Dino has been having problems with his right eye. I noticed a clear hardened film covering his eye yesterday. I put him under a warm shower and rinsed it. The clear film washed away and he was fine until today. The film came back in the late afternoon. So again, we put him under some warm water in the shower and rinsed it away.

Then he crapped. We were shocked because it was a lot. And...the first thing to come out was this large hard orange log of something. It's hard...and very strange. Also was this white dangling thing...I hope you can see it in the pic.

If anyone has any idea on what this is...please post. Thanks.

NOTE: After it's rinsed out, his eye goes back to normal. It's not at all the way it looks in these pics. It is a nice round turret with full motion and a clear eyeball....




Yesterday:




Here's a better view of the film or disk of clear junk in his eyeball. Once it was out, his turret and eye looked fine. When it's in his eye, he doesn't move his turret too much and won't use his eye. He'll either close it or leave it stationary and turn to see me with his other eye.



Here's his other side:

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Reptile fanatic for almost 31 years.

Looks like your fella is not drinking enough water, as evidenced by the orange urate. His casque and eye turrets are not suggesting dehydration, but there might be a hydration issue .

The white thing looks like a sperm plug. Its normal for them to have these from time to time.

There may be some other underlying problem, but I'd start by making drip water available to him more often throughout the day.

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I agree with Chroma...those are definitely sperm plugs and the urinates is a bit yellow which is a sign of dehydration. That could also be a reason for his eye problem...too low of humidity. I would get him some terramycin and try misting him more to solve both the dehydration and the eye. He looks good, nice clean barring, I like him!

-chris

That orange urate is hard as a rock.

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Reptile fanatic for almost 31 years.

Yes, as afar as I know it is comprised of crystals of various salts, etc. It IS hard. The boy needs some hyper-hydration, such as showers or good heavy mistings, stil that whitens up a good deal. Some chams are real stubborn about drinking.

He won't drink in the shower or when he's misted. The only time he drinks is when dropletts form on the ceiling of his enclosure after the humidifier has been running. I watch him sit up there and drink every day. There's plenty of water, mistings and sprayings daily.
hmmm. Maybe larger crickets with more body fluids would be helpful.

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Reptile fanatic for almost 31 years.

Is the dehydration the reason for the hard urates? I know that at least in other herps I deal with they say that the urate should be in one clump, but should be as soft as the rest of the stool. And how would you guys treat the eye. The store close to me started contacting when they have a sick herp, and You may have read on a previous thread I posted that they now have a female looks exactaly like this problem with the eye. Any input on how the eye should be treated? If it is something I may have the ability to treat on my own I may take her in. Aside from that eye, and being a lil on the chubby side she looks healthy, and at this point they will probably sell her to me for $50 as they can't sell her like that.. and nobody is treating it so it is just getting worse.

From what I have read above... I would say that you should keep giving him those nice long daily showers. With that hard orange urate I would say that address the hydration as head on as possible and hope that the eye clears up in the process.

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I really like him too and agree with everyone else about hydration. I could recommend daily placing paper towels on top of the cage, over the area he likes to hang out, so the water will collect for longer and continue to drip down. Maybe you cold also see if he would accept something like Pedialyte from a dropper or soak the paper towel in it for hydration.
My chameleon had a similar issue with they eye it looked like this 8/07:


He was having a lot of eye problems for a LONG time. it was also gewie and crusty. He had a vitamin A deficiency that took him a couple of months to fully recover from, and he still gets a RX liquid multi vitamin 2x a mo. to make sure he is getting what he needs.
Here is another thread that was recently talking about it, maybe it will help:
Dave Weldon Vit A ?

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I know with my snakes their urates are soft as clay if you spot clean the moment it comes out. After an hour or so, their urates become hard as a rock as well. I guess you're just really good and fast at spot cleaning.

I do clean up poop as soon as as i see it and make sure all is good... But in this case looks like it happened in the shower and was observed right away.

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