veiled skin problem

[Chalky macaw]

greetings,
i have recently recieved an adult veiled male from a friend who was miss-sold him as an ideal pet for her child, she tried her best but eventually had to admit defeat and re-home him, he's with me now, and although i have kept reptiles among other things for a long time i have come across an issue with him which i cant find an explaination for, so i figured ill ask here in case anyone else has had this problem.
it began when i first recieved him he had an injury (i presumed it to be a burn from the low heat bulb) which was mildly infected, i cleaned this up and it has healed niceley, he now has a large but clean skin coloured scar on the top of his casque, he also has lots of old layers of skin from previous poor shedding which i try to remove as best i can. anyway, from the top of his casque down towards his nose the black area of skin seems to be peeling away, i first thought this was more excess skin but on closer inspection its just pink underneath like the scar he has now, if i were to remove it he would have no skin there either, it doesnt look infected nor is it bleeding at all, just clean dry pink skin, he also has a similar problem developing on either side on his "ears" if this is serious i want to get it sorted out, just wondering if anyone has any ideas?

sorry for such a long post!

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy,

Post a few good photos to help us evaluate the area. Silvadene or its generic is the most common vet recommended cream used to help burns stay infection-free while healing. It takes a prescription.

Where in the world are you located?

 

[Chalky macaw]

hi, cheers for the advice, im in the U.K just south of london, ill try and get some pics, he's quite a stressy boy as his old owners tried to force handle him with garden gloves, but i shall do my best!

 

[Chalky macaw]

here on the side of his head, this is on bothe sides

the top of his casque, note the spliting as it goes further down his face

hope these help!

 

[summoner12]

What kind of lights were they using? Are you using the same ones?

You can check out this site for some very helpful UV lighting info.

Like dave said pictures of him and your setup could help us give you better advice.

 

[summoner12]

I am not a vet, and I am taking a guess with what I think it is.

It seems like his skin didn't shed properly and that could be due to low humidity. It is probably best to pull off the dead skin once you have a cream to stop infection. If you see other areas with old skin, it would be best to remove it.

 

[Chalky macaw]

they were using a 1+ year old expired uvb tube and a very low 100w halogen bulb for warmth, the viv was a low terrestrial type you'd use for beardies or geckos which he was very stressed out in, i now keep him in a tall custom built vivarium with a 60w halogen bulb on thermostat and a new full sunlight uvb tube with live plants also (Ficus benjamina) ill get some photos of his new vivarium.
my only worry is that it seems to be geting worse since he's been with me! although i cant see anything obviously wrong :s

 

[summoner12]

As dave said, you'll need a perscription for the cream, see what the vet says. I don't have a ton of experience in this area, but my female did have some burns and I just let them heal on thier own. She didn't have color where the burns were after it healed.

 

[opihiman]

I am not sure if you posted the answers to these questions.....

1. How long have you been taking care of this Cham?
2. How long ago did it recieve the burns...?
3. Other than the topical antibiotics what form of treatment have you used?

OPI

 

[Chalky macaw]

1. been looking after him since the begining of june, so coming up to about two months now
2. he had the injury when i recieved him, the previous owners never noticed as they were too frightened to handle him
3. i treated the initial injury with diluted tamodine to keep it clean and it cleared up and it healed, i checked for infection and abseses and it was fine it would just appear that his skin is literally falling of of him now, the initial burn is not a problem, no books i have found can explain this.

its quite confusing :S

 

[opihiman]

I think that he may still be recovering from his burns...I noticed that the burns where along the more boney or harder areas where it is not as vascularized. 2 things probably happen in these areas : 1. it would probably burn the worse in these areas due to the diminished circulation (nothing abnormal), and 2. would probably take the longest to heal also for the same reason.

Over all from the previous description it sounds like it is getting better.

Hope that helps and your cham is all better soon...

OPI

 

[Chalky macaw]

for the benefit of anyone who should get this problem in future i seem to have got to the bottom of it, i have since removed the dead tissues to find that he's attempting to heal underneath these build-ups, im treating it as i have been so far and ill try to keep everyone updated on the progress.
it would appear that where the initial burns had happened the skin was badly damaged, over consecutive sheds the skin has just built up in layers underneath the dead tissue and contributed to the build-up, i removed a good 6 layers of unshed dead skin before the wound was clean, he was trying to heal under all that dead skin, im just glad he was, i guess it could have been a lot worse had it got infected.
i guess if the burn had been noticed and treated at the time this could have been avoided altogether!
ill post some pics up when he's feeling better
thanks to everyone who helped me out here, your all sound.
a lesson learned lol

 

[summoner12]

for the benefit of anyone who should get this problem in future i seem to have got to the bottom of it, i have since removed the dead tissues to find that he's attempting to heal underneath these build-ups, im treating it as i have been so far and ill try to keep everyone updated on the progress.
it would appear that where the initial burns had happened the skin was badly damaged, over consecutive sheds the skin has just built up in layers underneath the dead tissue and contributed to the build-up, i removed a good 6 layers of unshed dead skin before the wound was clean, he was trying to heal under all that dead skin, im just glad he was, i guess it could have been a lot worse had it got infected.
i guess if the burn had been noticed and treated at the time this could have been avoided altogether!
ill post some pics up when he's feeling better
thanks to everyone who helped me out here, your all sound.
a lesson learned lol

Good to hear! Unshed skin can do bad things... a cham can loose the tip of its tail if the skin doesn't shed correctly.