Swollen leg- I'm out of Ideas

[LBonawitz]

My Chamaeleo trioceros fuelleborni has a swollen leg.

*First let me give you the back ground:

He just got over a battle with pseudomonas. During that battle he had gotten an abcess in the corner of his mouth. after weeks of treatment with amikacin it went away.

about 3 weeks ago i noticed his leg is swollen

I took him back to the vet (visit 1 for the leg) the vet gave me more amikacin and we were calling it another abcess. after 2 weeks of the treatment there was no change in his leg. So, back we went (visit 2 for the leg) This time she did another culture/sensitivity to find out what bacteria we are fighting. I also had her do blood work to see if there were any other clues.

His culture can back clean; pseudo is gone too; and his blood came back completely normal, healthy. cell count normal. So now he is on Baytril, just to see if it helps at all. we're a week into the 2 weeks baytril treatment and there is no change in his leg.

Do you have any idea what it could be?
his vet has checks for fractures and gout. We're both out of ideas.

 

[draetish]

Could it be this?

Osteodystrophy (Rickets):
A calcium deficiency usually due to poor diet and/or too little UV light. Symptoms include weakness, tremors, soft jaw, swollen or crooked legs. Treatment is via injectable or oral calcium, and correction of diet and lighting.

Baytril is hard on the kidneys so if all test were negative, I don't see the point in giving him this. I would just watch to see if it gets any worse and then be concerned.

 

[LBonawitz]

the vet said his calcium/phosphorus levels were fine. i use a mega ray uv light. i actually just replaced it about a month ago, so i dont have any concern over a lack of UV. hes perfectly healthy in all other aspects. no soft jaw or weakness. no loss of energy, he still cruises all over his cage.

 

[draetish]

the vet said his calcium/phosphorus levels were fine. i use a mega ray uv light. i actually just replaced it about a month ago, so i dont have any concern over a lack of UV. hes perfectly healthy in all other aspects. no soft jaw or weakness. no loss of energy, he still cruises all over his cage.

Then why give him the Baytril if all test are negative? It doesn't look to serious to me and he is just coming off of first treatment.

 

[fluxlizard]

Has your vet considered a possible bacterial infection?

Possibly that would be why he's got him on baytril?

I don't know about diagnoses for psuedomonas, but sometimes it seems like stuff that is treated with antibiotics travels around lizards after the problems seems to have cleared up in one spot, and then manifests sometimes even months later in another in another location. (Please, please not I'm speculating big time and using words like "seems"). So I guess I'm wondering if your vet has considered the possibility that that this could still be psuedomonas?

And with this post I have completely left what I know behind and entered into voodoo speculation.

I also wonder if it's just trauma- swollen tissue from handling for treatment of the last thing...

Does the lizard dangle his leg when at rest, or does he still hold it normally?

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy Laura,

I had two trains of thought when I saw the foot/leg swelling: bone infection or gout.

I saw that the vet eliminated gout. I assume that was from the same x-ray that eliminated broken bones. If an infection made its way into the bone, they are notoriously difficult to treat. 6 years ago, I accepted a rescue and took him to a local vet to treat his leg bone infection. Just when that (no exotics experience) vet declared the infection was gone and to stop treatment, it would flare-up again. I found out later from Dr. Greek that a bone infection like that can take months of Baytril treatments to have a chance at success .

Bone infection:

Gout: