Marjory the Three-Legged Chameleon

Marjory’s Story 

This afternoon saw one of our favourite patients, Marjory, come in for a check up. 

Marjory is a veiled chameleon.  Veiled chameleons originally come from Yemen and Saudi Arabia, where it is hot and dry, and they have a bony protuberance on the top of their heads (the “veil”) which helps to channel precious water droplets towards their mouths.  Another feature of many chameleon species, which is more relevant in Marjory’s story, is their wonderful gripping feet and coiling tails, which enable them to climb and hold fast to branches of the trees where they live.  And, of course, they are famous for their long, sticky tongues, which they can flick out at astonishing speed to catch the insects that they love to eat. 

Marjory was hatched in November, and was still living with her fellow hatchlings when her carers at Repxotics, a local exotic pet centre, noticed that she had had a bit of a spat with one of her siblings and suffered an injured toe.  As very experienced reptile keepers, the staff knew to treat the injury seriously, and started to bathe it regularly with an appropriate antiseptic and to provide her with pain relief.  The toe didn’t heal and so they quickly brought Marjory to our vet, Greg, for a check up.  Greg prescribed antibiotics, but warned that, due to the very different way that reptiles deal with infections compared to us mammals, and to their very tough skin, there was a risk that the wound wouldn’t heal at all. 

The staff at Repxotics are really caring and capable and administered Marjory’s antibiotics by injections every other day.  But after 2 weeks the toe, and the rest of the foot, had become hard and black, and it was clear that Marjory had no feeling or movement in it any more.  There was an infection in the bones of the foot, and it just isn’t possible to cure these infections in a reptile.  It was time to take more drastic action.  If we left the devitalised foot as it was, there was a high risk that the infection would spread further up the leg, and even as it was it was causing Marjory discomfort and interfering with her getting about. 

Polly prepared for surgery at our Wells branch, with the help of two veterinary nurses. I should point out here that Marjory weighed only 61 grams before her surgery, so this was a very delicate operation! We administered her with a general anaesthetic, and placed a breathing tube in her airway (you can’t buy proprietary endotracheal tubes for animals this small, so we made one from a catheter).  One nurse was charged with squeezing a breathing bag every 30 seconds, as reptiles tend to hold their breaths while under anaesthetic. We monitored Marjory’s heart rate with a Doppler probe over the heart, and kept her warm with electric heat pads and tiny hot water bottles. 

We used a monopolar electrosurgery blade to amputate Marjory’s left hind leg at the knee. This stops any bleeding. That’s really important when you only weigh 61grams as even losing a drop of blood can be very dangerous. Then we sutured the muscle, and then the skin, over the end of her thigh.  Reptile skin is very thick, inelastic, and waterproof, so we have to use a specific suturing pattern, and the sutures have to stay in place for 6 weeks to ensure the wound heals over. 

We gave Marjory more pain relief and antibiotics, and she recovered well from the anaesthetic. She immediately started trying to climb on the front of the vivarium, and we had to explain to her she was supposed to resting.  She went home into the Repxotics staff’s excellent care the same day. 

Marjory has done brilliantly since her surgery. The wound has healed perfectly, and in fact her sutures came away when she shed her skin last week.  She is climbing just as well with three feet and her tail as she did before her injury, and I am told she has a huge appetite.  She can now get on with life and is probably blissfully unaware that she has less feet than your standard chameleon!