Chameleon with dead/rotting tail

I just got my chameleon a week ago and when I bought him his tail looked a little funny. So I thought no big deal, it would probably go away. Four days go by and its not any better and now there is a small dark brown ring of skin around the tip of his tail. The color of the tail is a light brown and he can't feel it. I am very worried about it. Any advice???


Leslie McDonald

Does it look like a stuck shed? Or actual dead tissue? Does he still curl it normally?
If it were my cham, I would first put him (depending on his age of course) into a nice warm steamy shower and see if that loosens what could be old stuck shed.
I might also put a little antibacterial ointment/cream on the tip. If it continues to degrade, a vet visit might be in order to determine the nature & extent of injury and possible sepsis.

How old is your cham? Is he CB or WC?

He is a juvenile, about 2 months. It looks like dead tissue is cutting through the skin of his tail and now the bottom of the tail is all shriveled up.

Without photos it's difficult to say what it could be, but it does sound like a shed related complication. It's not uncommon for tail/toe shed to get stuck. If not removed it can eventually constrict the blood flow and result in necrosis.

He's too young for showers, but you need to tend to this quickly or he could suffer from systemic infection. Soak the tail in warm water and very, very gently try to ease the dead skin off. You may have to do this several times. If the tail begins to bleed or it looks like you are doing more damage, STOP! Also use a povidone iodine or similar disinfentant on the tip. Increase the humidity in the cham's enclosure. Your cham may lose the tip of his tail, but better that than whole system infection!

Good luck!

A little bit late, but I saw something similar happen to a large burmese python. The end of it's tail turned a little bit brown with a clear delineation between the dying part and the rest. The dying part turned very dark brown and was clearly dead. Soon, brown blotches started showing up in the "healthy" section and it progressed. The animal was eventually put down and the cause was determined to be some sort of bacterial infection. What sort, they could not say.

Just a quick update. We took him to the vet and they removed the dead tissue. It was already too late for his poor little tail ,though. They removed the small string of skin holding it onto the rest of the tail. He is doing great now and he just had a successful 2nd shed! Our little boy is growing up :]