! Does it look like a papilloma or a cricket bite to you? How would she even get papilloma? Could it have been dormant in her until the stress of laying lowered her immune system enough to set it free?
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No expert here re: chams. But I have had spontaneous (seemingly almost overnight) papillomas appear on my frogs. According to histopath it can be caused by environmental and husbandry factors; in one case we had those bad fires and enough of the smoke got in the house to do it. But you are right there is almost always some immune stress underlying it.

That said....I always say don't worry about something you don't know!

I assume you have tried to wipe it off, those fuzzy margins almost make it look like an insect cocooned on there. Or maybe a persistent piece of old shed.
 
Bloody hell. So it does not wipe off? If not then you want to get her to your vet for them to take a look at it and biopsy it... Be careful not to cross contaminate.

My understanding is that they can carry it dormant until it starts erupting... She just laid so maybe that was the stressor? But until you get it checked out try not to worry.
 
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I tried wiping, rubbing and even gently scraping with a fingernail...it’s not coming off. :( Since she no longer has a bioactive enclosure and my beardie has decided he no longer wants crickets, I’ve been feeding them to the chams. She’s quick to nab all of her feeders, but I thought maybe one escaped into her enclosure and bit her. Although that gives me guilt, I’ve been hoping that’s what it is. Now I’m worried that my others may catch it. All but Grumpy have had a turn in the same outdoor enclosure. Curses! I guess I’ll be taking another trip to Dr B in Orlando.
 
I tried wiping, rubbing and even gently scraping with a fingernail...it’s not coming off. :( Since she no longer has a bioactive enclosure and my beardie has decided he no longer wants crickets, I’ve been feeding them to the chams. She’s quick to nab all of her feeders, but I thought maybe one escaped into her enclosure and bit her. Although that gives me guilt, I’ve been hoping that’s what it is. Now I’m worried that my others may catch it. All but Grumpy have had a turn in the same outdoor enclosure. Curses! I guess I’ll be taking another trip to Dr B in Orlando.
Let us know what they say. Sorry love :( Fingers crossed its nothing big and not contagious for the other chams.
 
She’ll be seeing Dr B next Wednesday morning. Hopefully it will drop off or just go away and she’ll just have a routine wellness visit. I’ve had for 1 1/2 years now and this was her 2nd laying, so hoping those are positive factors for it not being papilloma. The outside enclosure is the first and only thing that my chams have shared and there was at least a day between, so plenty of time for sun and air to kill off any potential infectious spore.
 
IME with reptile papiloma, it flares up at times and goes back down. It's usually not serious, but in some cases is(doubt it here though). It's untreatable for the most part, vets will tell you to just be careful about cross contamination and go on as usual. I believe it's still not likely to be transmitted from supplies, I've read it's usually passed on from the mother or through aggressive breeding/fighting. Your cham has probably had it(if it's pap) and is just showing some bumps now.
 
IME with reptile papiloma, it flares up at times and goes back down. It's usually not serious, but in some cases is(doubt it here though). It's untreatable for the most part, vets will tell you to just be careful about cross contamination and go on as usual. I believe it's still not likely to be transmitted from supplies, I've read it's usually passed on from the mother or through aggressive breeding/fighting. Your cham has probably had it(if it's pap) and is just showing some bumps now.
She did come from Petco, so there’s that. :( I just don’t want any of my others to get it and Stella is so gorgeous...I hate for anything to mar her beauty.
 
I just found out Larry has papilloma, it’s on his lip, it’s been there for a year now and the vet said for me to just keep an eye on it. It doesn’t seem to bug him but it’s grown over the past few months. He advised me that it’s not that big of a deal and if I want to get it removed he would be more then happy to cut it out but that there was truly no need as of now.

sorry your little girl has it in her pretty green body
 
I just noticed about two weeks ago what I’m pretty sure is pap on Basil’s upper mouth by his nostril. I thought it was stuck shed for the longest time and tried to get it off to no avail. From what I have read there is not much except removal. Basil has been fine so I’m keeping an eye out for now.
Our scaly babies sure do keep us on our toes and full of worry. Thankfully papilloma doesn’t cause any other health issues, but I still don’t like it. I hope Basil’s stays small or drops off.
 
Update: Dr B thinks Stella’s bump does look like a papilloma. He excised it and is sending it off to the lab. My sweet girl was so very good for him! She didn’t hiss once. I hope she’s as good for me as I have to put Silvadene on her little boo boo twice a day.
So sorry to hear this love.
 
I hope you gave her a stern lecture about safe nooky and hanging around those sleazy chameleon dives on Saturday nights...
 
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