Pimple (?) on mouth of Veiled

jaidexl

New Member
Hi, new here, sorry I had to end up here looking for answers to a problem.

I have a female veiled that should be close to the end of her lifespan. She has developed what looks like a pimple on the side of her lip. It's growing and seems to be filled with puss with a hard spiky head in the middle. Anyone ever seen this and can tell me what to do? I will try to get a pic after this is posted. She let me poke at it once, and it seemed to tough for my to rupture without ripping off her lip, so I leave it alone. I emailed Jim Flaherty@The Chameleon Company and neither him nor his vet had any clue or advice. This cham is way over three years old according to the former owner, I've had her for three and was told by them that she was already 2 years old, this contradicts everything I've read about female veileds, anyway I'm not sure taking her to a vet is in order here due to her age.

I "rescued" her from the prior owners poor care, she was in very small makeshift screen enclosure (1x2, if that), no light (on a back porch in ambient FL sunlight), was only fed a few times a week, never misted but given ice cubes for drip. Never the less, she seemed healthy when I received her, no signs of MBD, although she has never been very good at using her tongue. She has since lived in a 3x4 screen enclosure with daily mists, approx 65% humidity, live pothos and numerous fake plants, driftwood, a heat lamp keeping the top of the cage in the upper 90s and middle where she hangs out in the 80s, also a reptisun 10.0. Gutloaded crickets, mealworms, and occasional butter worms, dusted every other feeding with Rep-cal calcium+D and herptivite, fed no more than 3 insects a day. She has seemed lively and healthy the entire time other than poor tongue action and the recent bump on her lip.

Please let me know if there is anything you see that I'm doing wrong or should change or add. As much as I am in fish forums, it never occurred to me until now to search for chameleon forums, before that it was very difficult to find good info.

-Jaide
 
Here are some images of the bump, the other "bumps" on her head are water droplets.

bump1qm0.jpg


bumprp2.jpg
 
Hi Jaide,

I have a different species with a similar sounding bump on her lip. My vet removed it entirely... it was full of some hard stuff. It took a while for it to heal.. her snout got a "pimple" as well after the first one was removed, and my vet removed that crap too. Sorry for the lack of technical terms there. Now, she is doing very well.. all healed up and healthy, but as someone described her recently, she has a John Wayne look.. she is missing a little chunk of her lip. Her name is now Jane Wayne.

Here she is.. the spots on her side are from the baytril injections that she was treated with to knock out the infection:

005.jpg


I have promised to take new pics of her.. the one above isn't so great. I will very soon.. haha. I seem to be saying that a lot lately. For this little female, the treatment was pretty simple. I had some fear it would continue to spread after it went to her snout, but the baytril seems to have taken care of that. She is getting wider and wider.. should be dropping babies any day, I thought she was close a couple weeks ago.
 
Thanks for the reply, Heika. I'm sorry to hear the contents of your bump was hard, I was hoping someone would say I could drain this with a sterilized needle then swab with alcohol, or something. If you don't mind me asking, how much did the vet visit cost? I've been unemployed for about a month now and have maxed all of my credit cards out. :(
 
Oh, I am sorry to hear that. My vet is my friend, and I believe that one was on the house. It was a very simple procedure for him. The pimple looking thing on my female wasn't as big as the one on your girl.. does it seem to be bothering her? Is it growing?

Heika
 
It is growing, I wouldn't say too rapidly, but at the rate it is growing it should be twice the size in a few months, I should be working before that. No, it doesn't seem to be bothering her at all, thankfully, it seems to be exterior only when she opens her mouth. She (Karma) let me grab onto it again with tweezers just now and definitely feels solid still.
 
Good thinking Dave, I was also thinking that might be the only option to get things done ASAP. I just located a local exotic pet vet online and have emailed them the situation and asked for any alternative options locally if they are unable to help... fingers crossed.
 
Figures the email gets returned from a failed address. :\

Guess I'll be going in tomorrow on the way home from a job interview, hopefully two good things can happen tomorrow.
 
Good news, Karma goes in for laser surgery tomorrow morning. I found a vet that offered financing after explaining my money issues. I should have been more aggressive in my search these last few weeks, but I've been consumed with starting the new job. I walked in to mist her this morning and the growth seemed to be rupturing with a bit of blood around the rim. My g/f suggested it may be a good thing and it might be shedding off, but I don't think so, and the chance of infection can't be risked.... so off it goes.

Thanks for the help, everyone. Wish her luck.

Here's an updated shot so you can see the rupture, and to serve as a "before" shot. Hopefully the "after" won't be that bad.

(FYI, the bent crest is actually a flat spot she ground into it by rubbing her head on the top screen when I used to "rain" water from it, she gets water from the side of the cage now)
karma914yj3.jpg
 
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Bah! Stinkin' animal hospitals. They're all giving me the run around since I'm asking for a payment plan, every one of them uses Care Credit which is denying me credit. Luckily, I just now finished a much more promising conversation with the treasurer of the Calusa Herpetological Society
Of Southwest Florida, who happens to handle rescues and, in her own words, "decorates her house with reptile cages". I explained to her that there's a chameleon suffering here and no one wants her without money first. She referred me to her vet who is also a chameleon owner. She says he'll have a lot more compassion for the situation and won't nickel and dime me with useless x-rays and tests that I'll undoubtedly get slammed for at an animal hospital. I just have to wait until monday to speak to him.

Health care and money issues are really pathetic sometimes, especially when it would take less time to remove this thing with a laser then it would take me to finish an oil change on my car. But vets want money and the lizard's head can rot off for all they care. Calling the Herp society was the best move I could make at this point, I was on the verge of giving up and was extremely upset about it.
 
Karma saw the vet this morning, he removed the growth and only charged me $30. No lasers, they gassed her then lopped it off with a scalpel, then cauterized it with something, I think I heard him call it nitrate. He believes it was a tumor of some sort being that it was meaty inside, they're holding onto it and will possibly have it sent in for a biopsy if it starts to grow back. Anyway, she is back in the cage now, hiding in the bottom corner after a great bout of stress, I'm going to leave her be for a day or two and will have a pic up soon.

Thanks for the help here, I appreciate the advice that was given to me, lets hope it wasn't too stressful for her.
 
Thank you for sharing this it was interesting. Glad to hear your cham is OK and the vet did not ask for your kidney to do the procedure.
 
dsc0331sbe2.jpg

(This photo was taken just before a very deep shed.)

I lopped this growth (this photo shows it at the smallest it had been) every once and a while as it grow, and afterward added. I used god nail trimmers. The growth had a cosistancy of newly dried wood glue, solid and crusty on the outside, but still plyable on the inside. There was a core of something that was easily seen from the dried outer layers.

Towards the end (he was about an estimated almost 6 years) I left it as; It did not cause him pain/discomfort and it regrew larger.
 
Sorry for the wait everyone, she's doing great, tearing up the cage walls and devouring bugs as usual. No sign of infection, just a black mark, It's night time now so I'll try to get a pic when the lights come back on.

Will, I think our chams' growths may be different, Karma's was very pink/meaty inside and bled like a severed finger. I would certainly love to be able to remove it myself in the future, I just need to figure out how to properly cauterize the opening. If it grows back, I can't see it being worth the stress of continuously taking her all the way into that loud veterinary office to have a removed again, was definitely overkill for the light procedure.
 
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OK, here is a shot of the aftermath. Karma seems to care less either way... "Where's my crickets? Get that camera out of my face!" :rolleyes:

lipafterex6.jpg
 
Hi Jaide,

I have a different species with a similar sounding bump on her lip. My vet removed it entirely... it was full of some hard stuff. It took a while for it to heal.. her snout got a "pimple" as well after the first one was removed, and my vet removed that crap too. Sorry for the lack of technical terms there. Now, she is doing very well.. all healed up and healthy, but as someone described her recently, she has a John Wayne look.. she is missing a little chunk of her lip. Her name is now Jane Wayne.

Here she is.. the spots on her side are from the baytril injections that she was treated with to knock out the infection:


I have promised to take new pics of her.. the one above isn't so great. I will very soon.. haha. I seem to be saying that a lot lately. For this little female, the treatment was pretty simple. I had some fear it would continue to spread after it went to her snout, but the baytril seems to have taken care of that. She is getting wider and wider.. should be dropping babies any day, I thought she was close a couple weeks ago.

Just for info. how much would something like that cost to get removed from a vet?
 
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