Cham keeps closing one of his eyes?

My Cham keeps closing one eye?I'm wondering if it could be the lighting,,,Im using a reptiglo 5.0...I'm going to change it to a reptisun 5.0...Could I use human eyedrops for his eye?Oh yeah he is eating and drinking like normal...I know he can see out of it still cuz I put my hand close to the eye he keeps closing and he moved back...

It's possible that the light is causing the problem. You can rinse the eye with sterile saline solution. You should not use anything with extra chemicals. That means no Visine.

Elizadolots said:

It's possible that the light is causing the problem. You can rinse the eye with sterile saline solution. You should not use anything with extra chemicals. That means no Visine.

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where can i find it at?soo i just put some in his eye??

I've used ReptiGLO lights without issues, so while possible Im leaning away from that being a likely cause.
A rinse with a saline solution is still a good idea - get it at a pharmacy - incase there is something stuck in there (dust, skin). Increased mistings wouldnt hurt either.

I recommend you complete the "how to ask for help" questionaire in full. There may be an aspect of husbandry that is contributing to the eye problem. Possibly nutritional (such as a lack of B or A vitamins). How long has the eye been closed?

sandrachameleon said:

I've used ReptiGLO lights without issues, so while possible Im leaning away from that being a likely cause.
A rinse with a saline solution is still a good idea - get it at a pharmacy - incase there is something stuck in there (dust, skin). Increased mistings wouldnt hurt either.

I recommend you complete the "how to ask for help" questionaire in full. There may be an aspect of husbandry that is contributing to the eye problem. Possibly nutritional (such as a lack of B or A vitamins). How long has the eye been closed?

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His eyes been like that for a couple of days...he doesn't keep it closed all the time he just closes it sometimes for a few min...I will answer the how to ask for help in a bit...

Possible Vitamin A Deficiency in Panther Chameleons, Symptoms and Solutions
By The Chameleon Company, LLC


Vitamin A deficiency is a common malady in LTC Panther chameleons, either with WC or CB origins. This stems from the chameleon's inability to synthesize real Vitamin A from common precursors, such as beta-carotene. This can be confusing when evaluating supplements, as many dry supplements list Vitamin A content, but only as the precursor, beta-carotene, and not as “pre-formed”, or in essence, real Vitamin A.

While lack of Vitamin A effects many aspects of chameleon health, the usual first observed symptom is the appearance of an unexplained eye irritation, manifested in difficulties in keeping first one eye open, and after a few days, both eyes are affected. In most cases, the eyes will not appear sunken, or in any other way mis-shaped initially, although secondary problems, such as an infection, can follow. The usual initial observation is that it is causing irritation to the chameleon, and that it can't keep the eye open as normal. It occurs more often in larger animals, but sometimes occurs in larger juveniles. In some cases the eye may appear as swollen. Successfully hatched chameleons seem to be born with a supply of Vitamin A, an essential ingredient for successful embryonic development, and fresh WC’s seem to be imported with a supply. Mother Nature seems able to provide this vitamin without problem. Without some real vitamin A in their diet, these stores will deplete. It is a difficult vitamin for the hobbyist to gut-load via crickets and insects though, and such attempts are usually ineffective in our experience.

Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin, as is Vitamin E. It is most commonly sold in gel caps, with each gel cap containing approximately three drops of an oil solvent. It is available on-line from many suppliers, or is sold in most vitamin and health stores. The most common, and consensus most effective form of vitamin A, is a compound known as retinal palmitate. It is a common human food supplement as well. Depending on manufacturer, gel caps may contain 2000-25,000 iu’s (intravenous units) per gel cap. Read the label to insure you are buying a product with retinal palmitate as the Vitamin A. The solvent may be fish oil, which outside of its odor, is OK.

You can usually find an adequate source at such as a GNC store. When looking online, here’s a link: http://www.carlsonlabs.com/p-27-vitamin-a-palmitate-15000-iu.aspx

However, if the link has expired, google “Vitamin A Carlson Laboratories” and you should find many product options.

Real Vitamin A can also be available as the compound retinal acetate, which is synthetically produced vitamin A. While not as effective as retinal palmitate, the acetate version is more easily crystalized, and then included in some dry products, such as the ZooMed vitamin powder marketed as Reptivite.

Vitamin A is toxic in large quantities. As you are dealing with an oil, a strong word of caution as well. Chameleons have an extreme dislike for almost any measurable quantity of oil introduced into their mouth. While inexact, usually a negative reaction starts to become likely to occur if a quantity of oil ½ drop or greater is introduced into an adult chameleon’s mouth, and is virtually guaranteed with 2 or more drops. This can induce vomiting and inhalation of the oil, possibly death. Fortunately, the amount of oil (and vitamin A) needed to effectively dose a chameleon is usually less than 1/20th of a drop. Again, an inexact science, but depending upon the concentration of the Vitamin A in the oil, your goal is to deliver a dose that contains approximately 100 iu’s per 50g of chameleon. An exceedingly rough estimate would be 1/20th of a drop of the oil in an average adult female panther chameleon. There is a reasonable margin for error. This can administered by puncturing one or more gel caps, and wetting a Q-tip with the oil, so that is is wet, but not dripping. You can then grab the chameleon behind the head, and when it says “Ahhhh”, touch the Q-tip to its inner gum, etc. It will likely chomp down, then let go of the Q-tip once released itself. Or, if you are able to hand-feed, swab the back of a cricket or such with a smear of the oil, and then coax your chameleon into eating it.

As a rule, we recommend this treatment to all adult chameleons once every two weeks. If an animal is showing symptoms of Vitamin A deficiency, such as eye closing with no other apparent malady, we recommend the dose daily for five days, then once every two weeks. In such cases where Vitamin A deficiency is the problem, and it is caught early, the eyes usually improve on the third or fourth day. In animals where treatment has been delayed, improvement can take up to 2-3 weeks, except in cases where the treatment has been delayed too long and become beyond repair. Good luck.

How to ask for help...

-Male ambilobe about 7 or 8 months old...
-Handle him like every other day...he doesn't mind he's really calm...
-Supplements ...rep-cal D3 phosphorous free,zoomed repti calcium no D3,and -rep-cal herptivite..mon and thurs hertivite,tues and fri D3,and weds and sat no D3...
-watering...little dripper on top...misting 2 daily..yes I see him drink..
-fecal..white and like an olive type color...
-history...he went on a hunger strike once but is now eating like normal...
-cage...screen 24x24x48...
-lighting...UVB reptiglo 5.0 24 in...and a 70 watt basking bulb...10:00am to 10:00 pm...
-temps...basking is between 85 and 95 ...and floor is between 75 to 80..lowest over nite temp is 65...temp gun...
-humidity...99 when done misting and about 40 when dry...I mist the whole cage till it's dripping...Measure with hygrometer...
-plants...photos and ficus...
-placement...in my room...yes one fan...(blower)...pointed away from cage..not by any vents...
-no high traffic...
-located in southern California...'...
-current problem...my chameleon keeps closing one eye...idk what it's from...I was kind of slacking on the supplementing fro about 2 weeks but I'm back on track with it now...I gut load with carrots and oranges...
-

erik775 said:

-Male ambilobe about 7 or 8 months old...
-Handle him like every other day...he doesn't mind he's really calm...
-Supplements ...rep-cal D3 phosphorous free,zoomed repti calcium no D3,and -rep-cal herptivite..mon and thurs hertivite,tues and fri D3,and weds and sat no D3...
-watering...little dripper on top...misting 2 daily..yes I see him drink..
-fecal..white and like an olive type color...
-history...he went on a hunger strike once but is now eating like normal...
-cage...screen 24x24x48...
-lighting...UVB reptiglo 5.0 24 in...and a 70 watt basking bulb...10:00am to 10:00 pm...
-temps...basking is between 85 and 95 ...and floor is between 75 to 80..lowest over nite temp is 65...temp gun...
-humidity...99 when done misting and about 40 when dry...I mist the whole cage till it's dripping...Measure with hygrometer...
-plants...photos and ficus...
-placement...in my room...yes one fan...(blower)...pointed away from cage..not by any vents...
-no high traffic...
-located in southern California...'...
-current problem...my chameleon keeps closing one eye...idk what it's from...I was kind of slacking on the supplementing fro about 2 weeks but I'm back on track with it now...I gut load with carrots and oranges...
-

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Before you posted the info, my guess was that you had a male panther in that age range. It was an easy guess. Fits Vitamin A deficiency like a glove.

Chameleon Company said:

Before you posted the info, my guess was that you had a male panther in that age range. It was an easy guess. Fits Vitamin A deficiency like a glove.

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Ok...I just got back from the vitamin store and I got the vitamin A as retinyl palmitate...I put way less than a drop on a cricket and fed it to him...I smeared it on the crickets back...

erik775 said:

Ok...I just got back from the vitamin store and I got the vitamin A as retinyl palmitate...I put way less than a drop on a cricket and fed it to him...I smeared it on the crickets back...

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Do that once a day for 5 days. Hopefully you will see improvement by about day 3-4. Be wary of any further symptoms, which could indicate additional issues. You will be able to keep us posted. Hope it works out.

My Cham was doing the same things but more like blinking all the time like way more than normal. I noticed that it wud sink in a lil bit when he wud do so. I was using a reptisun compact bulb at the time so I changed that for a reptisun 5.0 tube bulb. I also got him some terramycin not sure if it spelled right but his eye is fine now. Not sure what fixed it but better safe than sorry. He is also way more active now as well, not sure if he was getting a little bit sick or what

I have used the vitamin A dosing method as described by Jim Flaherty and can say it worked very well for my adult ambilobe. By the time I had that information my male had already scratched his eye and caused retinal scarring that will never go away. He can still see but I wish I had taken the steps to get him what he needed early on. He's 3.5 years old now and I continue to give him retinal palmitate every 2 weeks or so. Eye issues are pretty much gone as a result of this treatment. I hope your guys does well with the treatment.

You dont indicate what types of prey /feeders you offer, and your gutloading sounds weak.
I hope the vitamin A helps! If you dont see improvement in a weeks time, best to check into this further (before thinking about continuing the heavy supplementation with preformed vitamin A)

Chameleon Company said:

Do that once a day for 5 days. Hopefully you will see improvement by about day 3-4. Be wary of any further symptoms, which could indicate additional issues. You will be able to keep us posted. Hope it works out.

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Ok I'll keep you guys posted on how it's working out...thanks...

sandrachameleon said:

You dont indicate what types of prey /feeders you offer, and your gutloading sounds weak.
I hope the vitamin A helps! If you dont see improvement in a weeks time, best to check into this further (before thinking about continuing the heavy supplementation with preformed vitamin A)

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Oh yeah I'm feeding him crickets ,super worms ,and horned worms...Yeah I know I have to gut load better...

wooohooo...champ is not closing his eye or eyes any more...and he was pretty dam active today he was all over his cage!<@...the vitamin A worked......oh yeah i forgot to add...thanks alot for the help...

2 thumbs up!!!

erik775 said:

wooohooo...champ is not closing his eye or eyes any more...and he was pretty dam active today he was all over his cage!<@...the vitamin A worked......oh yeah i forgot to add...thanks alot for the help...

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Slowly but surely we keep getting a little bit better with these critters. Glad it worked well.

Forgive me, but we will be putting one more notch in our pistol here. While we were not the first to start to understand issues with panthers and vitamin A, and I will defer to such as Ardi Abate and Scott Stahl, and Dr. Garry Ferguson, and others on that, as they were realizing discrepencies in the literature in the late 90's, we still caught a bit of grief for pushing it as hard as we did starting in about 2002. We learned from our own issues in our first colonies.

We are most glad when folks are able to improve their husbandry based on information here. Thanks.

Hey, i think i need to do this for my cham... Can someone please explain to me how i get vitamin a into my chams mouth or on to his feeders. Thank you

Bump........