Chameleon hasn’t been acting himself

Kmickle11

New Member
•Your Chameleon- 2 year old male panther chameleon

•Handling- A few times a week, he surprisingly likes being held and will come to the front of his enclosure and reach for me when it’s opened

•Feeding- So he’s never been a huge eater even as a juvenile, but recently he hasn’t been eating pretty much at all unless I hold up crickets/super worms in front of him then he’ll eat anywhere from 2-4.

•Supplements- standard lightly coated crickets with calcium w/o d3 once a week, with d3 once every two weeks, herptivite about once/twice a month

•Watering- automatic mister sprays for 15 seconds every three hours. His urate has been a darker yellow/orangey color with only a bit of white so I suspect he’s not drinking enough. I give him a shower once a week ish and I also have a small cup on the top of his enclosure used as a dripper but he started drinking that water off the bottom of his cage instead of off the leaves so I’m trying to adjust that

•History- got him from a breeder when he was 4 months old so we have had him for just about 2 years (will be two year come February)

•Enclosure- 2x2x4 screened zoo med viv

•Lighting- 60 watt incandescent bulb, reptisun 5.0 18 inch tube light that gets replaced every 6 months

•Temperature- around 80-85 in his basking spot, room temp at the bottom (70) night time temperature 68 deg

•Humidity- fluctuates between 45-60% throughout the day, drops to about 40% at night

•Placement- spare bedroom on a nightstand about 2 feet off floor, on inside wall facing window

•Location- New Hampshire

So I’ve been having some issues with Rupert, and it started with his right eye. He randomly started closing it and cleaning it a lot so i figured there may have been something in it. I was flushing it out with saline and giving him showers every other day. It seemed to help for a bit then about an hour after he would shut his right eye again. Then he started snoozing throughout the day which I know isn’t a good thing. I took him to the vet, and unfortunately there aren’t not many experienced reptile vets in the area, especially ones that are well versed with chameleons. She took a look and said his eye was slightly red but wasn’t scratched and didn’t seem to be infected so it was probably just irritated from something that got in it. She gave me some eye drops for twice a day and that was that. The eye drops didn’t really do anything, he’s still closing his right eye and being very lethargic during the day. I’ve already mentioned he has never been a big eater, but the last week he really hasn’t eaten at all until i finally had fed him some crickets with tweezers. He ate three then I offered him a super worm (which he absolutely loves) and he didn’t want it. I also found a weird glob in his right eye, like an eye boogie, and i tried to get it out but it went back into his eye so I’m just waiting for it to surface again. I’m not sure what’s wrong with him, and I’m hesitant to bring him back to the vet and spend all that money because like I said, they really aren’t familiar with chameleons in this area. He doesn’t seem to have any symptoms of a respiratory infection. Oh and his right eye that he keeps shut isn’t crusty or anything like that and he will open it sometimes and it looks perfectly clear, but I’m worried his sight in it may not be as good as it was. The attaches picture is from this morning. image.jpg I’ve noticed he’s also been hanging out towards the bottom of his cage more often and his colors have been super dark, not as bright as they usually are. Any suggestions, recommendations, anything is welcome. Thanks!
 
There may be some sort of infection going on but it may NOT be his eye. It could be back in his sinuses (which are connected to the eye). Another possible eye issue could be a vitamin A deficiency. Its an easy vitamin to overdose, but dabbing some vitamin A on a feeder periodically can help a lot. I haven't had to deal with this so I'd suggest doing a forum search on vitamin A supplementation/deficiencies to get better detailed information about how to do this.
 
Thanks for replying. I ended up taking him to the vet yesterday and they put him on baytril enrofloxacin for 14 days. I think a sinus infection is suspected as I pulled this out of his eye...
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