battling an eye infection

John33871

New Member
my chameleon is about 2months old now and he is battling an eye infection right now so thats the problem. i took him to the vet with one eye infected and the next few days the other seems to be closed at times but not infected. i give him his eye drops twice a day for 7 days, and its day 5 and no improvement. i tried to make him eat today but without his eyes he wont eat. ive tried opening his mouth but no luck, i just dont want to hurt his little head. so should i take him back to the vet or wait til monday? im really worried that hes going to die, does anyone know how much longer it will take for him to get better from his eye infection? he also just seems to be sitting in his basking spot and not moving. also today when i was tring to get him to eat, he would rub the infected eye on my finger like he was rubbing it. he also has tried biting me when i try to pick him up to put his eye drops in his eye, and has never done that before. i dont know if thats any good sign ot notthanks for any help!!
 
Since he is having trouble eating, I suspect he may be having trouble drinking as well, and it is important to keep him hydrated to help with the eye issues and health. A lot of moisture and water will help him keep his eye turrets moist so that he can rinse his eyes of any irritations. Try using a spray bottle from him to drink from as he is so young, since a shower method could be dangerous with a two month old chameleon.

If he won't eat, while you are giving him water, as he opens his mouth you can place a soft worm in his open mouth. More than likely he will eat with relish and very little stress since he has not eaten lately.

I have had to do this process with some of my chameleons and it really does help them through these difficulties. It is important he gets a lot of hydration to keep those eye turrets moist and to help him eat so that he doesn't get weak.

I hope he feels better :) .
 
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How sure was the vet that the closed eye was due to an eye infection ? If it was first one eye, and then the other, and an eye infection was not confirmed, it could easily be a deficiency of Vitamin A. Most other internal problems that eventually cause death will also have eye closings as a component, but its almost always both at the same time. One eye at a time, if not an infection, is Vitamin A about 75% of the time. It may be too late already. If not, go to GNC and get some Vitamin A (retinal palmitate) gel caps. Cut one, and moisten a Q-tip. This may put the equivelent of a drop in the Q-tip. Touch it somewhere inside the mouth of the animal, so that you estimate you have left 1/100th of a drop there (each cap usually contains 10,000 to 15,000 iu per cap). It doesn't take much, as you want your animal to get 100-150 per dose. Do it daily for 5 days when the animal looks symptomatic of Vitamin A deficiency. Normally, an animal with one eye closed, which is still relatively early in the problem, will have it open again in about 3 days. If the animal seems to recover, do it once every 7-10 days after that. Do not dose the animal with a whole drop under any circumstances. Likely any vitamins you use lists beta-carotene as the Vitamin A source. Doesn't get the job done in chameleons. Good luck.
 
well this morning when i woke up i go to look at my chameleon, but he is dark brown and not moving. i sprayed him with warm water, but no movement. so i take him out and he is limb and dead. the eye infection did have a cause in this because both of his eye’s didnt work, so he couldnt see or eat his food. i tried to force feed him, but no luck. i tried opening his mouth but couldnt do it. the vet did tell that he was a hard animal to keep and i knew it, but i guess i didnt know enough to keep him alive. im going to contact the people i got him with, because he never really seemed right in the first place. he never ate alot, never really moved a whole lot, so maybe i just got a bad one. i dont know if im going to get another one or not, or wait until the spring. thanks for all the help i got from everyone on this forum. sucks also cuz i just lost my dog yesterday and lose my chameleon today, dont think this week is going to be very good
 
John, I'm so sorry about your little cham....losing pets is so hard. I know we lost a dog, hamster and gecko in about three months and we were all (esp my kids) so depressed. Definitely talk to the breeder; if nothing else, they may be able to shed some light on what happened.

Hang in there...:(
 
I'm sorry to hear that you lost both your chameleon and your dog. How old was your dog? What kind was it?

Your chameleon was not very old. There is a natural mortality in young chameleons and you have had trouble from the start, so maybe there was nothing you could do about it. If you buy another one might I suggest that you buy one that is at least three months old....the ones that "just die" are usually already dead by that age so you have a better chance of having a healthy one.

Again, I'm sorry for your loss.
 
thanks everyone, but i will get an older one the next time, i think a baby was to much for a beginer, and didnt have enough experience with the animal and what all it needed. i thought i was doing everything right but i guess not. he never really ate. the most he would eat a day was 3 to 5, and thats every few days, so i dont really understand why he never ate in the first place. but maybe a junvile would be a better choice next time. thanks for all the advice, i hope to be getting another chameleon in the spring time, when its warmer
 
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