Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This morning, I turned Cobalt's lights on, and went through the usual routine. I sprayed him down, turned on his humifier, and filled up the dripper and he drank a TON of water. After, I fed him a few butterworms, waxworms, superworms, and silkworms. Just a couple hours ago, I went to check on him and he had a dark black blotch under his chin that wasn't there before. It compares very similarly to Will's female and her blotchy eye. It just appeared out of the blue, but doesn't seem to cause any discomfort towards him at all. Any suggestions of what this may be??? Will, would you happen to know??? Thanks so much, posted some blurry pics below-

Michele

Hey,

It looks like some bug juice on it's chin. Like when they eat a big worm and all the juices squirt everywhere. If that is what it is, don't worry about it. You might want to try to get it off with a soft wet rag to prevent the spread of possible disease.

If it doesn't seem to be that, it can be another thing. Cobalt might have fallen from the cage and hit his chin on the floor. I have had this happen to one of my males who fell on his back. He is fine, but the top few scales on his back turned black and haven't ever got their color back. It won't hurt him, but it won't go away. This could be the case with Cobalt. If it isn't any of this, then I have no idea. With Will, I am more concerned that it can be other things cause when a chameleon is geting sick, ussually the first sign is in their eyes. However, in my opinion it is a bruise as well. But either way, bringing Cobalt to a vet, or geting worried is not going to help. I do not think it is going to kill him. He should be just fine, in my opinion. Have a good night!

Ank-Inc.
Adam.

I would dissagree. I dont think it is a bruise

That area there is really soft skin. And it usually is pulled inwards under the jaw. Unless he is fired up and flaring the throught (Such as is happening in the photos). So even if he fell, and had trama to that area, why would it put a circular bruise around loose skin? It would appear more as a cut accross the sharp jawline, I would think.

Michelle has also told me that the interior of the mouth looks all normal. And bruises generally show a great deal of discoloration and swelling under the skin.

Another clue is that the head crest is still intact and unaffected. There is a good chance I would say that that would be hit aswell as the chin.

It looks a little different than mine. Mine shows no colour at all, almost as if, if there had been trama, that the photo-colour-whatever-cells ("Scientific Term" are no longer reacting to the colour changing signals. Keep us up-to-date, as I will with my female. Shown Below.

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CANADIAN CHAMELEONS

If Cobalt fell off his plant, and landed so that the bottom of his jaw hit the ground, and the "soft skin" was crushed between the ground and his jaw bone, it might damage them causing them to turn a darker color. Just my opinion. Either way, I wouldn't lose sleep over it Michele.

Ank-Inc.
Adam.

Michele -

I have actually seen similar "lesions" few times on Panther chameleons - especially in the region immediately below the mandible and in the gular region. The blotches seem to develop suddenly, without any warning or any real reason for their presence.

The following photos are property of a member of another forum (thanks Rocky's Dad):

That is precisly what developed on Cobalt! Would you happen to know if the blotch dissipated, or went away? Did it lead to anything serious, or was it not harmful? Really, thanks for you're help everyone. And thanks for posting the helpful pics rozdaboff

Michele

I posted a reply to the thread where these images came from, but am waiting on a response. I don't think any serious problems ever arose, but I am interested to see if the blotches went away.

A few months ago my adult CB male veiled had something that looked VERY much like this (lower jaw as well). He was due for a checkup so I brought him in to the Vet. They really didn’t know what it was and it eventually went away after about 3-4 weeks. He had no other symptoms and acted just fine with it. Scared the crap out of me though.

-roo

Wow, that is weird. Sure hope it gets better soon.
Keep us posted.
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Feenie

1.1 vieled cham.- Stitch and Rana (Missing you,Chloe)
2.0 Panther chams- Lou and Yosamite Sam
1.0 Giant Day Gecko- Mr. Gecko
0.1 Aussi Whites Tree frog- Frumpy
1.0 Peacock tree frog- Igaro
0.1 Reeds tree frog- Dottie
0.0.2 New River Tinc. Dart Frogs- Tinker and Bell
2.2 Canines Junior-pitbull chiuahuah mix, Jose- chiuahuah, Pearl- Staffie, and Daisy- Red nose Pit- foster child
1.0 Fiance- Trent species unknown
and the list grows on.............

That is strange, on both chameleons, even though yours (Cobalts) looks a bit different.

I know with other lizards when those dark stained spotted or blotchy areas appear on there underdsides and what not it somtimes is internal bleeding/ or bruise, but how it would get there is indeed quite strange.

Sure hope you find out what it is and it leaves as fast as it appeared. Let us know
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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

In several years of keeping and breeding chameleons (veiled; panthers; flapnecks; deremensis; quadricornis; jacksons; mellers; rudis; and pygmies), we have seen all sorts of skin conditions.

Several had to do with similar dark splotches. Some were simple bruising (most from a mating grip on the female, or slight injuries); others were conditions that required treatments.

Many of us have seen how easily a baby cham can get a blackened tail from a fellow neonate nipping on it, so it really doesn't take much to bruise the skin sometimes.

Of the dark splotches that can suddenly appear, we learned there are several skin fungi that can affect chams. We have seen this on panthers; jacksons and mellers. While a few spots developed a hard core in the center (like a small peppercprn) that had to be removed before treatment commenced, others remained smooth - but dk grey in color.

With our vet's supervision, we treated our chams with a 10% solution of providone iodine to cleanse the area and then apply a thin film of SSD cream. We found that most dark blotches would respond to the treatments by shrinking in size. It would take a while, sometimes several weeks, but most would go away.

There were a few spots that didn't respond, and these remained on the chams until their passing. We only had one cham necropsied that had splotches - and we could see that the discoloration went through to the inside of the chameleon. That particular cham passed from organ failure, and the spots remained unexplained.

If nothing else, cleansing the area with a cotton swab dipped in diluted Betadine would not hurt. Some minor irritations just need to be disinfected. Unfortunately, this would not be recommended for an area surrounding the eye - but under the chin shouldn't be a problem.

If you have a vet that you trust, it would be good to consult him/her about these mysterious skin maladies. We found that even jacksons can get too much humidity. Imagine that!

back when i had a 2 week old cham, she developed a dark area on the side of her jaw. unfortunatly, a few ants made their way into their enclosure and she went for one. i found her spiting out the ant and in obvious distress. apparently the ant had bit her on the inside of her mouth when she tried to eat it and that is what caused the bruise. but the dark area was on the inside of her mouth too. could one of the worms have bitten his mouth on the inside? i'm not sure what it could be if not.

rachel
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4.3 African Clawed Frog
3.3 Calfornia Newt
0.1 Leucistic Texas Ratsnake
1.2 Veiled Chameleon
0.1 Albino Cranwells Horned Frog
0.1 Paddle Tail Newt
0.1 Green Iguana
0.5.0 Indonesian Floating Frog
0.1.0 Blizzard Leopard Gecko