Noticed these strange marks this evening

[kylerenz]

I noticed this mark on the dorsal crest and leg of my mellers when I went in at about eight this evening. Sorry that they are slightly blurry. You can notice the black on the crest and on the joint of the back right leg. I am new to mellers and I know that they are very high stress. This particular mellers of mine is in a free range that is five feet wide by three feet deep by six feet tall. I was wondering if these are stress marks or what? I searched melleridiscovery.com but I did not see anything to help me. Should I head to the vet?

 

[Syreptyon]

I don't have any experience with Meller's but my guess would be that it's a burn. I'll let someone else chime in for how to handle this properly

 

[Titan]

Ok he's in free range, but is there any chance he can get to close to a heat source from above him?
The fact that the lower black line and the black on his knee, (if he were sitting in a different position) would line up. Telling me he sat to long or to close to somthing hot like your light.

Edit: and has a pretty bad flash burn

O yea and I give you high marks for putting pictures in your first thread, unlike to many others here! So much easier to see right off the bat.

 

[kylerenz]

Ok he's in free range, but is there any chance he can get to close to a heat source from above him?
The fact that the lower black line and the black on his knee, (if he were sitting in a different position) would line up. Telling me he sat to long or to close to somthing hot like your light.

Edit: and has a pretty bad flash burn

O yea and I give you high marks for putting pictures in your first thread, unlike to many others here! So much easier to see right off the bat.

He has two spot lights with 60 watt bulbs in them that are suspended about 10-12 inches above his free range. The UVB is hung at the same height as the basking bulbs. He should not be able to get his back up there to get a burn but I cannot be 100% sure of that. To be honest even if he did reach the lights I don't think he would be able to grab hold of the dome to pull himself up. I just want to make sure that he is going to be alright as I know that Mellers can be quite touchy.

 

[summoner12]

I am going to say he has a burn. I would say it is from your lights..... but they seem to be high enough. Could have hace climbed up to them somehow? Melleri have extremely good reach.

This is Jake... a veiled the day after a burn from his heat lamp.

What kind of UVB lamp are you using?

Can he wander around from his range? If he can he could have gone somwhere else in your house and gotten a burn.

Keep taking pictures of it each day or every other day. Keep us posted. I hope he gets better.

 

[kylerenz]

I am going to say he has a burn. I would say it is from your lights..... but they seem to be high enough. Could have hace climbed up to them somehow? Melleri have extremely good reach.

This is Jake... a veiled the day after a burn from his heat lamp.

What kind of UVB lamp are you using?

Can he wander around from his range? If he can he could have gone somwhere else in your house and gotten a burn.

Keep taking pictures of it each day or every other day. Keep us posted. I hope he gets better.

I really don't believe that he would have climbed up there but it does appear to be a burn. His free-range is in a room all by itself where there is nowhere else to get a burn. I also tied up all the cords from the lighting so that he couldn't get to them that way. My UVB is 4' reptisun 5.0. I will try to get some pictures up of the free range so that some people can make a better assessment as to the burn possibility.

 

[Titan]

Yea good pic's of the setup would be good. The reason I say flash burn is that whatever did this was really pretty hot, and he possibly did not stay wherever that was that got him once he realized he was burning.
But like we see here in my part of the world is Frostbite, and it is a burn only from intence cold. I bring this up cause the white part is very simular in looks to frostbite. The white part is now possibly dead and the black just burned. In time of healing the colors will somewhat reverse. As the dead tissue turns black and the healing part will become yellow white.
Your Cham will survive this just fine! (as long as infection does not set in) It was burnt bad, but overall, not to badly in complete overall area.

 

[summoner12]

I really don't believe that he would have climbed up there but it does appear to be a burn. His free-range is in a room all by itself where there is nowhere else to get a burn. I also tied up all the cords from the lighting so that he couldn't get to them that way. My UVB is 4' reptisun 5.0. I will try to get some pictures up of the free range so that some people can make a better assessment as to the burn possibility.

How far is your 5.0 from him again? and are you using a reflector? One or Two lamps?

I am using two 36" 10.0s with a reflector and get just about the right amount of UVB at 18-20" This is with lamps that are 5 months old.

 

[PantherVeileD]

if not burned.... could be shedding... Shed usually starts from the top and falls down to body/arm/legs etc. I'm just trying to think positive!

 

[Sepioteuthis]

I'd say it's definitely a burn. Melleri are good at getting them. And they don't have to actually be able to touch the lamp to get burned.

I would start treating those areas with silvadene creme to prevent infection. It usually takes a few sheds to really heal, but as long as it doesn't get infected it should heal nicely.

 

[Eric Adrignola]

Seen it before. Melleri have an excellent ability to burn their crests up even when the lights seem fine. When it's cold, they sit there and cook under eve a modest light wattage.

GET silvadine cream, might need a vet for it. If will either heal up fine, or go necrotic, die off, and fall off in a few months - depending on the damage and depth. Either way, som silvadine wil be all you need, unless it gets an infection. My melleri got burned so bad, much of his crest fell off, and his backbone is kinda exposed (under some scar tissue) but he's never missed a beat - like he knew nothign happened.

 

[kylerenz]

Thanks for all of the input. I will be sure to go and get some silvadine cream immediately so that I can begin to treat it. Thanks for all of the input on my situation.

 

[Eric Adrignola]

Melleri often lose a good amount of the tissue that is burned. Do not be shocked or alarmed or scared if everything that is discolored is lost - hopefully, it wont' happen, but it can. With topical treatment, it will heal easily. DO NOT treat it with preventative antibiotics, as if often reccomended in cases of burns. Chameleons can deal with nasty burns very well, especially with silvadine.

In the case of my CB - it was from a halogen bulb more than a foot away - but the temps got really cold, and I was away two weeks. He sat and cooked for days on end. The damage was so severe, it took more than one full year before all of the damaged tissue was off.

 

[Titan]

I have to say this for everyones learning! Cause I see many burns here.
I feel it very important to pay attention to the basking spot to light distance,
as your Chameleon grows this distance needs to get greater too! Also a must to keep room temps up so the Chams dont have or feel the need to try and crowd the lights. or heat source.

Edit: Kylerenz: whats done is done, and this (MY) post is not to be down on you at all. Hmm, happens to some of the best keepers. Cold blooded animals seek heat and such, so much more differently than us. So we all are learning here and thanks for the Thread. Possibly we can all gain more info on this topic. May possibly find a way to accomplish a good basking heat source that cant burn a Cham. I'm an inventor, Just wish I had more time & money to develop something to accommodate this.