Sinus infection from too much calcium?

[Lumi]

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

 

[Beman]

This is nothing having to do with supplements. Looks like papilloma virus to me. A biopsy would have to be done to know for sure. This is very contagious to other reptiles so if you have others do not intermingle anything and wash hands between cages. It grows and it can pop up in other places on the skin. Use the forum search function to find other threads about this. You will see other images of it. It can lay dormant then all the sudden start up.

 

[Lumi]

This is nothing having to do with supplements. Looks like papilloma virus to me. A biopsy would have to be done to know for sure. This is very contagious to other reptiles so if you have others do not intermingle anything and wash hands between cages. It grows and it can pop up in other places on the skin. Use the forum search function to find other threads about this. You will see other images of it. It can lay dormant then all the sudden start up.

Oh jeez, ok thank you!

 

[Lumi]

The vet is seeing her Thursday evening. But looking at her... all those little spots.

 

[Beman]

The vet is seeing her Thursday evening. But looking at her... all those little spots.

It is not the best thing to have to deal with. Some develop cancer as well. It can shorten their lifespan. But if it is this virus then it is not caused by husbandry or anything you would have done. It often goes unnoticed until they get larger. Note eventually when she does come to the end of her life should you decide to get another chameleon the cage has to be stripped and you want to toss all porous items then clean appropriately. Essentially you have to build out the cage inside decor all over again with new items.

 

[Lumi]

It is not the best thing to have to deal with. Some develop cancer as well. It can shorten their lifespan. But if it is this virus then it is not caused by husbandry or anything you would have done. It often goes unnoticed until they get larger. Note eventually when she does come to the end of her life should you decide to get another chameleon the cage has to be stripped and you want to toss all porous items then clean appropriately. Essentially you have to build out the cage inside decor all over again with new items.

UGHH. That makes sense.

 

[Lumi]

It is not the best thing to have to deal with. Some develop cancer as well. It can shorten their lifespan. But if it is this virus then it is not caused by husbandry or anything you would have done. It often goes unnoticed until they get larger. Note eventually when she does come to the end of her life should you decide to get another chameleon the cage has to be stripped and you want to toss all porous items then clean appropriately. Essentially you have to build out the cage inside decor all over again with new items.

Sorry, late question, but do I have to toss everything? or can I bleach most stuff and otherwise let it sit? Can papilloma survive for a long time on surfaces?

 

[Beman]

Sorry, late question, but do I have to toss everything? or can I bleach most stuff and otherwise let it sit? Can papilloma survive for a long time on surfaces?

Cleaning now will do nothing... When she comes to the end of her life then you have to toss everything that is porous. Meaning all dirt, plants, branches/vines, anything that is not a plastic or glass that can be bleached. All of the ledges you made that look to be foam and dirt coating, those will not clean. You are going to have a very hard time with that cage because of how you modified it to be able to take it all the way back down to the original cage to properly clean it. I have never done major research into it I just know it is a harder one to kill off and easily transferred to other reptiles from an infected reptile or a cage that one was in.

 

[Lumi]

Cleaning now will do nothing... When she comes to the end of her life then you have to toss everything that is porous. Meaning all dirt, plants, branches/vines, anything that is not a plastic or glass that can be bleached. All of the ledges you made that look to be foam and dirt coating, those will not clean. You are going to have a very hard time with that cage because of how you modified it to be able to take it all the way back down to the original cage to properly clean it. I have never done major research into it I just know it is a harder one to kill off and easily transferred to other reptiles from an infected reptile or a cage that one was in.

I realize I can’t clean it it now, or rather that there’s no point. I’ve just been thinking about it. I suppose maybe I can cut all the foam off. Not sure what I will do, but hopefully I won’t need to worry about it for a while. Thank you.

 

[MissSkittles]

My veiled girl has papilloma and it hasn’t affected her life in any way. She had the initial lesion removed for biopsy but it has partially returned and recently developed a new one. I wash hands between touching my critters and am careful, (but I’m not perfect). None of my other reptiles have caught anything.

 

[Lumi]

My veiled girl has papilloma and it hasn’t affected her life in any way. She had the initial lesion removed for biopsy but it has partially returned and recently developed a new one. I wash hands between touching my critters and am careful, (but I’m not perfect). None of my other reptiles have caught anything.

Thank you for saying that! it makes me feel a lot better. She does seem totally fine besides the lump.

 

[GrannyK]

Just wanted to say hoping for the best with your girl. I know it could go both ways and many chams have done ok so I’m hoping if that’s what she has it’s minimal and gives you a few more good years. She’s a pretty little lady.

 

[Lumi]

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the help and kind words! I just got back from my vet. She was able to remove the lump on Poppy's head with just tweezers and apparently it was mostly hollow, and the vet said papillomas generally are not that way. She said she thinks it was a duct that clogged from Poppy not shedding correctly, and she said that is most likely also the cause of the other white spots. She said due to our very low ambient humidity here to keep Poppy's tank at 70%+ humidity all the time, so I'm replacing the mesh in the sides of her tank with glass. She said that is is *possible* that it's papilloma still, and if it grows back she will remove it with a sharp instrument and send it for biopsy. She also said not to worry about transmitting papilloma to other reptiles besides chameleons because it doesn't cross species (I told her we have a snake). So, I'm thrilled and hopeful, but even if it is papilloma, everything will be ok.

Side note: Poppy HATED the vet. Her black stripes came out, her mouth turned yellow (the vet said its because she was trying to look poisonous), and she gaped the ENTIRE time. Poor thing. I gave her a superworm treat when we got home and she still ate it from my hand so she's apparently forgiven me.

 

[Beman]

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the help and kind words! I just got back from my vet. She was able to remove the lump on Poppy's head with just tweezers and apparently it was mostly hollow, and the vet said papillomas generally are not that way. She said she thinks it was a duct that clogged from Poppy not shedding correctly, and she said that is most likely also the cause of the other white spots. She said due to our very low ambient humidity here to keep Poppy's tank at 70%+ humidity all the time, so I'm replacing the mesh in the sides of her tank with glass. She said that is is *possible* that it's papilloma still, and if it grows back she will remove it with a sharp instrument and send it for biopsy. She also said not to worry about transmitting papilloma to other reptiles besides chameleons because it doesn't cross species (I told her we have a snake). So, I'm thrilled and hopeful, but even if it is papilloma, everything will be ok.

Side note: Poppy HATED the vet. Her black stripes came out, her mouth turned yellow (the vet said its because she was trying to look poisonous), and she gaped the ENTIRE time. Poor thing. I gave her a superworm treat when we got home and she still ate it from my hand so she's apparently forgiven me.

So just my two cents.... They are incorrect at keeping her tank 70+ humidity all the time. You will greatly increase the risk of a respiratory infection. Panthers do really well with a 50% daytime humidity. I do wish the vet would have gone ahead and sent if for biopsy now rather than the plan they are going with. In my opinion it is better to know for sure especially when you are possibly dealing with papilloma. Hopefully it does not grow back and it is what the vet seems to think it is.

 

[Lumi]

My plan is to keep it at 50% during the day and have the fogger run at night to keep it higher so it's 80-100% per the chameleon academy. Honestly, I dont think I can keep it a whole lot higher during the day without the fogger