7 mo old male panther with right eye shut

[Lesliewooding]

Hi, I am hoping form some good advice: Zeus, our 7 mo old male panther has a shut ans shrunken right eye. We have hand watered him to make sure it's not from dehydration. I have read the forums and see a lot of information about vit A deficiency. The situation:

We have hm in a nice large screen habitat with a timed sprayer, plus we hand-water several times daily (for fun). Since we started feeding him meal worms and super worms, he has quit eating crickets. We are not gut loading the worms so it could be a vitamin deficiency.

Up till now he has been active, robust, has shed 4 times since we got him (about 1/month). He is beautiful and entertaining and I hope to keep him well.

Should we take him to a vet, or try a vit. supplement? what type of supplement? how to give it to him?

Any help is greatly appreciated!
Leslie

 

[carol5208]

how long has he been in your care? you should have been supplementing him right from the start: calcium without d3 at every feeding(meaning dust your feeders with the supplement) a multivitamin twice a month and also some calcium with d3 twice a month also. Now as far as the gutloading, you can gutload superworms just as you would crickets. They eat just about any fruit or vegetable. It is hard to say what is causing the eye problem. What kind of UVB light are you using as well as a basking light?

 

[miki2pki4u]

Being as he has shed so much he might have something in his eye you need to flush it out with gentle misting or saline solution the top of his head doesn't look sunken in that would be dehydration as well as the other eye still looks good. A good shower would help all the way around.

 

[kinyonga]

We definitely need more information in order to help you.

 

[Lesliewooding]

thank you for all the advice!

Wow, this is a great, responsive community! We have had him for 4 months. We were dusting the crickets and feeding them vegies, but we stopped when we went to super-worms. Now today, I have placed carrots in their container and I see they are eating them, so I will feed and dust the meal and super worms, as well as the crickets (he doesn't ever eat crickets anymore).

Also, I took him to a herp-vet last night. He gave me antibiotic eye drops (can't hurt, I hope) and also recommended a shower, gut loading the feeders and vitamins. I have started all recommendations today and will report back on any developments.

Thank you!!!
Leslie

 

[Hugh Wahl]

Your on the right path, there docent seem to be any discharge coming from the eye so I doubt it is infected. Probably just some shed or bark if you have natural branches. I would give him a shower with Lukewarm water for about twenty minutes. Do this for like three or four straight days, and when he comes outta the shower his eye should be open from him trying to get what ever is in there out. I would use the drops then to make sure they get in his eye and don't just run down the closed eye. Hope this helps and good luck.

 

[Lesliewooding]

Zeus is better, eye open and eating again!

Dear Hugh and all,
Well you were certainly correct about the shower! Afterward I took him in the shower, he started to open his eye frequently and now it seems 90% healed and getting better. I will continue to take him in the shower (although last time, he pooped on my head).

In addition, I am spraying him frequently and giving good (I hope) herp-vitamins and calcium, and vegetables to the feeders.

He had stopped eating for a few days, but today, he has eaten about 6-8 small meal worms, so I think we are definitely back on track to having a healthy panther.

Really, the forum has helped us a lot!
Leslie

 

[Hugh Wahl]

Nice that's awesome to hear. Hope all is well with your buddy