Nosy Be, Humps and other skin issues

Emieloss

New Member
Hello there,

My name is Emiel and I am new to the forums! I'm 26 years old. I come from, and live in, Holland. Since english isn't my mother language I might use some strange words or won't be able to understand your replies. Please bare with me :)

I'm a chameleon owner since about 2 months. I started with a veiled chameleon whose name is "Stok" which is dutch for "Stick" (My little neice of 2 y.o. came up with the name:D) Now the enclosure of my veiled is a bit small 80cm x 50cm x 80cm which was okay for him when I just got him, but since he is growing rapidly I wanted a bigger cage for him. Thanks to a duch chameleon forum I came in contact with a person who had a bigger enclosure for sale. The only problem was, he had a chameleon in there of which he wasn't able to take good care of any longer. I took his chameleon under my care while he is preparing the enclosure for both chameleons to fit in. He will make a wall in between so the two will be seperated and don't stress eachother out.

Now since he hasn't been able to take good care of the nosy be called "Klaas", which is dutch for "Clause", Klaas has some health issues.


Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Furcifer Pardalis, Nosy Be. Male. aproximately 3 y.o. I have it in my care for 4 days now.
Handling - Once to twice a day.
Feeding - Morioworms and crickets atm. He is hardly eating though. In the 4 days I've had him he ate about 4 worms and 1 fully grown cricket. I gutload my insects with vegetables, fruit, oats, homemade bread, seeds, etc.
Supplements - Calcium without d3 and reptivite, I plan to use calcium about 3 times a week and reptivite 1 times a week, with the other days no supplements.
Watering - I Mist 3 to 4 times a day, I have a dripper installed which drops a droplet every 5 seconds or so. I also (try to) let him drink from a pipette twice a day
Fecal Description - When I just got him, the white part was yellow/orange so I try to let him drink a lot to get rehydrated. The brown part is fairly fluid
History - The previous owner told me the UV-B lamp was broken for a while without him noticing which resulted in the cham getting humbs on his body.


Cage Info:

Cage Type - Screen cage of which I have taped off 3 sides. (it's too cold and dry in holland to go full screen) it's about 90cm high 50 cm wide and 50cm deep. (Temporary solution)
Lighting - Exo terra 135w combination lamp 12 hours a day. Solar Rep 5.0 29w UV-B lamp 8 hours a day.
Temperature - Haven't been able to check this out yet.
Humidity - Haven't been able to check this out yet.
Plants - There is a ficus in there and some other small chameleon-friendly live plants to uphold the humidity. There are also quite some bamboo sticks on which he walks about.
Placement - It's placed on the floor in the corner of my room, about 1 meter above it is a small ventilation grid but i have my curtains hanging in front of it so he doesn't catch any draught
Location - Holland


Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

The biggest problem is the Humbs he has and spots on his skin. I will add some foto's to show you what it looks like. The previous owner told me it is stacked up calcium but I (and the vet) believe it is an infection of some sort.

Also he's hardly eating (might be cause of stress from moving)

And he sometimes breaths a little heavy, like a sigh, he has this especially when drinking.

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I hope someone knows how to get him better! He's such a sweet animal:(
 
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I agree with you....these look more like infections or abscesses to me. Just what is causing them I can't say. You need to take this cham to an experienced reptile vet and have the lumps biopsied to determine whether they are bacterial, viral, fungal, or something else such as a tumorous growth or even an encapsulated parasite. Very doubtful they have anything to do with lack of UV.
 
Just went to the vet.

The crust of the big hump was removed, underneath was a tough yellow/white substance that looks like connective tissue. It's most probably either a chronic infection or a tumor. She took a biopsie to see what it is.

Until then I have to give him antibiotics for the upcoming 10 days and force feed him cause he's so underweight.

I sure hope this works!
 
Just went to the vet.

The crust of the big hump was removed, underneath was a tough yellow/white substance that looks like connective tissue. It's most probably either a chronic infection or a tumor. She took a biopsie to see what it is.

Until then I have to give him antibiotics for the upcoming 10 days and force feed him cause he's so underweight.

I sure hope this works!

Not surprising. Just in case you didn't know, the material in herp abscesses isn't really liquid as it would be in a mammal. It tends to have the consistency of cheese, so it doesn't drain easily. It could be this was originally a parasite or foreign body that abscessed and eventually was encapsulated. Was this cham a wildcaught import? That would make sense.
 
Aah okay? I didn't know that!
I don't think it's a wildcaught example. He bought it at a reptilian event and someone else of the dutch chameleon forum bought his little brother.
 
Just a quick update on how Klaas is doing.

Today when I got him out of his cage to give him his antibiotics he was so so weak. He hardly had any strength in his claws which was realy saddening to watch. The poor little fella got the antibiotics in and after about an hour of handling him I also got 3ml of soaked catfood with some added calcium. During the feeding time he got more and more active, and getting a bit of his strength back as well!

When I put him back in his cage he was realy active! A couple hours later I tried to feed him mealworms and he ate 2!! :D:D
After nog eating (except for the force feading) for 5 days he finally ate :D
He did manage to shoot his tounge a little bit, very slowly though, but progress is progress!

The rest of the day he just chilled out, soaking in the UV light and even hanging upside down in his cage for a little while which is a sign of his strength returning.

I hope he will continue to strengthen and get well soon!

Any prayers would be very much welcome.
 
I just got word from the vet. The result from the biopsi got through. It turns out he has tumors over his body and he is too weak to be operated. Tough pill to swallow..
 
Oh, so sorry to hear about your poor little guy! The large ones looked pretty nasty. I wish both of you peace.
 
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