Blind in one eye

I was more concerned with her
So also I notice your pots arnt covered šŸ˜¬ that soil has lil sticks and debris could totally have gotten in her eye. You want to cover the soil with a layer of stone šŸ‘Œ
I was more concerned with her ingesting a stone if she was after a loose feeder? Her setup is entirely bioactive.
 
You said...."the next day it was black and very swollen"....unless she was rubbing and scratching it constantly that seems very fast for it to happen.
 
Ok probably need a vet. But 10 to 1 it is something in the eye. Vitamin A problems can present the same, but this has the black which indicates bruising or injury. You said it started after shed which is a common time to get something stuck in the eye. Petr Necas has a video on flushing the eye, but it is not for the faint of heart. You will want a vet to verify.
If you tell them what to look for, you may not need a specialist, just a good vet.
 
They flushed both eyes and it was ā€œvery diagnosticā€ according to the doctor. They didnā€™t get any debris out but confirmed she has no motor function in the right eye. The skin around her right eye is also very thin, which is the opposite of what usually happens with infections- usually the skin becomes thickened.
Weā€™re continuing the ciprofloxin eye drops upped to four times a day, continuing the meloxicam and adding the enrofloxcin. And rechecking in two weeks.
 
Some background:
Starting December 6th my female veield2 1/2 year old (we think- sheā€™s a rescue from 1 1/2 years ago) chameleonā€™s right eye has had problems. It started one day right in the middle of her shed.
It was fine one day and then the next day it was black and very swollen- I have pics from both the day it started and the day before.
She was still otherwise the same and normal behavior.
This was a Sunday things started, I flushed it with sterile saline and on Tuesday had an appointment with her at my local Avian and exotic vet. They prescribed ciprofloxacin eye drops.

Over the last few weeks the swelling has gone down but her eye is still black. Iā€™ve determined she is blind in the right eye now. Iā€™ve had to move her to a hospital bin from her chameleon mansion as she was falling because her depth perception is off and she was loosing her balance scratching at her face.
Sheā€™s still eating and seems fine but I have to put the feeders right up to her mouth as she isnā€™t shooting her tongue far (she was but she kept missing).
Sheā€™s also scratching really harshly at the eye recently and Iā€™m concerned now sheā€™s going to do more damage. šŸ˜©
Has anyone encountered anything similar?
I have tried to get her back into the vet but theyā€™re on Covid lockdown (someoneon staff tested positive) and are only seeing emergencies but they did let me pickup meloxicam for her for pain/inflammation.

Husbandry:
Large home made bioactive cage.
Basking temp: 80
General temp: 72
Evening: 67
Mister runs for 15seconds every two hours from 1hour before lights out and 1hr after lights on. And have a dripper during the day.
Crickets/dubias/BSFL every other day
Arcadia earthproA dusting every feeding except: Arcadia CA twice a week(added to earthproA)
twice a month Arcadia revitalize with D3.
Arcadia t5 10%uvb ( last replaced 7 months ago).
photos:
Her black eye (after swelling went down)
Her colors
What her eye looked like swollen
What her eye looked like swollen
Her hospital bin
Her mansion
Her supplements
Pic right before everything started
I saw your post in the other forum you were in. Quite traumatic just for me watching her scratch at her eyes...

So you have a huge variety of plants in there... Anything new to the enclosure? Wondering if maybe she rubbed on a new plant that is causing a reaction. Anything that was blooming or cut back prior to her eye issues?

10.0 T5 UVB is going to be a bit high in output at 6-7inches to branch. I would drop this back to a 5.0 or 6% and ideally you would want a full 8-9 inches to the basking branch to put them in a 3-4 UVI level.

I would also switch up your misting a bit. I understand your follow more of a natural hydration cycle to up night time humidity. But not having a longer misting when she is awake does not give her the opportunity to clean her eyes.
 
This is copied from the doctors instructions:

ā€œToday we saw Florence for worsening inflammation around her eyes. During her eye flush we discovered that the right eyelid pouch was thinned and stretched out and the eye itself was not exhibiting proper movement. With these new findings in mind, I am concerned that there could be some sort of motor nerve dysfunction of the eye; this could be the initial cause of irritation and may require life long therapy of some form. I am sending home an oral antibiotic (enrofloxacin) to give in addition to the meloxicam and eye drops (3-4 times daily). You can give her 1.5-2 mL subcutaneous LRS fluids today at work* to help with her hydration. I would like to see her back in 2-3 weeks for a recheck. Please call me sooner if there are any concerns or if you think she is not eating well. As always, please do not hesitate to call with any questions. Thank you so much for trusting me with her care!ā€
*Im a vet tech- my doctors just arenā€™t super comfortable/knowledgeable with sick reptiles but I have access to LRS fluids etc. and will be doing radiographs on her after the holidays and emailing them to her exotics vet.*
 
I saw your post in the other forum you were in. Quite traumatic just for me watching her scratch at her eyes...

So you have a huge variety of plants in there... Anything new to the enclosure? Wondering if maybe she rubbed on a new plant that is causing a reaction. Anything that was blooming or cut back prior to her eye issues?

10.0 T5 UVB is going to be a bit high in output at 6-7inches to branch. I would drop this back to a 5.0 or 6% and ideally you would want a full 8-9 inches to the basking branch to put them in a 3-4 UVI level.

I would also switch up your misting a bit. I understand your follow more of a natural hydration cycle to up night time humidity. But not having a longer misting when she is awake does not give her the opportunity to clean her eyes.

Nothing at all had changed in the enclosure itself except I did have one of the flexible fake branches with black stuff that can rub off in the enclosure and removed it the day after her eye issue started over concern she could have rubbed her face trying to shed and gotten a piece of that stupid rubber stuff in her eye.
The mister runs an hour before and an hour after lights come on so she does have opportunities to soak herself, although Iā€™ve only ever seen her run from the water. But she will sit under her dripper occasionally.
Her basking light is a low wattage grow light, Iā€™ve made sure that her positioning and itā€™s location is an appropriate temperature so as not to get too hot.
I donā€™t really know how to portray how her uvb light is... she can get as close as 6inches but she rarely ever is on that branch, she generally stays about 8-10 inches from it.
 
Nothing at all had changed in the enclosure itself except I did have one of the flexible fake branches with black stuff that can rub off in the enclosure and removed it the day after her eye issue started over concern she could have rubbed her face trying to shed and gotten a piece of that stupid rubber stuff in her eye.
The mister runs an hour before and an hour after lights come on so she does have opportunities to soak herself, although Iā€™ve only ever seen her run from the water. But she will sit under her dripper occasionally.
Her basking light is a low wattage grow light, Iā€™ve made sure that her positioning and itā€™s location is an appropriate temperature so as not to get too hot.
I donā€™t really know how to portray how her uvb light is... she can get as close as 6inches but she rarely ever is on that branch, she generally stays about 8-10 inches from it.
Do you know all the types of plants you used by chance? Maybe we can go through them and see if any pose a risk for allergy or irritation?
 
Do you know all the types of plants you used by chance? Maybe we can go through them and see if any pose a risk for allergy or irritation?
I know most of the common names at least.
thereā€™s three types of orchids I only know vanilla orchid off of memory the other two I can find the names of if needed
Philodendron Rio
Two types of hoya
Cissus discolour
Lots of pothos
Some variety of bromelaid
Boston fern
Oah and hibiscus!

I think thatā€™s It.
 
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I know most of the common names at least.
thereā€™s three types of orchids I only know vanilla orchid off of memory the other two I can find the names of if needed
Philodendron Rio
Two types of hoya
Cissus discolour
Lots of pothos
Some variety of bromelaid
Boston fern
Oah and hibiscus!

I think thatā€™s It.
@AnamCara @jamest0o0 could any of these plants cause eye irritation?
 
Has anyone had a chameleon have a stroke? Sheā€™s still doing basically exactly the same... I know it takes them awhile to improve.
I noticed not long after her eye issue started that she was having trouble chewing/swallowing if the insect was more on that right side of her mouth... sheā€™d leave a medium dubia roach or black soldier fly larvae just hanging out of her mouth on the right side.
Iā€™ve been making sure sheā€™s getting small feeders but I noticed today when I went to feed her and give her meds that she still had a small dubia sitting in her mouthšŸ˜±šŸ˜±.
She doesnā€™t blink the right eye and runs into things on that side... I know sheā€™s blind in it but she also seems to maybe have coordination issues with where sheā€™s placing her right legs- her grip itself is still good though.
Iā€™ve seen in her mouth and the vet also said they checked her mouth for rot and itā€™s looked fine.
She isnt shooting her tongue more than an inch but I thought it was because her sun was so off and she kept missing.
I also donā€™t believe sheā€™s gone to the bathroom in 4-5 days. šŸ˜“
 

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