CHAMELEONS IN CAPTIVITY ARE HIGH-MAINTENANCE. INTENSE husbandry is needed to properly monitor their food, humidity, temperature, and overall health. They are easily stressed by captivity. This is because their adaptation in the wild is tailored to a specific treetop environment.
Their leaflike bodies are compressed vertically to appear two-dimensional, and they have independently moving eyes perched on little turrets for a 300-degree field of vision. They hunt with a sticky tongue that grabs prey like a projectile on elastic. It moves faster than the eye can see and extends longer than 50 percent of their body length. Their prehensile tail and mitten-like grabbing toes keep them safe on the branches, or in human hands.
The chameleon I was holding, named Leif, was not showing obvious signs of stress. Other than the chronic lumpy abscesses left from old injuries along the jaw and the ulcerated toe, this green, black, and white chameleon looked well fed and relaxed. But his infection persisted.
Antibiotics, surgical flushing, and topical treatments had been tried and had not worked. The cold or “low-level laser light therapy” (LLLLT) was a treatment that had not been tried. I set the machine on 10 joules, covered the chameleon’s telescoping, individually moving eyes and pressed the button. The red light covered the jaw and I waited the ten seconds for it to finish. Then we repeated this on the toe lesion. After a brief training session, I left the laser with the veterinarian. For a few weeks, she treated his chronic infection until it healed. The laser was what made the difference. I suspect he needed some extra help to recover from an infection he most likely wouldn’t have encountered in his natural environment.
The FDA has approved laser to improve circulation and decrease inflammation locally. It also helps reduce scarring at incision sites, and improves the body’s ability to heal from even resistant infections. I use it so frequently, I have two of them. Light therapy is not new. We all can feel the cheering effect of the sun’s rays after days of clouds, and surgeons use laser to actually cut through tissue. The LLLLT that I use in rehab does not cut, or feel warm, but it does have power. The joules of light that penetrate through the skin stimulate the mitochondria in the cells to produce the proteins that will call in more circulation. This can increase lymphatic drainage and decrease inflammation and scarring where you place the beam. It is clinically effective and the research on it is persuasive. It is used both in human and veterinary medicine.
In addition to the chameleon, I have used laser on elephant foot lesions, meerkat tail wounds, nonhealing bone fractures in a Rodriguez fruit bat, a lame fennec fox, arthritic camels, zebras with swollen joints, and dogs and cats for a gazillion issues. I have even used it on myself to treat a worrisome cat bite that, as a result, healed better than any cat bite I’ve ever seen. I was a guinea pig for laser before I used it on a wounded guinea pig.
Cold laser and all of the healing equipment in my practice assist the body to heal itself. This includes the underwater treadmills, therapeutic ultrasound (deep heat), electrostimulation, acupuncture needles, and even our five-digit hands—massage, chiropractic, and acupressure. I wouldn’t want to practice medicine any other way.