Urgent Skin Issue

[lisa9d]

I have lost a 2 year old Male Veiled due to this skin problem, that I noticed started out as a few lumps. As the issue got worse the lumps seemed to have just fallen off. I took him to the vet, they gave me cream to put on the affected area as well as an antibiotic. Unfortunately, the guy didn't make it. It seemed as soon as I put this cream on, the affected skin turned black, and seemed to peel like a burnt marshmellow!

Now.. the vet did not tell me exactly what it was, so I am unsure, but they did tell me that it is NOT contagious, and my other chameleons should be fine.

3 days ago, my younger male died.. they were not housed in the same cage, or even close, as they are aggressive towards eachother. I noticed this little guy's skin having a few little bumps, put that cream on, and the next morning it turned all black! 2 days after that.. I found him on the ground dead! This all happened VERY quickly, as he was in perfect health days before!

I have a female now, and she seems to be getting this.. she's very hostile, she tries to bite me when I touch her, and her colours are very aggravated, she is not green, but her stress colours even when she is sleeping! And I noticed she almost fell off her vine this morning! She seems restless.

ALL of my chameleons have been very friendly and active, and I have had nothing but problems since my first male died.

Now.. I have attached photos of the recently deceased male. This was shortly after he died, so it's NOT going to be nice!

If ANYONE can help at all.. please let me know.. The vets don't seem to help or diagnose the problem.. And I don't want to keep losing them!

 

[Sepioteuthis]

oh my! that's terrible! I'm so sorry for your loss.

I'm not sure what these bumps could be. Maybe it's fungal? That would explain why it doesn't respond to regular antibiotics.
What is this cream that you have called?
Did the vet do a culture to determine what's causing the infection?

Do you still have to body of the younger male? A necropsy could give some answers.
Is there another herp vet you could go to, to have the female examined?

Again, very sorry for your loss and I hope you'll be able to figure out what's going on.

Suzanne

 

[jannb]

That's terrible! I am so sorry for your loss. I would definitely try to find a different vet. Maybe this site will help you find one in your area. Jann
Herp Vet Connection

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy Lisa,

Like Suzanne said, fungal infections are definitely a possibility. Without lab culturing and sensitivity testing, eliminating fungal, bacterial, viral infections will be tough if not impossible. Many microbes have a very narrow range of drug choices that they are susceptible to so these tests are what are required to get the right one the first time. It is always possible that there are two or more agents at work and requires different drugs for each to knock them all out.

The other topic that has to be addressed is why is it happening in the first place . Quick, get out of Whitby ! It may be that this infection is from some microbe of some sort that is always present in our environment but unable to do its dirty work until a host with a suppressed immune system of found. On the other hand, if it is microbial in nature, maybe it got a free ride into your chameleon's environment via a plant or even just the soil itself.

See if your vet or maybe a different vet will take a sample and send it to a capable lab for testing. If all of your chameleons succumb to this condition and you are going to start again, I'd get rid of everything that you can, treat every surface with strong antimicrobial agents like ammonia etc. and then blast the heck out of them with a power washer.

 

[kinyonga]

So sorry for your loss. Its too bad that it couldn't have been caught in time and treated.

Don't know what it is...could be viral, bacterial, fungal and testing is the only way to determine what it is/was....as was already mentioned.

What were you putting on the marks? Do you have any pictures of what it looked like in the beginning or when the chameleon was still alive?

Don't want to scare you but...words of advice...when a pet has something like this I would recommend not handling it without latex gloves on in the future. Some things are contagious to humans. I also hope you didn't handle it and then handle anything to do with your other chameleons without disinfecting your hands and anything that you touched that you might use in another cage.

 

[lisa9d]

The vet did mention fungal issues, she took a sample of the skin and gave me the cream and antibiotic in return, none of which worked.

Here is a few pictures of my female in day 2 of the obvious same skin issues. Getting worse!

 

[kinyonga]

Can you please tell me the name of the cream and the antibiotics?

Did your vet do any testing to see if it was fungal or bacterial or viral?

 

[THECHAMMAN]

holy jesus thats pretty disturbing. im soooooo sorry that you have to deal with this. and im also sorry that i cant help. i feel horrible

 

[opihiman]

can we get a picture of your viv ?
OPI

 

[lisa9d]

the cream is called OTOMAX 15ml.. that's all it says!

I will upload pictures of the setup later tonight.

 

[opihiman]

Really dumb question and I will appologize in advance.

But are you still using the otomax?

I am also very curious if a long shower or some of that silverdene (sp? sorry) will help?

OPI

 

[kinyonga]

I would worry that showering would make fungus worse and maybe bacteria also.

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy,

Being that the cream didn't work, it probably requires a drug(s) working from the inside-out the next time .

 

[evilalive]

Sorry for your loss...., one of my panther die with skin pox a few years back with similar issue. Eventhough, my vet gave me cream to treat at first place (skin surface do heal) but her health turns poor and virus won eventually....

While knowing you'd kept the chams for 2 years with separate cages, I wonder if problem were perhaps comes from the food source (i.e. crix, waters etc) or tools you use ( hand mister)? Also, I agreed that the immune system plays a great part with this situation and I find it very strange why they all develop the same skin problem if they don't get in contact with each others.......

 

[dodolah]

Hi Lisa,
this is certainly a pretty disturbing case
perhaps, you can research www.herpvetconnection.com to find a herp vet nearby your area and get a 2nd opinion.

I agree with Dave. seems like a cream will not settle this problem.

 

[mdior]

this does look like a fungal infection. i worked for several years at a local zoo, and we had a Day Gecko experience something very much like this. it can be caused by too much humidity, fungal infection usual need low temps and high humidity to grow. So basically nothing dries out properly so they grow like crazy. We used an ointment called nystatin, and it took two weeks to see results. We also had to give regular fluids to the little guy to keep him going. It can effect the lungs as well as the topical issues you are seeing....

 

[kinyonga]

It might be able to travel through the air.
I definitely think more testing needs to be done to determine what exactly it is.

How long does it seem to take from the onset to the death?

 

[TonyRockyHorror]

Read through this whole thread - might help, could be related:

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1330111,1330111

 

[lisa9d]

UPDATE: The female died today. So whatever this thing is... gets them REAL quick. She was covered within 2 days and then died. I am going to find out what this is..somehow.

Thanks to everyone for their help..

 

[kinyonga]

I'm so sorry to hear that you lost your female now too. It really moves quickly.

Maybe you should take the body in for an autopsy?