Closed Eye and falling off branch

[Manfredi]

Hi guys,

I have a male yemen cham and have noticed two days ago that he was sleeping at the bottom of the enclosure. I turned the mister on and he drank lots. I then placed him back on a branch.
The next day he had both his eyes closed and was pretty lethargic. I removed the coiled (extra) UVB that I have placed in the terrarium 1 month ago and that was pretty intense (40 UV index when measured close to it). I figured it could be photo-conjunctivitis. The other recent change in the last few weeks is the temperature, it is now -5 outside and the temp inside has dropped a bit (despite the room being heated). I also noticed he doesn't eat since a few days.

Today I took him to the cham vet, who said it may be conjunctivitis. She also said that there was nothing else apparent that was wrong, he was in good spirit (tried to bite her lots of times), had his eyes open, good colours and didn't show signs of dehydration.

Details:
Male yemen cham.
Age 4.
Enclosure: 2m high, 1.2m wide and 60cm deep.
Flora: mixed real and fake plants. Real plants are rubber tree, ficus, pothos.
Lights: Arcadia Forest 6%, changed every 6 months. UVB on basking is 4 UV index and normally 1 UV index where he sits.
Heatlight: halogen 34 Degrees Celsius at the spot/distance from his back.
Schedule: 12h for UVB, 5h for heat lamp.
Water: Sprinkler system everywhere in the cage on for 1 minute twice a day (morning and evening). Humidifier on for 30min in morning with sprinkler, 20min in evening with sprinkler, and 20min twice during the night.
Food: primarily crickets that are free in the enclure. The crickets have multiple places where they find the jelly feed for them, which get replaced.
Supplements: Calcium and D3 administered orally with syringe, 1mL every week or so.
I have a hygrometer inside the enclose that shows normally 30-45%.

Any ideas what this is? I think the additional UVB coiled that I added to let the ficus grow more quickly caused this, but unsure why this would also make him fall off branches? Fatigue due to photo-conjunctivitis? Dehydration?

 

[Beman]

Welcome to the forum. I have given some feedback in red.

Can you please post pics of the entire enclosure and pics of your chameleon. Why are you giving supplements via a syringe instead of dusting the insects prior to feeding? Please post pics of the supplements you are giving.

I removed the coiled (extra) UVB that I have placed in the terrarium 1 month ago and that was pretty intense (40 UV index when measured close to it). 40 UVI is a level that is not even natural on earth for them to be exposed to max exposure in the wild sits around a 12 UVI and they retreat back into the trees during these higher periods of UVI. Yes this could cause major health issues with this high of exposure.
Male yemen cham.
Age 4.
Enclosure: 2m high, 1.2m wide and 60cm deep.
Flora: mixed real and fake plants. Real plants are rubber tree, ficus, pothos.
Lights: Arcadia Forest 6%, changed every 6 months. UVB on basking is 4 UV index and normally 1 UV index where he sits. Proper UVI for these guys is a 3 UVI. 1 would be very low. 4 UVI is still fine for them.
Heatlight: halogen 34 Degrees Celsius at the spot/distance from his back. This is extremely hot... Really should be max 29 C.
Schedule: 12h for UVB, 5h for heat lamp. Then total darkness for 12 hours correct? No lights at all?
Water: Sprinkler system everywhere in the cage on for 1 minute twice a day (morning and evening). Humidifier on for 30min in morning with sprinkler, 20min in evening with sprinkler, and 20min twice during the night. You do not want to be running a humidifier during the day with lights on and increased temps. This creates the perfect environment for them to develop a respiratory infection. Humidifier should be run at night when temps are below 19 C.
Food: primarily crickets that are free in the enclure. The crickets have multiple places where they find the jelly feed for them, which get replaced. You really want to keep your insects separately in their own bin. Then gutload them correctly prior to feeding off. This ensures they are at their best nutritionally for the cham.
Supplements: Calcium and D3 administered orally with syringe, 1mL every week or so. Why are you doing this rather than dusting your insects and then giving them to the chameleon? Please post pics of the supplements you are doing this with. This may additionally be part of the cause depending on what you are using. D3 and vitamin A are fat soluble so you can overdose a chameleon with these.
I have a hygrometer inside the enclose that shows normally 30-45%. This is fine for day time levels.