Lumi
Member
I HAVE CONTACTED A VET, however, there is only one that lists exotic animals in my area. She has responded through text, and I am waiting to hear when she can make it out to see my cham.
I KNOW I SCREWED UP by letting it get to this point. I am very painfully aware of that.
My panther chameleon, Poppy, has what looks like a sinus infection on her head. It started as a little white bump after she shed, and originally I thought that it was a bit of skin that didn't fully fall off. I didn't want to bother her by trying to remove it, so I didn't. However now it's grown, and I finally took her out to take a good look at it and I'm realizing now that I made a really serious mistake it letting it go. And after inspected her closely yesterday, I think another bump is starting on the other side of her head. That being said, I'm doing what I can for her now. I *think* from online research that it's a sinus infection, and the white gunk is the hard pus. According to a mod on the reddit forums (i didn't ask I just read) this can be caused by a number of things, but the one I'm most suspicious of is too much calcium. Now, to be clear, on *these* forums I can't find anything that says too much calcium dust can cause a sinus infection, so maybe I'm entirely wrong about that. I only think that because I've always pretty heavily coated her feeders (first it was crickets, now its gutloaded dubia roaches that I have a small farm of). I would a little calcium in a plastic bowl with the feeders and swirl them around and then put the bowl in the tank for her to eat them out of. Now I'm worried I've been too heavily coating them.
Besides the lump on her head, she seems fine. Not to say she *is* fine, but she isn't acting sick, so I'm hopeful I can get things cleared up with the vet.
BUT, my question is, what did I do wrong? Was it too much calcium? Or something else? I appreciate constructive feedback, please don't be mean to me, I know I've screwed up letting it get this bad and I'm just trying to make it right.
Your Chameleon - Female Panther chameleon, roughly 3 years old
Handling - Almost never. I don't want to scare her. She did let me gently touch her to inspect the bump on her head yesterday without puffing up or hissing at me.
Feeding - Dubia roaches, gutloaded with the graphic from this website (dandelion greens, oranges, bee pollen, carrots)
Supplements - Repti-calcium without D3 every feeding, Reptivite vitamins with D3 twice a month
Watering - Her misting schedule up until a few days ago was 2 minutes every 2 hours, now it is 1 minute every hour (I live in a very dry climate, and with the infection i wanted to make sure she has ample opportunity to drink)
Fecal Description - I haven't seen her poop when its fresh in the last few days, but I'll keep looking. She is pooping though, I can tell from the remains of old droppings in the tank. SIDENOTE: her tank is bioactive which is why i don't remove the droppings
History - I got her from petco in Feb 2023 at around 8 months old before I learned purchasing chams from them is a bad idea, but I've tried to do the best for her since then.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Combo and glass and screen. I live in a very dry environment so the glass is pretty much required to keep humidity above 30%. There are screens on the front third of the sides and fully screened on the top. 24x24x48
Lighting - Arcadia 24W forest D3 bulb for uva/uvb, zoo med daylight blue 40w/60w summer/winter basking bulb
Temperature - I keep her basking area between 80-85 degrees. The base of the enclosure is around 72, but goes up or down a few degrees depending on the temperature of the room. At night the temp in the tank drops to around 70-65 in the summer and 60ish in the winter.
Humidity - I keep her humidity between 40 and 50%. It can spike to 60% after the misters go, but comes down to about 50% within ten or so minutes and levels out between 40-50. I have two gauges, one near the top of the tank and one near the bottom.
Plants - Spiderplant, pothos, peace lillies, spotted laurel
Placement - The tank is in my office. I spend a fair amount of time in there sitting next to it, but its not an area of the home that people walk through. There is a ceiling fan in the room, and it does reach the air in her tank as the top of her tank is about 6 feet off the ground, but it doesn't seem affect it enough that the humidity in the upper part of the tank drops a substantial amount. Maybe 1-2% compared to the gauge at the bottom.
Location - Western MT, USA
I KNOW I SCREWED UP by letting it get to this point. I am very painfully aware of that.
My panther chameleon, Poppy, has what looks like a sinus infection on her head. It started as a little white bump after she shed, and originally I thought that it was a bit of skin that didn't fully fall off. I didn't want to bother her by trying to remove it, so I didn't. However now it's grown, and I finally took her out to take a good look at it and I'm realizing now that I made a really serious mistake it letting it go. And after inspected her closely yesterday, I think another bump is starting on the other side of her head. That being said, I'm doing what I can for her now. I *think* from online research that it's a sinus infection, and the white gunk is the hard pus. According to a mod on the reddit forums (i didn't ask I just read) this can be caused by a number of things, but the one I'm most suspicious of is too much calcium. Now, to be clear, on *these* forums I can't find anything that says too much calcium dust can cause a sinus infection, so maybe I'm entirely wrong about that. I only think that because I've always pretty heavily coated her feeders (first it was crickets, now its gutloaded dubia roaches that I have a small farm of). I would a little calcium in a plastic bowl with the feeders and swirl them around and then put the bowl in the tank for her to eat them out of. Now I'm worried I've been too heavily coating them.
Besides the lump on her head, she seems fine. Not to say she *is* fine, but she isn't acting sick, so I'm hopeful I can get things cleared up with the vet.
BUT, my question is, what did I do wrong? Was it too much calcium? Or something else? I appreciate constructive feedback, please don't be mean to me, I know I've screwed up letting it get this bad and I'm just trying to make it right.
Your Chameleon - Female Panther chameleon, roughly 3 years old
Handling - Almost never. I don't want to scare her. She did let me gently touch her to inspect the bump on her head yesterday without puffing up or hissing at me.
Feeding - Dubia roaches, gutloaded with the graphic from this website (dandelion greens, oranges, bee pollen, carrots)
Supplements - Repti-calcium without D3 every feeding, Reptivite vitamins with D3 twice a month
Watering - Her misting schedule up until a few days ago was 2 minutes every 2 hours, now it is 1 minute every hour (I live in a very dry climate, and with the infection i wanted to make sure she has ample opportunity to drink)
Fecal Description - I haven't seen her poop when its fresh in the last few days, but I'll keep looking. She is pooping though, I can tell from the remains of old droppings in the tank. SIDENOTE: her tank is bioactive which is why i don't remove the droppings
History - I got her from petco in Feb 2023 at around 8 months old before I learned purchasing chams from them is a bad idea, but I've tried to do the best for her since then.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Combo and glass and screen. I live in a very dry environment so the glass is pretty much required to keep humidity above 30%. There are screens on the front third of the sides and fully screened on the top. 24x24x48
Lighting - Arcadia 24W forest D3 bulb for uva/uvb, zoo med daylight blue 40w/60w summer/winter basking bulb
Temperature - I keep her basking area between 80-85 degrees. The base of the enclosure is around 72, but goes up or down a few degrees depending on the temperature of the room. At night the temp in the tank drops to around 70-65 in the summer and 60ish in the winter.
Humidity - I keep her humidity between 40 and 50%. It can spike to 60% after the misters go, but comes down to about 50% within ten or so minutes and levels out between 40-50. I have two gauges, one near the top of the tank and one near the bottom.
Plants - Spiderplant, pothos, peace lillies, spotted laurel
Placement - The tank is in my office. I spend a fair amount of time in there sitting next to it, but its not an area of the home that people walk through. There is a ceiling fan in the room, and it does reach the air in her tank as the top of her tank is about 6 feet off the ground, but it doesn't seem affect it enough that the humidity in the upper part of the tank drops a substantial amount. Maybe 1-2% compared to the gauge at the bottom.
Location - Western MT, USA
Attachments
Last edited:
