Bump on the eye, help?!

We've noticed for awhile our Panther chameleon has not been wanting crickets. We attributed that to spoiling him with worms that he was hand fed with. We got him back on crickets for awhile, but the past week or so he's only been eating about 2 a day. A few days ago I noticed one of his eyes was closed on and off. Today I noticed he has a bump (that's been there for awhile since he last shed but was barely noticeable before). Now the bump is much more prominent. He has a bump on both sides, but the one on the eye he keeps closing has grown much larger than it was. Anyone know what this is? He's going to the vet tomorrow, but I'm worried sick and any advice until then would help. You can see that his right eye has a small pouch, but the left eye has grown very large. This is what it looks like:







Any advice or help would be appreciated

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Amilobe Panther, Male, 10 months, have had him for 4 months.
Handling - Don't handle him very often because he use to be very tempermental. He is friendly now and likes to climb out onto my hand, but don't handle him often.
Feeding - Crickets and mealworms. Gutload with Fluker's Orange cube complete cricket diet. Calcium dust the crickets with Zoo Med Repticalcium without D3. Try to feed crickets as much as possible but the last 2 weeks or so has been on a hunger strike. Usually eats 6 crickets a day, and always wants mealworms which he will eat at least 5 of a day. Yesterday ate 8 mealworms, today ate 6.
Supplements - Dust crickets daily. Mealworms usually don't get dusting because it won't stick.
Watering - Previously was misting at least 3 times a day. The vet told us this wasn't enough so he now has a auto mister that will spray for 2 minutes every hour. Just started this today.
Fecal Description - In the past it has been white or brown. Noticed about a week or 2 ago he had a few orange droppings, which I just discovered is a sign of dehydration.


Cage Info:

Cage Type - Screen cage, 3 feet by 1 1/2 feet.
Lighting - 60 watt bulb for basking, usually about 87 degrees where he can bask. UVB bulb on the other side. His lights are on from about 8 AM until it gets dark, about 7 pm.
Temperature - Warmest temperature 85-90, lowest about 76 at the bottom/in the shade. Night temperatures 70-75, no night bulb. We use a Zoo Med digital thermometer.
Humidity - Don't know this specifically, and would appreciate any input.
Plants - No live plants.
Placement - Cage starts at about 2 or 3 feet off the ground, so the top of his cage is about 5 feet tall. No air vents, but is in the living room where he can see myself, my husband, and our dog fairly often. We would like to move him somewhere more private, although the temperatures in our bedrooms can get very warm and we're afraid this could be more harmful. We're planning on moving his cage up higher, and also to a corner of the room where there is very little traffic.
Location - Texas


Took him to the vet, and he told us it was most likely dehydration and to hydrate him as much as possible. He said the bumps were probably from his eyes being so sunken, that we could see the muscles in his eyes. If we don't see improvement in a week, we should bring him back to run some tests. Our cham got pretty angry when the vet was holding him, so it seemed like the vet was hesitant to do any injections bc he probably would have been bit. I did find this vet on a reptile veterinarian website recommended on here. The vet himself had a panther when he was in college and said his died of dehydration. It sounded like he gave up on keeping a panther in general, and that he didn't think they should be kept in captivity because its so difficult to mimic their natural environment and get their humidity right. We researched panthers for about a month before we bought one, so we were aware this is a difficult animal. We didn't get much else from the vet visit other than to give him as much water as possible. His appetite and weight are healthy, but I would really like to get his humidity and temperatures right, and right now I would like to know the best way to get him hydrated. Any help about this would be appreciated!

Pink Elephants said:

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Amilobe Panther, Male, 10 months, have had him for 4 months.
Handling - Don't handle him very often because he use to be very tempermental. He is friendly now and likes to climb out onto my hand, but don't handle him often.
Feeding - Crickets and mealworms. Gutload with Fluker's Orange cube complete cricket diet. Calcium dust the crickets with Zoo Med Repticalcium without D3. Try to feed crickets as much as possible but the last 2 weeks or so has been on a hunger strike. Usually eats 6 crickets a day, and always wants mealworms which he will eat at least 5 of a day. Yesterday ate 8 mealworms, today ate 6. Meal worms and super worms are the devil if you use them improperly. if i were you i would feed the crickets first and then give him a few mealworms just as snacks. if he is turning down his crickets dont feed any meal worms. Be sure to check out sandrachameleons blogs or ferretsinmyshoes for some great gut loading tips. When feeding worms gutloading is super super important!
Supplements - Dust crickets daily. Mealworms usually don't get dusting because it won't stick. lightly mist them or take a damp paper towel and rub them wit hit. this should give the worm enough moisture for the supplement to stick.
Watering - Previously was misting at least 3 times a day. The vet told us this wasn't enough so he now has a auto mister that will spray for 2 minutes every hour. Just started this today.GREAT! just be sure his cage is able to dry out between misting sessions.
Fecal Description - In the past it has been white or brown. Noticed about a week or 2 ago he had a few orange droppings, which I just discovered is a sign of dehydration.


Cage Info:

Cage Type - Screen cage, 3 feet by 1 1/2 feet.
Lighting - 60 watt bulb for basking, usually about 87 degrees where he can bask. UVB bulb on the other side. His lights are on from about 8 AM until it gets dark, about 7 pm.try and place the uvb bulb as close to the basking spot as you can. unless you notice him under it on the other side of the cage.
Temperature - Warmest temperature 85-90, lowest about 76 at the bottom/in the shade. Night temperatures 70-75, no night bulb. We use a Zoo Med digital thermometer.
Humidity - Don't know this specifically, and would appreciate any input.any hygrometer will do.
Plants - No live plants.
Placement - Cage starts at about 2 or 3 feet off the ground, so the top of his cage is about 5 feet tall. No air vents, but is in the living room where he can see myself, my husband, and our dog fairly often. We would like to move him somewhere more private, although the temperatures in our bedrooms can get very warm and we're afraid this could be more harmful. We're planning on moving his cage up higher, and also to a corner of the room where there is very little traffic.
Location - Texas

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He more than likely has stuck shed in the turrets. this can work its way out with misting sessions or shower treatments. it is possible you may need to see a vet, not the one you went to but one that see chameleons to remove this obstruction.

try sending a pm to member Ace.
i think he had a similar issue with his chams eyes with the sagging around the turrets.

Thanks for the help. For right now we're giving him worms since that's all he'll take and we want him to keep eating while he's sick, but when he gets healthy again we'll try getting him back on crickets as much as possible. We tried giving the crickets some fresh apples and carrots to see if that helped...I will have to try some different things with the gutloading. I do see him bask under both bulbs, so that is good. How often should I be dusting the crickets/worms? I have heard different things from different people.

I am taking him tomorrow to the vet I usually go to - he's great, we just didn't take him there the first time because he's a farther drive and we didn't want to stress out our cham anymore than he already would be. I called and asked him some questions, he thinks there's probably more problems with the eyes than just dehydration and wants to see him. He also said he sees chameleons often so I'm sure we'll get more out of this vet. In the mean time we're misting every hour while he's awake, hopefully that will help too.

Oh, and he did shed about 3 weeks ago, and after that started resisting the crickets and was when we first saw orange poo. Maybe it's a combination of dehydration and shedding in his eyes? I hope he turns out ok!! I hate seeing him looking like his eyes are in pain.

Where in Texas are you?

I am in the DFW area.

Took him to the other vet today. He thinks he has some shedding stuck in his eyes and gave us some ointment to put on them for the next few days. He didn't see any signs of dehydration and said he looks healthy other than the eye problem and should be fine. He said they have lymph nodes in the front of their eyes and that's what's swollen from the shedding. If anyone is in the area, I'd definitely recommend that veterinarian.

Oh, and the vet actually removed the shedding, the ointment's just to fight off the infection.

Poor guy. Hope he feels better! Show us a picture when he gets better.

Great!

To help him shed from this point forward...Be sure to provide enough vines and limbs in the enclosure for him to rub his eyes on when shedding. Also keep humidity above 70% and try spraying him a few extra times while shedding.

This is what happens when the nasolacrimal duct becomes swollen and fluid cant pass so the eye will have a bump like thing on the side of his eye, there could be a piece of skin dust in the eye, or maybe he may have been itching his eye and made it swollen, no need for a vet unless it goes on for more than a week

vet removed shed skin.

Ok,it should heal up in a few days then.

We got ointment to put in his eye. Unfortunately we had to grab him to put the ointment in his eye, so his eye is open now much more than it was before and it seems to be getting better. It's been a few days since then and his bumps are still there, but the eyes are staying open now. The only problem is since we held him to put the medicine in, he is very skeptical of us. He won't eat worms from my husband's hand (who was the one who put the medicine in) and gets angry at him. He has eaten maybe 1 worm a day for the past 3 days from my hand, but when he tries a second time he misses because his vision is off. It seems once he misses his target he doesn't try to eat any more worms. I'm glad he seems to be getting better, and his weight is fine, but I'm worried how he will be with barely eating for a few days. We are getting crickets tomorrow to see if he will eat those, but I'm afraid since his vision is still off that he won't be able to catch his food. Any pointers? Will he be ok not eating for a couple days??

Update

We took him back to the vet and have been giving him a calcium supplement by mouth once a day, as the vet said he had become deficient from not eating. We also have to feed him cat food by mouth twice a day to get his energy and appetite back up. He said his eyes look much better, and he should return to normal if we can get his appetite back.

I'm really worried though. He has been mouth fed for 2 days and he's still lethargic, taking naps, keeping a dark color, somewhat wrinkly skin, and even hanging around the bottom of the cage. Anyone ever gone through this before? How long did it take of feeding by mouth before your cham got it appetite back? I hope he makes it.

Do not feed him cat food!? Why would you do this!

Because that's what the vet specifically gave us. He said the protein he's getting from it is about equal to what he would get from 12 crickets. Its only for a few days and he said it will help jump start his digestive system and get his appetite going. This vet has worked well with all our animals and sees chameleons a lot, so we're taking his advice.

Im surprised the vet would say that.
Unless Im severly mistaken it will have animal protiens, and all kinds of preservatives in it, among other things. These are not good for him.
If you have to feed him soft food, mash up some bugs, and feed him that.

Well it's a soft prescription diet food that he says they give to most of their animals after surgery, so I'm assuming its ok. I looked at the ingredients and its mostly protein, calcium, some magnesium and a few other minerals. I guess we'll see how it goes.

Well I really dont know anything about chameleons recovering from surgery, and Im no vet.
The issue would mainly be with the protien source. I believe all cat foods are made with animal protein.
If it is, this is harmful to the chameleon.
Animal proteins cant be proccesed bu their bodies, and it eventually causes gout.
Maybe someone with experience can correct me.