Help! Eye completely black & shut

Milton “the Monster: is a 3 yr 4 month old male panther chameleon. His right eye is completely black, you can't see the iris. He can see out of it and track movements and everything I just think it agitates him if he uses it too much. Look at the attached pictures!!!

His eye had problems around 1 year ago and I took him to a vet and they gave me Prednisone anti-inflammatory eye drops to put in, they helped him for a while but he has started closing his eye frequently again lately.

I took him to the vet yesterday, the vet was not very experienced with chameleons but had treated a few before. He believed he had "anterior synechia" which means the iris has attached to the cornea, had a build up of pressure and causes closed angle vision (similar to glaucoma). He is having me administer Atropine Sulfate in order to dilate the eye, if the eye dilates enough the condition should reverse itself. At first he seemed to open the eye more, but today after 2 drops the skin seemed black and he is reluctant more than usual to open it. I don't want to cause further damage, am hoping it is just because it's dilated and sensitive to the light.

PLEASE if anyone knows of any articles, web sites, or anything dealing with chameleon eye issue or have any ideas let me know!!! I have researched this online, find all sorts of things in humans, but absolutely nothing on chameleons. Also if anyone knows of a good herp vet around Las Cruces, NM or El Paso, TX please let me know.

Thank you everyone who chimes in to help out Milton.

Below is the health forum background info.

I handle him fairly often, he likes to come out of his cage and go on the ficus tree I have to put him outside in order for him to get some natural sunlight.

Primarily crickets and superworms. He has not eaten very much lately, been sporadic. I gutload the crickets with lettuce and carrots and started using collard greens lately. I have ordered silkworms, hornworms, phoenix worms and wax worms before but he barely eats them.

Rep cal. Calcium (5 times/week), Calcium w/ D3 (1 time/week), Herptavite multivitamins (1/week). Concerned that since he hasn’t been eating as often not getting the proper amount of vitamins.

Yes I see him drinking in the morning when I start the water dripper, I don’t mist by hand put have a mist king that goes on 5 cycles per day for 3-4 minutes each time.

He has had irregular bowl movements for the last 2 weeks, probably only seen two. Each one has been extremely runny, almost like a glob of mucous. Urates are slightly orange sometimes, other times normal. Plan on getting the next fecal tested.

Unfortunately about 1.5 years ago something happened to his eye, I took him to the vet after it didn’t get any better and the vet rx some prednisone eye drops which seemed to help him but I have run out. The vet didn’t see any function problems with his eye but it is alarming that his eye is all black now, you can see no pupil. He still occasionally closes it =(

Screen cage, used to be metal mesh then I recently built a new cage that uses plastic mesh. The cage is 24x24x48. The bottom is mesh and below I have a 5 gal bucket to catch the water.

Reptisun 5.0 UVB linear 24” tube recently added two 48” fluorescent lights hanging above the cage to add more fluorescent type light to the cage. Have 1 100w basking lamp above the cage and two 100W irricadescent on the top sides. Recently upped the lighting schedule to 7:00 am – 7:00 pm due to the change in season and light.

90-95 F at top of cage, basking spot is several inches below however so it is slightly cooler. Over night the temps get in the low 70’s. I have a digital thermometer w/ probe.

Have a heated humidifier in the room to the bottom left of the cage, I use a regular humidity gauge to measure the humidity. Ranges from 40-60% depending on if the door is closed to the room.

The cage is located on a stand about 3.5 feet off the floor and nearly extends to the ceiling. He is in a separate room out of the high traffic areas, unfortunately it doesn’t receive as much natural light as the rest of my house.

Eye Problems:
1) 1.5 years ago. What type of lighting did you use to use (UVB and basking)? Be specific.

2) You are also using a product with proformed vit A. It is said some panthers can not convert proformed into retinol within the body. The two ways to get around this. Some use a variety of gut load ingredients that enables them to get by without any use of supplements with preformed vit A. Sandrachameleon is one of the memebers here i think that can lead you in the right direction. Some of us have to use preformed supplements to satisfy the chameleons needs for vitA,. A product called reptivite is what i use personally. I am trying a product called calcium plus by repashy but do not have enough time behind it to give good info.

3) Has he had an eye infection in the past>?

1.) Have always used the same lighting, reptisun 5.0 UVB linear tubes, and a combination of a heat basking bulb or 100W incandescents depending on summer/winter seasons.

2.) The vitamins are Rep-Cal, herptavite, calcium, and calcium w/ D3. I will look into buying reptivite. Are the others alright or you suggest other supplements?

3.) No prior eye infections

Chameleon87 said:

1.) Have always used the same lighting, reptisun 5.0 UVB linear tubes, and a combination of a heat basking bulb or 100W incandescents depending on summer/winter seasons.

2.) The vitamins are Rep-Cal, herptavite, calcium, and calcium w/ D3. I will look into buying reptivite. Are the others alright or you suggest other supplements?

3.) No prior eye infections

Click to expand...

1) What type of basking lights? Is this the side that faces the lights typically while basking?
2) I personally use plain phos free calcium every feeding and twice a month reptivite. I also throw in some stick tongue farms indoor once or twice a month also. I would suggest you talking to sandrachameleon on her gut loading or even just reading her blogs.
3) thats really good.

Looking at the eye lid. It seems to me something has happened. It looks damaged also. Can you think fo antyhing else that happened. Did you notice this happened after medications?

I personally thought this was going to be from lighting or a prior infection..Now you have me thinking.

In the photograph of his right eye, I can clearly see his iris and pupil. However, the color and symmetry do seem to be off.

My love of reptile medicine is probably only exceeded by that of ophthalmology. Without going into a long discourse here, I do strongly feel that this is related to the incident last year, and that if he has inflammation inside of his eye (uveitis), the best medication for him right now would be prednisolone acetate ophthalmic solution. There are many different types of pred eye drops, but acetate is the only one that has the penetrating power to go deep inside the eye and decrease the inflammation and/or make him more comfortable.

There are many, many things that cause uveitis and in a very few cases pred acetate may not be the best option, but in the vast majority of cases it is at least one of the main medications of choice.


Unfortunately, the use of atropine is completely ineffective in reptilian eyes. Atropine works by relaxing the smooth muscles of mammalian irises, which do not exist in reptiles. They have striated muscles, which atropine does not work on. I'm sorry to have to point this out, but I would cease using it entirely.

Many times cases of uveitis never clear entirely, and flare up now and again. If we cannot find and cure the cause of it, typically pred acetate is used as needed to control the signs and discomfort.

dr. o-

p.s.----keeping his husbandry top notch is always critical, but IMO if you start chasing a vitamin a deficiency or use that to try and cure this, you are likely wasting your time. Have the vet swap out the drops at the very least; I think they owe that to you.

VitA/Vitamin deficiency is not going to repair the damage to the eye..Correct.

With the eye closing. IMO, could be from discomfort or a deficiency. Something has been going on for a while now that needs corrected..With the care given by the op. Since there is a lack of, why not correct something that is insufficient and try a new regimen? Personally it is a win win for the op. Even if the eye closing is caused from discomfort at this point.

I enjoy reading your post's and i am personally glad you are giving advice here.

First off, thank you both for trying to help me out with this. I'm really thankful you are both giving good advice.

I have a follow up with the vet tomorrow and am going to ask for some of the prednisolone acetate, I was hesitant about the atropine sulfate anyways, and it turns out the prednisolone is what the first vet gave him and what seemed to help his discomfort.

Talking about the vit a issue, I am going to order some other feeders today, the only ones sold at stores around here are superworms, crickets, and wax worms. Any suggestions on an order for a balanced diet?

I have ordered silkworms and hornworms before, he didn't touch the silkworms and then only ate like 1 hornworm. Not sure if it was too big or upset his stomach or what but I know I need to get him on a diet with more variety.

On a side note, do you think he looks healthy otherwise?

The vet weighed him at 190 gm (3.25 yrs old) but I think that is a bit off, back in 11-10 (1.5 yrs) he was 145 gm. Also there is a bump that had developed behind his back right leg, I'm not sure if it is just a cyst. Vet thought it might be an abcess... and talked about opening it.... I don't think it is! and am pretty against that idea.

Won't let me upload the same pic twice, take a look at the link to the other thread it has pictures on it. Thanks!!

https://www.chameleonforums.com/adv...ing-runny-fecal-leg-bump-old-eye-issue-81708/

ataraxia said:

VitA/Vitamin deficiency is not going to repair the damage to the eye..Correct.

With the eye closing. IMO, could be from discomfort or a deficiency. Something has been going on for a while now that needs corrected..With the care given by the op. Since there is a lack of, why not correct something that is insufficient and try a new regimen? Personally it is a win win for the op. Even if the eye closing is caused from discomfort at this point.

I enjoy reading your post's and i am personally glad you are giving advice here.

Click to expand...

If you reread my post, my very first sentence says that keeping husbandry top-notch is absolutely critical and of course should be done. However the difference between starting a proper powerful medication at this point versus fixing husbandry will give much more dramatic and immediate results and comfort. Also, it is very unlikely that a vitamin A deficiency would have ever caused the case of uveitis in one eye to begin with. So granted the husbandry does need to be corrected however there is another situation going on here that does call for different medications.

And I'm saddened to see that currently the best veterinary care that she has been able to get is by using a medication that does not even work in this species at all. So I'm trying to do the best that I can do from what I have gathered so far.

dr. o-

I'm glad you saw this already Dr O because the atropine drops made me cringe too. But I see that's been covered!

For what it's worth, the veterinarian said that he saw anterior synechia which is very very common with cases of uveitis. however, even if he suspected glaucoma I am not sure there are even instruments that measures pressure levels in the eyeball that are small enough to fit insidse of my chams eye opening. there may be times when atropine would be indicated in the situation in a mammal, but unfortunately a very special class of drugs is needed for reptilian or avian eyes for this type of situation. And usually only a university or very specialized exotics veterinarian would even carry these types of medications. For now prednisone acetate is by far and away the best choice in my opinion.


dr. o-