Carlton
Chameleon Enthusiast
You know sometimes an idea comes like a bolt from the blue or from a direction you least expect it? Bear with me, but I started wondering about this based on a conversation with my father...
My father tripped in the house recently knocking his face and eye on the corner of a desk. Had quite a bruise around his eye. Over the next 2-3 weeks he started noticing his nose started dripping more and more often though he wasn't sick, hot, sweating etc. Then his eyelids were starting to stick shut at night so by morning he had to rinse them with eye wash to get them open. He was also losing some hearing. Upshot is, when he went to his doctor for something else and mentioned it, the doctor diagnosed a sinus infection possibly triggered by the swelling and inflammation after his fall.
Sound familiar???
I started thinking about how common the "closed eyes" symptom is in chams along with facial swellings that can be abscesses, blocked nares, and what we often attribute to dehydration. I know that dehydrated mucous membranes and nasal membranes are more prone to infection because the moist mucous coat is not there to protect them. They get irritated so may get inflamed, swell or start infections etc. And, there are connections between tear ducts and the sinuses.
So, if a cham starts closing their eyes or rubbing them dehydration is one possibility, but it may be more complex than that. There could be pressure and swelling behind the eye due to a blocked or infected sinus. If we simply treat the eyes themselves we may be missing the entire problem. Sure, the cause of the problem could be the same, but treatment needs to consider sinus infections as well as the eye issue. By the time the eye sticking shut develops, there may be sinus problems that go untreated which is why the eyes don't always improve with humidity, showers, etc.
Now I don't know the physiology of a cham's sinuses well enough to know how they are related to the eyes, but it really got me thinking.
Discussion?
My father tripped in the house recently knocking his face and eye on the corner of a desk. Had quite a bruise around his eye. Over the next 2-3 weeks he started noticing his nose started dripping more and more often though he wasn't sick, hot, sweating etc. Then his eyelids were starting to stick shut at night so by morning he had to rinse them with eye wash to get them open. He was also losing some hearing. Upshot is, when he went to his doctor for something else and mentioned it, the doctor diagnosed a sinus infection possibly triggered by the swelling and inflammation after his fall.
Sound familiar???
I started thinking about how common the "closed eyes" symptom is in chams along with facial swellings that can be abscesses, blocked nares, and what we often attribute to dehydration. I know that dehydrated mucous membranes and nasal membranes are more prone to infection because the moist mucous coat is not there to protect them. They get irritated so may get inflamed, swell or start infections etc. And, there are connections between tear ducts and the sinuses.
So, if a cham starts closing their eyes or rubbing them dehydration is one possibility, but it may be more complex than that. There could be pressure and swelling behind the eye due to a blocked or infected sinus. If we simply treat the eyes themselves we may be missing the entire problem. Sure, the cause of the problem could be the same, but treatment needs to consider sinus infections as well as the eye issue. By the time the eye sticking shut develops, there may be sinus problems that go untreated which is why the eyes don't always improve with humidity, showers, etc.
Now I don't know the physiology of a cham's sinuses well enough to know how they are related to the eyes, but it really got me thinking.
Discussion?
