Awake but Eyes closed??

Your Chameleon - Nosy Be Panther cham. 1yr old. Male. In my care since he was 4 months.
Handling - Very rarely, only when he seems interested or when taking to vet.
Feeding - Mainly crickets as he does not like a lot of other bugs. Occasionally super worms, wax worms, and horn worms. Crickets are gutloaded with carrots, collard greens, apples, kale.
Supplements - dust on crickets D3 calcium once every week - two weeks. Calcium without D3 every feeding. (Have bee pollen and a multivitamin ordered and in the way). Feed him about 10-15 crickets every day. Sometimes skip a day if he didn’t eat much before.
Watering - homemade milk jug dropper at top of cage. Hand mist every 4 hours or so. I do see him drink every other days except for these last few days. Sometimes he goes 4-5 hours without if no one is home but we are working on setting up our automatic misting system. We live in Arizona, so it is very dry. We try to mist him often, but left his cage dry out between mistings.
Fecal Description - mostly White urates with some orange. Poop is sometimes very solid, sometimes very liquidy?? He has been tested for parasites- was negative but treated for them anyways in case a false negative test (per Drs orders).
History - unfortunately little guy has been to the vet several times. First for bloodwork and parasite testing. They said he was dehydrated and have too much urinic? Acid. Was on meds for several weeks but seemed to be just fine until now.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - 2x2x4 ft, screen cage with pvc plastic boarding on back and sides. Front and top screen.
Lighting - zoo med basking bulb 100w. Reptisun t5 HO 24w. Aligned with sun rise and sunset for most part. 7am-7pm
Temperature - Basking spot around 80-85. Lower cage around 70. My temperature gauges just stopped working so I am buying new ones.
Humidity - This has been the hardest for us to get right. He has two large (cham safe) plants in his cage. Working on getting a few more. Frequent mistings to keep up humidity. Covered half of top of screen to help keep my humidifier fog flowing down, just did this yesterday, but fogger is no longer working. Humidity gauge just stopped working so again I am buying a new one
Plants- two large live plants. A money tree and bromeliad. Fake vines around the rest of cage. Am trying to add live pothos in.
Placement - in our office. Not a lot of traffic besides working at my desk for a couple hours a day. Cage is in a homemade desk and top of cage is just about taller than me at 6 feet.
Location - Arizona

Current Problem: two days ago I woke up to find my cham still in his sleeping spot with eyes closed. Misted his cage and left for another couple hours(thought since it was darker outside because of rain he was getting more sleep?). Half way through the day he had moved to bask but his eyes were still closed. Yesterday was the same. I panicked and got him to come onto a branch and then sat in the shower with the head pointed at the wall for warm mist to spray towards him and door closed to build humidity. Sat with him for 45 minutes. He opened one eye and starting moving but just barely. I thought he was extremely dehydrated so after works I had humidifiers pointed at his cage and a towel covering half of the screen top and front to get it really humid in there for 30 or so minutes. I held crickets out to him and he walked over to me like he wanted to eat them but for some reason turned away. Today he is moving around but still seems to have problems with his eyes. He has kept one closed since a few days ago and one he slowly opens and looks around to move. And sometimes he will scratch his eyes on a branch. I’m really scared and worried about him. My two thoughts are- he’s dehydrated or I saw when he was shedding recently that she was stuck around his eyes so maybe he got that or other debris in his eyes. I know I’m not supposed to spray him directly but is there anything I can do to flush his eyes? The closest vet to me is over an hour away and frankly don’t have much time as I’m in college and work every day and only have Sunday to take him. These pictures are him right now. Please help?
 

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He has been in that same spot for an hour now and has both eyes shut. I can’t tell if he’s sleeping because he’s not curled up, more so frozen in where he was walking legs and tail and all. He twitches his eye when I move a leaf near him but doesn’t open it.
 
You said you have multivitamins on order. Has he ever had multivitamins? If not it may well be lack of vitamin A (I’m not a vet). This is known to cause tongue and eye issues.
Eyes closed during lights on is never a good thing and usually advised to visit a vet.

I will tag some more experienced members that may well be able to help more. @kinyonga @CasqueAbove @Kaizen @jannb
 
You said you have multivitamins on order. Has he ever had multivitamins? If not it may well be lack of vitamin A (I’m not a vet). This is known to cause tongue and eye issues.
Eyes closed during lights on is never a good thing and usually advised to visit a vet.

I will tag some more experienced members that may well be able to help more. @kinyonga @CasqueAbove @Kaizen @jannb

No he’s never had a multivitamin. Just Reptivite. What multivitamin do you recommend? I ordered herbtavite with beta carotene. Is that okay?

Also Someone said they used reptile eye wash drops on their cham. Could I try this as well? I’m calling the vet today to get an appointment but again it could be a few days before I get him in and I don’t want anything to happen in the mean time
 
Reptivite is a multivitamin that contains vitamin A. How often have you been giving it to him?

Yes people have gently flushed eyes with sterile saline to help to wash debris. People have also been recommended a long misting session to try and help them with cleaning their eyes.
 
You said..."dust on crickets D3 calcium once every week - two weeks. Calcium without D3 every feeding"...do you dust lightly?
It's only recommended to use the one with D3 twice a month.

You said..."No he’s never had a multivitamin. Just Reptivite. What multivitamin do you recommend? I ordered herbtavite with beta carotene. Is that okay? "...so you've been using reptivite as well as the calcium with and without D3? It's controversial as to whether chameleons can convert the beta carotene so they may need a prEformed retinol source.

Can't say that it's just a supplement issue with your chameleon...but it may still be part of the problem.
 
Reptivite is a multivitamin that contains vitamin A. How often have you been giving it to him?

Yes people have gently flushed eyes with sterile saline to help to wash debris. People have also been recommended a long misting session to try and help them with cleaning their eyes.


Okay, yeah the Reptivite has D3 in it, I usually dust the crickets with it once a week. I’m seeing now I should only do it twice a month. And okay thanks for the tip
 
You said..."dust on crickets D3 calcium once every week - two weeks. Calcium without D3 every feeding"...do you dust lightly?
It's only recommended to use the one with D3 twice a month.

You said..."No he’s never had a multivitamin. Just Reptivite. What multivitamin do you recommend? I ordered herbtavite with beta carotene. Is that okay? "...so you've been using reptivite as well as the calcium with and without D3? It's controversial as to whether chameleons can convert the beta carotene so they may need a prEformed retinol source.

Can't say that it's just a supplement issue with your chameleon...but it may still be part of the problem.


The Reptivite has D3 in it so I only use those two right now. I will switch to twice a month.
 
It sounds a bit more like he has been getting too much D3 with possible D3 toxicity. I would completely stop all but the calcium only for a month.
With the reptivite with D3 the schedule is phos free Calcium every feeding then once every 2 weeks dust with the reptivite.

I would still be taking him to the vet though.
 
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