Strange Lumps

[Mr Bolt]

Hi everyone,

So as you can see from the pictures, my panther chameleon has this strange lump/ growth on his side.
He has another lump to the right of it also but as you can hopefully see, it is different to the other one.
He has had these for about a year now and they just will not go away! When they get quite large then tend to drop off but underneath it is a fresh lump growing back. The one that sticks out quite a lot is almost like a really sore wart looking thing when it starts growing again, but then it grows into this awful sticking out thing!

It doesn't seem to bother him at all, but now he also has one on his tail which he flinches at when it is touched, so I guess it hurts him!

Does anyone have any idea what this could be? The only thing we have narrowed it down to is possibly like a skin cancer may be?

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[ChameLIonLover]

I think your guy needs to go to the vet. Best of luck!

 

[Carlton]

Other panther keepers have seen these too. If I recall correctly it was a type of pox virus. Try a forum search for pox, "strange skin lumps" and see if the threads come up.

 

[Mr Bolt]

Yeah he has been but the vet wanted to put him under anaesthetic to remove all of the lumps, but we think that will just be too stressful for him, as they aren't bothering him at all

 

[JoeVet]

More likely papillomavirus. There is only one report of poxvirus in chameleons and it wasn't a skin lesion. It was a red blood cell inclusion. You can get a diagnosis with a biopsy or you can just continue to monitor. Unless it spreads it is generally non-life threatening and there isn't anything to do unless you want them surgically removed. I wouldn't handle much and wash hands between handling other chameleons.

 

[Carlton]

More likely papillomavirus. There is only one report of poxvirus in chameleons and it wasn't a skin lesion. It was a red blood cell inclusion. You can get a diagnosis with a biopsy or you can just continue to monitor. Unless it spreads it is generally non-life threatening and there isn't anything to do unless you want them surgically removed. I wouldn't handle much and wash hands between handling other chameleons.

THAT'S what I meant to say. This seems to be showing up more in panthers recently. I wonder if something's getting spread through the cbb population because there's so little awareness about it. Maybe some sort of info sheet should be created and posted around?

 

[kinyonga]

I had one chameleon with a pox virus too...think it was a dwarf jacksons....but it looked different than that. James Wellehan requested samples sonhe could study it but the vet wouldn't send them.

I have also had a panther develop what his one has...but it was never tested to see what it was.