eye infection

today i came back from university and i saw one of my chameleons eyes is sunken and he was flushing it 10 times a minutes. it seems there is water in there and something was developing like residue. now his eye is swollen compared to the other eye.

here are some pictures..


i hope nothing is wrong but i can see there is something wrong just by looking at this little guy

I wouldn't wait...I had a similar problem and took my guy to the vet as soon as i noticed it. After a 59$ vet visit and a flushing of his eye 3x per day with a saline solution via siringes they gave me, he was all better. I felt it was a good deal in my book.

Howdy,

I'm sure that you'll get things sorted out with proper treatment etc. but I wanted to post what can happen if an eye infection doesn't get treated promptly. Even after the infection was treated and cleared, the scarring remained.

Corneal Scarring of a friend's chameleon:

Left Eye


Right Eye:


Normal Eye:

(Panther always did have a twinkle in his eye... )

You should prolly get some terramicyn for it. LLL Reptile sells it on their site. If you can get your hands on some saline solution, you can wash his eye out. hold him on a towel on his side and put a fine stream of fluid into the eye causing it to fill with the fluid. he will move his eye around and it'll loosen up gunk in his eye. Do this twice a day, it should help. also check your supplementing. Make sure it is good.

Where can I get some saline solution?

Anybody besides lllreptiles has the solution ?

walmart, walgreens, rite aid, whatever store is near you. Get regular saline solution, not hydrating or anything like that. It's the same stuff you use for contact lenses

justjumpit621 said:

walmart, walgreens, rite aid, whatever store is near you. Get regular saline solution, not hydrating or anything like that. It's the same stuff you use for contact lenses

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Make sure it is .5% saline not .9%, dont want to burn your chams eyes. The .9% is used for cleaning wounds while the .5% is safe on eyes.

Howdy,

Here's an old post about flushing eyes with saline solution. Over the last couple of months, I spoke with several pharmicists about rinsing eyes and they all seemed to agree that the ones marked "for sensitive eyes" would be fine to use. Ex: https://www.chameleonforums.com/saline-solution-35457/#post327298

I appreciate the help guys... Thanks a lot... I'm still not sure how to put it in the chams eyes tho... Any tips???

summoner12 said:

You should prolly get some terramicyn for it. LLL Reptile sells it on their site. If you can get your hands on some saline solution, you can wash his eye out. hold him on a towel on his side and put a fine stream of fluid into the eye causing it to fill with the fluid. he will move his eye around and it'll loosen up gunk in his eye. Do this twice a day, it should help. also check your supplementing. Make sure it is good.

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Chamster said:

I appreciate the help guys... Thanks a lot... I'm still not sure how to put it in the chams eyes tho... Any tips???

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I sorta touched on how to wash his eye in my post above. To elaborate it helps if he isn't squirming around and be gentle with the stream you are injecting into his eye. you only need enough force on the stream of saline to get it under the eyelid. Your cham will try and close his eye, so get close but don't scratch his eye. I haven't had to do it.... but I watched my Vet do it and of course he made it look easy.

yes of course a vet will make it look east. anyways... i found this in my house... maybe this can work.. its natural tears....

That has stuff in it increase tear production in humans. Note that "naturale" is not the same as "natural" and, in fact, is a trademark.

Sterile Saline is so commonly used by people with contact lenses that you can find it at most grocery stores and 7-11s. It will be less expensive at some place like Wal Mart or Target. However, it's going to be less than $5 just about anywhere you buy it.

You might practice squeezing the bottle a few times to get the right pressure needed for "gentle stream" before trying it on the chameleon.

So this is not the right solution??

Chamster said:

So this is not the right solution??

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I don't think so. I would go to your local pharmacy and get sterile saline. You don't want any added stuff in it. ask the pharmacist what would be good for rinsing out an eye.

I asked the pharmacist and she said i could use the RENU lubricatig drops.

Eye lubricant and it says lubricating drops on the box so it's ok for the eyes.

this guy is crazy was almost gonna bite me when i tried giving him the eye drops in his eyes. i dont know how i am going to do it....

I used a .2% saline solution with plastic plungers. Syringes with no needles. you should be able to find something like it at a drug store. Crazy kids take jello shots with em at the bars around here.

yeah he will try to fight ya a bit... just hold him firm. he might relax a little bit once you show him who is boss.

I'd still vote for sterile saline over "lubricating drops". The idea of using a syringe it excellent. If you can't find it just as a stand alone product, check the infant/children's drug section. A lot of kid's medications (like Tylenol and Motrin) come packaged with a small needless syringe. If you go some place like Wal Mart or Target you could get it for under $3. Be sure to dispose of the kiddy medicine safely if you don't have kids who are likely to need it later.